Why your brand sounds like three different companies (and how to fix it)

When starting a business, founders can spend hours, days, months, sometimes even years trying to nail what their business actually stands for.

You define your positioning, your USPs. You get a good feeling for what you want your brand tone to be and how you want customers to see you. You brainstorm your values, your mission. Sometimes you even pull together brand guidelines with clear direction on your personality. You feel good. Off you go, carefully communicating with the world in your shiny new brand persona.

Fast forward a few months…

Someone’s updated the website and SEO has taken precedence over brand tone. You’ve delegated LinkedIn posts and they feel generic, corporate. Your sales proposals have been taken over by technical details. The emails going out to customers have been outsourced and sound polite enough, but they lack continuity. Where’s the personality?

This isn’t unusual. And it’s not about being sloppy or not caring.

This is just the reality of running an SME, and we see it time and time again. Keeping one consistent voice as you expand and delegate is difficult. When you’re busy (and you’re always busy), one of the first things that suffers is consistency.

But here’s the thing: you don’t have to be perfect. You just need to be recognisable.

Why it matters more than you think

When your communication feels disconnected, people notice – even if they can’t quite put their finger on why. They might not understand what you actually do. They might not quite trust you. Sometimes you sound like one thing, then you’re another. And people don’t like not knowing where they stand. They can’t connect to you.

Good communication isn’t about making everything polished. It’s not about perfecting every social post or putting rigid controls in place. It’s simply making sure that the story your clients hear is the same story you’re trying to tell. That the brand you love isn’t getting lost in translation.

Three questions worth asking yourself:

1. If someone read your website, your social posts, and your last client email, would they think it’s all one business?
2. Who’s actually checking that your communications sound like you as a brand everywhere you show up?
3. Are you putting enough attention into making sure you and your colleagues are speaking to stakeholders cohesively?

Because if your messaging feels all over the place, this isn’t a content problem. It’s a business problem.

The good news? It’s easily fixable.

You just need someone keeping an eye on the thread, making sure everything hangs together, that your story stays consistent even as you grow and get busier. Sometimes that’s an internal champion who has the time and headspace to steward your voice. Sometimes it’s bringing in external support to audit what’s happening, tighten things up, and give your team a clear framework to work from.

Either way, it starts with recognising that brand consistency isn’t a nice-to-have. It’s the thing that helps people understand you, trust you, and ultimately choose you.

Author: Laura Chatterton