Using the right tone of voice to suit your audience...B2B Marketing Seminar - Taking it to the next level Using the right tone of voice to suit your audience 10th March 2011 Gifford

B2B Marketing Seminar - Taking it to the next level

Using the right tone of voice to suit your audience

10th March 2011

Gifford Morley-Fletcher

Director of Strategy, Inbound Marketing

I’m going to talk about


- Setting the scene: how things were and how they are today

- Your audience: the different ways to define it - there are several!

- The importance of knowing your landscape

- Understanding your resources

- The different tones of voice

- Summary

In the past - a captive audience


Tone of voice was often one sided


Today you’re a voice in the crowd


Hey! Listen to me not them...

And we’re not so important


So what do we mean by ‘your audience’?


Industry

Job titleDiscipline

Sales Funnel

Channel

Clients

Influencers

Press

Start by plotting your landscape


Who’s talking?

What are they saying?

How are they saying it?

Where are they saying it?

Now you know who you are talking to and where

Understand your resources - how much can you do?


Twitter - needs daily attention

Blogging - at least once a week

LinkedIn - up to once a day

Monitoring and responding - an hour a day?

White papers - 2 per month

PR - once a month

Now you know how much you are going to do

The 6 tones of voice


Informative Authoritative Helpful

Controversial Fun Personal

Informative




When to use it:

safe, toe in the water, all the time

Type of content:

news, official announcements

Channels:

Twitter, blogs, PR, LinkedIn

Resource required:

Minimal - enough to distribute news

Platforms offer

Body text goes here

Title goes here

Authoritative




When to use it:

When establishing your position in a subject area

Type of content:

Thought-leadership

Channels:

Twitter, blogs, white papers, LinkedIn, video,

Slideshare

Resource required:

Part to full-time

Helpful




When to use it:

When establishing your expertise - passive selling

Type of content:

How-to’s, responding to questions, direct customer

service contact

Channels:

Twitter, blogs, LinkedIn, forums, video, Slideshare

Resource required:

Full-time

Controversial




When to use it:

Tactically - attached to a specific campaign, or when

building awareness

Type of content:

Comments on current news, criticism of content or

products

Channels:

Twitter, blogs, LinkedIn, forums

Resource required:

On a campaign basis - full-time for a period

Fun




When to use it:

Tactically - attached to a specific campaign, or when

building awareness. Ongoing depending on your

audience

Type of content:

Competitions, quirky comments, videos

Channels:

Twitter, Facebook, video

Resource required:

On a campaign basis - full-time for a period

Personal




When to use it:

On an ad hoc basis, but social media is social and

therefore personal

Type of content:

When interacting specifically with your audience.

Often part of monitoring and responding

Channels:

Twitter, blogs, LinkedIn, forums

Resource required:

Ad hoc but a full-time resource to be available

Summary


Different tones of voice for different strategies

Different tones of voice for different audiences

Different tones of voice for different channels

Start with your landscape and strategy, and then work out the appropriate tone

of voice

Don’t sell!

A message from a social media expert


Greetings Tigers! Remember

to think before you

communicate and you will be

winners like me.....

Documents

Using the right tone of voice to suit your audience...B2B Marketing Seminar - Taking it to the next level Using the right tone of voice to suit your audience 10th March 2011 Gifford