Your competitors are creating the same content at break-neck speeds. To stand out with authenticity, humanity, and clarity, you need a voice and a message that are singular and undeniable. We can help.
This ages-old maxim is more true today in the branded content space than it’s ever been. Because possessing expertise and knowing the right answers isn't enough anymore. More than anything, your audience wants to feel seen, heard, and understood — no matter what it is you do or sell. That's why your brand voice and message must be authentically and purposefully developed to build that bridge between you and the humans you're trying to reach.
On top of that, with the rise of AI diluting the quality content pool, as well as the ubiquity of content overall in recent years, it can feel like an insurmountable challenge to rise above the noise. We've spent more than a decade working with brands across numerous industries, as well as executives, thought leaders, community builders, and authors to make rising above the mundane with powerful voice and messaging a cinch. Now, we're ready to do the same for you.
BRAND VOICE + MESSAGING
What does a brand voice and messaging strategy include? Here are the four essential elements that drive the work we'll do together.
Voice
We help you develop a clear, consistent, authentic, memorable, and unmistakably human brand voice that is effortlessly reflective of your brand’s values, mission, and vision, as well as your people. This empowers you to build trust faster with the right audience, and establish yourself as an unforgettable thought leader and conversation-driver in your space.
Tone
Yes, you need a consistent brand voice. But you also need a voice that you can quickly and easily adapt to different situations, depending on the context — while still giving your audience a cohesive brand experience. We will create simple tonality rules, so you’re showing up with the right energy and positioning, depending on where you’re meeting your audience.
Messaging
What is your overall elevator pitch? Who are you for? Who are you not for? What are your key differentiators? What are your core values? What is your story? What is your messaging strategy for individual audience segments or critical products and services? We will build a messaging blueprint that makes it easy for all of your people to speak as one.
Diversity
Two things can be true. Yes, you can have a clear, cohesive, singular brand voice. But you can also create supportive guidelines that empower your internal thought leaders to create content in a way that is authentic to them, while also amplifying your overall message. We'll help you build those guidelines and prove your people are your greatest differentiator.
The Sidekick Voice + Messaging Process
The brand voice and messaging strategy process (outlined below) can take anywhere from one to three months, depending on what type of implementation support you’re looking for. For example, if this is part of a larger website project, the timeline will be longer to accommodate copywriting.
Discovery + Audit
We begin our work together by gathering as much organizational and audience intelligence as possible. We also talk through your current goals and challenges, and begin our competitor research.
Strategy Development
Through a highly collaborative, feedback-driven process, we develop your brand voice, tone, and messaging strategy – complete with guidelines, use cases, content style guides, and much more.
Brand Workshop
Conducted virtually or in person, this half-day or two-session workshop includes activities and interactive discussions with your team to help us develop your voice, tone, and messaging.
Implementation
What comes next is up to you! This work may be part of a larger website redesign initiative. In other cases, you may only need the strategy for in-house execution. Whatever you need, we’re here.
Extensive Industry Experience
We’ve helped countless brands, organizations, and individual thought leaders across a wide range of industries and disciplines to develop their brand voice, tone, and messaging strategies. The following is a snapshot representing a limited cross-section of our experience.
We've Helped Other Humans Like You!
Financial Services
Healthcare
Medical + Healthcare Technology
Marketing + Sales Consulting
Marketing Agencies
Recruiting + Talent Acquisition
B2B SaaS Solutions
Personal + Business Insurance
Manufacturing
Home Services
Enterprise Energy
Business Coaching
Publishing
Commercial Real Estate
Personal Growth + Development
Book + Author Launches
Revenue Operations
Ad Technology
Your Voice + Messaging Guide
Meet Liz Moorehead
For more than 10 years, in both HubSpot partner agency and in-house settings, Liz has built successful content programs with bold brand voices across a wide range of industries — healthcare, medical technology, defense contracting, banking services, financial services, B2B SaaS, executive recruiting, DEIA, sales and marketing, commercial real estate, manufacturing, home services, and many others.
No matter what industry she is working in, Liz prides herself on empowering purpose-driven brands to tell unforgettable stories that are as authentic as they are powerful revenue-drivers. She is wildly passionate about helping organizations and genuine thought leaders cut through the noise with a voice and a message that is distinct and unforgettable.
Why Choose Sidekick Strategies?
As a certified HubSpot Agency Partner, our team of inbound experts have decades of collective experience in developing powerful, revenue-driving HubSpot lead scoring strategies for organizations just like yours.
HubSpot Certified
We possess almost 100 HubSpot certifications (and counting!) among our team members.
Results-Driven
We’re not paper-pushers. We work tirelessly to drive measurable results for our clients.
Fun + Professional
Yes, we work hard and are passionate about what we do. But we also love to have fun!
