Content and context: 5 questions to ask to determine brand voice and tone
Content marketing entails delivering the right content at the right place at the right time to the right person and in the right context.
But what what does delivering the right content in the right context mean? It means that for your content marketing to succeed we have to take in our consumers’ context into account, through the language used, our shared culture, and other factors.
This also means that the content creator has to present the content in the right context using the right language and tone for the brand.
Context is essential for storytelling and social media networks have adapted to make sure that the context carries through many social shares. I remember when retweets on Twitter still had the 140-character limit, so you could either retweet just the original tweet or reply to add to the message.
They fixed that by allowing you to retweet the original and add your own 140-character commentary on top to keep the conversation going. Facebook understands this by including the original post when you share something – providing that context immediately around what’s being shared.
Content and context go hand in hand as context is important to how we understand information, but for some reason seems to get ignored in a lot of content marketing plans.
Brand analysis
- What message are we communicating?
- What does success mean for this project?
- What’s our brand voice?
- What’s the right tone for this content piece?
- What’s the right format for this content piece?
Audience analysis
- Who are they?
- What do they think and feel?
- What do they say and do?
- What are their pain points?
- What are their expectations?
- What’s their emotional state?
- What do they have to gain through our brand?
- What’s distracting them from reading our messaging?
By knowing how your brand presents information and how your audience consumes and understands that information is an important part of your content marketing strategy.
Under the brand analysis section I pointed out the brand voice and tone. They are different.
Voice = identity and personality and the feeling you want to convey
Tone = the way your content will sound (serious, joking, stern, playful)
5 questions to establish a voice and tone for your content
To help identify what kind of voice and tone you should be using for each content asset, ask yourself the following questions:
- What are the values this asset promotes?
- What’s the personality of the company?
- How do we want to be perceived?
- What state of mind is the consumer in when reading our content?
- Should we be authoritative and professional or humorous and conversational?
These questions will help you define your voice and tone for each content piece and your bigger branding efforts.
Brand voice: The feeling you want your content to convey
- Conversational
- Accessible
- Humanistic
- Educational
- Authoritative
- Professional
Brand voice tone: The way your content will sound
- Friendly
- Humorous
- Direct
- Honest
- Formal
- Scientific
Brand voice language: The language your content is written in
- Simple
- Wordy
- Complex
- Jargony
A popular way to zero in on your brand’s voice is to create a this but not that list. Some ideas to get started include:
- Confident, but not cocky
- Expert, but not bossy
- Weird, but not inappropriate
- Helpful, but not overbearing
- Fun, but not silly
- Informal, but not intrusive
- Calm, but not detached
Create a brand content style guide
Make it easy for all of your content creators to collaborate by developing a content style guide. This way everyone is on the same page when it comes to the brand voice and tone, which will create consistent and authentic branding across all of your content assets, no matter who creates them.
What to include in your content style guide:
- Who is your company?
- Who are your customers?
- Who makes up your content team?
- Your style and writing tone
- Targeted keyword terms
- Specific grammar guidelines
- Content types and structure
Style guide example
I’m going to pretend I run a Denver ghost tour as I’m pretty sure I’ve taken all the ones available while living here.
- Who is your company: Stephanie’s Spirited & Spooky Tour and we invite our tour guests to open their minds to the paranormal
- Who are your customers: Both tourists and locals who want a haunted history tour
- Who makes up your content team: Stephanie
- Your style and tone: Our content is friendly, clever, and mystical. Our content is not kitschy or over the top.
- Targeted keyword terms: Denver ghost tours, Downtown Denver ghost tours, Colorado haunted history tours
- Specific grammar guidelines: We follow the AP Style Guide
- Content types: Blogs, vlogs, behind-the-scenes all related to Denver, both its history and things to do today
Having a content style guide ensures your content best represents your brand and provides a cohesive element to all aspects of your content marketing strategy. Invest the time in developing a guide and getting your brand’s writing style down on paper – so to speak.
