The Ultimate Guide to Brand Voice and Tone in Writing for Every Web Page

Content Goodies

Fingers poised over the keyboard. “Nerd” glasses perched on your nose. Snacks at the ready. Sounds like you’re preparing to write!

Your website, blog posts, social channels, and email campaigns all run on words. Your search engine optimisation (SEO) efforts hinge on them, too. Words help you connect with your target audience, welcoming visitors to your website in the banner or encouraging them to click that “Book now” button at the bottom of your blog.

But writing good marketing copy isn’t all trendy glasses and Mad Men smoking habits. There are crucial targets you need to hit with every piece, and one of the most important is writing tone and voice. Writing tone and voice – sometimes collectively called writing style – is composed of your word choice, sentence structure, and the overall personality and emotional inflection of your writing.

An engaging and unique writing voice will hook your readers and make you stick out in their minds. If you write in your own unique voice consistently, readers will begin to associate your company with the qualities your tone implies – polished and professional, fun and funky, or edgy and wild.

It all rolls up to a brand personality that’s a bit different from others your audience might find in the marketplace. And that difference just might sway them to choose your brand over the competition.

What we mean by “voice and tone”

Your company’s writing style will always reflect two elements: the voice (or personality) of your brand and the tone (or emotional nuance) of the piece you’re writing.

Your voice should never change. It’s the unwavering brand personality that customers get to know and develop a relationship with. They feel familiar with your blogs. They read an Insta post and think, “Yep, that sounds like them.” Your voice reflects the values, mission, and personality of your brand, no matter where you’re writing or what you’re writing about.

But the tone of each piece you write can change. For a blog post in which you want to sound authoritative, you’ll be a little more buttoned up than usual. On social media, you might loosen the tie and tell a few jokes. Tone shifts to suit the occasion, but it still sounds like you, reflecting your voice and staying true to your personality.

To keep them straight, think of your own voice and tone. You’re always you, whether you’re at a funeral or a birthday party, but the tone that you use at those two events is probably (hopefully!) different.

Why tone and voice matter

People like to do business with people, not companies, and your tone and voice make your brand feel like a person rather than a “soulless corporation”. It makes your company sound familiar and known, creating a warm glow of something that’s akin to friendship – or as close to friendship as you can get between a person and a brand.

As we mentioned earlier, it’s your brand’s unique personality that draws people to your brand. Different companies stand out in different ways – like shaking up a traditional industry like accounting with a saucy voice and tone, or becoming the fresh, earnest voice in a marketplace usually choked with overly-salesy language.

When you get it right and keep it consistent, your voice and tone will turn visitors into clients, and clients into long-time brand advocates. So let them fall in love with your true brand personality.

How to define a clear tone and voice

Maintaining a steady voice and matching it with the right tone for every occasion takes strategy and practice. But first, you need to know who you are and what you stand for.

Write down your values and mission

While you do want to develop a voice that resonates with your audience, you should first and foremost develop one that’s true to your values and company mission. Not only will that make it more authentic, it’ll be easier to maintain if it’s a good fit.

Dig out the ol’ mission statement and be sure it still reflects your company’s values. Then, think about what it means in practical terms. How does it affect your materials sourcing? What does it say about your customer service? Or your returns policy? Or the way you treat your employees?

Your company values are the starting point for your overall tone and voice, but your writing style should align with the audience you’re trying to attract, too.

Understand your target audience

This isn’t a broad-strokes exercise. It’s detailed and personal, exploring the worries that drive people to seek your products and services and the lifestyle and career factors that stop them from making a purchase or booking a call.

When you’re developing a customer persona, get as specific as possible. Pinpoint their demographics such as age range, average salary, location, hobbies, and likely family structure (kids? dogs? spouses?).

Then, dig in further to understand the values that drive their purchasing decisions. Valuegraphics can be as powerfully predictive as demographics in understanding who’s buying your services and what they want from your company.

Create a voice that upholds your values and speaks to your audience

So, you know what you want to say and who you want to say it to. Combine those two data points – along with everything you know about your audience’s valuegraphics and the values you hold dear in your company – and you’ve found a fitting voice.

You might decide you want to be the best friend who offers insightful advice and a listening ear. Or the earnest do-gooder who wants to change the world one wide-eyed, heartfelt post at a time. Maybe you’re comfortable with an off-the-wall voice that surprises customers with keen, honest wit.

