Lauren Pope, Gather Content
Lauren Pope loves voice, tone and style guides. Me too.
It started for Lauren on her first day working in content; the style guide she was given was like a printed A4 comfort blanket, “giving me reassurance and confidence.” And her love hasn’t diminished over the years either; “I still find them invaluable for writing and editing, and I see them as part of the foundation for a solid content programme.”
In a recent post, she wrote: Despite this, they’re not a part of the content ecosystem that we talk about a lot, and there’s a surprising amount of complacency about voice, tone and style. I regularly come across brands that:
- Don’t have a set of guidelines at all
- Have guidelines that aren’t fit for purpose
- have guidelines that sit ignored on a shared drive.
If you fit into any of these categories, I’d like to try and win you over to my way of thinking. In this post I’ll look at the value of voice, tone, and style guides, and take you through a couple of different processes for creating one.
Why you need a voice, tone and style guide
It’s easy to assume that brand voice just comes naturally. And it may well do, if you have a small central team creating content, who all have intimate experience of the brand, think identically and will never leave the business.
If this isn’t your situation, you need a voice, tone and style guide. Why? Putting one in place will …
Check out the reasons why in full at Gather Content.