Should your team influence your tone of voice

The secret to a consistent and omnipresent tone of voice is a team that uses it day in day out, whether it’s in a piece of web copy, an email to a colleague or a sign about tidying up the staff kitchen. Because after all, you don’t want your industry-smashing tone of voice to rot at the bottom of someone’s desk drawer under that half-eaten sandwich and stack of receipts they’ll never file.

To successfully embed your new tone of voice, you need training, reminders, encouragement and time to support your team as they bring your new brand voice to life. But there’s one more way you can secure their participation. And you can get started on this one before your guidelines are even developed:

Involve your team in the decision-making process

At the start of the process, my clients usually ask: “Should my team be involved?” As the marketing manager, founder or CEO, you often have strong feelings on the direction you want your tone to take. So what’s the point in inviting Gary from Sales, Deepak from HR and Jenny from Product Development, right?

“It should be all about my customer”

To an extent, yes. The most important person to have in mind when devising your tone of voice is your customer. If your team bulldozes the process with shared internal culture, surely the customer’s going to get lost in the mix? And the more technical the team, the more you run the risk of being so close to the thing, so well-versed in your field, that you cannot step away and gain the clarity needed to speak clearly to your customers.

“But we’re only small”/“We’re way too big”

Small, founder-run businesses might question the need for team participation. If it’s been just you for a while and it might be again in the future, what’s the point in getting the input of staff who may come and go? While big organisations might question the return on investment of hauling your teams into the process en masse.

“My team are brilliant, but they aren’t tone of voice experts”

Outside the marketing department, your team might have a limited understanding of what tone of voice is and does, and what their input might mean for the business. Sure, you can get them up to speed, but is it worth it?

I’d argue that it’s absolutely worth it, regardless of their number or level of expertise. Because by valuing their opinions, you’re securing their trust and support, and earning that all-important buy-in. If they had a hand in the process of building it, they’re much more likely to understand and use it.

Born in the pub in 2015

But also, because, with a full view of your business from every angle, your tone of voice is going to be more unique, powerful and well-rounded. And that holds true whether you’re a company of three or 3,000.

Because yes, your tone of voice should be about your customer, but it should also reflect the values and culture within your business. It’s about finding the crossover where the two meet. That’s what will make you stand out from the crowd.

A company like Duolingo which counts efficiency high in its list of values clearly reflects that in its short, sharp copy.

You could even draw a link between their internal preference for ‘compassionate feedback’ and those pass-agg notifications that pop up when you haven’t been on the app recently.

Meanwhile, British sustainable clothing company HebTroCo (thanks, Giles Metcalf, for the recco) was founded by two friends in the pub and their laid-back tone reflects that. The tagline on their website is literally “Born in the pub in 2015”. Their product descriptions contain pub-worthy lines such as: “Our sweatshirts are leagues ahead of all that cheap mass produced crap”. Even their colourways, Tomato Soup and Milk Choc, have a chilled-out vibe that suits the team behind the brand.

If you’d like to chat more about writing for your business, I’d love to hear from you.