The Right Voice: How to Match a Client’s Tone

It matters what you say, but it also matters how you say it. And everyone says things differently. 

Depending on the client and their business, you might need to adjust your writing style to keep up. Blog writing isn’t just about hitting a word count or including your client’s ideas—it’s about adapting. But how can you distinguish one client’s tone from another?

At Lifted Logic, we want to help make the blog-writing process as simple and rewarding as possible, and as such, we’re going to explain how to write in a consistent tone.

Web Design for Everyone

Lifted Logic is an acclaimed web design company out of Overland Park. We’ve built a strong, loyal client-base, special in large part due to its variety. We’ve built websites for lots of different businesses, from TEDx to the Nelson-Atkins Museum of Art.

These projects were very different from each other, but they both display Lifted Logic’s commitment to quality design. Everybody needs a website nowadays, and if you pick the right one, it could help you get your foot in the door with a whole new group of users.

Lifted Logic wants to build more than just a website. We want to build you a powerful tool for the next step of your business journey.

Why Tone Matters

Why is it important to learn how to write in a consistent tone? A brand is only as solid as their brand identity.

For many, a brand’s identity is most closely related to its products, its design, its marketing—but perhaps most importantly, a brand’s identity is how they represent themselves. So look deeper.

How do you want your brand to appear to customers? Do you want it to seem casual, funny, serious, or analytical? This is more important than you might think. Put yourself in the perspective of your users. What would you look for from a member of your industry?

Answering these questions will allow you to get a handle on your brand identity. It’s simple; once you understand your brand’s tone, we can begin writing in that tone.

Voice vs. Tone

When writing, you often hear about voice and tone, but what’s the difference between the two? While they work closely together, they each play a different role in how your message is received. Understanding both helps create content that feels consistent, intentional, and true to the brand, no matter where it shows up.

Voice

Voice gives your brand personality ✨ It’s the words, phrases, style of writing, and overall structure. The voice of writing for a brand or client should remain consistent across all platforms from email to articles to social media captions.

For example, if a brand’s voice is technical and informative, that style should carry across its social media captions, web copy, and articles. If a brand’s voice is witty and playful, that personality should show up in those same places. The platform may change, but the brand should still sound recognizable.

Tone

Tone is a mood, attitude, or emotion 🔥 You read tone in everything, even a quick text. For example, when you ask someone if they want to grab dinner or drinks, their response can feel different depending on whether they reply with “sure” or “sure!” One simple punctuation mark can change how the message comes across.

Unlike voice, tone can shift depending on the context. Tone helps shape the personality of the moment. If you’re announcing a new store opening or product drop, you’ll have a more exciting and upbeat tone. If you’re addressing a customer concern or policy update, you may need a more clear and calm tone. The brand’s voice should feel familiar, but the tone should adjust to the situation.

Adapting Your Writing

Everyone writes a little differently. Given the same prompt, a hundred different writers will write a hundred different blogs. But it’s always a good idea to ensure that your brand’s internal tone seems consistent.

Customers develop brand loyalty when they know what to expect. So don’t surprise your readers by constantly shifting your tone. Remember, we’re not writing as ourselves; we’re writing from the perspective of your brand itself.

So after identifying your tone, you can make sure you’re writing in that tone. If you want your brand to seem more bubbly or exciting, feel free to include exclamation points. Write with idioms, and strive to seem familiar to your audience.

But if you want to seem more straightforward and clinical, you may want to write from the perspective of an educated professional. Write less like a friend and more like a teacher. Speak with a calm authority, and your users will notice. 

Know Your Audience

Enough about the brand, which is who you’re writing as. Let’s talk about the audience, which is who you’re writing to.

What Does Your Audience Need?

A consistent voice and fitting tone should connect with the people reading the content. Before writing, ask yourself these questions:

• Who is the audience?
• What do they care about?
• What information do they need from this piece?
• Are they looking for quick answers, or long explanations?
• Are they comparing options?
• Are they already familiar with the topic?

