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If Your Business had a Voice, Who would it Sound Like?
| Guest post by: Stacy Karacostas |
Article Overview: Every business has a voice that comes through in your marketing. That voice has the power to grab your prospect’s attention and hold it, or make them turn away in boredom or frustration. So if you’ve never given the voice of your business a second thought it’s time to reconsider.
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If Your Business had a Voice, Who would it Sound Like?
Does your marketing sound most like...
Your last economics teacher...?
A frazzled work-at-home mom with two kids...?
A charming but cheeky young British girl...?
A super-techie computer nerd...?
Ryan Seacrest...?
And even more importantly, how do your prospects respond to that voice?
If you don’t know, or have never even thought about it, you really should. Because whether you realize it or not, every business—even yours—has a voice. And that voice has the power to grab your prospect’s attention and hold it, or make them turn away in frustration.
It can set you far, far apart from your competition, or make your products or services sound like the same old same old. And it can create passionate raving fans or cause people to yawn in boredom.
So if you’ve never given the voice of your business and marketing a second thought, it’s time to reconsider.
You see, anytime someone reads a piece of your marketing or advertising, visits your Website, watches a video you made, or generally comes into contact with your business they are exposed to that voice. It’s in the words you choose and the way you talk…Even on paper (IE: copywriting).
Sadly, most entrepreneurs use the same stale, dry, academic, “professional” voice we all learned writing term papers and scientific reports. BORING!
And as the great ad man David Ogilvy once said, “You can never bore someone into doing business with you.”
That means it’s important for your company to have a voice that at a minimum is warm, friendly and engaging. Ideally, you want it to sound a lot like your customer’s best friend.
Of course, maybe you’re thinking “But I sell B to B.” Or, I’m in a business where I have to be as formal and professional as possible.”
Listen, I’m not saying you have to be unprofessional. I’m saying you need to sound like a human instead of a textbook—no matter what you’re selling or who you’re selling to.
This holds true whether you sell to businesses, or you’re a lawyer, financial planner, mortician, or high-tech company. Because in the end you’re still always speaking—and selling—to a person.
So at the least you should sound like someone they could relate to and like. If you can find a way to be quirky, funny, hip, suave or interesting in a way that’s appealing to your prospect, even better.
How exactly do you go about creating an effective voice for your marketing copywriting?
I’m going to lay it out for you here in 5 simple steps:
Step #1 – Do a little research on your ideal customer. Look at the Websites, online networking forums, magazines and books they read or participate in. Figure out who they are and what they like and sound like.
Step #2 – Decide what type of voice you think will most appeal to your IDEAL client or customer (NOT everyone who might buy from you). Don’t be afraid to be different. You want a voice that appeals specifically to the type of people you most want attract.
Step #3 – Make a list of the common words and phrases you see and hear when doing your research or talking to prospects and customers. Then grab a piece of marketing you’ve already written, or write one the way you normally would, and put your list of words and phrases at the top.
For example, if I was writing for a wedding store, I’d use words like: Elegant, inspired, enchanting, irresistible, magical, memories, unexpected, fanciful, captivating...
On the other hand, if I was writing to sell a high tech gadget to teens, I’d use words like: Sweet, nano, sweatin’, flip, cool, pals, tunes, customize...
Step #4 – Go through your marketing and search for places where you can substitute in the words and phrases from your list. Also try to get rid of as many 50 cent words as possible (IE: words with three or more syllables), even if all you do is substitute one or two shorter words not on your list.
Step #5 – Read what you’ve written out loud, or have someone else read it out loud to you. Now edit it so flows smoothly and sounds like a real person speaking directly to you.
Bottom line, creating a unique voice is all about the vocabulary you choose. So find interesting, specific words that resonate with your customer and use them to make your marketing—and your business—stand out from the crowd.
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About the Author: Stacy Karacostas RSS for Stacy's articles - Visit Stacy's website Practical Marketing Expert and Business Lifestyle Architect Stacy Karacostas is on a mission to end entrepreneurial overwhelm and burnout! Discover how to grow a thriving, six-figure business-and still have life-by downloading your FREE copy of her "Success without Shackles Starter Kit" at http://www.TheUnchainedEntrepreneur.com Click here to visit Stacy's website   BusinessBuilding Lessons Learned in 2009 What HighlySuccessful Small Business Owners Are Doing that You Can Do Too Get More Clients by Making Your Marketing Materials the Life of the Party How to Write Articles at Light Speed and Use Them to Market Your Small Business Is Temporary Insanity Keeping You From Growing Your Small Business If Your Business had a Voice Who would it Sound Like |
Related Forum Posts
Voice SMS!
- Ashish,
I enjoy sending txt messages and it seems faster to send a Voice one than txt.
How do you plan on informing the user that there is a limitation to the amount of voice you can record in a Voice SMS? I believe txt has about 168 character limit.
Re: This is your life... Make every moment count!
- Sound like a winner David, guess I will pay more attention to my pininterest account
Voice SMS
- Ashish,
Is this a Voice message that will be converted to Text and then sent via sms so that the recipient is reading text?
My entry
- 1. The Best Business Books Ever: The 100 Most Influential Business Books You'll Never Have Time to Read
- this is a fascinating book about the history of Business theory, and I'd recommend it to anybody.
2. The Big Book of Small Business: You Don't Have to Run Your Business by the Seat of Your Pants, by Tom Gegax. Ditto.
3. PADI: The Business of Diving Book
Okay, so this book won't be of use to anyone who doesn't want to start a scuba store, but I did, and this book was of course invaluable to me in reaching that goal.
Re: Off to Disney World
- Sound like a long vacation at Disney, California, Florida or
My shortest trip to Disney was about an hour in the parking lot, and we had tickets for 8-10 people, but that is a story for another day
enjoy yourself
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