Speaking with one voice - how to get a personality

Speaking with one voiceHow to develop a distinctive personality

Acrolinx linguistic technology helps some of the world’s greatest brands

speak with one voice

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Software Aerospace Financial Hightech Healthcare Engineering

… and stand out in the crowd

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Everyone is competing for eyeballs

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Everyone is competing for eyeballs

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!"!!!!!'100!!!'200!!!'300!!!'400!!!'500!!!'600!!!'700!!!'800!!!'900!!

!1'000!!

1400s! 1500s! 1600s! 1700s!

Millions'

Books'printed'

”The world is moving so fast these days that the man who says it can't be done is generally interrupted by someone doing it.”

Elbert Hubbard († 1915)

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Most companies react to the content overload by …

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… creating more content

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“This content is not for us” Kristina Halvorson

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No one cares about you, they only care about themselves

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Empathy

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What’s in this presentation for you?

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How to help your organization actually genuinely get better at

content!

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But wait, what's the plan?

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(Kristina H. again)

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"Content Strategy" is the plan

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Define your target audience

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The target audience is in the middle of everything…

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"We will share user-facing task-based content that makes our customers feel smart and safe, both personally and professionally.”

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So, we all know that we "just" need content and lots of it! But not just any content, it needs to be great content, ...

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... that speaks your customer’s language and engages them.

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With language and tone-of-voice, you project your personality

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© Roger Perry

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Content x Tone = Impact

(Doug Kessler @dougkessler) 

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Destroy. All. Robot. Language.

modify change perform do

purchase buy terminate end navigate go

image picture toggle switch obtain get

configure set up execute run resolve fix enable allow

halt stop value number

before after

Voice at Microsoft

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Voice at EasyJet

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This is how you stand out in the crowd, get interest and trust

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One market-leading tech company anonymized their content and tested it on customers against the competition

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NO ONE COULD TELL THE DIFFERENCE!

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So take your tone seriously, it's a critical part of your brand. 

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"Nowadays, everyone is in marketing"

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You just need to get everyone in the organization creating great content that

works.

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Cats are not allowed in this garden

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So, more content and better content…

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How?

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Well, two things are certain: 1. Doing nothing is not an option

2. Doing what you've done up to now is not an option

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Doing either of these things is a high-risk strategy. This is one of those

moments in history...

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1. Set Standards - Words & Phrases (brand, message, what do we call what we do?)

- Tone of Voice (write like a human, not a robot)

- Be Brave! (or at least don't be scared)

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This is about making your tone explicit, and getting away from

simple personas and adjectives

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Personal:

College-age children

Golfer

Career-focussed

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Which is better for a golfer?

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Is this your style guide?

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You need to make your guidance actionable

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2. Give your content teams guidance, not just training

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3. Get Governance: Measure your content constantly

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Our work is personal together

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Help your teams speak with one voice