LINK TO ARTICLE: https://www.smashingmagazine.com/2012/03/the-art-of-content-marketing/

 

TONE OF VOICE & STYLE:

Many brands begin writing before they have an established tone of voice.  This will only lead to inconsistency; they use the analogy that its kind of like using one logo for your website, another for a brochure, and another for your blog.

When speaking to people or telling someone about something you can read facial expressions in order to gauge how they’re responding to what you’re saying, and you can adjust what you’re talking about to match their needs better.  When speaking, you’re constantly receiving feedback from the other person whether it be body language or verbal.  The web offers no feedback until your content is published however, and then it’s too late.

The article encourages you to think of a person who best represents the brand you’re going for (whether they’re fictional or real), and then think of adjectives to describe that person.  After thinking of adjectives such as the ones below, you should make a table in order to decide what they do and don’t mean.

Style guides are also an extremely useful tool so that writers keep things consistent.

 

 

USING SIMPLE LANGUAGE:

It’s very common for people to use overly complicated language in order to sound corporate or professional.  Don’t use large words just to sound intelligent, this is off-putting to readers and often extremely transparent.  Using simple wording usually limits the number of words in your work and will therefore motivate users to read it.  Using easy wording like this will also allow it to be much more understandable to them, and they will be able to digest what you’re saying more easily.

 

HAVE OPINIONS:

DuckDuckGo is a great example of how displaying your opinions to the audience will put you in a better place over your competitors.  It’s positioned itself as the “antithesis of Google”, launching websites that criticise how Google tracks you and puts you in a bubble.  However, it does this subtly without mentioning googles company name.

Having strong opinions as well as broadcasting these opinions means that DuckDuckGo has been able to attract people to the company, either by validating the views of the allies or by bringing awareness to the problem and then telling people how they’re going to solve it.

 

TEACH:

Try and identify problems that the audience has and things that you could help them with.  Allow your website to tell them the answers to these problems within the first few words.

 

DO SOMETHING DIFFERENT:

Make your content interesting by without necessarily saying anything new.  The article gives examples such as: writing a comprehensive article on a topic that has only pieces of information about it scattered about the web, or using a different format for a topic that always gets the same treatment- for example instead of writing “the fiftieth blog post” on a topic, be the person to shoot the first video about it.

 

TELL A STORY:

Creating a narrative within the website you’re creating can be a fantastic way to keep users engaged.  Storytelling is fundamental to human interaction, and it can make your content more compelling and a brand more engaging.

For example, Ikea is an example of a brand that tells storys that generate opinions about the company.  An example of this is when it talks about its Swedish roots, painting a romantic image of a wholesome and natural society