Remember: Brand voice is like a financial investment – the higher the risk, the higher the potential reward. We encourage brands to choose a voice that’s truly different from the competition’s. Yes, you’ll stand out, and you may turn off a few outlying customers. But, you’ll stand out(!), and the customers that love you will love you even more. Plus, they’re more likely to interact with your brand and spread the word that you’re a genuinely different sort of brand.

Voice and tone tips for every page on your website

It’s one thing to identify your voice and tone, but it’s another to stay true to it in blog post after blog post, headline after headline.

Here’s how we maintain a steady voice for website content copywriting:

Home page

A Home page works hard, starting with the banner. It has to instantaneously communicate a) what your company does, b) how you do it differently and c) what the client will feel after using your products or services – all in just a few words.

We usually focus on a pithy banner title that includes a main keyword, then follow it up with a subtitle that tells the reader how the product solves their problems, like this example from LearnRight:

The smart LMS that grows with you

Your all-in-one training solution that tracks learning retention & measures results

This headline is authoritative and sharp, yet offers a friendly, helping-hand tone which tells you LearnRight’s going to handle your corporate learning and development needs like a down-to-earth pro.

Next, you’ll need page copy that pulls the reader through your content and leads them towards taking an action, like calling your offices or booking a time to talk. Maintain the voice you’ve established at the top of the page through an intro section and details about your services. Write a “next steps” section that tells readers exactly what will happen when they reach out to your team. And always include testimonials or trust badges that show potential clients how much your current clients like you.

Remember that the Home page is all about the customer. There’s very little room for “we” on this page – the focus should remain firmly on the client, what they want, and the benefits they’ll enjoy when they work with you. Check every word choice to see if it reflects your brand voice or if there’s another, more voice-appropriate synonym that would serve you better.

About page

The About page is your chance to talk about yourself. Now’s your opportunity to share your origin story or the lofty values that make your company different. Do it all in the unique tone and voice you’ve crafted, and as always, keep it consistent throughout. If you’ve been cultivating an uber professional tone, throwing in a sassy dash of attitude might feel jarring to your readers. If you’ve been friendly and engaging on the Home page, a snore-worthy About page will be a disappointment.

But reaching your target audience goes beyond word choice. The images and colours you choose and the information you decide to include, help shape how your audience sees you.

Use real pictures of your actual staff for the “Meet the Team” section, and make sure your team pictures suit your voice, too. Don’t use casual snaps if you’re going for traditional and authoritative. If you want to convey environmentalism as a core value, choose pictures set in a natural scene. Your images contribute to your voice, too, so make sure they’re professionally-shot, high quality, and complementary to your brand personality.

Services page

On the Services page, the customer emotion you’re trying to reach is “confidence”. By the end of the page, readers should feel confident in your ability to solve their problems and confident that your company is uniquely positioned to do so.

To move readers towards confidence, you first need to address their fears. After a voice-appropriate banner headline, include an Intro section that drags their worries into the daylight. For a tree removal service, customer fears might include damage to their property or the safety of their family. For a web design service, their clients might fear losing website traffic. Whatever it is, state it clearly and unflinchingly.

Now, offer the antidote to that fear: your services. Maintaining your overarching tone and voice, show them how much better their lives will be after working with you, how much simpler, safer, and more successful.

Your consistent tone helps create that all-important feeling of confidence, so by the time readers scroll to your call to action (CTA) button, they’re confident that they want to work with you.

Contact page

The Contact page is often overlooked or dismissed when writing website copy, but it’s actually a crucial place to nail the voice and tone.

At this point in the customer journey, they’re interested enough in your company to consider contacting you. Don’t spook them with generic “Contact us” verbiage or quell their interest by allowing your voice to falter. Double down on the language you’ve been cultivating so far to encourage them to pick up the phone or complete the form.

This is a good example of a place where your voice should stay the same but your tone might shift. On the Contact page, make your language warmer and more inviting, even if you’ve chosen a buttoned-up voice. You can still be professional, but you should also be personal, making the reader feel their call will be warmly welcomed.

If you’re targeting local customers, share your local address and include a local phone number. A map pinpointing your location shows customers exactly where to find you – the actual, real humans behind the brand. Remember, people buy from people, so include these subtle, trust-establishing cues that show you’re more than a website.

Still need some help with your writing voice?

If you’ve identified a brand voice but you’re still not sure how to get started writing copy for your clients’ websites, the Website Copywriting Accelerator Pack is a great tool. You’ll get instant access to the actual website copywriting writing templates we use to write eye-catching copy for our clients. Purchase and download today!