Having a unique brand voice helps your company stand out from the competition and connect with your audience. But when many people write for you, keeping that voice consistent across all content can be tough.
In this article, I'll share tips to set up clear tone-of-voice guidelines, teach your team to follow them, and check how well you're doing.
The reward? Customers will easily recognize your company and feel more connected to it.
1. Find your brand voice
Before diving into tools and training, let's understand what your tone of voice is.
- Start by figuring out what makes your voice different. Think of words that describe your brand's personality; also, consider how you want people to see you. Do you want to come across as authoritative, casual, optimistic, analytical? Create a list of adjectives that encapsulate the emotions and traits you want to convey.
- Review your current content. Look for common styles, tones, and word choices. Are there phrases that really sound like your brand? For instance, Microsoft describes its voice as "crisp and clear," "ready to lend a hand," and "warm and relaxed."
Highlight sections of your content that exemplify your ideal tone.
- Make a list of your voice's key parts. A list will help writers know what to aim for and allow you to give feedback on how well content matches your brand voice.
Include typical sentence structure, active versus passive voice, use of idioms or cultural references, and emotional sentiment.
2. Give writers the tools they need
Writing in a brand voice is easier if you have the right tools. So set up your writers for success.
- Equip members of your team with the resources they need to write in your company's tone of voice. Make a detailed copy style guide that includes any special words you use, ways to format copy, and basic writing rules. Provide concrete examples of how to apply your voice in different contexts, such as social media, long-form articles, and video scripts.
- Share good and not-so-good writing examples. Point out why those samples hit the mark or miss it, based on your voice list. Display standout content in a shared space so writers can easily reference them. Annotate examples to illustrate exactly how they embody your ideal tone of voice.
- Create templates, editorial calendars, and lists of words that fit your voice. For example, include go-to verbs and adjectives to bring your tone to life. Ensure these tools are easy to find and use. You could set up a central repository, such as a shared drive, where writers can access the resources anytime.
3. Offer training and ensure collaboration
Having the right tools is one thing, using them effectively is another. Training and collaboration will ensure your team members are on the same page.
- Host workshops to talk about your voice and the tools you've made. Let writers ask questions so they understand the why behind the voice, not just the how. A consistent tone of voice starts with buy-in from your content creators. Consider breaking into small groups to analyze the tone of voice of example copy.
- Give feedback that helps writers get their tone of voice right. Instead of setting strict rules up front, let them play around with the voice. Celebrate when they get it spot on. When they miss, work together to get the tone right. Feedback should educate and empower, not criticize.
- Have team members review each other's work. They can point out how well the content matches the company's tone of voice. Celebrate great examples and learn from the not-so-great ones. Keep track of when and how your guidelines meaningfully guide decisions. Peer reviews will promote collaboration and reinforce your tone of voice standards.
- Host regular refreshers on your voice guidelines. Check in with your team every now and again to answer questions and share new examples. Keeping your tone of voice top of mind will help consistency become second nature. You might try gamifying the training with contests—to match copy examples to your tone of voice, for example.
4. Measure brand voice consistency
How do we know if we're on track? Regular check-ins help keep our brand voice consistent.
- Every so often, look at your content to see how well it's keeping to your company's tone of voice. You might check tone, terminology, and sentence length, for example. Get input from across your team to identify areas for improvement and track how adherence changes over time.
- Ask readers whether your content sounds consistent. External feedback via surveys and interviews can illuminate issues you might not have noticed. You could benchmark the quality of your content using studies that evaluate perceived brand attributes before and after adopting voice guidelines.
- Look at data on reader engagement. Analytics can suggest whether your tone of voice is clicking with your audience. But don't rely only on numbers. Keeping a voice consistent is about teamwork, not just checking boxes.
- Consider using AI tools to analyze your writing. New machine-learning models like ChatGPT can evaluate various dimensions, such as sentiment and complexity, to quantify how your content meets your guidelines. The results can be inconsistent, however, so always validate it with a human perspective.
- Revisit and refine your tone of voice as needed. Your guidelines aren't set in stone. As your brand evolves, your tone and language should, as well. Collect team feedback to determine when and how to update your voice—perhaps once a year.
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With those four steps, you can ensure your content speaks in one clear voice—and your audience will feel more connected with you because they'll always know it's you they're hearing.
More Resources on Brand Voice
Win at B2B Content by Finding Your Brand Voice: Ahava Leibtag on Marketing Smarts [Podcast]
Six Ways to Maintain Your Brand's Voice While Using Freelancers
