Tone of voice is one of those phrases that can sound really intimidating from a branding point of view, especially when you're setting up a new business. But put simply it's just how you communicate with your audience – the type of words, the sentence structure and your writing style. And as a wedding industry copy and content writer, I'd like to share just why this is so important, and how you can create the right tone of voice for your wedding or creative business.
Why your wedding business needs a tone of voice
Finding the right tone of voice for your wedding business is crucial because it helps to convey your values and your expertise, sets you apart from your competitors and creates consistency in your communications. It needs to be authentic to your business, so it resonates with your ideal client and makes that all-important emotional connection.
When used in tandem with your visual branding (logo, brand photos, colours), tone of voice can really elevate your wedding business and instantly create the right impression for your ideal clients.
How to find the perfect tone of voice for your wedding business
In order to find your tone of voice, you need to take a deep dive into your wedding business and consider your values, your story and your unique selling point. Think about what kind of people you want to work with – and those you don't.
Once you've outlined what your business is and who it's for, you can start selecting the vocabulary and sentence structure to express this. Do you want to be encouraging? Inspirational? Enthusiastic? Chatty? Formal? Humorous? Professional? Do you want to have short, snappy sentences that cut straight to the chase, or do you prefer more lyrical writing with longer sentences? Keep your ideal client front and centre, and make sure you're tailoring your writing style to them.
It can be helpful to compile a list of words and phrases that you want to use in your copy to help keep your tone of voice consistent. And on the flipside, you could also create a list of words and phrases you definitely don't ever want to use! For example, in my own personal TOV you will never see the words "gal", "wanna" and "slide into my DMs". Not that there's anything wrong with these, but they just aren't a comfortable fit for me and my business.
Another point to consider is how you want to refer to you/your business on your website. It might be that you'd like to use the first person throughout your copy ("I'm a creative copywriter with over 14 years' experience"), as this can immediately create a friendly persona and reinforce the person behind the brand. You could also opt to refer to yourself in the third person ("With over 14 years of experience, Helen Dorritt offers a range of copywriting and content writing services"). This can set a more formal tone and is sometimes more appropriate for the clients you're wanting to work with.
If you're running a wedding or creative business, chances are it's built on your passion and creativity, so your tone of voice will very likely be linked to you and your personality. So it's also important you pick a tone of voice for the business that feels like a natural fit. This also helps to manage people's expectations when they meet you in person. If your website copy is nothing like the way you speak and come across in person, there'll be a jar and a disconnect, which could lead to potential clients thinking you're not the right wedding business for them.
This is a really great guide to tone of voice dimensions that shows how just tweaking a few words really makes a massive difference to how your business comes across.
Why I love creating tone of voice guidelines for wedding businesses
I have a certain tone of voice that I use for all my business comms – it's what you're reading here, what you'll find on the rest of my website, and in things like my newsletter and my Instagram captions.
But one of the (many) things I love about writing is getting to work on varying tones of voice.
Take two magazines I've worked on: the audience for Gardens Illustrated is very different to Simply Crochet – the former is more informative and serious, the latter is more quirky and fun. (So I get to use loads of puns, which makes me really happy!) Or two of my email clients – English Heritage's reader is not the same as Girlguiding's, so I switch up my words and sentence structure to fit each brand's tone of voice.
When it comes to wedding clients, check out the differences in tone of voice for these two About pages that I wrote. Rosalind Miller Cakes uses a third person approach and is much more formal than the first person, more chatty style on The Little Wedding Helper's About page.
So if you're struggling to define your tone of voice, I'd love to help. Drop me a message if you want to chat about copy and content that feels authentic to your brand, talks to your ideal client and showcases your expertise.
This is a really helpful post, thank you Helen!