Here's a 100% true story about how I ditched my approach to tone of voice in B2B website copywriting.
And then created a new methodology that is helping my clients win more leads and customers.
Read it and use it – I promise this works.
So before my, er, Awakening 🪷, I subscribed to the Sliding Scale Tone of Voice model.
🤖 At one extreme, robot android walking with stiff arms and legs and talking about ‘passion’ and ‘commitment’. (I just counted and there are 6,547,567,439 of these sites on the internet.)
🤡 At the other, that cloying and needy Innocent Smoothie style, which probably worked circa 2003 but feels like too many cheap sweets now.
I never wrote according to either of these extremes. My copywriting clients fitted somewhere in between, leaning a little towards one end or the other.
So far, so good.
⚠️ Shameless brag alert ⚠️ Along with an agency client, I even bagged a few industry awards for an internal communications magazine. The ToV was particularly singled out for its groundbreaking and engaging style. 😚
But guess what? When you’ve run a copywriting and content marketing company since around forever, this approach gives you very little room for manoeuvre. There’s basically seven tones to choose from. 🥱
And that’s no way for a business to find a truly authentic voice and create a point of difference from the competition.
Meanwhile…
With my journalist hat on, I began interviewing leaders in industry for a digital magazine I was looking after as a managing editor. Doing these in-depth interviews reminded me of the power of ‘real’ voices.
These people had pretty strong opinions – and my job was to tease out their stories and let them shine through.
That’s when I started to understand that my tone of voice could be SO much better.
Up to this point, my way of working was to have a quickish chat with business owners and go away and manufacture a tone. (And, yes, I tremble a little at that word ‘manufacture’, too.) It was all 'process' and 'copywriting'.
My recent industry interviews made me finally realise that it was time stopped being (just) a copywriter for my clients and start being a journalist again – and a listener.
And THAT’s how I was going to move off the limiting sliding scale model and start producing something unique.
Voices that were full of:
✅ Passion for their subject
✅ Notable turns of phrase and analogies (that I could never have dreamed up in a million years)
✅ Invauable insight into the market and the customer
It’s totally changed my POV on introducing tone of voice into copywriting. My clients’ websites are now brimming with real voice, passion and sincerity. They stand out from the competition – in a very good way.
🫵 The takeaway: Whether you’re writing your website content in-house or with a copywriter, make it your mission to base your approach on real voices.
🫵 Of course, you're going to process and smooth things out a little for general consumption.
🫵 BUT if you make the fundamentals of your copywriting approach great interviews with your people, their voices will set the tone and shine.
🫵 And you’ll have credible messages that command attention, build trust and grow those lovely sales. 🚀 🚀🚀
Martin Philp is co-owner of Coast Copywriting, a content marketing agency based in Penzance, UK. Find out more about Coast's Website Content Writer Services, Content Strategy Services, Content Marketing Consultant Services and Blog Writing Services.
Further reading
How to Write Content for Websites That Actually Wins Leads and Sales provides an overview on writing website content, looking at general principles.
How to Write a Business Website Homepage: a Step-by-Step Guide provides a detailed breakdown of the elements you'll need in a client-winning homepage – and reveals how to write them.
Tone of Voice in Copywriting: Here's How I Changed My Approach to Build More Sales For My Clients will give you an insight into how to develop a persuasive voice for your B2B business.