{"id":1000,"date":"2020-11-20T21:39:51","date_gmt":"2020-11-20T21:39:51","guid":{"rendered":"https:\/\/www.precisioncontent.com\/blog\/?p=1000"},"modified":"2020-12-03T21:42:40","modified_gmt":"2020-12-03T21:42:40","slug":"voice-and-tone-strategy","status":"publish","type":"post","link":"https:\/\/www.precisioncontent.com\/blog\/voice-and-tone-strategy\/","title":{"rendered":"How to Create a Voice and Tone Strategy That Wins with Customers"},"content":{"rendered":"

\"Social<\/a>Precision Content recently sponsored a webinar featuring\u00a0John Caldwell<\/a>, a well-known brand voice strategy evangelist and the author of\u00a0\u201cVoice and Tone Strategy: Connecting with People Through Content\u201d<\/a>\u00a0(2020 XML Press). During the 60-minute presentation, Caldwell explores the importance of developing a voice and tone strategy, lays out a set of basic building blocks we can use to build a strategy, and provides suggestions for rolling it out. He basis his advice on years of experience helping global brands like Airbnb<\/a>, Intuit<\/a>, and Capital One<\/a> develop successful voice and tone strategies.<\/p>\n

If you were unable to attend the live event, this article summarizes what you missed. Use this\u00a0link<\/a>\u00a0to watch a recording of the presentation when it fits your schedule.<\/p>\n

Why do we need a strategy for voice and tone?<\/h3>\n

Harnessing customer emotion and desire is central to a successful content strategy. Getting voice and tone right allows us to connect with customers, gain their loyalty, and fend off competitors.<\/p>\n

While getting transactional relationships right \u2014 like helping consumers find answers to their questions \u2014\u00a0is a worthwhile and valuable pursuit, it\u2019s not game-changing. To build content experiences that result in meaningful relationships, we must communicate strategically.<\/p>\n

Voice and tone strategy guides how writers connect with consumers through the written word and other forms of communication, establishing a consistent voice that aims to create meaningful connections. A solid voice and tone strategy can ensure those we engage keep coming back \u2014 and that they\u2019ll speak positively about our products and services to others.<\/p>\n

What is voice and tone?<\/h3>\n

Voice conveys our personality \u2014 our distinctive character. Tone brings out our attitude and articulates emotion. Crafting a voice and tone strategy involves expressing our brand character, flexing our voice and tone to meet the needs of those we aim to serve.<\/p>\n

\u201cCharacter is how you define your brand,\u201d Caldwell says. \u201cIt\u2019s built on core values and beliefs. Your voice is how we bring that character to life and how we talk to our customers.\u201d<\/p>\n

Voice and tone help us create relationships with customers and guide how we present ourselves to others. In the end, it\u2019s how we want others to perceive us.<\/p>\n

The role of storytelling<\/h3>\n

The best and most successful speakers, leaders, teachers, coaches, and writers are masterful storytellers. And so are the best information developers and content designers. Whether we realize it or not, when we communicate with prospects and customers, we are storytelling.<\/p>\n

Chemistry, empathy, character and voice, meaningful relationships; they all come from stories. Recognizing why voice and tone works\u2014how it resonates with people\u2014comes from an artful appreciation of storytelling rules and techniques. Caldwell introduces several examples to get us thinking in the right direction.<\/p>\n

\u201cStorytelling is important for the work we do because it has the power to make sense of complex things. Stories can be about anything \u2014 romance, adventure, conquest \u2014 but they all boil down to relationships between two people that are often the same as the ratio between our customers and us,\u201d Caldwell says.<\/p>\n

People in relationships desire more than transactional things. Caldwell explores the power of using storytelling to bring brand characters to life. He spends time connecting stories to a set of foundational building blocks we can use to craft a voice and tone strategy.<\/p>\n

Related:<\/strong>\u00a0What Storytelling Means To Voice and Tone Strategy<\/a><\/p>\n

A voice and tone development framework<\/h3>\n

Caldwell shares his voice and tone framework that he says is \u201csimple enough for everyone to understand.\u201d The framework includes four building blocks:<\/p>\n

    \n
  1. understanding deeply our customer needs and desires<\/strong> \u2014intangible things that don\u2019t necessarily have to be met for success, but if we deliver on them, we\u2019ll create deeper levels of engagement, trust, and loyalty<\/li>\n
  2. defining the attributes of our character\u2019s voice<\/strong> \u2014 how we sound when we are talking to prospects and customers<\/li>\n
  3. establishing guiding principles <\/strong>\u2014 how we speak to prospects and customers (will we be forward-sounding, aspirational, and conversational?)<\/li>\n
  4. developing powerful examples<\/strong> \u2014 a set of exemplars that make clear how we want content creators to apply our attributes and guiding principles to their work<\/li>\n<\/ol>\n

    While Caldwell only talks briefly about each building block, he says we can find additional context in his book<\/a>.<\/p>\n

    Flexing your voice and tone<\/h3>\n

    Life is built of moments. Some moments bring us happiness, celebration, and overwhelming joy. Still, others create sadness or cause confusion, frustration, fear, and anger. While establishing a consistent voice is beneficial, it\u2019s important to deviate from brand voice and flex our tone \u2014 adjusting it upon occasion, especially when things get emotional.<\/p>\n

    Flexing our tone allows us to sound differently when we communicate to consumers at various stages during the customer journey. \u201cWe need to flex our tone to meet the customers when they are. We need to sound differently when sharing moments of congratulations and jubilance versus sharing disappointing news, or presenting customers with error messages.<\/p>\n

    Caldwell says that being capable of flexing your voice evolves having a deep understanding of your customer and their experience with your brand. \u201cThat involves figuring out what our customers are attempting to do, what result they desire during that specific step in their individual journey with us.<\/p>\n

    A few words about style and structure<\/h3>\n

    During the presentation, Caldwell points out the importance of style and structure but advises us to \u201cfigure out how we\u2019re going to sound before we attempt to figure out how we\u2019re going to present our information.\u201d<\/p>\n

    \u201cStyle is about the delivery of content. It\u2019s concerned with the rules we\u2019re going to follow in order to deliver our content experience consistently. Voice and tone principles should drive decisions around style and structure choices,\u201d Caldwell says.<\/p>\n

    Style police may cringe at Caldwell\u2019s advice about style rules: It\u2019s okay to change or adjust or even move away from ingrained style rules \u201cas long as we\u2019re always keeping the customer\u2019s needs and desires in mind. Style, like everything else, should evolve. Just as our customers change, we should too.\u201d<\/p>\n

    Watch the presentation recording<\/h3>\n

    Use this link<\/a>\u00a0to watch a recording of the presentation when it fits your schedule.<\/p>\n