Get AI talking your brand language in minutes
Written by brand naming experts and brand identity specialists, Simon Andrew and Phil Ramsell, joint founders of Sticky Name Design . Both are creative directors and native English copywriters based in Germany.
Gone are the days where creating a digital campaign might take days or weeks.
AI tools like Jasper let you create copy for every aspect of a digital campaign - social posts, landing page, nurture email flow, newsletter, google text ads, and more – an entire digital campaign in minutes.
The hardest part is ensuring all material is in your brand tone of voice.
And the good news is, it's not that hard.
All you need is a clear and simple understanding of your brand voice and a single AI prompt, as outlined below.
Do it once and its easy to adapt to any future copy elements you might want to create down the line.
In the case of Jasper.ai, after training the tool once, you can set it to apply your brand voice to all outputs by default, as discussed below.
First, here’s a basic tone-of-voice prompt recipe - point 4 is key:
Your tone-of-voice-based prompt should include:
Who will be speaking on behalf of your brand (professional role, or famous personality that typifies your brand)
Who they will be talking to (a description of your audience)
What the desired format is (e.g., video script, LinkedIn post, landing page - you can select multiple formats for a single campaign prompt in jasper)
How to talk to your audience (tone, style, and manner)
The key message/s you want to get across to your audience
Why the subject matters to your audience (the benefits it offers them)
What you want your audience to do (e.g., comment, contact us, shop now)
The above elements may vary by brand or application, but the list serves as a solid foundation.
You might be able to use the results as is or, as is more likely, you will want to optimise them.
Try any tone-of-voice prompt you create with a few variations in, say, ChatGPT-3.5 and/or GPT-4.
Then select the sentences and paragraphs that most resonate with your brand and put them together in a way that tells your story best.
Finally, be sure to check all facts and use of slang or other esoteric language or terms to ensure they're correct.
Example of tone-of-voice prompt application
BEFORE COPY OPTIMIZATION: Copy in requested tone of voice written entirely by ChatGPT and uploaded directly to Synthesia (a great tool to demo tone of voice application at low cost). While not perfect, one can only be impressed by what ChatGPT delivered here.
AFTER COPY OPTIMIZATION: Copy shorter and punchier with minor corrections and, importantly, manually paced to feel more natural. (A real voice is always best, budget allowing, although AI tools like elevenlabs can deliver near perfect voice performances.)
The prompt used to generate the copy for the above videos is:
Act as an insurance salesperson.
Create a sales pitch for a medical insurance plan aimed at gen z women living in New York.
The insurance plan includes cover for a wide range of in-patient and day-care treatments as well as an optional level of cover such as out-patient, dental, and maternity benefits. It is also cost-effective and tailored to the lifestyle and needs to gen z women - so they can focus on living their best life, without worrying about medical cover. Or even thinking about it again until they need it.
Use the tone of voice of a 25-year-old generation z woman and include generation z slang such as: W, Big yikes, basic, cap, drip, hits different, fire, NPC, periodt, rizz, suss, girlboss, vibe check. Use words that inform, inspire and call to action. Vary sentence length to create rhythm and interest. And use the active voice.
There’s another way to go - but is it better?
The rate of change in AI continues at a mind-bending pace. It seems brand tone-of-voice AI applications are no exception.
In early May, 2023 Jasper.ai, the marketing-focused AI platform based on GPT, launched an upgrade to its tone-of-voice capability.
A little pricier than GPT-4, (at approx. $90 month for a 3-seat Team plan ), Jasper trains itself on your brand tone of voice based on URLs you supply, or reference content you paste into its system.
It also allows you to save and store "Memories" as tone-of-voice context for use in the generation of future content. You can select specific "Memories" as and when you need them.
Especially convenient is that you can set the brand voice you build into the system as the default for any communication you create - be it a single content piece or an entire campaign.
Screenshot of Jasper's new Brand Voice training tool
We gave the new Jasper Brand Voice a try by training it on copy in the OG Medical Health Plan videos above. And then made another high speed video on Synthesia to demo the results.
So how does Jasper compare to chat GPT?
Jasper doesn’t seem quite as good as ChatGPT, despite the fact it had copy from ChatGPT-generated content loaded into it as a brand tone-of-voice reference.
And Jasper was nowhere near as effective when we relied on the tone-of-voice loaded into the system alone, rather than including it in the prompt.
It’s possible this may be due to user error as it was our first attempt at using the new Brand Voice tool, but we did try it a few times.
When all is said and done we prefer the simplicity and flexibility of the single-prompt model, with all necessary info included.
This seems to work reasonably well on both AI platforms. But, again, ChatGPT did seem a little better.
The best approach is probably to experiment with both and see what works best for you.
Further considerations related to your brand voice
Is it better for your brand to speak as a “peer” or an “expert”?
The video avatar speaks in the voice of a near-peer who also has relative expertise in that she has personal experience of the product.
People are often more likely to be influenced by near-peers who are a step of two ahead of them in solving a given life problem than by someone who is “an expert.”
Using a spokesperson from the target group who speaks from personal experience in the language of the audience is both credible and relatable.
But there are certainly brands for which taking an expert approach would be more appropriate.
Whether a given brand should speak more as a peer or expert is covered in detail here.
Why bother with tone of voice?
A clear and unique verbal identity adds huge value to a brand by:
Connecting with your band audiences in an authentic, relatable manner
Strengthening relationships by revealing a brand personality that customers and staff identify with
Ensuring you sound the same across all channels over time – consistency builds trust
Setting your brand apart from competitors
Providing meaning, motivation, and momentum for employees – through clearly communicated purpose
Anchoring your organization and customers around a distinct set of values
Creating “pride of belonging” among employees and customers
Getting all your brand custodians on the same page as to how your brand communicates
Ensuring you always communicate in a clear, easily understandable way – clarity is the soul of effective communication