How can you ensure your internal communications are consistent with your company's tone and voice?

First: what is your identity? What is your company’s purpose and delivery? This strategic guide must permeate your speech, even if it is to communicate a benefit, as it has to be linked to the path the organization is taking. Second: do you know who your audience is? Carry out a CENSUS or an internal survey to learn about its diversity and understand what language and signs to use. This identification is essential for you to know the way you will express yourself and cause impact and interaction, because as we know, communication is a two-way life, it is not just sending a message. Third: abuse your creativity. The different communication channels, the flexibility of tools and formats.

Perhaps before anything, it would be a good idea to define what you mean by 'tone and voice'. Is it not tone OF voice? If not, what's the distinction being made here? We find it fascinating that some people charge ahead with talking about how to do a certain 'thing' without first defining the thing itself. Is it any wonder some people get confused, or get involved in arguments about the best way to do that thing, because they may be defining it in a different way. As Julie Andrews once famously observed: "Let's start at the very beginning; a very fine place to start". We would respectfully suggest starting by defining the thing you're talking about. Otherwise, it's all too easy for many people to get themselves into a bit of a pickle.

Understanding your organization's tone and voice is key to engage with your audience in a way that fosters trust and ensures messages are received and understood as intended. You must be concise and purposeful with your communication to avoid misunderstandings and ensure key messages stand out. When thinking about your voice and tone internally, it should reflect the values and the culture of your company, while staying succinct and fresh. At trivago, we use a more conversational and informal language to connect with our audience. This reflects our open, approachable culture. By using emojis, slang, and a bit of wit, we keep our messaging lively, fun, and inline with our brand identity.

All Internal Comms team members should undergo brand training. In my role as an internal Comms professional, I am always working closely with the brand and marketing teams to understand the brand tone and voice. All messaging/content I draft then follows the same tone and voice and brand guidelines. It is important to understand the brand story we portray externally and ensure it is the same internally, as the story has to be consistent. Spend time on the company website, social media pages and take note of the words used, the tone of voice, the imagery and the positioning. These will help you align your internal comms accordingly.

What I have observed is the prevailing sentiment that a company's tone and voice emanate from external marketing campaigns, influencing internal communications. In my opinion, a paradigm shift is imperative. The true essence of a company's tone and voice lies in its internal culture, the collective spirit of employees working towards shared goals. By prioritizing internal dynamics, organizations can forge a seamless synergy between external brand representation and internal discourse. It is this alignment that distinguishes great brands—where the tone resonates consistently, fostering a unified experience for both employees and customers, ultimately strengthening the core fabric of the company.

Internal communications should be the intersection between the leadership team, HR, and corporate communications departments. Being aligned with the aforementioned key teams enables internal communicators to have a clear understanding of the organization's comms priorities. Internal comms must always be on the pulse, able to shape the narrative according to each audience's needs.

It is also helpful to define what your tone and voice is not in this style guide as well. Having a side by side comparison of what your voice is and what your voice is not, you can use examples writing the sentence in your tone and what is not your tone. It is also useful in defining boundaries to it. For example, if your tone is witty, you could say it is not sarcastic. So that anyone that uses this guide has an idea of the boundary to your defined tone.

It's important that you don't create your tone of voice guide in isolation. Work closely with other departments in your company, such as marketing, sales and customer support to make sure you co-create a tone or voice that you will all adopt. That means they no matter which part of the business your internal and external stakeholders are dealing with, they'll consistently be engaged with the same tone of voice.

Company’s tone should be the right fit for the organisation. It’s important to be friendly and relaxed for some brands while others need to be more formal. However, in my opinion organisations should explore whether they can tone down the formality as they become more personal to the audience. The most important thing is authenticity and consistency.

You can offer training to all your employees who also create content in their teams and departments as well as appoint tone of voice champions who can regret review content to ensure it is remaining in line with your company guidelines.

It is always good for employees to know the tone and voice of the company, as this will lead to great results. Having leaders in this matter within the teams will lead to having the best possible results in their performance.

Other AI tools allow for your tone of voice to be loaded into the tool and help your team write with the correct tone of voice.

Manter a integridade da voz da empresa exige um investimento constante. Diretrizes claras, treinamento regular, feedback contínuo e integração visual e verbal são pilares essenciais. A revisão periódica das mensagens-chave assegura que a comunicação interna permaneça um reflexo autêntico da identidade da empresa. Consistência não é apenas uma meta, mas um compromisso contínuo para cultivar uma narrativa organizacional coesa.