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Big news <<Name>> 😮 I’ve only gone and got a fringe!

(You can tell my life has been seriously affected by lockdown, that I now consider a small change in my appearance to constitute big news 😞)

But seriously, there’s nothing like a global pandemic to force you to spend so much time on Zoom staring at your own face that you realise for the first time how big your forehead is and decide you really ought to cover that bad boy up.

Anyhoo, once I'd decided I wanted a different style I had no fewer than 13 local hairdressers to choose from 😳 So the question is, why did I pick the one I picked?

In the end it wasn’t location, or cost, or a particular service – the usual suspects you’d assume would differentiate service businesses.

It was their voice.

And I’m not just saying that because it’s a useful content strategy for me to take random personal anecdotes and tenuously relate them to my professional expertise! 🤓Honestly – the way they wrote, both on their website and in their emails responding to my enquiry, genuinely connected with me and made me trust them.

What they said wasn’t really any different than any other hairdresser - but how they said it stood out.

Now obviously whether or not I go back there comes down to the quality of the haircut (which, FYI, was delightful 👌). But there’s no denying that it was the way they communicated that first influenced me to choose them over 12 others.

So the real question is – are you making that kind of competition-smashing connection with your would-be customers? 🤔

P.S. If you’re not, and you’d like some pointers on how to get started, don’t forget to take a look at my free 5 ½ steps resource – there I walk you through exactly what it takes to create a distinctive voice for your business 👍Or if you've done that and are looking for some 1-1 help, always feel free to get in touch!

BESMIRCHED

I’ll be honest, I haven’t got any brilliant literary reasoning for including this one – I’ve picked it purely because it’s so fantastically enjoyable to say. Besmirched. Besmuuurched. Even its phonetic spelling is glorious – buh smuhcht. Ahhh 😌I’m wallowing in it.

Although it literally means to make something dirty, it’s most often used figuratively to refer to dirtying or damaging someone’s reputation. As in, “I can’t believe they’re saying the quality of my word of the moment has gone downhill – my good name has been besmirched!” It just sounds so wonderfully haughty and elegantly indignant. So feel free to besmirch me, knowing that I’ll forgive you as it’ll give me a chance to use the word 🤓

Need a quick refresh on why brand voice is important, the key steps in developing your own, and a bit of inspiration from some up-and-coming brand voices (including one that’s not at all shy about using the word vagina 🤨)?

Then have a listen to this ‘How to find your voice’ Zoom session I did for the fabulous team at Independent Oxford.

Zoom me up, Bethy >

⭐ What’s the one adjective I never EVER want to hear you use to describe your brand voice?

⭐ Find out why I think that hiring a copywriter is basically like taking a big pile of cash and setting it on fire.

⭐ Is jargon the villain it’s often painted as – or does it actually have huge potential to help you connect with your audience?

⭐ Out-of-office emails tend to be one of the last things we hurriedly type as we slam shut our laptops and take off – so how often do we think about whether they fit our brand voice? Here’s a few ideas for how to get creative with your OOO...

Now it’s officially summer time I’m in full ice-cream-scoffing mode 🍦and this baby’s reaction to eating it for the first time pretty perfectly captures my own feelings about the joys of this tasty treat!

Gimme that brain freeze please >

“Working with Beth has been immensely helpful – she was really perceptive about our brand, supportive of my work, and gave really useful practical advice. I would recommend her to anyone looking to perfect their brand voice!”

Josh Hinton
Marketing & Editorial Lead at the London Institute for Contemporary Christianity

*Just to be clear, this is a figure of speech. My clients aren’t horses. They’re people.

Want to be gettable and irresistible?

Just shoot me a message at beth@bethanyjoy.org
and we’ll chat about how I can help.