Your clients love coming to see you in person. They trust your advice and leave your office – or Zoom calls – feeling confident about their businesses. But is this great rapport translating to your marketing efforts? For content to be truly effective, it needs to feel relatable on a human level. The more you bring your personality to the fore and tailor the content to your clients, the more they’ll listen to what’s important, stick with you and recommend you to others. This article looks at how and why you should create a tone of voice that represents your brand and what you stand for.
BOMA will kick-start your email, social and blog content with expert articles, free images and ideas. But the best part? The articles can be easily customised to show your unique brand and perspective. Here are some easy tips on how to do this.
Make it clear what you stand for
Your tone of voice should represent what you stand for. Beyond making money, what ideals are you committed to? For example, Nike doesn’t just make sneakers – it stands for athletic excellence and inspires its customers to achieve their dreams. At BOMA, we’re not just about marketing – we stand for better client relationships.
To articulate your true core values, start by asking your customers why they chose you over a competitor and what they say when recommending you to others. Check-in with your team – what do they think your company stands for? You may find a common theme in the answers – it might be how you do business, a particular quality of your service or your attitude.
Add a personal touch
Are you friendly, knowledgeable, professional, caring or a jokester? We like people for their personalities, and the same is true for businesses. If your clients know you to be quick with a joke, include your sense of humour in the introduction of each BOMA article. If you’re a more thoughtful, deep thinker, make sure that’s reflected too. Here are two great tips to get you started:
- Imagine you’re talking directly to your client and put that in words. This makes the content more friendly and enjoyable to read.
- Read everything aloud before posting. Your ear and tongue will highlight when the tone is a bit off so you can ensure the language flows nicely.
Speak to your client
Think about your particular clients and target that niche. If your firm works predominantly with an industry or type of business, tailor your advice for the specific challenges. It helps to think about things from their perspective. What do your clients truly want for their businesses? What worries them? Provide solutions, insight and empathy for the problems they face. For example, if you only work with trades businesses, give them helpful ideas on how to manage cash flow with all the supply chain issues. If you work with companies that are expanding, find out how best to soothe those inevitable growing pains.
To find the right tone for your target audience, it helps to create a client avatar. Build a persona – name, age, location, family life, hobbies, goals, clothes – everything. You might like to start this process by thinking of one of your clients and modelling your avatar on them. By taking the time to do this, you’ll begin to understand what will get their attention and how to make your content more relevant.
Embracing your tone of voice is smart business
As an accountant, your knowledge and expertise can help people, but only if they’re listening. A well-suited, consistent tone of voice reflects what you stand for, connects with your clients on a deeper level and makes you more likeable. By harnessing your tone of voice, your clients are more likely to trust you and, therefore, to take your advice on board.
Learn how to customise BOMA articles for your marketing today.