23 July 2019
How to Showcase Your Internal Brand Values to Your External Audience
With Brand Content being one of our most popular services, one question we get asked again and again is, “What do I do with my brand values?”
Brand values are fundamental to a business’ identity. They represent everything your brand holds dear. They’re the reason behind why you do what you do.
“Think of your brand values as a jumping-off point— the foundation of how to speak and behave.”
While their first function is to influence a brand’s internal team, culture, and behaviour, many brands are eager to showcase them to their customers and audience.
Personally, we love this. Our copywriters work so hard on creating values that are perfect for your brand, so it makes sense to put them to good use. Here’s how it’s done.
Should I Put My Brand Values on My Website?
Not exactly.
Your customers may not appreciate those brand values copy-pasted directly onto your website. In fact, they might not even read them (no matter how amazing they are).
What they will appreciate is seeing your brand values shine through in everything else your brand says and does.
Think of your brand values as a jumping-off point— the foundation of how to speak and behave.
Aligning Your Values with a Tone of Voice
To effectively communicate your values, you need to talk about them in a way that’s both powerful and aligned with your brand.
This is where a tone of voice comes into play. We include a recommended tone of voice in every set of content guidelines. This is a set group of characteristics — such as — that dictate how your brand speaks.
“You know your brand better than anyone else, but that doesn’t necessarily mean you’re the best person to find your brand values.”
Let’s look at this in context. If one of your brand values was “expertise”, then a characteristic for your tone of voice might be “compelling”. When you speak on behalf of your brand in a compelling manner, your value of expertise is reinforced and shown to your audience.
Different Ways Your Brand Can “speak”
Your values and tone of voice exist to support your brand. However, this only works if you actually use them.
There are so many platforms you can use to showcase your internal brand values to your external audience. In our recent blog post on brands that nailed their tone of voice, we looked at brands who utilised their signature voice across every level of their branding. Social media, packaging, menus, website, even staff uniforms. And everything they said served the purpose of reinforcing and sharing their internal brand values.
While we discourage brands from simply displaying their values on their website, you could definitely explicitly reference your brand values to your social media audience. This will add a human element to your brand, helping your audience to connect with you.
Not sure what to say? Content guidelines will contain the right wording for you to use anywhere you like, from your website content to social media posts and even at a dinner party. Think of it as a long-form elevator pitch for your brand and what you do.
How to Find Your Brand Values
You know your brand better than anyone else, but that doesn’t necessarily mean you’re the best person to find your brand values.
We often have clients present their pre-existing values to us, only to realise that a few of them don’t actually resonate with their brand at all.
It can also be difficult to differentiate between your personal values and the ones that apply to your brand.
This is why our Brand Content service is so popular. We work with you to understand everything there is to know about your brand and its goals, then develop a narrative that perfectly captures those complexities.
