What voice does your company say?

We live in a foolish time: you can make high-quality products, but no one will know about them, if you do not know how to talk about them. Qualitatively ≠ "high-conversion", muddled or "youthful." Qualitatively - so that your audience understands you.

I will not analyze what to say - and without me there are enough tips on content marketing. I'm talking about how to talk.

On "you" or "you"? Joke or strictly? What voice should we say?

Why do you need a voice

Someone thinks about the voice of the project at the very beginning - when preparing a presentation for investors or text on the site. Before others, the question of the voice arises when there are more than one respondent on behalf of the company, and general rules are needed. Or when trying to adapt to a new audience. In such cases, in advertising we hear the “new” voice, and in the offices and support desk responses - the “old” one.
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For example, Sberbank. From the screens we hear: a new generation, edgail, innovations, bigdata, we are on the same wavelength. And in the letter:



The point is not even in stamps and clericals, but in voice. It’s not a young man I’m talking to me, but the head of the support service who apologizes on the go: “We have our own plans and KPIs, and you are here.”

And how to perceive the company that sent such a letter?



How "young and energetic" or "self-esteem, but cumbersome"? But the service and the business are very young.

The voice you write will be heard by your readers.

How to choose a voice

You can go for the "method of Mailchimp." They described the brand as adjectives, and in order to limit imagination, they compared it with what they are not (free translation):

Funny, but stupid.
Confident, but not brash.
Smart, but not boring.
Informal, but not sloppy.
Useful, but not domineering.
An expert, but not a know-it-all.
Mysterious, but not ambiguous.

There is another method, and I personally like it more. Write, representing the voice of the person who personifies the company: the director, the official speaker, the main product, the designer or a fictional character.

There is more tone

If you really think about the voice, then remember about the tone. The tone depends on who we are referring to. One tone when communicating with a friend, the other - with mom, and at a meeting with the boss - the third.

It also depends on the emotional state - we communicate with a cheerful and upset person in different ways. Therefore, it is impossible to answer with the same tone to the one who got the error and to the one who successfully solved his task.

The voice does not change, but the tone depends on the situation.

Graphics

If you talk about a joke with a gloomy face, then the listeners will have a dissonance. With the text the same trouble.

Do not expect that you will be understood correctly if you have young people on visuals, and in the text “You” with a capital and tone, as in the plenum of the Central Committee of the CPSU.

Poll

And on Habré, companies also have their voice. Even if several authors write to the blog, they are often read as one. Write the voice of which company do you like the most? Did not do a poll with a listing to avoid induced fame.

Thank you for the inspiration:

Jory MacKay .
Mailchimp .