Tone of voice: Your secret weapon
Brand loyalty is a lovely thing. When you enjoy brand loyalty, you don’t just attract customers – you keep them for the long haul. But how do you achieve it?
Aside from all the classics (deliver great service, offer five-star products, and don’t become embroiled in any national media scandals), there’s something that many businesses forget – and it’s perhaps the most important of all: tone of voice.
Developing a strong and consistent tone of voice helps you to connect with your clients. It makes your business more memorable, more recognisable and more relatable to the right audiences.
Here’s why.
(And for added *fun*, you can play my tone-of-voice game right underneath this article… just to prove how important it is.)
Put your stamp on things
Tone of voice gives your business a personality. It doesn’t have to be big and bold and colourful. It can be steady, authoritative and trusted; or helpful, knowledgeable and fair. Whatever represents your values and culture will make your tone of voice sing.
Once your business’ personality is established, you’re suddenly a whole lot more recognisable. And being recognisable means you’re also more memorable.
Think of it like this. If you walked into a room of five people and spoke to two of them, you’d be far more likely to remember the two you spoke with. The three other people were there, you could see them, you could work out a little something of what they were about… but you didn’t get to know them in any way – you didn’t get a feel for their personalities.
Even if the two people you did speak to were too serious for your liking, or too casual, you’d still remember them more than those you only nodded to on the way past. Which brings us onto the next point.
Find your people
Honing your business’ tone of voice tells customers who you are. Let’s go back to that room of five people. This time, the first person you speak to isn’t too serious. They talk a bit like you, they make you feel relaxed, and they generally give off a friendly vibe that leaves you keen to carry on the conversation.
In this scenario, that person has connected with you because they have a personality you like. And it’s the same with businesses. Establishing a consistent tone of voice helps clients decide whether they’re going to choose your products and services over someone else’s.
Don’t forget, appealing to the right target audience is important for you as well.
Imagine you’re a personal trainer whose website is all kindness and encouragement, but when your client rocks up, they’re met by the real no-nonsense, tough-love, no-pain-no-gain you. They’d probably leave in tears – which doesn’t look great.
On the other hand, establishing a tone of voice that truthfully reflects your business’ values and culture means you’re far more likely to find customers who are a good fit for your services – and will therefore come back time and again.
The power of knowing where you stand
It’s not enough to establish a personality that attracts the right clients. The real thing is sticking with it.
As humans, we quite like to know what to expect – and when we’re right, we get a little buzz of satisfaction. On the flip side, metaphorical U-turns are jarring. Maintaining a consistent tone of voice shows customers that you are who you say you are. That your business is authentic, and that clients can count on you to do the things you say you will.
If I suddenly continued this blog in the style of Jane Austen’s Pride and Prejudice for no apparent reason, everyone would be very confused (especially me). You might think I’d lost the plot, and you definitely wouldn’t think I was being very professional. I doubt you’d call on me to write your next website or printed brochure.
The problem wouldn’t be the tone of voice itself. Adopting a Pride and Prejudice style of writing would be a fun and memorable thing to do if I tailor-made Regency re-enactment clothing, for example.
The problem is that it wouldn’t be inline with my usual tone of voice – and it’s going to be a lot easier to maintain a tone of voice if you have a clear one in the first place.
Nailing tone of voice happens to be what professional copy and content writers do best. Personally, it’s a part of the job that I love – like putting on a different hat and taking on a new persona for the day.
A good freelance writer will work with you to make sure they’re getting your tone of voice spot on, and then carry that through to everything they write for you, so you don’t have to worry about slipping up.
If that sounds like someone you’d like to work with, come say hello over on my contact page.
Now, I promised a *fun* game and I won’t let you down.
Just to prove how important tone of voice is – how wildly different a similar idea can sound across five separate brand styles – I’ve taken the first two lines of Shakespeare’s Sonnet 18 and written them in the tone of voice of five organisations.
These are (in no particular order): Visit Scotland (a), Nike (b), McDonald’s (c), Oatly (d) and Greenpeace (e).
Your challenge, should you choose to accept it, is to work out which organisation goes with which tone of voice (feel free to Google each one to get more of a flavour of their branding if you don’t know them very well).
Good luck! Answers are at the very bottom…
Sonnet 18:
‘Shall I compare thee to a summer’s day?
Thou art more lovely and more temperate’
#1. Hey you. Yes you – reading this article. You’re like summer. But better. And we’ll tell you why, (since you asked so nicely). You know how summer has hot days? Fry-an-egg-on-a-stone-type days? Well, that’s not you. You’re more of a warm-breeze-salty-air-fish-and-chips-and-mushy-peas-type day. Not to say you’re covered in grease and wrapped up in newspaper or anything.
#2. Hot summer’s day, barbecue’s sizzlin’. Gran’s cooking up a storm in the kitchen. Ice creams are melting, the weather’s sweltering. But you…? You’re cooler than cucumbers.
Summer – but better.
#3. We’ve compared you to a summer’s day. What we’ve seen is cooler, softer and more lovely – but we need you at the centre of it.
#4. Summer’s good. You’re better.
#5. Should we compare you to a summer’s day? To heat-cracked stones and blazing skies? To dramatic showers and sudden storms? To us, there’s no comparison. From your steady gaze to your gentle words, there’s far more to appreciate in a summer like you.
Answers: 1 (d); 2 (c); 3 (e); 4 (b); 5 (a)
Here are the brand notes I jotted down for each organisation:
Oatly: Conversational, humorous, attention-grabbing, no-nonsense
McDonald’s: Nostalgic, light-hearted, current, a bit cheesy
Greenpeace: Firm, imploring, hopeful, clear
Nike: Inspiring, confident, to-the-point
Visit Scotland: Atmospheric, friendly, warm, inspiring
