Work with any company of a reasonable size and you’ll likely be presented with a style guide.
Style guides for writers can be quite long. They give you instructions on the length of headlines, the use of images and other visual content, the number of words you need to write, the phrases you must use and mustn’t use, the tone of voice you should aim to achieve, and so on.
Honestly, they are a nightmare. A pain in the rear for any self-respecting writer or copywriter.
So why do companies create these ghastly guides? Well, they are aiming for consistency in the writing on their websites. They want everything to look much the same and to be written with more or less the same tone of voice.
Plus there is often some nonsense put in there by their lawyers.
I get that. I understand the challenge of maintain a consistent voice across all your online media properties when you have dozens or maybe hundreds of different writers involved.
I just don’t think ramming a style guide down writers’ throats is the best way to achieve the result companies are looking for.
What do I suggest as an alternative?
What would be nice is if someone high up in the company had the talent and courage to present a common vision and voice for the company that could be expressed in its marketing across all media, offline and online.
This person will often be one of the founders, or at least someone who remembers why the company was founded in the first place.
He or she should remember the driving passion and force that pushed them through the early years. She should remember what they believed in. She should try to recall how they talked about their company in those early days.
And then she should share that vision with every single person in the company, including any freelancers hired for the purpose of writing their website, social media pages and so on.
And no, this should absolutely not be a vision statement created by a committee and approved by the company’s lawyers. That’s just another layer of BS.
Nor should it be a statement that reflects where the company wants to be in three years’ time.
This should be a statement that is drawn from the first few months of the life of the company. It should express its purpose for being. It should be simple, heartfelt and clear. No layers of marketing BS.
If you can achieve that, you’ll probably then find that your employees and the freelancers who work with you will be delighted to jump on board and share that message with your customers.
If your message is genuine, inspirational and true, your employees will probably want to have it printed on t-shirts. They’ll be proud to share your vision.
And once you get to that point, you can discard most of your style guide for writers. Sure, some technical and legal stuff will remain, but the “on message” part can be dumped.
You can dump it because everyone now knows what the message is, what the tone of voice is, what the company’s vision is.
Your writers are now enthusiastic advocates for your company. You no longer have guide and corral them into saying the right thing, or box them in, because they’ll know what to say, naturally.
Summing up, style guides for writers are no substitute for a clear, genuine and clear company vision.
About the author: Nick Usborne is an online writer, copywriter, author and coach. Read more…
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Yes, style guides can feel like straight jackets. Usually, I hear “AP Stylebook,” or “Chicago Manual.” What they mean is…they wanna make sure you’re literate.
I just had a brief chat w an acquaintance of a friend. This man is running his own digital agency and is looking for a steady blogger to reflect his agency’s “brand.” The problem is the “brand” looks like nothing more than a bunch of self-deprecating jokes and obscure pop culture references.
He’s trying to be a big city agency on a mid-sized budget.
Whether his agency will last, who knows? The only way I could conform to his “style” guidelines w/o totally hating myself would be if he offered 10x my going rate.