“Don’t take that tone with me, young man!”

How many among us heard that a few too many times when they were a kid?

(Not you? Teacher’s pet.)

Interesting, isn’t it, that this immortal admonishment is phrased that way.

No one ever tells you off with “Don’t say those words to me, young man!” Why not?

Because how you say something is just as important as what you say. And that’s true not only in life, but in business as well.

After all, what makes your firm stand out?

The quality of your product or service? Undoubtedly.

Your company logo and colour palette? Yep.

But once you’ve fine-tuned your offering and wrapped it up in shiny trinkets, you’ve still got to sell the damn thing. So, you need to communicate correctly, or you risk making the same alarming discovery as many otherwise successful entrepreneurs before you:

Ignoring “tone of voice” can cost your business money. Here’s proof.

Your company’s “tone” can determine whether clients will recommend you to others, studies show

The Nielsen Norman Group (NNG) are pioneers of user experience (UX) research. When it comes to studying customer behaviour, they’ve been there, done that, and carried out a series of rigorous tests to figure out why Mrs Smith in Cleveland, Ohio bought the t-shirt.

In a 2016 study, NNG measured customer opinions about four fictitious companies: an insurance provider, a hospital, a bank, and a home security system supplier.

For each business, two web pages were created, each covering the same topics but written in a different tone.

Respondents were asked to review the web pages and rank the companies on three factors:

1. Friendliness
2. Trustworthiness
3. Desirability, or willingness to recommend.

Researchers found the different tones used significantly influenced how people felt about the brands. That’s important for one key reason.

Choose the right tone, say NNG, and clients are up to two times more likely to recommend your business to others. That means more chances to sell, because your business’s desirability is directly affected by your trustworthiness (and to a lesser extent friendliness), and people’s perception of this can be affected by tone.

Okay. Now, here’s the thing.

Most entrepreneurs would read the above and think tone of voice still isn’t worth their time.

Only the shrewdest few understand that in the battle for clients’ attention, anything that might separate you from your peers bears exploring. Aren’t you interested in being one of those few?

If you are, there’s a proven framework you can follow that’ll make your brand sound better in no time.

Use the 4 dimensions of tone of voice to make your business distinctive

In their research, NNG discovered any piece of communication can be reviewed according to four dimensions of tone:

1. Formal v casual
2. Serious v funny
3. Respectful v irreverent
4. Matter-of-fact v enthusiastic

Pay attention at the back of the class: this finding means the qualities above are the things to tweak if you want to click with clients. But how?

Think of each of the four tone-of-voice dimensions as a sliding scale. In the first one listed above, “Formal” would be at one end with “Casual” at the other. Changing the so-called formality of a piece of writing is as easy as moving the slider. And that’s only the beginning.

With four dimensions and an endless number of variables for each, this approach helps you develop a “tone profile” for your business that’s uniquely your own. And now you’re thinking “Okay hotshot, what does that look like in practice?”

As NNG point out, website error messages pretty much always need to convey the same basic information. But look at the effect that changing just the tone has: 

Ultimately, then, tone of voice can transform how clients feel about your company. If you want to elicit the right emotions from your ideal customer, it’ll take a little more effort. But don’t despair:

There’s a 24-karat gold rule that’ll help you craft the perfect tone for your company, even if you don’t have a copywriting or marketing background.

Don’t write or publish anything without checking it against a list of tone words

From their tone of voice research, NNG created a list of 37 “tone words” you can use when planning or evaluating content. Before we look at how to use these, here’s the full list:

Armed with NNG’s expertly curated set of tone words, you don’t need to scramble for ways to describe your business, which makes your next task a breeze…

Once you’ve chosen your business’s tone profile, or how your written content fits into the four tone-of-voice dimensions, use the tone words list to refine your approach. Just don’t skip the most vital step:

The tone words list is designed to help you identify not only the qualities you want your writing to have, but also those you don’t. For instance, as NNG says, you might want your business to be “sympathetic but not cheerful”.

And if you’re worried your current output doesn’t match the bright, shiny, new vision for how you’d like your company to talk to clients? Your tone words can serve as a checklist when assessing and amending what’s been written previously. Or, even better…

You could ask trusted clients to review different examples of your content – articles, brochures, etc., – and tell you which of the tone words they think best describes it. If their choices don’t align with your own, well, back to the drawing board you go.

Right, then. Let’s say you’re fully tuned in to the idea that how your company communicates with customers really matters. There’s just one small problem:

Trying to get on top of tone of voice while running a business is tough going. Cue shameless plug…

If you don’t have time to tidy up tone-deaf marketing, let us help

Our copywriters have decades of experience between them, and work exclusively with financial professionals, so they’ve already got a deep understanding of the kinds of clients you attract. We’re a friendly bunch, and we can help you make massive strides with your marketing more quickly and cost-effectively than you might think.

Call 0115 8965 300 or email hi@theyardstickagency.co.uk whenever you feel it’s time to tone up.