What is ‘tone of voice’ and why does it matter?

When you work with a content writer, they may ask you about the tone of voice to use. You probably know about tone of voice when it comes to speaking, but how can the written word have a tone of voice and how do you describe it?

In writing, we use this expression tone of voice (TOV) to capture the way you express yourself in written words. It includes the types of vocabulary you use and the writing style. It forms a part of your brand, and it should be consistent in all your writing

Tone of voice for a company of one

If you’re a soul trader or a director-only company, then the TOV you should use is generally your own personal tone of voice: How you speak in conversations, how you describe what you do, and your values and beliefs should be the language and style you use in writing?

You also need to consider the language and style that your audience are looking for. If, for example, your natural mode of speech includes lots of swearing, you might not necessarily want to include that as part of your tone of voice.

You will also want to make sure that the key messages for your business are also conveyed in any written content, and this also forms part of your tone of voice. For example, suppose you want people to feel that you are a safe pair of hands for them. Then the tone that you use in your writing, the sort of language and the style you use, needs to have a reassuring feel to better convey that idea.

Tone of voice for larger organisations

In larger companies, the same principles apply for tone of voice, except that the written tone of voice may not reflect the speaking TOV for particular individuals. Everyone within a company will have their own personal style.

The larger the organisation, the more important it is to have a defined tone of voice for writing. As a brand becomes more recognised, and as a company grows, having your tone of voice defined so that communications from the company are consistent is really important.

It’s also important that everybody in the company understands that tone of voice and adheres to it so that, regardless of who communicates – from an email sent out to customers, to everything on the website, to any other form of communication – there is a consistent style coming from the organisation.

In large organisations, you often find that there is a complete writing style guide. This includes tone of voice, but it also goes into a lot more detail about grammar conventions, how you layout documents, and a lot more details as well. If you’d like to take a sneak peek at the Creative Words style guide, drop us a line. I will be happy to share it with you. It goes into a lot of detail!

How do you define your tone of voice?

Whatever size your business is, take the time to write down your TOV. It doesn’t necessarily need to be very long to begin with. What it does need to do, is capture what is important for you as a company, for your brand, and for the values that you want to demonstrate.

Start by thinking about your audience. How do they want to be addressed? For example, if you write for teenagers, the style you need to adopt is massively different to the one you would use if you’re addressing a government department as your main client.

Then look at your company branding, particularly your vision, your mission, and your values. How have those been written? What sort of language do they use? How do they come across to people? What’s important?

The combination of these two gives you your style of writing, the cornerstone of tone of voice.

Now think about vocabulary. How do you describe what you do? For example, are you a ‘therapist’ or a ‘healer’? Do you ‘work with’ clients, or do you ‘partner’ with them? Make sure you define the language that you use when you talk about your business.

Are there any words that you use consistently and regularly? Are there any abbreviations or acronyms that you use? Are there particular grammar conventions you prefer (such as: you hate the Oxford Comma and never use it). Equally, are there any words or phrases you would never use to describe yourself, your business or what you do? And is there anything else that would make it easier for someone who doesn’t know you to write like you (perhaps you use US spelling rather than UK, or you use simple straightforward language)?

Maintain your TOV documents

Once you know the general shape of your tone of voice, make sure you write it down. It doesn’t need to be very complicated or have a particular format but keeping a record and checking it regularly to make sure that it’s consistent with how your business is evolving, is really worth doing.

With a defined TOV, when you look at documents coming from other members of your team (or when working with a writing team like us), you might spot certain conventions they use that don’t work for your company TOV. Or expressions you really like.

When you notice these, make sure you capture them in your TOV document so there’s a record that, for example, you don’t capitalise the first letter of a bulleted list?

TOV, whether you’re a small company or a large one, is a living thing. Language evolves the whole time. So will the services and the clients and the customers you have. And the tone of voice you use will need to adapt to fit to those. So, even if you already have your tone of voice defined, perhaps now is the time to give it a bit of a brush up and check that it’s still consistent for 2024.

If you’re interested in how Creative Words can write for you, and remain consistent to your tone of voice, get in touch, and arrange a time to speak. We’ll be happy to explain how it works.