Remember your mother telling you to “watch your tone of voice” when you were a kid?
As it turns out, this advice can have an impact on every facet of life, and not just personal relationships either. What you say and how you say it are equally important (another lesson learned when we’re young).
As a businessperson or company, your tone of voice reflects on you personally and professionally. It can mean the difference between establishing trust and alienating key members of your target audience, who will then never care about anything else you might have to say.
I’m going to pull out one of those iconic words that you hear tossed around all the time these days, and then I’m going to wrangle it in and make sure you understand why it’s important.
The word of the day is: “relevance.”
If what you have to say isn’t relevant to the people you’re trying to reach, you will lose them. It’s that simple. Now, I don’t want to suggest that I’m pointing a finger at you with this next statement, but I’d be doing you a disservice if I didn’t bring this up. Have you thought about how your copy reads to anyone else but you? Have you given due consideration to the way you talk to people through your content?
Your brand needs to have its own voice. That is where it finds its relevance.
Figuring out what that means and how to define it can be tricky, there’s no doubt about that. Do you want to come across stiff and professional? Do you want to be perceived as laid-back and easy-going? Of course, once you figure all of that out, you’ve only done half your job. Maintaining a consistent voice requires constant attention to details, many of which plenty of businesses overlook.
That’s why I’ve compiled this list for you. Consider these 7 elements as the framework for consistency. If you implement them well, your brand’s voice will become one of your strongest assets.
1. Watch Out for the Big Word
You need to find the fine line between writing in a manner that a child would understand and writing as if you’re addressing a child. It’s a fine balance. The easiest way to do it is to keep it simple. Use short words whenever possible. Don’t go for the impressive synonym unless you plan to link to dictionary.com for the definition of “hirsute.” Honestly, “hairy” works just fine. Also, shorter words have a certain pointed, straight-shot effect that helps maintain interest with the reader.
2. Keep Your Sentences Simple, Too
If you find yourself writing long compound sentences, try to find places to break them up. Smaller bites are always easier to digest, and people process ideas better when they’re split up into their own linguistic chunks.
Here’s the Litmus Test: Can you read that entire sentence in a single breath? If not, it’s too long. I’m not talking about, “See Spot run. Run, Spot, run!” But I do think that we tend to forget that listening to someone say something and reading it are two different things. People also tend to speak in shorter sentences than they write, so if your goal is to have a conversation with your writing, it’s best to remember that.
3. Change Things up a Bit
Writing sentences in short bursts is a great idea, but be sure to vary the length of your sentences so your copy doesn’t read like a series of jabs. Again, you want to come across as conversational so give your words an ebb and flow that lets the reader hear you speaking inside his or her head.
4. Make Good Use of Pronouns
The tone of your brand voice depends greatly on the way you use pronouns. Just how personal do you want to get with your audience? When referring to your company, do you want to position yourself as a company or as a friend? Writing in third person makes you come across as more detached, whereas using pronouns like “we” and “our” draw the reader in more. It also creates a tone that tells the reader that he or she is being addressed directly.
5. Use Jargon Wisely
One of the best rules I’ve heard when it comes to remaining relevant to your audience is this: Don’t use military language with civilians. What that means is that just because you understand your industry’s jargon, your reader might not. Don’t make too many assumptions. If you’re going to use a bit of industry jargon, be sure to sneak the definition of the term into the copy as well.
6. Avoid Using Clichés
Clichés are phrases or sayings that have been overused and, therefore, tend to trip many readers’ “off” switches. Wait, didn’t I use a cliché just then? Yes, I did. Maybe I should have said that they tend to send the message that what you have to say is not unique or that the reader has heard this before. No matter how relevant your message is, there is no easier way to steer attention away from it than to send the message that you don’t really have your own voice in the conversation.
7. Use Contractions and Colloquialisms
There are opinions on both sides of this argument. It’s true that contractions are more casual and subsequently have a less professional tone to them. The thing about contractions, though, is that we use them all the time in our conversations. If the point is to have a conversation with the reader, why wouldn’t we use them in our writing?
Granted, you want to maintain a certain posture with your tone so decide where to draw the line. Try not to be too stiff, but don’t overdo it with the contractions either. Find the right balance and maintain it.
As for colloquialisms, they have their place, too. Some companies find it useful to include a bit of slang every now and then. Simply put, sometimes it’s wretched, sometimes it’s ratchet; it all depends on the brand and the audience.
So what’s the final takeaway from all this? Companies are beginning to understand the need to have a consistent voice in their copy. If you need help finding yours, enlist the help of a good copywriting company, and be specific about what you want.
Over time, you might find your voice on your own, or you may decide you need to steer your message in a different direction based on the level of engagement your copy creates. Once you find it, though, stick with the tone of voice that seems right.