How to sound like you when someone else is writing for you
We each have a tone of voice, whether it’s intentional or not. The words you use, the way you use them, the sentence structures and phrases you fall back on all create a unique fingerprint of how you write.
Writing for one
For companies of one, you write for your business every day. So your tone of voice becomes your brand’s by default. But what happens when you call in help. When you delegate your social posts, your website copy, your client emails or your newsletter to someone else. How do you explain what makes you you so that your clients can’t tell you aren’t at the steering wheel any more?
For scaling brands
For bigger businesses, maybe you’re the person who’s always done all the writing, so somehow your tone has become the company tone. But now it’s time to delegate and get some of that writing off your plate. Trouble is you need to make sure the handover is seamless and your customers don’t suspect a change. After all, they’ve built that relationship with you, you don’t want to do anything to undo all your hard work.
This is where companies of all sizes find a set of tone of voice guidelines helpful. They mean that anyone, anywhere, can pick up the way your brand sounds and replicate it. I’ve got lots of stuff on writing tone of voice guides:
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BUT, if you’ve got something that needs writing NOW and you don’t have the time, money or energy to get into a whole tone of voice project (though it’s definitely worth it long term), here’s how to brief your new writer so that they can nail your voice ASAP:
Context
Give your writer a rundown of your target audience, your goals, your current challenges and any other context that feels relevant.
Potted personality
Send your writer any podcasts, videos or other recordings of you speaking. They will be able to study how you express yourself and bring that to life in your copy. You could even voice note the piece and let them turn your thoughts into polished writing.
Greatest hits
Send your writer your three favourite bits of your own writing. Tell them why you love them and why they feel most on brand for your business.
Personality pillars
If you could describe your voice in just three or four words, what would they be? (Mine are ‘real’, ‘creative’ and ‘bright’). Share your personality pillars with your writer so they know where to pitch your copy and why you write the way you do.
Personality pariahs
Just as useful are words that describe what you’re not. For example, I’m never too positive, too casual, too poetic or too sweet.
Word preferences
Share a list of words you love related to your work and words you don’t. Sometimes we just have a certain affinity to certain words while others make us shudder. Don’t ever, for example, call me a wordsmith. Hate it.
Inspiration
Send your writer examples of other writing that you love and why you love it. It might be that your current writing isn’t quite hitting the spot, so this is a great way to steer your writer in the right direction.
Nuts and bolts
Think about grammar: do you love the Oxford comma? Are you a fan of an em dash? Let your writer know.
Even the best writers will need a few tries working together to get ‘you’ bang on. But that’s all part of the process. Every correction, every edit is another clue, another tip to bring their writing closer to yours.
If you’d like to chat more about writing for your business, I’d love to hear from you.