You spend a lot of time on your articles, blog posts, press releases, and social media posts. Crafting, proofreading, revising, making sure your grammar is flawless before publication.
How would you feel if all that work, all those meticulous edits, meant nothing at all in terms of how readable your content actually is?
Finding the correct tone for one’s audience is a common problem amongst marketing professionals. But don’t worry! We have a few pointers for identifying your targeted audience’s personality and perfect voice before you even put your fingers to the keys.
Why a voice is crucial
The voice you lend to your content is what gives a brand its personality. Think of the most exciting story you’ve read; more than likely, you did so with a specific tone, or voice, in mind and that was part of what kept you hooked through the final chapter.
The same can be said for any marketing materials or articles you publish. Anything can be made dry and dull if it lacks personality, including your brand.
Age isn’t just a number.
The first key to identifying a brand’s preferred tone of voice is in categorizing your audience. How do you want to differentiate the people you wish to speak from those you feel won’t get as much from your messaging? What parameters do you set to tailor your content to best suit them? A few particulars to consider:
- Age: Millennials, Baby Boomers, Generation X – everyone has their own concerns and priorities, contributing to what parts of your content will speak most effectively.
- Geographical area: You wouldn’t market boating supplies to a neighborhood located in the middle of a desert or mountain climbing equipment to the people inhabiting a part of the country characterized by flat grasslands. Or, you might if you were incredibly optimistic. Depending on your content, where your audience calls home might dictate some of what you say to them.
- Financial standing and lifestyle: No one likes to talk money, but it’s something you have to consider quite frequently, especially if you want your content to yield results. Just as was mentioned with the location above, we must think about someone’s financial status. After all, a single parent will be more interested in back-to-school organizational articles than will most multi-millionaires.
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The core of the matter.
Perhaps most influential on your overall tone and voice will be your purpose. Why are you writing this article for this particular set of people? What do you hope to gain from taking the time and effort to reach out and post your content to the greater public’s scrutiny?
Three primary purposes can be identified as typical motivations for writing or arguments in general:
- To inform
- To persuade
- Or to entertain
In marketing a product or idea, you’ll typically focus on the first two, but that doesn’t mean you can’t be informative and engaging or persuasive with an edge of witty humor. That distinction circles back to our earlier discussion of specific audience identifiers and are ultimately up to the author.
Once you understand a bit of the type of people you want to communicate with and their journey as a buyer, it’s easy enough to tailor your message to fit an approach. This tactic works in reverse, as well; if you already know precisely what you want to sell or present, you’ll be able to handpick your desired audience from those facts alone.
We hope this helps you start to develop a voice suitable to your audience as you move forward with your marketing and promotional efforts. When you get that perfect message crafted, check out our article on translating that content to coincide with digital marketing strategies. Here at Sage Island, content is our business, and finding the correct way to convey it for our clients? That’s just the best and biggest part of the job.