Brand Voice + Messaging Investment
Often this work is done as part of larger initiatives — a book launch, a new website, a pivot in business strategy. If you don't see what you need here, let's talk about how we can build something special for you.
This package includes all items from other packages, and is designed for large-scale website projects. We'll customize our quote based on the size and complexity of your project, so we can best meet your needs (and your budget)!
Reintroduce Your Brand Voice + Message to the World
You have a clear vision for what’s possible. You offer products, services, and genuine expertise that solve real problems, not imagined ones. Now, let’s make it easy for the right people to find you. Start a conversation today.
Brand voice refers to the consistent expression of a brand's personality through written and verbal communication. It encompasses the style, language, and attitude used by a brand across various channels such as advertising, marketing materials, social media, customer service interactions, and more. Think about brand voice is the way you want your audience to ALWAYS describe you, without you having to tell them how you want to describe you.
Brand tone is somewhat different than brand voice. Yes, they are related and rely on each other, but they are not the same concept. Whereas brand voice (your personality) is consistent across all channels and at all times, your brand tone rules are how you adapt that voice to different situations.
For example, a blog article may have a more personal and loquacious tone, where you are open to more storytelling and editorializing. In a case study, however, while you will still showcase the same overall personality and values, your tone will be more “Just the facts, ma’am!” because too much editorializing can dilute the power of the results you’re showcasing. Brand tone is how you deliver on the promise of your brand voice in a way that’s authentic and human, while also maintaining awareness of context.
Brand messaging refers to the strategic communication of your brand’s value proposition, key attributes, and positioning. Typically, it is broken down into overall brand messaging (speaking to all), as well as by audience segment or product type, depending on how granular you need your strategy to be. While every messaging strategy will be different, usually a brand messaging strategy will also include the words, phrases, and themes used to convey the brand's identity, purpose, and benefits to consumers.
It’s the substance of what you’re saying to your ideal audience groups, which is then refined and amplified with your voice and tone.
A brand workshop typically is either one half-day session (with a break) or two independent sessions that help us develop your brand voice, tone, and messaging strategy. During the first part of your workshop, we will obsess ONLY about your ideal audience – who they are, why they’re here, what they desire, what’s standing in their way, their turn ons, their turn offs, declared preferences, undeclared preferences, and more.
The second part of your workshop is then dedicated to you and your brand. What’s your story? What are your core values? What makes you different really from your competitors? Your workshop experience will be uniquely tailored to your needs and goals.
At minimum, you will receive a comprehensive strategy document that covers your brand voice and tone rules (including examples, dos, don’ts, guidelines, practical application tips, and so on), as well as the editorial style rules that will govern your brand’s copy going forward. Additionally, this document will include your overall brand messaging strategy.
For some clients, this is all they need – they’ll take this deliverable and use it on an as-needed basis. In other cases, we have clients where we’ll translate this work into sample website pages – e.g., a new homepage. Or, this will be part of a larger website redesign project, where we will also be writing or rewriting their site content. There are a wide range of ways in which we help implement the substance of this work, so please know these are only a few examples of how this is used.
Because of how different each engagement is, particularly when it comes to the implementation or execution of a strategy, the pricing will vary. Our clients typically invest between $5,000 and $25,000, depending on their specific scope of work. (For example, if this is part of a larger website copywriting project, the number will be higher.) We strongly encourage you to have a discussion regarding the particulars of your project.
Most anyone is a great fit for this service, but there is one caveat to that. If you are still developing your strategy for your products and services – meaning, you do not yet have a clear idea (with team consensus, if applicable) of what it is you do or sell, you are not ready for this product. Voice and messaging work are meant to help you clarify that which already exists or at least has been developed well enough that we’re not looking to do some of that product strategy work as part of this process.
Oh my gosh, yes! A cohesive brand voice plays a crucial role in content marketing by providing consistency, clarity, and authenticity in communication. More specifically, it will help you establish and scale your brand identity in a way that’s memorable and authentic, it will increase your brand recognition, make it easier to establish trust with the right audiences, and more.
Absolutely! The more authentic, consistent, and bold your voice and messaging are, the easier it will be for you to increase brand recall, build trust with prospects, and improve the overall customer experience – making it easier to retain current customers or upsell them, if and when it’s appropriate.
If you’re an individual thought leader with a personal brand, we’re happy to help you! We’ve worked with individual executives, authors, and experts who have their own brands or projects they’re working on. Whether it’s a book, a community, a keynote talk, a podcast, or just overall work on your brand, we’re here for you!
Because of how different each engagement is, particularly when it comes to the implementation or execution of a strategy, the pricing will vary. Our clients typically invest between $5,000 and $25,000, depending on their specific scope of work. (For example, if this is part of a larger website copywriting project, the number will be higher.) We strongly encourage you to have a discussion regarding the particulars of your project.
