Tone of Voice
Stand out. Build trust.
What is ‘tone of voice’?
Tone of voice is how you express your brand personality through language.
Your tone of voice touches every single thing you write, from your homepage strapline to a customer service email to your annual report. Your tone can vary depending on context but it should always reflect and reinforce your brand values.
(It’s sometimes called brand voice or verbal identity but I’ll stick with tone of voice here.)
Why is tone of voice important?
Defining your tone of voice can help you to:
1. Stand out
You probably have a cluster of competitors who do something pretty similar to you. If you talk about your products/services in the same way as everyone else, it’s really hard to stand out. Develop a distinctive tone of voice, and you can talk about what you do in a fresh and exciting way. It gets you noticed and makes your offering more desirable.
“Distinctiveness is the quality that causes a brand expression to stand out from competing messages. If it doesn’t stand out, the game is over.”
- Marty Neumeier, The Brand Gap
2. Build trust
Research shows that tone of voice has a measurable impact on how people perceive a brand. If you can consistently strike the right tone with your audience, it’s a powerful way to evoke trust. And when a person fully trusts your brand, they’re much more likely to buy from you, stay loyal to you, and advocate for you.
88% of people say that trust is critical or important when choosing which brands to buy or use.
- Edelman Trust Barometer Special Report
How to spot a brand that doesn’t know its tone of voice
It’s inconsistent
It can flip-flop between formal and chatty, sometimes within the same sentence.
It’s business-bland
Without the confidence of its own voice, it relies on generic business lingo.
It mimics its competitors
It uses the same stock expressions as everyone else in its sector.
How to define your tone of voice (and start using it)
1. Translating your brand personality
Like a person, your brand will have certain personality traits. I’ll work with you to tease out these traits, and then translate them into tonal values.
2. Creating practical guidelines
I’ll create a clear and concise document that defines your tone of voice and explains how to put it into practice. It contains:
Definitions of each tonal value, with a description of what it is and what it isn’t, and tips for how to bring it to life.
Real-life examples of how to strike the right tone in different contexts, from a social post to a whitepaper.
Brand dictionary with the preferred terms, e.g. ‘We say “our people” not “our staff”’.
Style guide e.g. ‘We use exclamation marks sparingly, and never more than one at a time.’
3. Embedding it in your business
I’ll provide training so that your tone of voice shines across all your communications. Everyone who writes for your brand will have the tools and techniques they need to hit the right tone. And you’ll know how to judge whether content is on-brand. For every piece of copy that lands on your desk, you’ll ask “Does it sound like us?”, and know the answer.
Ready to find your voice?
Send me your info and I’ll be in touch to arrange an exploratory chat.