How do you find and define your tone of voice?
Every brand, no matter its size or scale, needs a distinctive tone of voice. But how do you find yours?
Find out how to set the tone for writing as your company, so you cut through the noise and reach your customers with ease.
What is tone of voice?
Tone of voice is simply the way each brand communicates with its audience. All your favourite brands have spent considerable time crafting their distinctive ‘voice’.
Consider two brands in the cold beverage space. Coca-Cola occupies the everyday, with messaging centred around family and friendship. By contrast, Innocent Smoothies uses quirkiness and irreverence as an integral part of its brand voice.
Establishing a clear tone of voice is helpful from both a branding and a clarity perspective, ensuring your messaging reaches its intended target in a unique and easily identifiable way. Tone of voice is also a handy tool for copywriters, as it enables them to stay ‘on message’ when writing for and about your company.
Let’s look a little closer at how to define your unique brand voice (and put it into practice).
1. Carry out a content audit
Looking at how you’re currently communicating is a fantastic first step towards finding out what works for your brand. Do a content audit, looking through all the written materials you’ve already produced. Then consider their tone of voice.
Ask yourself:
Does this content suit the communication style of our audience?
Is this content consistent?
How does this content make our audience feel?
Does this content feel authentic to our brand?
How can we change the tone to make it more authentic?
Don’t be afraid to ask other people what they think of your content, and how it makes them feel about your brand. It can sometimes be difficult to see your company from the outside, so gathering these insights could help you figure out where you’re going wrong, and where things are already going right.
2. Consider your audience (and the platform)
Your audience should be at the heart of your tone of voice.
Think about how they communicate; there’s no use opting for an informal tone if your customer base favours something more matter of fact. Likewise, if your audience veers towards light-hearted material and you’re using a stern tone, this could be seen as lecturing or condescending.
Another key consideration is where you’ll be engaging with your audience. The platform will help shape the communication style, so you should think about how this could impact your tone of voice.
Thinking of how your voice will translate when applied to shorter captions for your social channels, or web copy, blog posts and case studies for your longform content, is a great way to flex your storytelling muscles, while getting to grips with the message you want to convey about your company with every sentence you write.
3. Write for accessibility
It’s easy to get bound up in jargon and lengthy sentences, particularly if you’re writing in a sector where complex terms or concepts are commonplace. However, remember that not everyone reading your communications is an expert in your field.
There will be times when you can’t help but include a ‘big’ word or need to write a lengthier piece of content, particularly if you’re in a legal, scientific, or academic field.
But there are ways to help make your passages of text more engaging, no matter their length:
Break it up with bullet points
Include plenty of white space
Add subheadings
Avoid keyword stuffing
Use smaller, more accessible words around your ‘big’ terminology.
Adding plain English around your lengthier terminology will help make your sentences more readable. Commonplace switches could be ‘need’ instead of ‘necessitate’, or ‘start’ instead of ‘commence’.
This approach proves particularly useful when writing for the web, helping the reader to skim through and access the information they need.
4. Research your competitors
A little competitor analysis goes a long way and will help you see your brand as your audience does: within the context of a wider landscape.
Your audience is also their audience, so assess their tone with a watchful eye. Do you want to sound like them, or would you prefer a different route? Being in the same industry doesn’t mean you need to approach your communications from the same angle – but knowing what others in your field are doing is an essential part of defining your own voice.
5. Create tone of voice guidelines
Once you know how you want to communicate, it’s time to put your ideas into action! The best way to make sure your tone remains consistent is to create a set of formal tone of voice guidelines.
They don’t need to be long. A simple one-pager would be sufficient for some companies, while others opt for a lengthier content guide that also recognises other forms of brand communication (such as logos, colours, and fonts) as integral to brand messaging and closely linked to tone of voice.
Some big names in varying sectors have helpfully made their tone of voice guidelines available to the public. While we’d never advise copying what’s been done before, looking at some of these examples will certainly help you work out what’s possible when creating your own guidelines:
Mailchimp Content Style Guide
Monzo Tone of Voice Guide
NHS England Tone of Voice Guide
University of Leeds Tone of Voice Guidelines
UK Department of Work & Pensions Tone of Voice Guidelines
Whenever possible, include actionable examples of prior communications in your tone of voice guidelines. This will give writers inspiration to draw upon when they’re creating content for the brand.
6. Keep it simple
Defining your tone of voice might feel daunting, but there’s no need to reinvent the wheel! If you find yourself stuck, then remember that the simplest solution is sometimes the best one for ensuring clear communication.
Likewise, don’t be afraid to experiment; there’s a world of different ways to set your company apart for all the right reasons. Practice makes perfect, so test your tone of voice, and refine it further until you’re sure it suits your intended outcomes.
Carefully consider both the message and the medium and remember your audience. Above all, think about how your newfound tone of voice links up with the rest of your branding, and how all these elements can be best used to bring your brand to life.
Not sure how to tackle your tone of voice?
Our creative, knowledgeable team can help you define and refine your tone of voice, ensuring your communication always hits the right note.
Reach out to find out more about our copywriting services.