Okay, okay … a dodgy title for this post.
Having said that, some writers like soup. They’ve even been known to drink it. There you go – I’ve found a tenuous link.
Anyway, the point I want to make has bugger all to do with soup, so on with the show …
If you have a company, then you have a brand, either through careful planning or by default (when I say ‘by default’, I mean if you didn’t make conscious decisions about your brand, your customers will form their own image of you, based on the service you provide, how you speak to them, the colours on your website etc).
Your brand will be a combination of many things; your logo, company colours, letterheads, email sign-offs, strapline, business cards, pricing, how you answer the phone, company ethos … the list goes on.
One thing that forms a strong part of your brand is your company’s tone of voice: how do you come across? Do you come across as warm and friendly? Cold and austere? Fun and carefree? Authoritative?
Whether yourself, a member of staff, or an outside copywriter / agency, someone wrote your website copy or your marketing brochure, originally. That person would’ve created your initial tone of voice, and will be au fait with it.
Please, please, please try to stick with that person across all of your written communications.
Trust me when I say that if you have one person writing your web copy, another person writing your blog posts, a different person writing your newsletter/sales emails, and a different person writing your marketing brochures, it really shows.
It’s confusing. It makes your brand – or your brand communications – sound like a bunch of people arguing in a lift.
People start to identify with a brand, and become familiar with it, when they instantly recognise a piece of communication as being from ‘company X’ because of that company’s consistent tone of voice.
If the tone, across communications, is always different then it’s jarring.
You don’t have to go to a copywriter if you have someone competent in-house, but please – with a maraschino cherry on top – use the same person across all of your written material.
Too many writers spoil the broth …. yeah, that title still doesn’t work.