A means to evoke emotion, immerse your audience in new experiences and create powerful connections; sound can truly complete a brand and has the ability to differentiate those who may otherwise get lost in a crowded market.
Although frequently overlooked, the sound that accompanies your brand is just as important as the visual or written aspects. Whether it’s a sonic logo (think: McDonald’s “I’m lovin it”), the music used for your videos, the tone of voice selected for your podcasts, the sounds that accompany your ads and social media posts or even simply your office playlist, every piece of audio you share should be carefully selected and help to convey and strengthen your brand message.
To fully tap into success, your brand needs to listen to the power of sound, and here are 5 reasons why:
- Improve brand recall & recognition: podcasts have been found to improve brand recall by up to 4.4 times more than display ads.
- Reinforce your brand values and messaging: a recent survey found that 74% of people say brand audio helps to aid their understanding of a company.
- Differentiate your brand: consumers are 46% more likely to choose brands with whom they associate a recognisable sound.
- Create more meaningful relationships: audio can help create a sensory experience that evokes powerful emotions, creates lasting memories and inspires action.
- Drive conversions: the use of audio ads can increase purchase intent by as much as 200%!
So, now you understand the importance of audio branding, you probably want to know where to begin when looking at yours? Well, you’ve come to the right place. Here are 4 top tips to help get your brand in tune with success:
- Start with you: to define the best sound for your brand, you need to first get to grips with what makes you unique and think about how you can emphasise this through audio. Think about your values; is there a certain sound that can help convey them? How do you want your audience to feel when they are interacting with your brand? Think about what type of audio can help evoke these emotions.
- Listen to your audience: as with most areas of business and marketing, taking a deeper look into your audience will provide you with invaluable insights and inspiration, and most importantly, ensure that the audio you choose is appropriate for them.
- Be consistent: is your brand lighthearted and youthful or formal and to the point? You must be sure this remains consistent throughout all aspects of your brand – including audio branding – as research has shown that brands using sounds that are aligned with their brand identity are 96% more likely to be remembered!
- Voicing your brand: selecting the right voiceover is essential, as it is quite literally the voice of your brand: the sound that will speak directly to your audience. You should consider everything from age, speed and tone to accent, pitch and gender. Each of these characteristics should align with your brand and help to tell your story in the way you want it to be heard.
Ultimately, audio branding is all about getting your brand seen and heard. Inspiring consumers to listen to your story and immerse themselves in your narrative. For this reason, it’s fundamental that you are prepared to invest time and resources into the audio branding process to ensure that the sound that defines your brand is memorable, relevant and consistent. Want to hear more? Contact us for a free consultation to see how we can help bring your brand to life.
