The importance of tone of voice in marketing
Catherine Bowden - 29 October 2019
Every business should have a brand identity which should be communicated to customers through their marketing. Tone of voice is an important aspect of this brand identity.
What is tone of voice?
A tone of voice isn’t about what you say, it’s about how you say it. It’s the collective way your business communicates with its target audience, in relation to the writing style used and the expression of values.
Consistency
When establishing your businesses’ tone of voice, it’s important to remember that consistency is key. Your tone must be kept consistent to avoid your content from appearing jumbled and unreliable.
Therefore, it’s crucial to ensure your colleagues and marketing team are made aware of your tone of voice and are familiar with branding that’s strictly in tune with your businesses’ tone. A fantastic way to do this is by creating a style guide which sets the standards of the tone your content needs to be written in, and what language is and isn’t appropriate to use.
This document should be circled around all internal staff members plus external staff too, including your copywriters. This is a great tool for ensuring that new staff members quickly adopt your tone of voice too.
Refreshing and revisiting tone of voice
Every couple of months, it’s a good idea to have a reread of your tone of voice style guide to refresh your mind and make sure you’re still adopting the same style of writing.
As your business changes and grows over time, you should revisit your style guide and update it as appropriate in accordance with any evolution in your brand messaging and values.
Why is tone of voice so important?
It defines your business
Everything from the words you use on your website to how you present yourself on social media, define how people perceive your business.
Your tone of voice is just as important as your chosen logo in defining your business. It can be used to demonstrate the kind of business you are and your key attributes in terms of warmth, expertise, professionalism, formalities and much more. Your tone also portrays the people that make up the brand.
It builds trust
Establishing and maintaining your tone of voice is a critical part of building trust in your target audience. Having a consistent tone helps your customers to determine your brand’s personality and increases their familiarity with your brand. In turn, this can build a sense of trust.
It makes you unique
Your tone of voice should be distinctive and set you apart from your competitors. It should help to define you as a brand and your personality should shine through, making your target audience want to find out more.
It can be utilised to influence your target audience
Your tone of voice can also be used to influence decisions and persuade your target audience. The way that you say something can stimulate certain emotions within a customer, making your brand and message more memorable. Therefore, it is crucial that your tone of voice portrays a sense of likeability.
Our friendly team at Wagada are happy to help you define your tone of voice in a way that accurately presents your brand. Get in touch today and we can answer your questions surrounding tone of voice, as well as digital marketing in general.
