Tone of voice or ToV in business writing and copywriting play a huge role in establishing your credibility in business. This can be either credibility in selling your service or product or credibility in terms of establishing your credentials as a thought leader.
However, what is ToV in terms of copywriting? If it is so important, why is it so intangible? And how can business leaders and owners master ToV to achieve their business goals?
In this article, I give a definition of ToV and discuss tips and strategies on how you can master it in your copywriting to ensure that it works for your business.
What is tone of voice?
Tone of voice or ToV in copywriting describes the style of communication a business adopts to deliver messages to its target audience. This style of communication is determined by the choice of words and the manner of presentation that is used in written documents, social media, and online sites.
ToV reflects the business’ attitude toward both the subject that it is discussing and the target audience. More importantly, it has a major influence on how the reader either perceives or reacts to the message.
In short, ToV can affect your business goals. It can determine how successful your sales are or how seriously you are taken as a thought leader. Here is a list of people who should concern themselves with ToV:
CEOs concerned about thought leadership
Writers who write business blogs
Copywriters who have to write short-form copy
Workers who have to write emails to their boss or colleagues
ToV, for a business or a thought leader, to a large extent, has to be consistent. It is your signature voice or style. It can even be part of your brand. However, ToV should also be adjustable on one level.
The ToV that you use for a specific target audience, you may not use for a different target audience — even when you are selling the same product or service to the two different groups.
The tone used in the copy of an email to your supervisor or manager will not be the same as the one you use for a colleague at work. Sure, both will be professional and polite. However, the way you express yourself would be more solemn and formal with your boss compared to your colleague.
How to develop ToV
ToV is hard to develop or get right. It represents your character and style as a business. There are two routes you can go to develop ToV. You can live up to professional writers to do it for you or you can do the tough work of developing a strong ToV that gives you credibility as a business leader.
If you decide to hire a professional writer to develop your ToV, you should fill them in on what you want in terms of delivery. They should know the following:
The target audience and their taste
The intention of the written content
The goal of the written content
The desired effect that you’re going for
If you are a writer or CEO who wants to express yourself in an authentic ToV that will gain you respect and credibility, then you need to do the work. ToV is something that you have to internalize.
You can't copy it from someone else. ChatGPT can’t do it for you. And you can't develop it overnight. Here are a few strategies you can employ
to develop an appropriate ToV.
1. Read good writers deeply for ToV.
This means that you should get books and other reading material from business or thought leaders that you admire and see how they achieve ToV in terms of their copywriting skills. Books are probably a better bet than social media posts.
A well-written book is typically free from the gimmicks usually employed in social media posts or the restrictions involved in writing articles for online newspapers or blogs, such as word limits and SEO tweaking.
Normally, when people read, they read to gather information of insight. This is going to be different. The point of doing this reading is to register ToV. You need to be looking out for things that you are not in the habit of looking out for when you read.
What does this mean? Start asking questions like:
Do they use conventional punctuation?
How do they employ humor?
Do they begin sentences with “and”?
Do they deliberately try to come across as more conversational?
You can even make note of your observations during the process. A huge part of the task involves reading out loud. ToV is all about sounding natural and human when communicating. Reading out loud allows you to replicate to some extent what the author sounds like.
2. Read your drafts you write aloud
Now that you have practiced registering the ToV of your favorite authors. Now it’s time to write your own stuff, making sure that your own ToV registers when you do so.
This means you bear in mind all that you learned when reading for ToV. If your model author frequently begins sentences with “and,” then do so where you feel it is appropriate and see how that works. The same goes for other things like using shorter sentences.
More importantly, just as with reading your model authors for ToV, you have to read your drafts aloud. Reading them out loud will take your ideas from paper and into the real world of human sound.
3. Ask friends or colleagues
You should rely primarily on your intuition to figure out if your tone rings true or false. However, it won’t hurt to rely on the opinions of friends. After writing your draft, have your friends who you can trust for their honest opinions tell you what they think of it.
You can also read it out loud for them to see if your desired ToV registers with them. Another thing you could do is to record your voice while you practice. One month later, record yourself again and see how much you have progressed.
Generative AI and ToV
Generative AI is good for many things. Developing ToV is not one of them. With generative AI, you can ideate and create outlines and drafts at rapid speeds when copywriting. However, it's awful for ToV. In fact, we can say that AI-written content is the worst thing that has happened to ToV in the content-writing or copywriting space.
Generative AI is impressive. However, it is the most impressive for people who largely don't know how to write. ChatGPT and other generative AI chatbots are little more than spinners of content. They are LLMs that rely on mathematical formulas. They search content throughout the web and rearrange this content.
They add nothing new in terms of ideas. More importantly, they are not able to register ToV. Most content written by AI is modeled after the worst type of soulless academic writing. This is because LLM models rely on generic content that is widely available on the Internet. It doesn't discriminate the good stuff from the crap.
You know what they say: Garbage in; garbage out. Therefore, use generative AI wisely. Content or copy that has been generated by AI should be optimized by having human content writers write appropriate briefs before creating the content. You should also have human editors edit AI copy to 'humanify" it.
How EminentEdit can help with ToV in your copywriting
EminentEdit offers copywriting services that establishes your ToV and increase the rates of conversion. We offer copywriting services that:
Speak directly to the needs of your visitors
Read in a natural conversational tone
Stresses the uniqueness of your offer
Our services include both writing your landing pages from scratch and editing already existing landing pages.
EminentEdit provides editing and proofreading services that are:
More importantly, we are adaptable to your specific needs. | Get in touch with one of our representatives for help in crafting your landing pages We know what you want to say. We help you say it better. |
We also edit landing pages written using AI to make them sound more authentic. AI-written landing pages make sense. They are fast, efficient, and accurate.
But no one is going to buy from a robot. You need a professional human editing touch to increase the chances of these pages converting. Contact one of our representatives today to help you with that —Let’s Go!
Cite this EminentEdit article |
Antoine, M. (2024, December 23). Mastering Tone of Voice in Business & Copywriting. EminentEdit. https://www.eminentediting.com/post/mastering-tone-of-voice-in-business-copywriting |
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