There are a lot of considerations to keep in mind when writing for a specific audience. Once you understand the user intent, you can shape your voice and tone around the content instead of guessing what the reader needs. This helps the writing feel more useful, intentional, and relevant to the people you’re trying to reach.

Match the Tone to Their Expectations

Your voice and tone will change depending on whether you’re writing for a law firm, coffee shop, medical office, or an arts center. Someone reading a legal article will expect clarity, confidence, and professionalism. Someone reading a coffee shop newsletter, on the other hand, may expect something more casual.

The tone should match the reader’s mindset while staying true to the brand’s voice.

Use Language that Makes Sense to Them

Knowing your audience helps you decide what details to include, what language to avoid, and what terms may need defining. Take for example, a medical spa who offers dermal fillers made with hyaluronic acid. This key ingredient may not be familiar to everyone who is looking to plump their lips or smooth wrinkles.

That doesn’t mean you have to omit that information. You just have to explain it in a way that makes sense to the reader. For example: “Hyaluronic acid is a naturally occurring substance in the body that helps retain moisture, which can add volume and support smoother, fuller-looking skin.”

Create a Voice and Tone Guide

It’s hard to stay on track with a specific voice and tone if you’re juggling multiple clients. Especially when they exist within various fields with a range of voice and tone specifications.

And if you have a whole team of people working on one client, the voice and tone could shift depending on who is writing the content.

Consistency is key, and therefore, creating a guide can give everyone involved in the process a reference point to turn back to. This also creates reassurance with the client, who chooses the voice and tone.

Here’s what to ask.

How Would You Describe Your Brand’s Voice?

Ask your client how they would describe their voice. Witty? Informative? Friendly? Professional? Elevated?

Once you have those words, you have to truly understand what they mean. For example:

• Friendly: Warm, conversational language. Use words like welcome, easy, simple, together.
• Professional: Keep the writing polished, direct, and clear. Use words like trusted, experience, reliable, solutions, and support.
• Playful: Use light humor and casual phrasing. Use words like fresh, bold, favorite, and fun.
• Informative: Explain ideas clearly without overcomplicating them. Use words like guide, explain, process, learn, and details.
• Elevated: Use refined language and avoid slang. Use words like curated, tailored, intentional, personalized, refined, and thoughtful.

Let’s Talk Punctuation

Remember how we said punctuation can strongly influence how your message is received? That plays into the voice and tone guide. Once you have your voice nailed down, let’s work on the tone using punctuation and formatting.

Punctuation can completely change how a sentence feels. A period may feel calm, neutral, or direct. An exclamation point can sometimes feel excited, friendly, or upbeat. A question mark makes the writing feel conversational—especially when used to speak directly to the reader, don’t ya think? ← See what we did there?

Asking your clients how they want to use these punctuation marks can influence how you address the tone. Some refined and professional clients may say absolutely no exclamation marks. While playful clients say the more the merrier!

Formatting

Formatting plays a significant role in your voice and tone. Maybe that was a bit much. But you get our point.

Formatting influences how your reader understands the sentence. Bold makes words and phrases feel stronger and more important. Italics creates a soft kind of emphasis that makes a sentence feel conversational and expressive.

Emojis  🎉

Emojis can help shape tone by making writing feel more casual, playful, or friendly. They work well for some brands, especially on social media or in email subject lines, but they’re not always the right fit.

Use emojis intentionally. A few can add personality. Too many can make the content feel cluttered or off-brand.

Schedule a Meeting With Us

We hope you’ve learned a little more about how to write in a consistent tone. Our team at Lifted Logic knows that there’s more to writing than just filling up a page with words. Every business is different, so every piece of writing should sound different.

You want blogs that are uniquely you. Looking for more blog writing information? We have a blog of our own that could be a very helpful resource.

We have tips for outlining, developing strong arguments, finding sources, and writing the perfect CTA. But we’re also more than happy to do the hard work for you. Just reach out to us, and we can get started developing the perfect website for you.

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