Brand Voice vs. Messaging Strategy: Wait, They’re Different?
Lil Key Takeaways: This Blog at a Glance
Brand voice = your vibe. It’s the personality and attitude your brand shows up with
Messaging strategy = your plan. It’s what you say, who you say it to, and why it matters
You need both. Messaging is the sheet music; brand voice is how you play it
Brand voice isn’t a costume. It’s a mix of who you already are and what your people need from you
Messaging is for your eyes only. It’s the behind-the-scenes blueprint that keeps everything aligned
A great message with no personality = forgettable. A great vibe with no strategy = empty
Your brand voice & messaging should live somewhere. (Not just in your head—make a go-to guide)
Don’t overcomplicate it. Clear, consistent, and true-to-you is the goal
Throw a rock, and you’ll hit a marketing pro with some kind of hot take on what strategy you (as a business owner!) should care about.
Some are going to tell you that you’ve gotta focus on a clear messaging strategy above all else – leave the personality and *ride the vibe* stuff at home. Other pros might tell you that you can fritter away with a messaging strategy all you want – but if you’re saying it like it’s a messaging strategy (read: a lil boring and robotic), ain’t no one gonna wanna listen to you.
The plot twist of all plot twists? Neither of them is entirely wrong.
Then again, neither of them is entirely right either.
I’ve been a pro copywriter and brand voice + messaging strategist for nearly a decade now, and I’m going to shoot you straight – you have to care about both pretty damn equally to make noise.
Something I’ve noticed over the years is that there are about one million different definitions of both brand voice strategy and messaging strategy.
Every pro seems to define them a lil differently. Fair, that’s kinda the spice of life.
But ultimately? That leaves business owners and service pros completely confused about what’s what and how to tackle each thing. (It used to confuse me, anyway).
So what exactly is the difference between brand voice and messaging, and better yet, how do they work in beautiful harmony together to flip on the neon welcome sign for the people you’re trying to work with (AKA, your dream clients)?
That exact distinction is what we’ve got on the docket here, pal.
Your Brand’s Strategy: Everything You Need to Know About Brand Voice & Messaging
I’m a straight shooter–especially about this kind of stuff.
So let’s just jump into what each of these elements are so you can get what you need and get out (and start applying it to your brand’s strategy, of course).
What’s Brand Voice Strategy? Your 101 Intro
Because you’re asking me (you’re reading this blog, so I guess you are), I’m sharing the Boundless Copy definition of brand voice:
Brand voice is the consistent & curated personality, vibe, & attitude of your brand when presenting itself to the world.
Translation?
Brand voice is your vibe! It’s your brand’s personality. It’s the representation of your brand when it shows up to the dinner party, grabs a cocktail, and starts chatting with a new person.
Brand voice is the how behind your words – how you talk to your people, how you connect with them, how you show up.
I want to keep this super 101 style, so here are the absolute most important things I want you to know about brand voice before we move on:
Brand voice is not a character you put on – it’s the perfect lil fusion of who you already are and who your dream people need you to be
You don’t design or devise a brand voice – it already exists, so you go digging for it
A brand voice needs to be refined and refreshed to strike that perfect lil balance (& speak to your people)
Brand Voice is what flips on the neon welcome sign for your people – it’s the bright flash that gets their attention and screams, “Hey, you! Yeah, you! You’ve been lookin’ for someone just like me…here I am!”
I could talk to you about brand voice until my own voice gave out. So, if you wanna learn a lil more about brand voice (and what makes it sticky), I’ve got a blog for you to take a peek at.
Check out my What is Sticky Brand Voice blog for the full brand voice strategy guide you’ve been looking for.
What’s a Messaging Strategy? Your 101 Intro
If brand voice strategy is the how behind your words – messaging is the what.
Your messaging strategy is your clear-cut game plan that tells you what to communicate and to who. It covers your unique points of view, your positioning, who you are, what you do, and why it matters to the people you’re talking to.
Your messaging strategy is what you pop open when you need to answer questions like:
What makes this offer different?
How am I unique?
What’s life-changing about this service?
What do my people NEED to know about this?
Your words are a way to communicate with your audience, right? Messaging is just the map you lay out to help you communicate as effectively as possible to exactly who you want to reach.
Here are a few must-know things about messaging before we move on:
Messaging strategy is for your eyes only – think of it like the back of the house in a restaurant (it makes everything tick, but the front of the house handles presentation – AKA brand voice)
Messaging doesn’t need to be a big, fancy doc – it can be a crumpled piece of paper in your pocket for all I care. It just needs to include your powerful messaging points
Messaging is full of key messaging points–those can cover a wide genre of stuff. Some common elements of a messaging strategy are pain points, promises, points of view, target audience, core values, beliefs
Above all, your messaging strategy should answer this: what do I want to communicate about this thing above all else?
These are just the highlights – the must-know tidbits, if you will.
If you’re trying for a full-scale, deep dive into the world of messaging strategy, my Messaging 101 blog is the perfect starting point.
