I probably shouldn’t get political on here, but hey-ho.
I saw this today and just thought ‘bollocks’:
I know it’s a sensitive subject, but I just don’t believe Priti Patel feels ‘heartache’ over the death of Sarah Everard: It’s just something to say, to sound good.
It’s also something to say to justify her controversial new Police, Crime, Sentencing, and Courts Bill, which will bring in more police powers – including protecting women from violence – but also put the lid on peaceful protests/large gatherings.
Anyway, the reason I don’t believe her is her default tone: she’s so insincere. She has no emotion in her voice… or in her general demeanour. She’s just flat, monotone, governmental, robotic. It’s like she doesn’t care about anything.
You know where I’m going with this… tone matters: the last thing you want for your business is to come across as insincere. You need a tone that’s warm, genuine, human. And don’t go believing this to be untrue because you’re in the B2B space – you’re still selling to people ultimately.
If you’re in professional services – perhaps a property law firm – you might not be so conversational. You might be more authoritative, but you can still be warm and human.
And if you want to come across as sincere, demonstrate the thing you say you are.
If you’re ‘innovative’, show me how – show me products, services, approaches you’ve created that highlight your innovation. Show me stuff that no one else is doing.
If you say you’re ‘passionate’, how are you passionate? Do you have core values you practice every day? Do you make sure staff are enrolled in learning and development programmes, to push them further?
If your service is ‘bespoke’, prove it to me – show me how your product/service can be adapted to suit my specific needs.
Don’t leave it for your audience to decide what your tone is – make them unequivocally aware of what it is. And make them believe every word you say… or at least try.
The last thing you want is dry, bland copy that just says what you think sounds right: ‘we put customers at the heart of all we do’…blah, blah, blah…’we treat your property like we’d treat our own’…yada yada yada.
You don’t want to be a Priti Patel – you want to come across as sincere and with a bit of emotion.
For the record, I don’t like Michael Gove, Iain Duncan Smith, Jacob Rees-Mogg, and Boris Johnson either, but they don’t lack emotion.
Still a bunch of pricks though…