Tone of voice is a concept that describes the style and manner in which a brand communicates with its audience. This includes the choice of words, tone, and sentence structure, as well as the overall atmosphere and mood it creates. This all allows communication to be more precise and consistent. Currently, almost all branding companies offer Tone of Voice (TOV) as a service – and it almost never works. Why? Let's dive in.

Why Tone of Voice Matters

‍A customer's impression of your brand is formed through various interactions with your company, whether it's your website, advertising, or communication with your employees. Statistically, a significant portion of these interactions happens through text. TOV is needed to make the company's voice sound consistent, and its messages work for the brand and its brand strategy. Basically, it means, that a well-developed TOV allows you to highlight your uniqueness and write texts tailored to your target audience, and it also helps promote the brand's values and promises.

What's the Problem?

‍In the form of a document, a TOV describes specific ways to construct phrases and the stylistic approach when communicating with customers. Branding agencies gladly sell TOV as an addition to the brand strategy – and to their credit, it's often a good document that genuinely addresses the brand's communication challenges. However, most of them still fall into the same pitfalls. At least three problems can be identified:

Vague values, vague results

‍TOV describes specific ways to structure phrases, all based on the company's values – so in theory, everything is fine. In practice, most of these documents describe companies as "friendly and open, active and goal-oriented." Consequently, communication is also built on the same values – and it's just bland.

Let’s see, if it makes sense. For example, we say, that if we are friendly, which is nice, and so it means we are not rude. Hence, we say to our customers rather "Hello, we are glad to see you," rather than "Piss off." Isn’t it helpful?

Or, say, if we are active, it means we are not lazy. We say, "We are always ready to help," instead of "We can help, but only if we feel like it." Sounds quite funny, doesn't it?

How It Should Be: When writing the values for TOV, focus on qualities that genuinely define your brand, making it unique. Openness and friendliness, activity and goal-orientation are not enough to determine a unique tone of communication for your company. When writing a phrase reflecting one of your values, try to create an anti-example. If it sounds a bit strange, the original value is probably too "default" for your TOV.

Lack of Examples

‍Many business owners prefer a "high-level" approach to communication – and agencies comply, creating a TOV full of abstract concepts. Defining communication qualities isn't enough – you need to show specific examples of how to use them and, again, provide anti-examples.

For example, that’s the correct approach. We are a digital agency specializing in communication and building the right processes. We speak concisely, informatively, and to some extent, dryly, without urging the reader to take action. Now, say, we have to announce our new case study. We can write, "We have released a case illustrating the experience of interaction between a music UGC platform and its audience," but we won't write, "New case online now! Learn how to build UGC platforms today!"

In this case, we communicated the key values of the company and demonstrated how these values define the style of our communication in a specific scenario. We also provided an anti-example to make it easier to feel the difference between right and wrong.

How It Should Be: When presenting a thesis regarding the tone of voice, always use examples and anti-examples. Based on these, it's much easier to construct real communication.

No Responsible Party

‍Let’s face it. A TOV document, no matter how good it is, often ends up in the "Shared Assets" folder in the company cloud – unused in practice. In the best case, before it the company holds a meeting where key concepts of the communication strategy are presented, hoping that all employees responsible for writing text in the company will understand the document's importance and start applying it. It's a nice idea, but it rarely happens.

How It Should Be: Identify a person responsible for implementing the TOV, at least for the first year or two. This person can be any employee knowledgeable about the nuances of written text and with access to corporate communication channels, be it newsletters, websites, social media, or advertising. Ensure they are motivated enough to carry out the TOV supervision and run all texts through them. Personal responsibility works better than distributed one.

1. Define Unique Values: Focus on qualities that truly define your brand's uniqueness when crafting your Tone of Voice (TOV). Avoid default values like friendliness and openness.
2. Provide Examples: Your TOV should include concrete examples and anti-examples to demonstrate how communication qualities should be applied in various scenarios.
3. Appoint a TOV Guardian: Designate a responsible individual, at least for the initial year or two, to oversee TOV implementation. Personal responsibility is more effective than a distributed approach.