By: Chris Piehler
We live in an era of text-based communication. In both our personal and professional lives, more and more conversations that used to happen face-to-face or over the phone are now conducted via email or text message. Removing tone of voice and body language from these conversations means that each word carries a heavier burden of meaning. (And don’t get me started on the importance of exclamation points to show enthusiasm!)
What does this mean for ed tech marketers? Well, obviously, it means that you need to think before you email (or tweet or snap or pin). In the bigger picture, though, it means that building relationships with your prospects, leads, and clients is now much more like online dating. The goal is the same as it has always been, but to get there, you have to show your scintillating personality without seeing, touching, or even speaking to the other person. And that means you need a clear, consistent, and distinctive voice for your company.
I’m not talking about hiring Alec Baldwin to do radio commercials. I’m talking about developing, displaying, and refining a personality that represents what you do and why you do it. Defining your company’s voice raises a number of essential questions, but I’m going to focus on three of them—and because I don’t like to leave you hanging, I’ll throw in an action item to help you answer each one.
What form(s) of communication do you use? The container you pick often says as much as the content itself. For example, whitepapers lend you a serious, academic air, while blog posts can be more casual and fun. An ebook says, “I have gathered best practices over time and would like to share them with you at your leisure,” while a press release says, “we have something exciting to announce and share with the world right now.”
When it comes to sharing your writing via social media, posting a businesslike link on LinkedIn is a world away from sharing a disappearing comment on SnapChat. Like so many aspects of ed tech marketing, choosing the form and venue for your outreach depends on who exactly you’re trying to reach.
Action Item: Take one of your user stories and write it in two different forms. Share both forms on two different social media platforms and compare the engagement data.
What tone do you take? No matter what you’re writing, tone is the dressing on your word salad. Is your tone playful, earnest, foreboding? When we talk about tone here at PRP, I always go back to “lively and conversational.” Our goal is for every reader to read everything we write from beginning to end, so we keep it light and quick. Speaking of which…
Action item: Pick two to three words that define the tone you want to convey. Make them your desktop wallpaper or print them out and post them where they’re always visible. See how this affects your content ideas, headlines, and word choices.
What visuals do you use? If tone is the dressing on your word salad, visuals are the fresh ground pepper that really sets it apart from the everyday. Your logo is literally the face of your company, and your choice of photos or illustrations further defines how your customers see you as a company.
Action item: Take a short user story and illustrate it only with photographs that you have the rights to use. Then lay out the same article with only illustrations that you have the rights to use. Compare, contrast, and decide which one conveys the personality of your company better.
Once you feel confident in your company’s voice, get out there and use it to shout your message from the rooftops!
Thanks for sharing!