You’ve heard fellow business owners and marketing managers talking about brand tone of voice. But how do you know when’s the best time to get it sorted? Here are 4 ways to tell you’re ready for a tone of voice guide for your business.

You don’t have enough hours in the day

Maybe you’re doing all the writing yourself and it’s time to bring in some help. Only how are you going to make sure they write the way you want?

Or perhaps you’ve already got a writing team but even the simplest social post is taking too many hours to get right. You’re constantly reviewing copy that just doesn’t feel on brand, but you can’t put your finger on why.

Reclaim your evenings and spare yourself the drama of a million rewrites for a passable result. A strong brand voice guide will allow you to delegate without the drama. You’ll spend less time checking and rewriting work, and more time doing the stuff you started your business to do.

Your writers are on the struggle bus

And what about your writers? Are they exhausted and demoralised from late nights trying to nail your brand’s voice? Or, worse, are you losing them in droves as they jump ship to your competitor? Are you left finding, onboarding and supporting new writers as they struggle up the same steep learning curve?

Maybe you got lucky. You’ve got one legend of a writer who completely gets it. But what about when they go on holiday or, heaven forbid, quit to go travelling and find themselves in Indonesia?

Protect yourself, your content and your business from change with a strong tone of voice guide. Make sure that new hires feel supported and capable of delivering their best work, rather than hiding behind the one colleague who holds the key to all your content.

You’re making a wider change to company culture

Do you find there’s friction between teams within your business? And when you get to the root of why, it was nothing more than a poorly worded email or a misconstrued slight in a company communication.

Are you working towards an update to company culture but struggling to make real change at employee level?

Set the tone for internal communication and support top-down culture change with a grassroots guide to how you expect employees to relate to each other. A tone of voice guide will get you there.

You’re growing or relaunching

It’s all change in your HQ. Maybe you’re welcoming new team members, gearing up for a major launch or planning a huge marketing push. Perhaps it’s time for a change in direction and you’re already working on some new branding, packaging or marketing materials.

Make the most of this time of change by matching it with a tone of voice upgrade your customers will notice. A tone of voice guide will help you and your team adapt to the change at the speed you need.

First published on lumenandfoxwords.com