Same voice, different tone
Your brand voice should stay the same everywhere. Your tone should change with the moment.
Your launch post is funny, your docs read like a tax form and your billing email sounds like a ransom note. Three different writers, all of them supposedly you.
Mailchimp’s public content style guide draws the line clearly: “You have the same voice all the time, but your tone changes.” You talk one way at dinner with close friends and another way in a meeting with your boss, and you’re still you. Mailchimp pins its voice down with a few traits, such as plainspoken and dry humor, then adjusts tone to the reader’s emotional state. Someone who’s scared or upset shouldn’t get the same tone as everyone else.
Write down three voice traits, each with a “this, not that” line, like “funny, not flippant.” Then check the places where voice usually dies: error messages, billing emails and the cancellation page.
The example
- Instead of
- “Oopsie! Our hamsters fell off the wheel and your payment didn’t go through lol”
- Try
- “Your payment didn’t go through, and nothing was charged. Update your card and you’re back in under a minute.”
Before you flush
Write three voice traits with a “this, not that” line each, then reread your last error message and billing email against them.