Deciding how to talk about your company takes a lot of work. If you’re like many business owners, it’s one of the hardest parts of marketing your business. That’s why I’m sharing this list of brand adjectives. You can use these branding words to clarify how your audience and colleagues see you, describe your brand personality, and create a consistent brand voice.
And, because I’ve curated some no-nonsense adjectives, it’s my hope that it shortens the time it takes you to go from planning to actual growth.
While you need to spend time on your brand strategy and messaging, it’s far too easy to get stuck in perfection paralysis, especially when you’re a coach, consultant, or expert whose business is so inherently personal.
Over the last decade and a half, I’ve helped thousands of business owners like you get results that help them grow a business that creates joy in their lives.
And so often, when people first come to me, they’ve spent a lot of time trying to figure out their positioning, unique selling proposition, and—you guessed it—brand adjectives. Sounds great, right?
There’s just one problem. By focusing so heavily on wordsmithing their brand to perfection, they’ve neglected to do the most important thing to move things forward—take action.
If this sounds familiar and you feel stuck, please know I’m on a mission to help you rediscover joy in your business and life.
This entire messaging series is about making your brand messaging work for you. Brand adjectives can play a role in that—so I’m here to help you find a handful of adjectives that work for you and move forward relatively quickly, so you can create content to test and cement messaging that resonates with your audience.
Content creation makes some people want to run the other direction, so Amy and I created the Content Personality® Club to help business owners like you find joy in email marketing content creation (and provide the accountability to help you get it done). Get the details here.
Because this post includes long lists of words to help you define your business, I’m including this jump list to help you navigate the article.
3 Exercises to Find Your Branding Words
197 Brand Adjectives
102 Words to Describe Your Brand
79 Adjectives to Describe a Personal Brand
16 Adjectives to Describe a Visual Brand
FAQ About Brand Adjectives
A Final Note on Using Brand Adjectives in Your Messaging
3 Exercises to Find Your Branding Words
Before I dive into the all-important list you’re here to look through, I want to help you use these adjectives effectively to express your brand identity.
Here are three quick exercises that can have you moving forward to the next step in an hour or less so you can begin testing your messaging.
Exercises #1 and #2 are my personal favorites because they’re quick and reduce the noise. However, exercise #3 is a solid alternative if the first two don’t appeal to you.
Exercise #1: Rapid Brand Adjective Selection & Definition
- Briefly consider your business and how you want to make people feel or talk about your company. (no more than 10 minutes)
- Run through the list of words I’ve shared below, choose the ones that best match your thoughts above, and paste them into a new document. (no more than 10 minutes)
- Can you streamline or reduce the selection? (no more than 5 minutes)
- For each adjective you’ve chosen, jot down a few words (bullet points are fine) about how each relates to your brand and audience. (no more than 30 minutes)
Exercise #2: Brand Adjective Categorization
- Review the list of adjectives below and paste everything that sticks out to you into a new document. (no more than 10 minutes)
- Go to your document and start categorizing the words into groups. For example, I might group words like happiness, fulfillment, and joy. (no more than 10 minutes)
- Review your groups and see if any groups can be combined. Repeat if needed. (no more than 5 minutes)
- Choose the best word for each category. In my example, this would be joy. (no more than 5 minutes)
- Take the main category word, list the words underneath it in bullets, removing any that don’t fit, and jot down any additional words about what this means to your brand (no more than 20 minutes)
Exercise #3: Put Yourself in Your Client’s Shoes
- Take off your “this is my brand” hat and put yourself in the shoes of someone experiencing your brand for the first time. (less than 1 minute)
- Think of how you’d like them to experience your business, and run through the adjectives below that best describe it from a prospective buyer’s perspective, pasting them into a new document. (no more than 10 minutes)
- Reduce the list if needed. (no more than 5 minutes)
- Create a short description of what you’d like them to experience, list the adjectives, and jot down a few notes about general characteristics as well as do’s and don’ts. (no more than 30 minutes)
Wondering how to define and describe your brand so you can grow your business? Set up a call with Amy and she can help you find the best solution.
197 Brand Adjectives
Many of the lists you see online are filled with fluff—and by now, you can tell that I’m anti-fluff because it gets in the way of your joy and your revenue-generating activities. So, I’ve pared down this list. Before I share the list of brand adjectives, I want you to make sure that you don’t let it become a BD (big distraction).
You’ll see I’ve left a few notes about my feelings on a few specific words below ;). And remember, because so much is subjective, you’ll need to take a few minutes to define what they mean to your business.
A List of 102 Words to Describe Your Brand
Accessible
Accomplished
Active
Adaptable
Adept
Agile
Approachable
Aspirational
Balanced
Benevolent
Candid
Cheerful
Collaborative
Comforting
Communicative
Compelling
Convenient
Creative
Daring
Disruptive
Down to Earth
Edgy
Educational
Effective
Eloquent
Empowering
Energetic
Engaging
Exciting
Exquisite
Fashionable
Fearless
Flexible
Formal
Frank
Futuristic
Genuine
Harmonious
Heartfelt
Helpful
High-Quality
Honest — Everyone should strive to be honest, so to me, this is a given. While I considered not including it, I realized there’s an opportunity to encourage you to show people you’re honest, not tell them, “Believe me because I’m honest.” Alternatively, you may want to choose credible, transparent, or trustworthy.
Hopeful
Hospitable
Human
Humorous
Imaginative
Inclusive
Innovative — Innovative has become a buzzword. So, if you choose this as a brand adjective, be prepared to show what you’re doing that’s innovative (or groundbreaking) so you can stand out.
