Content Marketing Basics – the Importance of Tone
At face value, content marketing might not seem like a ton of work. You write an article or two, tweet a few times, maybe upload a nice short video to YouTube and you are done, right? Well, wrong. Content marketing is a very complex field where one needs to do everything right in order to truly reap the benefits.
There are a number of things that will influence how successful you are when doing content marketing – from the time you invest in doing it to the tools you might choose to help you in your efforts. One factor that can also be the difference between successful and unsuccessful content marketing is your tone.
What Exactly is Tone?
Tone can mean a lot of things and before we get into explaining why it matters so much, we should probably make it clear as to what we think of as tone. Tone is the “emotional color” of your content which can influence how people respond to it, how much they share it and so on. In content marketing, however, tone goes a bit more than just giving a particular shade to your content. It also involves your communication with other people on the web.
Different Tone Categories
When we are talking about the categories of tone, we are talking about the different situations where the tone needs to be determined. The first and the most obvious of these is the tone of the actual content. Another category is the tone you adopt when reaching out to owners of blogs and websites who might be willing to let you guest blog on their sites. There is also the category of the tone you take on when communicating with the general public, either on social media or in the comments sections once you post your content.
Content Tone
Finding the right tone for your content is not an easy task, even though it may seem like one. For one, you need to think long and hard about what the “appropriate” tone is going to be for your business. For example, if your company manufactures medical equipment, your content will need to be very serious, backed with cold, hard facts and also cutting edge. On the other hand, if you run a local burger joint, you will want to be relaxed, even jovial.
Experts from the reputable SEO firm Online Marketing Gurus tell us that this is not only true for written content. If you do video content, you also need to make sure the tone of your content is suitable for your industry and your company. The same goes for infographics or any other type of content such as podcasts, white papers and so on.
Communication Tone
Just as it is important to establish the kind of content tone that will work the best for you, it is just as useful to hit all the right notes when talking to other people online. This is especially true for other bloggers and webmasters who own sites where you wish to do a bit of guest blogging. In order to find the best tone to take with them, you need to do a bit of research and find out who they are, what they are like and what kind of correspondence they prefer.
The best place to start is the industry and the website itself. For example, the world’s leading website on medical technology is probably going to have very serious staff and people who will not be really happy to see an outreach email with half a dozen emojis peppered throughout. It will probably be best to keep things strictly professional in such a case. If you are reaching out to personal blogs, especially those dealing with lighter themes; you should also adopt a lighter tone.
Sometimes it is best to be factual and almost automatic sounding, while at other times such an approach will only make the blog owner get bored and stop conversing with you.
Of course, you will also want to establish the best kind of tone when responding to people’s comments which will, hopefully, be posted once you get your content live. It can be quite difficult to stay composed when dealing with online commenters, but you need to try your best. Of course, if someone asks a question, you should be as quick and as helpful with your responses as possible.
If you decide to promote your content on social media (which you should do, by the way), you will also want to have a consistent tone which will let people know there is a real person behind the account, a person with certain opinions and beliefs.
Closing Word
If you fail to hit the right tone when doing content marketing, you are not only minimizing your chances of getting it shared and posted on websites that are not your own. You also risk sounding silly or overly serious which can be just as harmful.
Spend some time to think about your tone. It will pay off.
Dan Radak is a web hosting security professional with ten years of experience. He is currently working with a number of companies in the field of online security, closely collaborating with a couple of e-commerce companies. He is also a coauthor on several technology websites and regular contributor to Technivorz.
Fivenson Studios is based in Ann Arbor, Michigan, our graphic design team specializes in logo and webpage design, as well as marketing campaigns for social and print media. From flyers and brochures to targeted landing pages, we aim to bring your company into the spotlight and reach a greater range of potential customers.
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