Brand inconsistency: The enterprise identity crisis
Imagine your target audience, bewildered, trying to figure out if you’re a sassy unicorn start up or a buttoned down Fortune 500. Creating the perception of brand inconsistency through content is one of the seven content sins. Mixed messaging resulting from inconsistent content not only confuses your audience but weakens your brand identity — which damages the customer experience.
If you’ve got a case of the content chameleon, where your content morphs into different representations of your brand, this blog is for you!
The cost of mixed messaging
Think about it: your content is the megaphone for your brand, the window into what you do and why. When your content sends a kaleidoscope of mixed signals, you’re not just losing customer’s trust, you’re potentially hemorrhaging revenue. Which makes content one of your most important assets.
But how does this happen you ask? The culprit of brand inconsistency is usually one or more of the following:
- Globally distributed teams with style guides lost in the Bermuda Triangle of shared drives and folders.
- Brand guidelines are so dense that they make Einstein’s theory of relativity look like a children’s book.
- AI generated content gone rogue, with a level of editing required that makes editors weep.
- The relentless pressure to publish content faster than your most highly caffeinated content writers, which then compromises content quality.
The result? Editorial inefficiencies that for the sake of the content sins theme, we’ll call content editing purgatory. Endless review cycles, duplicate efforts, and missed deadlines…and pesky inconsistencies in tone style, tone, voice, and terminology.
The quick guide to more consistent content
Consistency is the cure for the enterprise content chameleon that changes its colors across the customer journey. We’ll dive into a quick summary below, but if you’d like more detail, we recommend downloading the eBook at the end of this blog post. There, we’ll explore in depth the concept of enterprise editorial management. And how it can fix the inconsistencies in style, tone, voice, and terminology, making sure that all content aligns with your company’s goals, standards, and brand identity.
But for now, the (not so) secret sauce to eliminating confusing content is to:
- Anchor your content to your brand’s core vision, mission, values — the whole shebang! Let your mission be the north star guiding your every sentence.
- Make your brand guidelines the Beyonce of accessibility. Famously visible and always up to date with your brand’s latest style and messaging.
- Educate your team to keep them in the loop on changes and guide them with up to date feedback to keep content aligned with your expectations.
- Embrace the chameleon but keep your voice. Your tone can adapt for different content types but your brand voice needs to retain its unique signature.
- Tame the beast of unmanaged terminology. Manage it, review it, and update it like a well-loved garden. No more strange variations of terminology sprouting like weeds, choking your brand message.
- Keep visual consistency by making your visual identity (logos, colors, fonts, and images) work in harmony across different teams, departments, and digital touchpoints.
Meet your new editorial best friend: Acrolinx
Acrolinx is an Enterprise Editorial Management System that empowers the world’s leading brands to author, edit, and tune content efficiently. By leveraging AI and automation, we help companies streamline editorial processes, achieve regulatory compliance, and stay ahead in a rapidly evolving digital landscape.
Ready to explore how Acrolinx can help you eliminate mixed messaging across various content channels? Download the eBook below to achieve a clear and on-brand message while streamlining the editorial review process.
