IAM RoadSmart

Brand voice guidelines and website copy

I received an email enquiry out of the blue from the Director of Marketing at IAM Roadsmart.

Who? What? I had no idea. Then on further investigation, I found out they were (or at least used to be called) the Institute of Advanced Motorists.

Ooh, interesting. Anyway, they were talking to a bunch of freelance copywriters to find someone who could help with their positioning and tone of voice. They were going through a new web design upgrade, so needed to make sure their brand language would work hard to, ‘help raise the charity’s profile and make it more relevant for a 21^st century audience’.

Yes please, with bells on.

So, we had a video natter and I liked everything about them. It’s rare that I throw my hat into the ring for a wrestling match with other freelance writers, but I couldn’t resist this one.

I put together a thorough proposal covering my take on the project scope, what should go into their Tone of Voice Guidelines, timings, my process, project stages and fees. I also gave them links to relevant case studies and attached a handful of appropriate bits ‘n’ bobs from similar-ish projects.

Knowing I had a 1 in 4 chance, I sent everything off with a little prayer and a dash of whatever will be, will be.

Seven days later, this little beauty of an email popped into my inbox:

‘During our call last week, I mentioned that I wanted to find and commit to a suitable copywriter before the festive break and the good news is that I am close to making my decision.

In terms of your quote, whilst it is at the higher end, I feel that our brand and charity would stand to benefit a great deal from your expertise but I have a couple of small points that I wanted to run by you.’

There were small points. Microscopic. All she wanted was to agree on a couple of extra attendees in a brand workshop and tone of voice training workshop.

I agreed. The project was locked in, just eight days before Christmas. Thanks Santa.

Landing on a new tone of voice

The New Year arrived and we hit the ground running.

They sent me their 3-year business plan, existing brand guidelines, personas, brand research insights, a brief they’d put together for their new website design and two lists of workshop attendees.

Next step was to write and send out pre-workshop questionnaires, to make sure the brand workshop was fit for purpose. I wanted to get a grip on pre-conceptions, internal niggles and disagreements about where they thought their brand was and where they felt the brand voice needed to go.

It took three weeks to get 10 questionnaires back – with much nagging.

Then just a few days before the workshop, I got a rather pleasant email:

‘Once we have completed all the ToV work, and we start progressing towards web copy creation… how much would we be looking at for…’

Talk about not hanging about! So I put another estimate in and they were happy.

With a 10-attendee brand workshop looming, I decided to get someone in to help co-facilitate. Not just any old ‘someone’, but fellow Copywriter, Tom Davies. We’d done several brand voice and copywriting projects together, so I knew he’d be a great wing man.

The brand workshop was a huge success.

A few days later I sent a post-workshop document covering everything discussed in the session, plus some conclusions and recommendations.

On sign-off, I cracked on with their Tone of Voice Guidelines document.

Here are a few snippets to give you a flavour:

A big part of the brand voice guidelines featured a section titled ‘Tone of Voice in action’.

Here, I re-wrote an email, press release, social post and web page – all with editing notes, so their teams could clearly see the logic behind how the new tone of voice should be applied.

Here’s an example:

And here’s the editing notes to show how the brand voice had been applied:

As with all tone of voice brand guidelines I write, the aim is to provide just enough information to bring clarity and consistency to a brand’s voice.

The Head of Marketing was happy. As was her boss:

‘Good news! The CEO loves the ToV document!’

Me? Ecstatic!

Once the brand voice guidelines were signed off, we arranged another workshop to help embed the voice with the different team members – in marketing, fundraising, membership and public relations.

We went through the highlights of the guidelines, discussing the key principles and how they would affect them and their partner organisations across the UK.

Then we worked on a bunch of interactive exercises so the workshop attendees could start to get their teeth into the new tone of voice.

And the feedback? ‘Thank you for today; it was such a fun session, and the team really enjoyed it.’

Writing the new IAM RoadSmart website

The client shared their new development site, sitemap and content brief for nine key pages.

And off we went:

Minor tweaks. Big grins. Sign off.

Then ten months later, with more team members joining the merry band of writers on the IAM RoadSmart team, I was asked to facilitate a top-up Tone of Voice training workshop.

Ten new faces. Lots of questions. Really animated.

It was a great session with an engaged gang who were eager to put the brand’s new voice into action.

And now they’re familiar with how the tone of voice guidelines work, they’re all writing the IAM RoadSmart way. How satisfying.

Here’s a very different kind of Tone of Voice project for Brighton creative agency, dollop to feast your peepers on.