When I give instructions to the person who cleans our house, I sound quite different from when I’m talking to a potential client.
Aside from not grovelling as much, I use different language and a different tone.
Most people speak differently depending on the context of who they’re talking to. In fact I recently noticed that when I pay our window cleaner, I subconsciously adopt a more working-class accent. How embarrassing.
When you meet someone for the first time, you more or less scan their appearance and make note of the clothes they’re working, their cleanliness, haircut, displays of wealth/status and so on. I still remember the first time I met one of the investment specialists from our business bank. I noticed his expensive suit and shoes, his expensive car-keys left ‘carelessly’ on the desk, but what struck me most were his slightly dirty fingernails.
It could be that he’d been gardening before work, that he’d had to change a flat tyre or that he’d been rescuing old people from a burning building. But his inattention to his fingernails jumped out as loudly as all the positive signals he sent.
When someone arrives at your website they won’t be meeting you face to face. They won’t be able to judge your clothes, dandruff or how you hold yourself.
But they will notice the appearance of your site. And they’ll certainly notice the tone of your copy.
Your website tone plays a vital part in creating that first impression. Get it wrong and everything else may be overlooked.
Two additional thoughts.
The first is that you probably have a different idea of the right tone than your visitors.
Take a look at some of the text on our main page:
I personally don’t like the tone. But we test all of our content, and we know that this text produces better results than what I would have chosen.
The second thought is that you don’t have to be boring. Too many companies believe that their websites have to be dry to the point of monotone.
They don’t. Amateur and boring aren’t opposite ends of the same scale.
Test your content, increase your sales.
