CopyDiva

Many companies spend big bucks to flesh out their brand personality, hoping to infuse the final results across the board in all of their communications. But, does that really happen? Many times, brand personality gets lost when translated into online content — web content, blog posts, online help and customer support communications — because it is just so hard for the wide group of people charged with writing these communications to try and write with one voice.

What’s a corporation to do? On the one hand, it’s good to present consistent-sounding communications to people — it makes them feel more comfortable, reduces their anxiety when dealing with you. On the flip side, I admit that “corporate-speak” is kind of creepy and reinforces anxiety from a site visitor, customer, prospect, angry customer, etc, that really no human beings work there.

My opinion: when there are too many rules about what you can say, and how you can say it, you really sound like you’re saying nothing. I see this all the time when companies have extensive style guides (think more than 4-5 pages for writing style guides) and rules about what’s allowed. Unless someone is a really fantastic copywriter, you’re left with the icky corporate-speak that reduces readability and makes your company sound fake.

Most people find writing to be torture activity (go ahead, ask your colleagues that are not writers). Introducing too many rules just makes people freeze up and lose their will to make a coherent sentence.

How to sound real, not fake
Remember, online content of all kinds needs personality in order to make it compelling enough to read. Reading on-screen is tiring and people are willing to read less and less. So, save the corporate-speak for the board room and use real language to talk to your customers, prospects and other readers.

Some general rules to follow when writing anything you want someone outside your company to read:

1. Speak the language of your audience: Use words they understand and are comfortable with.
2. Use a tone that instills confidence and familiarity: Even more important than #1, the more your tone fits, the more likely the reader will connect with it. For example, a communication to customers about security would most likely have a more formal or respectful tone than, say, a customer support communication, where a friendly tone might work better to reduce anxiety.
3. Toss most style guide rules aside (for now): Follow rules for spelling, trademark use, stuff like that. Leave the rest behind, take a deep breadth and try to understand how a reader might feel before reading your communication — happy? confused? frustrated? interested? Work your tone to fit. After your get the tone right, go back and see if you can manage to squeeze in any of the style guide requirements.