Tone of voice
{Figuring out who you are and how you sound}
You know how colours and images create a personality for your brand?
Well, the words you use do the same. We call it ‘tone of voice’.
Used without purpose, your tone of voice has the power to dull your shine, leaving you camouflaged in a jungle of competing businesses. Your messaging misses it fundamental aim, to speak to your customers and sell your product or service.
Used without consistency, your tone of voice can make your brand forgettable, confusing and even untrustworthy. Customers meet a different persona from platform to platform. You’re wearing a baseball cap on Instagram and a top hat over email.
Their experience of your brand becomes disjointed, they have no idea who you are or what you’re about.
i can help.
As a company of one, the challenge is injecting your copy with the sparkle you bring to in-person interactions. If folk seem surprised by how friendly or funny you are IRL, it might be that your copy needs a personality lift.
Teams, meanwhile, face the challenge of producing consistent, on brand copy no matter who writes it. Usually, this looks like endless rounds of edits and rewrites, demotivated writers and wasted time.
“It’s okay, Jenny’s got our brand voice down pat.”
But what happens when Jenny leaves? You need a way to sprinkle that Jenny magic on everything you produce.
What I’ll do for you
I’ll help you figure out who your brand is and how we can best represent that in the way it feels and sounds.
Then, I’ll create guidelines to make sure everyone who writes for your business can bring that personality to life.
[Happy clients]
“She worked her magic”
When we reached out to Sally, we were struggling to define our tone of voice due to our wide customer demographic and the evolving nature of our business. She worked her magic to produce an all-encompassing TOV guidelines for us, defining how we speak in every scenario, from customer care to sales. Sally understood our company values, future vision and how we wanted to present our personality as a company – all really important elements when it comes to making sure we’re heard by our customers!
- Laura Jones - Anwyl Homes
A brand voice for who you are and who you will be
Strategic
A good tone of voice factors in your story so far, your offer, your customers, your market and your goals. We’ll go deep on the big questions to unearth what makes your brand who it is and how we can translate that into words that will solidify your values, strengthen your brand, push you towards your goals and perpetuate your company culture.
Methodical
How do we arrive at the insights we need? I have a proven method to get us from start to finish and deliver a tone of voice strategy that feels right. I’ve used it to unlock verbal identity for brands including skin, hair and personal care companies, fashion and jewellery brands, tech companies, women’s organisations and manufacturing companies.
Standout
When a brand does tone of voice well, you know it’s them just by the way they sound. You feel as though that brand just gets it. Gets you, gets your problems, gets what matters to you. (To see what I mean, check out a couple of my current favourites: Tony’s Chocolonely and This Girl Can. You can also check out this blog post I wrote about discovering your brand tone of voice.) We’ll develop a tone of voice that makes you recognisable and memorable.
Customer considerate
I delight in the gaps between you and the next brand on the spectrum. I revel in the quirks that make your company special. And I care about your customers and why they might prefer this word over that. You see, good verbal identity joins the dots between your business, your mission, your values and your customers. It’s the final piece in the puzzle that brings the whole picture to life.
Built to last
Your project culminates in a set of tone of voice guidelines. This easy-to-follow manual means whoever writes for your business can communicate your brand personality with consistency and clarity, long after our collaboration ends. We’re talking strong verbal identity and cohesive customer experience without the delegation anxiety, employee churn and countless rounds of edits and rewrites.
Projects they loved
How does it work?
I love a logical and organised process.
Our journey to pinpoint your verbal identity will follow a tried and tested process with four key steps. Here's how it works.
1) Discover
I’ll begin by analysing your brand. I can check out your competitors, chat to your customers (or get data from your reviews), and talk to your team to strengthen your new brand voice guidelines.
Next, we’ll get together for a creative workshop. I’ll guide you as we discuss your business goals, your current copy (if you have any), your target audience, your competitors, and what makes your brand unique.
2) Explore
I’ll present my recommended personality pillars and show you what I mean with a real life piece of copy. You’ll have the chance to dial up and down the traits until we hit on the perfect balance.
3) define
Based on your feedback, I’ll refine the copy and begin working on brand voice guidelines. My goal will be to explain your brand voice and how to use it so that anyone who picks up the guide can write for your brand with a fast and pain-free learning curve.
4) complete
You’ll have the chance to check the guidelines and talk to me about any parts that need further clarification. From there, we’ll arrive at a finished set of tone of voice guidelines for you to keep and use whenever you produce content for your business.
Pick your package
Pick the tone of voice package that suits your needs. Or mix and match elements to build your own.
Core
For companies of one, microbusinesses and startups
Mini content audit, competitor summary and customer voice summary
1.5-hour brand discovery workshop
Three to four personality principles
Two page tone of voice summary plus one before/after copy example
Style guide outlining your writing rules
More
For growing businesses with more than one writer
Full content audit, combing your existing content for lessons learnt
Audit of your two closest competitors
Customer voice survey and summary of findings
Two hour brand discovery workshop
Three to four personality principles
10 page tone of voice document including two before/after copy examples
Style guide outlining your writing rules
Two consultation calls
Roar
For bigger businesses with a team of writers
Full content audit, combing your existing content for lessons learnt
Audit of your four closest competitors
Customer interviews and summary of findings
Two 1.5-hour brand discovery workshops
Three to four personality principles
20 page tone of voice document including three before/after copy examples
Style guide outlining your writing rules
Four consultation calls
The average tone of voice project lasts between three and five weeks. Rates vary depending on the project, starting from £3,500.
Need someone to chat about tone of voice at your event, podcast or conference?
Ready to get to know your brand inside out?
[Happy clients]
“Sally is a brilliant brand language consultant”
It's been brilliant working with Sally over the last couple of months on a large-scale tone of voice project for one of our clients in the tech sector. Sally is a brilliant brand language consultant and strategist, and stakeholders have been really pleased with the outputs at every stage of the project. Sally has also led training sessions for the roll-out of the TOV, helping stakeholders understand the importance of language to brand and build their confidence in writing and communicating for business. Sally is responsive and reliable, her approach and project management is thorough and organised, and I'm very much looking forward to working with her on another project soon.
- Georgia Corp - Account Director At Stratton Craig
