The Importance of Developing A Brand Personality

What is a Brand Personality?

If you’re a business or brand owner, you know there are a lot of steps to establishing an audience. You may even have set up your social media channels, made some posts, and interacted with a few customers. 

But until you identify your brand’s personality, it will be challenging to develop a social media strategy that will keep your audience engaged. 

To create a strategy, you have to know who your brand is and what it offers. This is your brand’s personality. From there, you can establish your audience and the pillars of your content. If you don’t take the time to develop your brand's personality first, it will be difficult to create consistent content and establish a loyal customer base.

Your brand personality is the culmination of its history, goals, and values. It clearly communicates who your brand is and what it offers. Most importantly, a brand personality will help you create an online atmosphere that’s consistent with what you want to accomplish. 

Creating your brand personality is your opportunity to infuse your social media strategy with authenticity. When your audience feels like they know you, they’re more inclined to trust you and regularly interact with your brand.

Why is a Brand Personality Important?

Developing a unique identity sets you apart from competitors. When you share specific details about your brand, it makes your content memorable and keeps you from fading into the vast crowd of online businesses. 

Consistency is key. Your audience comes to you for a reason, whether they find your content useful, are interested in your product, or just enjoy your brand’s general vibe. That’s why it's imperative to know ahead of time what aspects of your brand personality you want to highlight. 

For example, if you run a non-profit that seeks to assist the homeless community, your brand personality will likely be reflected in the helpful resources you share and the inclusive language you choose in your website copy and on social media. 

So before you start to develop a content strategy, think critically about who you want to reach and the overall mission that brought your brand to life. The story of how it came to be may seem boring to you, but it tells your audience a lot about the people behind the screen. 

Don’t be afraid to be open and honest with them. Humans love and remember stories! Storytelling builds a closer personal connection and engages their emotions, which will make them more likely to revisit your brand when they need your product or services. 

A brand personality comes from intentionally thinking about the kind of presence you want to have. Taking the extra time to develop your brand’s personality might sound complex or even intimidating, but it’s a lot simpler than it seems. 

Here are three easy steps to help you get started. 

3 Steps to Develop a Great Brand Personality 

1. Consider Your Brand’s Ideal Client

Your brand personality isn’t just for you–it’s for the person behind the screen who you want to reach most. Take the time to write down the type of client or audience member that your brand would love to connect with. It might be someone who is perfect for your product or service or someone who would eagerly get involved in your cause.

Think about your brand from their perspective–what would draw them in? What would make them come back to your page, interact with your posts, and share them with others? 

Use these answers to help determine the online presence you want to have. If your ideal client is someone who likes to stay informed, your brand personality should be helpful, knowledgeable, and trustworthy. If you want to reach clients that are innovative game-changers, your brand personality should be cool, creative, and a bit provocative. 

Remember, when creating a content strategy, your audience comes first. 

2. Determine Your Brand Values

At its core, what does your brand seek to accomplish? What are the driving forces behind all of its efforts? 

Your brand’s values may be obvious, or you may have to take some time to really think about them. One simple way to answer these questions is to consider your brand’s history. You started it for a reason. Was it to help people, address a problem in your community, or to innovate something never made before? 

If you get stuck, consider asking the people in your professional circle what comes to mind when they think about you or your brand. They may find it comforting, inspiring, thoughtful, or playful. Trust your gut–if a peer’s suggestion doesn’t resonate with your vision, move on and try something else. 

Your values are paramount in developing your brand personality and content. They can have a long-term effect on the strength and quality of your online presence, so don’t take them lightly! 

3. Identify What Makes Your Brand Different

There are a lot of brands out there, but each one has a unique history, vision, and process. What sets you apart from the crowd? 

The values you choose can help immensely here. It’s one thing to want to change the world, and another to address a specific problem in a specialized way. Your approach to the issues you seek to solve is just as important as the issues themselves. 

Not only does this help show your brand’s uniqueness, but it informs how you interact with your customer base. For example, if your brand values are charity, playfulness, and humor, you might foster a distinctly positive space of community care that’s lighthearted and easy to get involved in. 

Another way your brand might be different from others is your operations. Maybe you’re dedicated to maintaining an open and healthy work environment, or perhaps you work with local artisans to alleviate poverty in your area. 

No matter what industry you’re in, there is something about your brand that makes it special. This is the key to developing your memorable brand personality!

Always In Your Corner, 

The Content Queens