Every one of us uses a range of voices and which one we choose is, of course, down to context.

‍

How we talk and joke with our friends is very different to how we communicate at work. We modify our speech patterns and accents according to who we are talking to and what we are talking about. Even if you don’t have one yourself (or so you think!) you probably know people with telephone voices that are quite distinct from their normal ones.

‍

Just as the spoken word is affected by tone of voice, so too is the written word.  

Here, though, the choice of tone can – and should – be given more conscious consideration. Written words generally have more permanence than spoken ones so you really need readers to pick up the tone you intended.

Again, context is key.

A brochure promoting a product will usually have a different tone to one setting out technical specifications. A blog piece on a particular theme will typically reflect more of its author’s personality and views than an equivalent article in a trade magazine. In marketing as a whole, the general trend has been towards more personal, informal tones, reflecting how society has become less formal as a whole. (Are there any companies whose managers still insist on underlings addressing them with their title and surname?) Copy directly addressing the reader is the norm now: ‘Choose your model/colour/size’, ‘Which one is your favourite?’, ‘Come and visit us’.

‍

The way some companies use tone has given them a very distinctive voice. The various Virgin entities all use particularly informal, often downright colloquial language in their communications. For example, Virgin Trains covers planned engineering that could affect customer journeys under the heading ‘Spanner in the works’. The language it uses is a key part of what has made Virgin one of the most recognised British brands and enabled it to stand out from the competition.

‍

However much you might want to create a clearly identifiable voice, though, context still trumps branding.

Delivering bad news, handling sensitive issues or responding to complaints in friendly banter will not endear you to the recipients and could easily lead to a PR disaster. Although you might consider yourself a sound judge of tone, where the subject matter is tricky it’s worth testing your language on a cross-section of colleagues; it’s all too easy to give offence, or make a difficult situation even worse, by using the ‘wrong’ tone.

‍