Writing blogs for your business is a great way to connect with your existing and potential customers in a way that promotes engagement and helps you stand out as an authority and thought-leader in your industry. In order to ensure success, it is important to develop a tone to your blogs. In this blog I’m going to explore simple yet effective ways to find and develop a tone that resonates with readers and encourages engagement.
Many businesses focus on the structure and content of their blogs, and rightly so. Blogs with poor structure or irrelevant content are guaranteed to lose customers. Many businesses also understand the importance of a compelling design and logo. These are things that help you make an impression with your audience. However, equally important is the tone of voice with which you write. In other words, it is important to consider exactly how you’re going to communicate your message.
What is tone?
Tone is the way you communicate with your readers. Depending on your type of business, your tone may vary drastically. Tone can be formal, or it can be casual. It can be serious or funny. It can be humorous, or it can be authoritative. Later in this blog we will discuss how to best identify the type of tone you should choose based on an understanding of your audience. But first, let us emphasise the most important consideration for writing with a tone – consistency. Different business and blog types require different tones, but once a tone has been identified, it should remain consistent throughout the blog.
With a consistent tone you create a voice and image in the mind of the reader. This strengthens your connection with your audience because it makes you real and, over time, familiar.
86% of global consumers say that authenticity is important when deciding to purchase, according to SocialMediaToday. Developing your tone is a chance to demonstrate your authenticity and satisfy that customer preference.
Know the reader
The first step in finding the right tone for your blogs is developing an understanding of the buyer’s persona. This involves gathering information on your ideal audience’s lifestyle and demographics.
Demographics
What age bracket do your ideal clients fall under? Are they predominantly male or female? Where do they live? What are their pain points – their problems and issues that you can solve? What is their level of education? By understanding your demographic in detail you can gain a greater understanding of how they might communicate, and to how they can be best communicated, in terms of the style and type of online content.
Lifestyle
Your audience’s lifestyle is an important, useful factor to consider when developing a writing tone. Is your audience made up of people with busy schedules, who don’t have a lot of time to sift through chunky information? If so, it may be best to write with a tone that is simple and straightforward. Perhaps your audience is made up of ambitious recent graduates or university students. In this case, an uplifting and inspiring tone could be beneficial.
Utilise Web Analytics
These are tools available online to help you gain insight into the online behaviour of your audience, such as their location and their favourite websites. With this information you can tailor your writing to fit in line with blogs and tones that you know your audience enjoys.
Study your competitors
Studying your competitors offers a similar advantage to web analytics – it provides valuable insight and helps you improve your knowledge and understanding of your audience. As mentioned earlier, there are many businesses attempting to reach your audience, and some are doing so more successfully than others. To develop a tone that works, study the tone and style of your most successful competitors, as well as your less successful competitors. This lets you see what works best and what your audience wants from blogs related to your business.
Of course, you don’t want to duplicate a competitor’s voice and tone. One of the most important ingredients for success is being unique and original. However, looking at your competitors can inspire ideas and inform you about the best and worst approaches to writing.
Why does it matter?
You want any content you create to be received well by your audience. It should educate your audience on your business and its values, while also effectively solving pain points and being an enjoyable read. Tone is a major factor in how you can ensure your content achieves these desired effects.
A tone that is ineffective – one that does not resonate with readers – is unlikely to inspire readers to take further action and may even damage your reputation. It is likely that there are a plethora of similar businesses out there trying to reach your audience, so avoid writing with the wrong tone and losing your potential customers to your competitors.
In conclusion
There are no formulas to help you figure out the best tone to use, but figuring out is made a lot easier when you build a clear picture of your target audience. Once you understand your readers, developing a tone becomes a lot easier. You can step into the world of the reader and imagine what tone would be most persuasive and best connect with them on their level.
On a final note, though tone can vary, make sure you keep communication simple and straightforward. Your content should always be easy to read and understand, regardless of the topic.
