XYZ.Com Voice

1
XYZ.Com Voice Tone Recommendations

• Draft

2
Inside

• What is voice and tone
• Key inputs into the current exercise
• Voice and tone recommendations
• Guidelines to achieve the recommendations
• Additional editorial practices
• Next steps

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On Voice and Tone

• Voice is the editorial representation of a brand.
  It stands for a brands personality, its attitude
  towards its customers, and conveys a brands
  positioning to all its target constituencies
• Voice and tone is important to
• Strategize the role of text in an application
• Create standards for nomenclature and diction
• Ensure the consistent execution of text
• Establish the broad contexts to which text
  behavior must be tailored

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Key Inputs

• The voice and tone recommendations for the XYZ
  Wireless (XYZ) application have been based on the
  following key inputs (from the content
  perspective)
• Our understanding of the XYZ brand
• XYZ vision and website redesign objectives
• 123 User Research
• XYZ segmentation approach
• Current XYZ content gap assessment
• The XYZ redesign concept directions
• A critical input missing from the list above is
  direct XYZ participation in shaping the voice and
  tone direction. All interpretations and
  recommendations must therefore be considered
  provisional till they have been validated by XYZ

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Key Takeaways

• XYZ brand
• Convey innovation, youthfulness, energy,
  freshness, and approachability
• Promote superior coverage and the relentless
  drive to deliver a superior wireless experience
  (Testman and we never stop working for you)
• Integrate with offline marketing which focuses
  largely on price, convenience, features, and
  productivity
• Redesign vision and objectives
• Focus on the customer and deliver what, when, and
  how they want
• Make a concerted effort to push customer growth
  and loyalty
• Promote new services and products
• Make a difference to the bottom line

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Key Takeaways Contd.

• 123 user research
• Use standard nomenclature
• The nomenclature should convey a clear meaning
  and support the action it represents
• Provide adequate instructions across the
  application
• XYZ segmentation approach
• Market to segments on customers terms, not XYZs
• Focus on what the customer can do rather than
  products
• Increase awareness of products and services
  through promotional material that focuses on
  simplicity and choice

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Key Takeaways Contd.

• Current XYZ.com content gap assessment
• The line between instructional text and marketing
  content is often blurred
• There is a tendency to use jargon and acronyms
  that customers may not always understand or
  relate to
• Useful information is often concealed within
  extraneous information
• The volume of information is inconsistent and
  similar items are unequally covered, thus
  disrupting reader expectations
• The text follows the one size fits all paradigm
  and there is no behavioral, demographic,
  contextual, or any other type of segmentation
• There is very little actionable information that
  leads readers to either more relevant content or
  an action

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Key Takeaways Contd.

• The XYZ concept directions reflect all the key
  inputs mentioned in the earlier slides. They thus
  serve to bring together all the ideas necessary
  to make the final voice and tone recommendations
• Key takeaways from the concepts include
• Encourage the user to do more
• Educate the customer about the possibilities of
  the wireless experience, their relevance in daily
  life, and how XYZ products and services occupy
  vital slots in this experience
• Create a relationship with the customer and be
  responsive to their needs
• Promote a cycle of sales
• Stay true to the brand image of performance,
  energy and vitality
• The voice and tone recommendations must be geared
  to support the key premises the concepts are
  based on

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Voice and Tone Recommendations

• Voice and tone, as explained earlier, is the most
  effective way of setting audience expectations
  from content, and it is how rather than what
  you say which becomes the core reference point
  for the user
• As a customer-centered company which leads the
  wireless industry, the XYZ voice must represent
  its knowledge of and responsiveness to customer
  needs, and its stature at the forefront of
  wireless services
• Its tone should thus project confidence borne out
  of leadership, empathy based on its awareness of
  customer needs, practicality that drives user
  goals, trustworthiness to build relationships,
  energy and vitality in keeping with its brand
  promise, and approachability which is essential
  to stimulate a dialog across all segments
• The Voice and Tone scale for XYZ is thus

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Voice and Tone Practice Guidelines

• The voice and tone recommendations described
  earlier work best when aligned with the following
  guidelines
• Confident Quiet confidence is the key
• Dont shout from the rooftops about the
  superiority of XYZ products and services
• Let facts, not adjectives, do the talking
• Empathic Make the reader the focus of
  information
• Dont talk about products and services in
  isolation from the needs they fulfill for real
  world users
• Represent the reader when creating content,
  include feedback when necessary, answer questions
  that people have
• Practical Information is useful when it is
  usable
• Concentrate on the value and practical purpose of
  information
• Focus on the meaning inherent in each piece of
  communication, not merely the ground it covers

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Voice and Tone Practice Guidelines Contd.

• Trustworthy Trust is the foundation of
  relationships
• Never allow bias, inaccuracy, or hyperbole to
  creep into content
• Build predictability into all content functions,
  whether they be feedback response time, update
  frequency, positioning of content, or the
  quality/quantity of information available
• Energetic/Vital Share your energy
• Update content regularly, create a sense of
  action and movement on the application
• Motivate action, encourage the reader to act on
  the information rather than merely absorb it
  passively
• Create a sense of empowerment for the reader the
  content should lead to actions, not dictate them
• Approachable Be there for the reader
• Build cues into all content to make it easier for
  users to find related information
• Create simplicity out of complexity making
  sense is more important than overwhelming the
  user with information
• Dont dumb down content, only scale down the
  level of complexity
• Write to all segments of your readership

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General Principals of Internet Writing

• The voice and tone guidelines must be
  supplemented by the following principles of good
  writing for the web
• Build multiple points of entry into content
  (meaningful headlines, comprehensive
  introduction, explanatory graphics/charts, key
  points, labels) so that readers can capture
  important information at a glance
• Build scanability into content by breaking it
  up into logical chunks that suggest the flow and
  perspective of the content
• Recommend clear next steps that put the purpose
  of the content into practical perspective
• Use familiar (or standard) and simple terms when
  creating nomenclature make the nomenclature
  point to the destination page
• Ask the readers to get involved by soliciting
  feedback
• Be sensitive to sexism or politically charged
  issues
• Go through the regular proof-reading checks for
  spelling and grammar (print out the document if
  necessary and do not blindly trust the
  spell-checker)
• Make sure that instructional copy is short,
  useful, conveys complete information, and always
  suggests a course of action

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Next steps

• Validate the voice and tone recommendations with
  the XYZ team
• Add examples and more details, and finalize the
  document
• Add sample copy where relevant (need to define
  the parameters of sample copy)
• Transfer to MS Word