How Brand Voice & Messaging Strategy Work Together
You’ve got your 101s on lock, so let’s take this to our 201 – don’t worry, you’re ready.
Messaging is the nuts and bolts of what you’re saying.
Brand voice is how you’re saying it.
That’s helpful, but it still feels like abstract concept stuff–so let’s make this concrete. Pretend you’re in a band for a second. Good news, your band rocks.
But you didn’t get there by just showing up and vibing. You needed a plan, right?
You and the band get together and practice. You read your songs off sheet music. You know what you’re playing, what the set list is, and what you’re doing because you’ve got the game plan sittin’ pretty.
But you can’t just stand up on stage, read music, and play like robots – no one’s going to tap their feet or crowd surf or start a circle pit to that. That’s when you bring the attitude. The personality. The vibe, if you will.
Messaging is your sheet music, your practice, your set list – your plan.
Brand voice is your personality, your stage presence.
You need to know what to play; then, you need to know how to play it.
Messaging Without a Sticky Brand Voice Doesn’t Stand Out
OK, let’s stick with the band example for a second to illustrate how these two things work together.
Like I said, you can’t just stand up on stage and start playing music and staring at sheet music. Even if you’re hella talented–there’s not a ton of real sticky magic in that.
Yeah, you need to know what you’re doing–but you also need to play that music in a way that turns heads and gets attention.
If you’ve got clear messaging, but you’re not communicating in a way that’s memorable or makes people stop and think, “Dang! They get it!” – no one is going to hear what you’re saying in the first place.
A Vibey Brand Voice Lacks Foundation Without Messaging
We just talked about how you can have the best plan in the world, but if you don’t execute it with some style, no one’s going to hear you.
And the inverse is true – you can be ALL vibes, but that doesn’t mean anyone’s going to pay attention to you if you don’t have something solid to back it up.
Maybe you’ve got unforgettable vibes – a stage presence Queen would be jealous of.
But you can only ride vibes for so long. Eventually, people are going to want to get to the meat of what you’ve got to say–they’re going to want foundation, clear examples, and to know what the deal behind your offer or service or brand is.
You need the plan (The sheet music! The messaging!) to stand on.
Without it, you’re just dressed up like a rockstar on stage that no one stuck around to listen to.
Big Messaging Strategy & Brand Voice Mistakes to Avoid
Not Creating Go-To Guides You Can Use Over & Over (& Over)
The biggest mistake you can make – in my humble opinion – is not setting yourself up for success by creating go-to guides for both messaging and brand voice strategy. These guides should be strategies you’ve sat down, mapped out, and can open up time and time again so you always know what to say and how to say it.
Pretend you’re redecorating a house for a second. You go through the trouble of figuring out the vibe, the feel, and the blueprints. You know exactly what you want and how you want the space to feel.
But then you…don’t create a Pinterest board. You’ve got a few chaotic notes scribbled on different scraps of paper around the house.
When it comes time to actually create that space, you’ve got nothing. No point of reference. No idea how to execute it.
The same is true for your brand voice and messaging strategy! You know the vibe, you know the plan–why wouldn’t you put that in an organized, go-to resource you can use time and time again?
If this is something you want or need help with, take a peek at this:
Brand Voice Roundup: Wrangle a reliable, reusable brand voice guide so your dream people hear you loud ‘n’ clear – then come running.
Mini Messaging Marker: Coming soon! Your new mini approach to take the confusion and chaos out of creating a go-to strategy. Notion-hosted, quick, and easy – if you’ve got a new offer, a service, or a launch coming up and you don’t know what to say about it, this will help you create a quick ‘n’ easy messaging strategy on the fly.
Settling for a Muted Voice to Get Clarity Across
As the ultimate fan girl of sticky and unapologetically your brand voice, this is one of the top mistakes I see brands making. A lot of people will tone down their voice because they think it makes their messaging less impactful.
The plot twist: you can be clear and pop off with personality.
You showing up with your voice and presence is never going to detract from your clear messaging.
You know what IS going to detract from your clear messaging? If you don’t have clear messaging to begin with – that’s usually what’s missing!
Opting to Sound Like Someone Else
We all work in pretty crowded industries. Guess what? That’s actually a beautiful thing! It becomes less beautiful when we opt to sound like someone else to try to get our points across. You know why that service pro you admire is doing so dang hot? It’s likely because they’re leaning into their unique POVs, what makes them sticky, and what works for them.
A lot of us will take that admiration and turn it into something else – replication. But there’s a reason that doesn’t work: It’s not really who you are.
Talking like someone else simply because it works for them is like wearing someone else’s wrong-sized boots – you probably won’t get where you want, and you’re bound to have blisters.
Show up as you, clarify YOUR messaging, and use your sticky voice to turn heads.
Your Brand Voice & Messaging Strategy Matter – We Can Help
I’ve long been obsessed with the what and how behind brand chatter.
If you’re ready to yap about your own brand voice and messaging strategy, give us a quick shout by filling out our form – we’re always down to dig into and discuss what makes your brand so damn special, then show you how to share it with your dream people.
