What are the five steps to developing your tone of voice?

Recently on this blog I’ve introduced you to the idea of tone of voice and what should go into good tone of voice guidelines. Now I’m going to give you a quick tour through the steps I take when I work with brands to develop tone of voice.

1. Identify the goal

The first thing to get clear on is: what problem do you want to solve? Different brands come to tone of voice for many different reasons, and that’s not to say it can’t solve more than one problem. But a really good starting place is to understand the main problem you want to resolve or the main goal you’re working towards.

In my work, this usually begins to emerge in the initial discovery call with a new client. Though we’ll often finesse and nail it down in the early discovery phase.

It might be something like:

• We want more people to know about us

• We want to build trust

• Our current tone of voice doesn’t match the company we are today

• We’re pivoting our target audience

• Our tone of voice doesn’t align with our values

• Our writing is inconsistent across platforms

2. Do the research

The second part, my favourite part, is to do the research. I call this the discovery phase. This is all about making sure your tone of voice isn’t just empty words and phrases, but that there’s strategy and thought behind every decision.

The first thing to do is to audit your brand’s existing copy (if you have any). This will highlight areas of strength and weakness. Perhaps you write weak headlines. Or maybe you do great work on social media but fall down in your email marketing. It also highlights opportunities for improvement. So perhaps there’s a way to better serve your customers by switching to more simple language or shorter sentences. Maybe your subheadings are confusing or your calls to action are losing you sales.

We can also talk to your team of writers. Do they need a mini masterclass in em dashes or would they like guidance on how to write strong blog post openings? We can tailor the guide to your team’s specific needs.

As we explore, we may begin to uncover why your main goal has so far eluded you. And we’ll likely also develop subgoals that will support us in achieving that main goal. They might be things like wanting to better understand and explore your customers’ pain points in your copy. Or using more storytelling.

Following the tone of voice audit, there are three key areas I tackle to get clear on the direction your brand’s tone of voice should take. They are Team, Customers and Competitors.

First, I want to talk to the team. Company culture and company values can be hugely important in brand tone of voice. If your brand has a relaxed and informal culture, it’s unlikely you’re going to want a prim and professional brand voice. Speaking to your team about the company, your role, motivations, values and successes is a great way of understanding the culture you share and how this might impact tone of voice.

Next, I’ll want to talk to the most important people in the room, the customers. Your brand is not only a reflection of what goes on inside it. It also needs to reflect the needs and preferences of your customers. Through customer interviews, surveys or testimonial analysis, I’ll find out what your customers value about your brand, why they choose it over others, what impressions they already have and what they feel makes the brand unique.

And finally, the competitors. This is about casting our eyes beyond your brand to see what’s going on in the market and where we might find an untapped niche or a point of difference that can make your business stand out. Of course, it’s not always possible or indeed strategically sound to find a unique path with tone of voice. But it’s still useful to understand who else is out there and what they’re doing to make the most informed decisions.

3. Develop the guidelines

As we complete our research phase, I’ll be looking out for your three or four personality pillars. I’ll always have some pillars in mind as the discovery phase progresses. But I’ll also ask you and your team for your thoughts in a workshop.

So, let’s say we choose a combination like Creative, Upbeat and Refreshing, for example. They should reflect what we’ve learnt about ourselves, our customers and the competition.

Next, I’ll flesh out each personality pillar with practical writing tips for how to bring it to life. So, for Upbeat, I might recommend not to use negative words like problem and issue, instead replacing them with more optimistic alternatives like challenge and obstacle.

The idea is to create a guideline that anyone writing for the brand can pick up and quickly learn how to use the tone of voice.

Find out more about this in my blog post How to build a tone of voice.

4. Test and iterate

We test the new tone of voice on your customers to see how it’s resonating. We can do this in a focus group, interview or survey setting.

Once we’re happy, we’ll run it past the folks who will use the guide the most: your writers. We’ll give your new tone of voice to your team, set them a brief and review what comes back. This will help us make sure it meets their needs and that the results are on target.

5. Embed the tone of voice into the organisation

The last step is perhaps the most important. Because if your brand’s new tone of voice just gets chucked in a drawer and forgotten, the project was a waste of time.

Make sure that the guidelines stay visible and top of mind to achieve the consistency that’s so important to build trust and relatability. We can also train your team on everything from the importance of tone of voice to the specifics of your brand’s verbal identity to encourage accountability and buy-in.

You can find out more about this in my blog post How to embed your tone of voice.

If you’d like to chat more about writing for your business, I’d love to hear from you.