A brand is a personality. A personality speaks with a recognisable tone of voice. Ideally, a voice recognised everywhere no matter what media you choose.
"Recognisable" doesn't mean "identical". In this blog we'll explore why you should vary the way you construct your communications for each channel. People consume marketing messages with different expectations for different media. It'd be odd to see text-speech or emoticons in a sales letter, but they're mandatory on Twitter and Facebook. Here's a short checklist for keeping your tone and manner constant, even as the words you use change.
Keep the Tone of Voice guidelines ultra-simple.
Most marketing departments have a Style Guide. Too often, it's more stern commandments than key principles. To get everyone in the company singing from the same hymn sheet, write your Style Guide as a series of gentle nudges rather than a textbook.... and always remember the "Why". For example, many guides concentrate on grammar - some even include rules for including ™ , ⓒ, and Ⓡ symbols. (Whose place is a design cookbook, not a style guide.) Not everybody remembers narrow grammar rules; they're too didactic, sometimes too hard to apply evenly. Instead, set out (on one page!) the core principles you want every piece of communication to convey. 4-6 of them, max. (It's useless to write more; people won't engage.) Include with each a reason that makes your advice more than empty instructions.
"Our customers buy last minute and choose on price. So one word sums us up: brisk. Our communications are short, simple, to-the-point, with the shortest words in the dictionary and plenty of subheads and bullet lists. That's us: get straight down to it. There's a place for poetry, but that place ain't here."
Notice how that "ain't" in the last line adds to the mental image of a no-nonsense, get-the-job-done attitude? Unusual phrasing in your Tone of Voice guidelines can get everyone thinking about communications in ways you want. One vivid paragraph can replace ten pages of grammar guidelines.
Keep it person-to-person... by being a person.
An old copywriter's trick is to imagine your brand as a person. You can use it, too.
"We communicate with our audience as if they're part of our family. But we're not your favourite auntie who bakes pies. We're more that distant uncle who you like, but rarely see. We're courteous and quietly intelligent, a bit paternal but not quite your friend. A friend won't always tell it how it is... and we've thrived by being prepared to tell our customers what they don't want to hear."
Everyone's got a distant uncle they respect. Creating an image of your brand as a person gets people thinking themselves into the mind of that person every time they write, whether it's a LinkedIn status or a blog post. Again, it's about applying general principles that work across all channels.
Let the project owner own the project.
You may have one guy who tweets and another who updates LinkedIn. Most of the time, the person creating the "core" marketing communication (whether it's a White Paper, marketing email or 32-sheet poster) should write the accompanying messages too.
"We got tired of saying this 1,000 times a week. So we wrote it up as an article."
"These questions make us all crochety. How about you?"
"Here's our White Paper for grumpy old IT men."
These tweets have personality and get to the point. You can tell Company X doesn't use smileys. By all means, get the channel experts to edit for technical compliance. (Do any of the above go over 140 characters once the link's in?) If the core document sounds right, the author's tweets and statuses will too. Let that author whisper to his audience. After all, "authority" starts with "author". Best of all, this principle fosters interdepartmental co-operation.
Include everyone in your Style Guide.
Once your Tone of Voice is established, you may be using it for decades. However, unless everyone feels ownership, it won't bed in. So make sure you include every department - not just marketing - in its creation. Hold a workshop. Seek out views. Credit employees on the finished document. Make sure everyone knows they had a hand in it and they're more likely to use it.
Put it everywhere!
Lastly, how often should you insert your Style Guide or Tone of Voice document into a project brief? Every. Single. Time. Yes, this is where you yell. You need to staple that page to every written brief. Plaster it across every notice board. Include it in every project email. Without constant reinforcement, it'll just fade away. Used well, that one-page document is a key business asset - maintaining the right tone and manner across all channels, by not going overboard with anyone. That's true cross-channel marketing.
Remember:
A Style Guide should contain core principles, not pernickety grammar rules.
Tell everyone writing to imagine your brand as a person.
- Involve everyone in its creation, and include it with every project brief.
Discover how creating the right tone is essential to your customer's experience. Download: "Modern Marketing Essentials Guide to Cross-Channel Marketing".