Voice Recognition - Find Your Voice In Content Marketing
​About 30 seconds into Hillary Clinton’s announcement video we hear it. After half a minute of over-scripted content, she says: “So I’m hitting the road to earn your vote,” and we can imagine the former senator saying that phrase. It feels genuine. It’s her real voice.

Like politicians, brands might be appealing to more than one persona, but they too have to find a single, consistent and genuine voice that speaks to all of them, adjusting it just enough to be heard, understood and accepted across their entire market.

The options available that will define that tone of voice are fairly clear, even if the choices themselves require careful thought and plenty of research. The lengths of words and sentences, for example, will be determined by the expected educational level of the persona the brand is targeting. On a page aimed at students, Dell uses the following copy to sell its laptops:

“Go anywhere and stay connected. Spend less time looking for an outlet and more time getting things done. Intel's latest 4th Generation processors are more power-efficient than ever without sacrificing performance.”

A similar product pitched to businesses is shorter, less chatty and uses longer words that are more demanding than the voice used for students.

“Essential mobile performance with best-in-class reliability for growing businesses.”

We still hear a computer company confident in its field and passionate about its products. But within that voice, the emphasis of the topic has changed between these two pieces of copy. It’s not just that students are told that they’ll be able to study anywhere, whether they’re in a coffee shop, a library or a dorm room, while business owners are told about reliability and the essential nature of the product for a business like theirs. The tone for the professional audience is also slightly more serious, more formal and more professional. Dell has adapted its voice to suit its different personas.

Other options include jargon, which is often best avoided but can tell an audience that the speaker is one of them, a member of the same exclusive club. A formal tone might suit a business used to speaking with an older audience that demands a high level of respect but it may put off younger customers who don’t want to feel that they’re buying a product aimed at their grandparents. Passion can help to sell services to people who love what they’re buying; a calm tone works better for an audience that’s thinking of the benefits the product will bring.

Producing the right tone for a business means understanding who the business is and who its customers are. It means producing the right language guidelines to define the tone and it means knowing how to adjust those guidelines to suit the brand’s different audiences.

It doesn’t mean becoming a politician but it does mean employing the winning charm of a diplomat.

To learn more about tone of voice in content marketing and what it can do for your business, contact us at contact@astelo.com.

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