Myth busting
Five tone of voice fallacies
When it comes to brand communication, tone of voice (TOV) is more than just words on a screen, page or pack. It’s the expression of your brand’s values, personality and identity. It tells your audiences who you are and helps turn blazé customers into ‘brand champions’.
But, like many things “brand”, it’s also one area where it’s hard to quantify value: is it really worth the investment? What difference does it make? And can’t AI just do it for me? Here we give our take on the top five TOV myths and misconceptions:
1: Everyone writes in their own way – so a consistent TOV will stifle creativity
Of course, every writer is different. We all have our own stylistic tics and favourite turns of phrase. The best brands tone of voice guidelines will harness this creativity, while also giving it focus. In the same way that a brand might choose a style of photography or colour palette, a clear set of brand voice guidelines gives clear parameters, allowing writers to centre their copy around a clear north star.
2: AI can do tone of voice
This is true, to a point. AI can transform an extract into whatever tone you choose – whether it’s William Wordsworth or Donald Trump. There are plenty of technical tools to transform your copy and make it more professional, lyrical, witty or wise. But there are also risks associated with trusting your tone to AI:
What should your tone be?
Tone of voice by AI is a bit of a Pandora's box. It’s too quick. Too easy. And often means copy can be written with little thought for the basics: what do you want to say? How do you want to sound? How does this differ from your competitors? Without this clarity, there’s a risk that your voice won’t reflect your brand.
Where’s the human connection?
The most effective ‘tone of voice’ creates deeper connections with your audience. It’s not purely a superficial exercise. It can be as precise as a choice between two words. It’s nuanced, the product of human intuition, emotional intelligence and appreciation of context and audience.
It could sound very familiar
Generative AI searches multiple sources to determine what ‘professional’ or ‘friendly’ sounds like. Then it gives you the most ‘average’ of the options it finds. This is fine if you are looking for an ‘okay’ result, but you run the risk that it will sound much the same as your nearest competitor.
It’s all down to the prompting
AI will give you a quick, but often very literal answer to the challenge you pose. It struggles to make tangential leaps. Or even question if something’s worth saying at all. Without clear – and individualised – prompts, the results can be heavy handed, salesy or cringe inducing.
3: My creative agency looks after my tone of voice
Many bigger brands believe that their creative agency has their tone of voice all in hand. After all, aren’t they already running campaigns? But tone of voice isn’t just for 28pt headlines. It needs to be applied consistently across every touchpoint – from customer service emails and social media posts to internal comms and product descriptions.
4: We’ve done our tone of voice – it’s in our brand guidelines
Brand guidelines are not the end of the tone of voice journey. In some ways, they’re the beginning. And they should be integrated into your team’s everyday practice. Regular tone of voice training and refresher sessions based on them should be a living, breathing part of your brand – rather than the guidelines sitting on a shared drive gathering digital dust.
5: We don’t need a tone of voice anyway…
Some brands (more often those in the B2B space) believe that putting effort into tone of voice is unnecessary, as their products or services speak for themselves. However, in a crowded marketplace, how you talk is every bit as important as what you’re saying.
But every brand has a tone of voice – whether they realise it or not. If you don’t define it consciously, it will emerge organically – and it might not be the one you want.
Why a distinctive sound counts
Tone of voice isn’t just a nice-to-have – it’s a critical part of how your brand communicates and resonates with your audience. Get it right and it becomes one of the most powerful tools in your marketing toolkit. Get it wrong – or neglect it altogether – and you’re missing out.
If you’re refreshing your tone of voice – or considering how it adapts to an AI world – then please get in touch. Drop us a line at info@inkcopywriters.com and we’ll get to work.