Inspirational
Intentional
Invigorating
Joyful (wink, wink)
Judicious
Kinetic
Light-Hearted
Loyal
Luxurious
Magical
Masterful
Mature
Minimalist
Mission-Driven
Motivating
Nostalgic
Nourishing
Novel
Observant
Open
Optimistic
Pioneering
Playful
Polished
Positive
Powerful
Pragmatic
Professional — Everyone should aspire to be professional in their business, but it doesn’t have to mean corporate. If you choose this word, be sure to be clear about what that means to you.
Provocative
Purposeful
Purpose-Driven
Refreshing
Reliable
Sensual
Serious
Sincere
Sophisticated
Soothing
Stimulating
Straightforward
Sustainable
Succinct
Tactful
Thankful
Trailblazing
Transparent
Trustworthy
Unusual
Uplifting
Vibrant
Visionary
Vivid
Welcoming
79 Adjectives to Describe a Personal Brand
While I didn’t repeat adjectives from the list above when considering words to describe a personal brand, I’d encourage you to consider both, as there could be crossover.
Adventurous
Alluring
Altruistic
Amiable
Benevolent
Boisterous
Brave
Bubbly
Casual
Clever
Colorful
Committed
Confident
Credible
Curious
Decisive
Delightful
Diplomatic
Discreet
Driven
Dynamic
Emotional
Enthusiastic
Fair-minded
Fearless
Focused
Friendly
Fresh
Fun
Generous
Gentle
Gracious
Gregarious
Hard-Working
Humble
Impartial
Informed
Intelligent
Interesting
Inventive
Inviting
Kind
Knowledgeable
Kooky
Loving
Meditative
Memorable
Modest
Multi-Faceted
Mystical
Neighborly
No-Nonsense
Original
Outstanding
Passionate
Persistent
Personable
Practical
Productive
Quick-Witted
Quirky
Rational
Real
Reflective
Responsive
Responsible
Rooted
Sassy
Smart
Sophisticated
Specialized
Thoughtful
Understanding
Versatile
Well-Known
Well-Informed
Wild
Witty
16 Adjectives to Describe a Visual Brand
Why am I talking about visual branding when my focus is primarily on messaging and email marketing? Many brand adjectives are more visual in nature. If you don’t yet have a logo or are planning a visual rebrand, some of these words could help you.
Note: there may be a few repetitions from the lists above because they can also work visually.
Airy
Artistic
Bohemian
Bright
Clean
Earthy
Industrial
Minimalist
Modern
Organic
Retro
Rugged
Urban
Vibrant
Warm
Whimsical
FAQ About Brand Adjectives
Q. How many brand adjectives should I choose for my brand?
A. My vote is not to go overboard here, especially if you’re looking at this list for inspiration to develop your initial brand messaging. Remember, your goal is about action. However, if you’re looking for ways to finetune your brand messaging or create a voice guide for your team, you can use as many as you need to help your team understand what to say (and what not to say).
Q. Should my brand adjectives all be synonyms of each other, or should they mean different things?
A. It depends on your brand. Your brand adjectives likely differ from your core values, but you can tie them into your brand pillars. Generally, most brands have a handful of words with different meanings, and then you might have synonyms that you use to create a consistent tone that isn’t overly repetitive.
Q. How do I use my brand adjectives in my messaging strategy?
A. Ultimately, brand adjectives have the most value in two areas:
- Helping you describe how you want to make people feel so you can get them behind your mission and what you stand for.
- Giving you some language you can use in your content so that you show up consistently.
Q. Do I need to spend time finding brand adjectives?
A. Nothing in business is concrete or absolute outside of whether your business is profitable, contributes to the life you want, and brings you joy. So no, you don’t need to spend time here.
On the contrary, I recommend spending an hour or less here to start. You can always come back and refine your approach. I hope you use this list and guide to take action so you can show up for your business, focus your efforts where they’re most likely to pay off, and help you make sales.
Not sure how you show up best or where to direct your energy? Our Content Personality® Quiz is designed to help you understand how to use your natural strengths to create marketing content and maximize your time and energy. Take the quiz here!
A Final Note on Using Brand Adjectives in Your Messaging
Messaging is one of the most important aspects of sales and operations in your business. Why? To succeed, you must meet your clients where it matters most—where they care. However, you don’t have to spend months or years agonizing over the right adjectives to tell your brand story.
In fact, I hope you don’t. I want you to make progress in your business so it brings you joy and contributes to the life you want. That means focusing on putting content out into the world so you can test and iterate your message and start growing your business.
One value of finding brand adjectives is using them to make sure you’re talking about yourself consistently everywhere you choose to share content. But sometimes, people get stuck when it comes to creating and publishing that content.
My Joyful Content Creation Framework simplifies your content creation process, so you can generate relevant and engaging content consistently and significantly boost your online visibility and audience engagement. Get the framework here.
Would you like to dive deeper into your messaging–and learn how to use it to attract and nurture your audience?
Be sure to tune into our podcast to get our hot takes on messaging, email marketing, and other topics related to creating a business that brings you joy.
Want to learn more about our take on messaging strategy? Check this link all articles in our messaging series.
Here’s a complete list of the articles in this messaging series:
- Messaging Strategy Demystified (For Coaches, Consultants & Experts Like You)
- Using Brand Messaging Pillars to Guide Your Content
- A Masterclass in Messaging & Positioning for Coaches & Consultants
- Unique Value Proposition (UVP) versus Unique Selling Proposition (USP)
- 197 Brand Adjectives to Describe Your Brand [Sorted by Category]
- Authentic Brand Storytelling. For Everyone.
