Your Brand's Crying for a Voice

The following is a sponsored post by Commune Media.

If you've marketed for major brands, you know that every inch of their image is governed by strict rules.

These specific colours.

That exact font.

Those types of photos.

But ask about the brand's voice, and things get fuzzier.

Everyone knows how their brand should look.

But how should it read?

As you can imagine, this poses a huge problem for connecting with customers.

Why Voice Matters

If you're writing for web marketing, your goal is to communicate with prospects.

First you understand who they are. Then you define who you are.

And then, you make every word part of a smooth, cohesive conversation.

To keep this conversation going—from the time you capture a lead to the time they decide to buy (and hopefully come back for more)—you need to create and affirm a customer's trust.

Your brand's voice is what customers grow to trust.

How to Find Your Voice

When you build a brand (or write for one), consider your target audience and weigh its collective expectations.

If you publish home-renovation tips, for example, your audience might want to converse with a friendly, knowledgeable handyman.

And to promote a healthcare product, take the tone of a caring nurse.

But no matter what voice you create, it should always be friendly and personable.

Think about it: People spend most of their time online chatting with friends and family.

And that friendly, conversational tone is what they've come to expect.

Keep Your Voice Consistent

Imagine your phone ringing.

At first you might be irritated. But when you check the caller ID, you see the number of an old friend.

Excited to catch up, you warmly answer—only to hear a stranger on the other end, talking in nonsensical business jargon.

Confusing, right?

But this is exactly what countless brands do throughout both their conversion process and the long-term customer relationships they try to create.

It happens all the time—a company cozies up to prospects with a friendly tone and then treats them like impersonal financial entities the second they convert.

According to behavioural economist Dan Ariely, author of Predictably Irrational, this switch between "social norms" (the friendly copy on a landing page) and "market norms" (the impersonal demands of a billing statement) can seriously impair a relationship—whether between family members or between a brand and its target audience.

So once you've settled on a voice, use it for all your customer communications.

Keep it consistently friendly, and you'll build strong relationships with big returns.

Want more tried-and-true techniques for effective web writing? Learn how to write compelling copy with our free 25-page e-book, Breakthrough Web Writing.