What is ‘tone of voice’ and why does it matter, anyway?

In a nutshell, it’s the way that a brand writes and talks. Simple, right? But how does a brand ‘write and talk’?

Think of your friends, family, colleagues and acquaintances. Do they all have the same tone in their speech? Spoiler alert: it’s unlikely.

Perhaps your best friend speaks at pace, in long sentences, peppered with ‘grown-up’ words and isn’t afraid to interrupt and talk over others. On the other hand, your 5-year-old nephew’s vocabulary is slower, meandering and riddled with questions. Yet, one of your colleagues is softly spoken, considered and always greets with ‘hey’ (never ‘hello’ or ‘hi’).

Each one has their own distinct tone of voice. If their speech was transcribed, I bet you could guess who’s who, correctly.

Just like humans, every brand is different and distinct. Tone of voice is a key element of a brand’s unique identity alongside its logo, colour and photography palette, font/s, graphic devices, and sound & motion assets.

• For start-ups, it will help build your brand.

• Big or small, new or well-established, it will lend distinctiveness to your brand’s written, verbal and visual communications.

• When things go wrong e.g. you’ve let a customer or client down, it will guide your communications and set the right tone for the situation. And you’ll be speaking to them in the same old, reassuring tone that they’re used to.

• It will help lay the foundations for easier internal communication.

• Any internal writers or external copywriters writing for the brand will instantly know how to create external communications that are on-brand, bringing consistency.

So where do you start? How do you go about finding your brand’s (tone of) voice? Below, I’ve set out a few things to consider and reflect upon, before creating your tone of voice. The worst thing you can do is to create a tone of voice out of thin air which doesn’t reflect what your brand stands for, or is seeking to achieve, and which doesn’t connect with your target audience.

1. Start with your brand values. If you don’t have any, define them: what does your brand stand for? And if you don’t know what brand values are, Google the term.

2. Who is your target audience? Who are you speaking to?

3. Consider how you’d describe your brand culture or how you’re aiming for it to be. For example, is your brand laid back and informal, or conservative and formal?

4. Review your current communications. Look at the nice ones (e.g. a welcome email to a new customer) and the not-so-nice (e.g. a final reminder of payment). What do you like about them? What do you dislike? How do they reflect – or not reflect – points 1 and 2, above.

5. Ask some customers / clients how you come across to them. Is it how you want to come across? Does it reflect your brand values and culture?

6. Read and listen to other brands. How do they come across and how have they achieved it? Are they distinct and consistent across communication channels? How could they improve their tone of voice or make it more consistent? Do they have a distinct tone of voice but one which is mismatched to what they are, what they do and what they stand for?

There are different ways to define and develop a brand’s tone of voice, used by different tone of voice experts and copywriters. Tone of voice guidelines can be very short, or very long, depending on the appetite within the business, budget, business complexity etc. But either way, ensure at the very least, you have:

• A set of overarching tone of voice principles.

• ‘Dos’ and ‘don’ts’.

• ‘Before’ and ‘after’ examples.

• A brand glossary.

Previously a journalist of 6 years at a national magazine, Rich Ford is now Strategy Director and Head of Copy at creative studio, SHERLOCK. He supports large, established brands and start-ups on tone of voice, creative copywriting, editorial direction and content.

Find out more about Sherlock Studio on their website here.

If you want to contribute to the Chamber blog, contact us on hannah@brightonchamber.co.uk