With tons of different abbreviations you need to remember in the business world, it can get confusing. In marketing, you may have come across one in particular: TOV. But what is the TOV abbreviation?
The TOV abbreviation stands for Tone Of Voice. ‘But wait! I know what tone of voice is, it’s how I change my voice tone and words to sound friendlier or angrier!’ Almost, but not quite.
In business, TOV is the particular way that a brand communicates with its customers and potential clients. This can include using specific words, the writing style, and the emotional tone used.
Why Create a Unique TOV for Your Brand?
Think about it, you have thoughts, feelings, and a unique personality of your own. As each brand has differing values, beliefs, and personalities, they want to effectively get that across to their audience. A unique TOV is the best way to go about doing this to showcase their own brand identity.
Connecting and Building Trust With Your Clients
One of the most important points is how it provides a connection between the brand and the audience. In a recent survey, over 65% of respondents felt an emotional connection with a brand. On top of that, over 50% of customers who have a positive relationship with a brand are much more valuable than those who do not.
So, if you are looking to increase trust and connection with your customers, which will, in turn, increase your revenue, take a look at improving your brand TOV.
Improving Communication Consistency
Your customers always expect consistency when communicating with them. Because of this, you need to ensure that the communication you use with them is in the same TOV. This helps to solidify brand recognition and keep you in their memory for longer. It’s also important in separating your brand from competitors to stand out more.
How Do You Decide On Your TOV?
Now that you know what the TOV abbreviation is you must decide, if you haven’t already, upon which TOV is the best to use.
Catering To Your Target Audience
First of all, you need to think of your audience. What is the age of your audience? How are they likely to react to a certain TOV? Using specific language and wording that speaks to them is more likely to affect them.
For example, if you have a younger audience, it’s often a good idea to communicate with them in a far more laidback and relaxed manner. Alternatively, if your target audience is older and more professional-oriented, having an informative yet serious TOV could be better suited.
Your Values
After taking your target audience into account, you now need to look at how you can put the company’s values and beliefs into the tone of voice. As mentioned earlier, making your brand stand out from competitors is important. Implementing your brand’s personality into the TOV whilst also catering to your target audience is what you need to do in order to be more successful.
However, you also need to be careful about using the right TOV for the type of communication you are using. For example, if you are writing a social media post and an email, you would use a different TOV for each one.
Creating Your Own Brand TOV Guidelines
Now you’ve got a good idea of how you want your brand tone of voice to sound, the next step is in creating your own brand guidelines. Providing a guide on how to communicate with your target audience will help your team understand how and when to use the tone of voice, which will improve consistency when communicating.
Improve Your TOV Today
Hopefully, now you fully understand the TOV abbreviation and why it is so necessary for your brand.
But communicating using the right tone of voice in social media posts, articles, and website copy can be difficult. If you are looking to improve your TOV and communications with customers, we can help. At Killer Copywriting, we have professionals experienced in TOV to help you with this.
Why not take a look at our affordable article writing services, or if you require social media or other services, contact us today to find out how we can help.