As a copywriter and communications strategist, I’m often asked to help a business find its voice. It’s a challenging and rewarding task.

The business owner or marketing manager knows how they want to sound, but don’t know how to make that sound. They might say, “We want to sound like Virgin.” Or, “We want to sound cool, clever, and creative.”

But one person’s cool and clever is another person’s condescending and dumb.

The first thing I do when helping a business find its voice is to have conversations. With the CEO/business owner, with the sales team, with the receptionist. I get a handle on the culture of the company.

I then start playing around with the language which emerges and apply it to a piece of communications – a brochure, web page or letter. It will soon become evident to my client whether the writing is too conversational, or too dry.

This process of trial and error is invaluable. Because language is a subjective thing – and what a client thinks they’ve asked for may be different to what I’ve heard.

Once we’ve agreed on the tone, it’s easy to refine the communications guidelines and make them unique to the business. You can stipulate all manner of things relating to the voice, language and writing:

• Tone
• Keywords or buzzwords
• Use of bullet points or lists
• Openings and closings
• Punctuation
• Length of sentences and paragraphs

The list goes on. By investing a bit of time in developing a communications guide, you will not only “find your voice” but have the confidence to use it time and again.

How did your business find its voice? I’d love to hear from you.