A 5-step method for adopting the right tone of voice

Hello writer friend,

Sometimes we writers focus so much on what we’re saying that we don’t stop to consider how we’re saying it. 

Tone of voice concerns the rhythm, pace and style of your writing. It’s about the emotions and attitudes that your words evoke. It’s the way you communicate your values – and what makes you recognisable and trustworthy.

As an online writer, marketer or content creator you may need to: 

• Switch between different clients (with wildly different audiences)

• Write for different channels for the same / similar audiences

• Write for different purposes, e.g. to inform, persuade or entertain

• Create different emotions with different pieces of content 

Yikes. 

How are you supposed to adapt to each or any of these scenarios so your copy is always engaging and effective? 

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Right, let’s get to it. Ask yourself these questions:

1. Who are you, and who are you writing for? 

Determining your target audience is crucial. Who are you trying to reach? What are their demographics, behaviours, values and preferences? What are their needs, interests and challenges? Knowing this is copywriting 101.

You also need to know who you are. Tone of voice isn’t just plucked out of nowhere – it’s based on your values and goals as a brand. 

Below is an example from Slack. These folk know who they are and who their audience is. They describe the Slack voice like this: “It sounds like your friendly, intelligent coworker: clear, concise and human.”

2. What are you writing about? 

Seems obvious, but you need to stop and think about each piece of content before you put it out there.

Consider the topic, theme and angle. What’s the main point of your content? What’s its message, story and proposed solution?

Take the UK mental health charity, Mind. They used to use quite a clinical tone, but in recent years they’ve adopted a more personable, relatable tone. By going back and thinking about what they do and how they help, they now come across as more accessible and approachable:

3. Where will this be published? 

The platform / channel you’re publishing on will influence your tone of voice. Think about how people come across on LinkedIn compared to Facebook. You’ll need to consider the conventions, limitations and best practices of the channel you’re writing for.

This doesn’t mean that your tone of voice becomes inconsistent from platform to platform – it just means you tweak it to suit each particular channel.

Here’s what I mean. Royal National Institute of Blind People (RNIB) is a UK sight loss charity. Its Twitter game recently has been on point. They’ve been calling out big names for not using alt-tags in images so that people with sight loss can know what the image is with screen readers:

Compare this to when they talk about web accessibility on their website. It’s the same organisation making a very similar point, but the tone has been adjusted for the medium:

4. Why are you writing? 

What’s your purpose, goal or objective and how does that feed into your content? Thinking about this will help you determine things like how much or how little you use emotional language, whether your tone needs to be more educational, and / or whether you should create a sense of urgency.

In their own words, Harvard Business Review’s mission is “to improve the practice of management in a changing world.” If the brand you’re writing for is striving to be a market leader – or the piece of content you’re writing needs to establish you as a thought leader – adopt an authoritative and informative tone like hbr.org:

5. How are you writing? 

All of the questions that precede this one should influence how you write – your tone and style, the language you use, the length of your sentences. 

I can’t tell you exactly which words to put on the page for each scenario you come across, but these tone of voice pointers will help determine the direction you go in:

• Use a personable, empathetic tone to show you care and understand your audience

• Use a conversational tone to make a connection with your audience

• Use an authentic, non-jargony tone to build trust and credibility 

• Use an authoritative, confident tone to establish yourself as an expert / thought leader

• Use an inspiring tone to motivate and influence your audience to take action

So yeah, what you say is important. But how you say it changes everything. ✊