There’s nothing quite writing the perfect blog, all your points meeting seamlessly, your summary tying it all together, and then three people read it.

What gives?!

When we speak to one another, our voices are an amazing gift that conveys emotion, meaning, and how we want our words to be perceived. That’s why so many hard conversations are worth having in person as someone can read our body language, our inflections, and how we’re carrying the topic.

Tone is described as how we let the person we’re communicating with understand our feelings and attitudes towards the topic we’re talking on. This is similarly translated into our writing, but tone in written word can be much harder to discover.

In verbal communication we have several indicators that help us including tone of voice, physical cues (eye contact, slight body movements, etc.) and what we’re actually saying.

But in written communication, we have to try a little harder. More descriptors are needed to show instead of telling the reader what we want them to know. The key of writing is to get a reader’s attention, pull them in, and then reward them for staying.

Let’s check some examples of this:

“Peter is a little suspicious.”

Alright that doesn’t really help us to determine the “why” or “how” and we’re left with a vague notion of Peter without any clarification. Let’s clean that up!

“The way he carries himself along with his consistent disregard for others makes Peter a little suspicious. Sometimes I catch him hoarding money in the small cupboard of his room like he’s afraid someone will take it.”

Ah, did you see what needed to happen? We needed to answer some of the audience’s questions!

This is equally important in writing for your ideal audience. If you own and operate an HVAC company and your homepage says, “We do it better than the rest”, your audience will NOT understand how or why. Here’s an example of how to flip the tone:

“At ACME HVAC, we set ourselves above our competitors by offering FREE quotes and 50% off your first diagnostic.”

Adding a few more descriptors helped pulled together why ACME HVAC is the better choice.

So how does one establish their tone in writing?

First, what is your brand’s voice? Is your company very professional, playful, funny, or straight forward? Nailing down the voice and how you would like to come across is step number one.

For instance, I’m playful and funny in person and I like that being reflected in my business! When you meet me, you’ll quickly notice I’m just myself. I personally wanted that to be the same in my business. All of my writing that I do for my website and social media is very much lighthearted, conversational, and fun.

Take some time to determine what your unique voice is for your brand, and practice developing it!

While we don’t have the benefits of sight and sound in written communication like verbal, careful steps can be taken to determine proper word choice, consider perspective, and look closely at your sentence structure. It all ties together to bring your tone fully into the spotlight!

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