Top 5 ways to capture tone in your copy

1. Make a list

Before you write anything, list the top five words you would use to describe the business or product or service you are writing the copy about. What message needs to be subliminally sent?

The best way to get these five words is to take a detailed brief before you begin. Ask your client for a few adjectives they use regularly to describe their business. Is it chatty? Is it approachable? Is it professional and rather formal?

Use these words to decide how to craft your copy, remembering that these words won’t necessarily appear in the copy itself; they are there more as a pattern to follow, or as a map to guide you (the copywriter) as you put together the copy.

In the same way that a dressmaker tasked with crafting a dress described as ‘conservative’ and ‘practical’ will make design choices based on that brief, so a copywriter needs to make similar choices about the words and sentences included in their copy to ensure it meets the tone of the business they are writing for.

 

2. Think of the target market.

You really should be doing this anyway, for more reasons than just accurate tone.

Sometimes you might see this target market referred to as a ‘customer avatar’. This simply means creating a fictional customer who embodies a typical person who would buy the product or service from the business.

What are their needs and wants?

Why would they buy?

Then, to link your customer avatar to the copy’s tone, ask yourself as the copywriter – how would I talk to this customer about the business if I met them face-to-face? Let your words flow from there.

 

Tone is inherently part of the subtleties of being human

 

3. Write for a human first.

In web copy, the temptation is strong to optimise content for Google as a matter of priority. But the risk with this approach is that your copy will sound like it was written by a machine. Tone is inherently part of the subtleties of being human.

By all means, conduct some keyword research first. But, as you write, focus on the adjectives described in Number 1 above, talk (in your head and on the page) to the customer avatar discussed in Number 2. Write your copy this way. Then optimise for Google to ensure the tone is accurate. Remember, Google is a machine but customers are real people.

 

Google is a machine but customers are real people

 

4. Know the story.

Brand storytelling, or business storytelling, is increasingly taking its place amongst content marketing. And, as copywriters, we are storytellers of the highest order. Take the time to talk to your client in a detailed briefing and ask them questions beyond simply the copy project at hand; ask about the background of their business, why they started it, what they love about it, why they are passionate about their product or service.

These questions will give you a rich selection of content and give you a broader understanding of the business’ story. Use this story to help sculpt the tone, not only of the business as a whole, but of the copy you write. For more on business storytelling, read our in-depth article on it here.

 

5. Accentuate the benefits.

Content marketing needs both features and benefits. But features don’t sell the product or service. They aren’t persuasive. They are the pretty wrapping which reveals the benefits. And the benefits are the reason customers buy.

Ensure you understand the difference before you craft your copy so that your words pitch the benefits to the target market in an appealing way, using consistent tone, to make them feel comfortable buying.

For example, you’re writing copy about an online start-up selling a new type of women’s high heel which comes complete with inflatable pads in the toes and behind the achilles (instead of having to buy stick-on gel pads). The features are the shoes’ inflatable pads and the free shipping and returns. A customer might think, ‘That’s nice. But what’s in it for me?’

Enter, the benefits.

Inflatable pads means convenience and comfort, and gives customers the choice of using them or not (as they can be inflated and deflated as required), without worrying about stick-on pads falling off or sliding around. Free returns means there is significantly reduced risk for the customer buying the shoes online. These benefits are what guides a customer towards wanting to purchase the shoes.

 

 

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