Signs it is time to revisit tone of voice

Teams tend to reach for this after something has already gone wrong. A few signals that tone of voice is due some attention.

Content is the part of a project most likely to be underestimated and most likely to delay a launch. Assume whoever inherits this will have half your context and none of your patience.

The signals

• Nobody can say when it was last reviewed
• The answer depends on who you ask
• Write like a knowledgeable person talking, not a brochure
• Consistency builds recognition

What good looks like

Jargon signals insecurity more often than expertise. Getting it slightly wrong is survivable. Ignoring it entirely is not. It rarely shows up as a line item, which is exactly why it slips.

How to tell if yours is fine

Writing for the web is largely an editing job: the first draft is always longer than it needs to be. Three things worth confirming about tone of voice before you move on:

• Someone can say what the current setup is without going to look
• Jargon signals insecurity more often than expertise — and you know whether that is true here
• There is a way to tell whether the last change to this helped

Most of the value here comes from doing the first two things, not all of them.