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That’s right <<Name>>, you heard me 😱

Specifically, he’s obsessed with Alain de Botton’s How To Think More About Sex. Every day this week he’s handed it to me during his morning ritual of emptying every bookshelf he can reach 📚

But just as I was gearing up to start googling child psychologists, it appears he’s moving on - the new favourite being a German dictionary that I can’t for the life of me remember why we own 🤷‍♀️ Earlier I witnessed him spend a good five minutes browsing intently through the pages, despite the glaring lack of pop-up animals he normally favours in a good read.

But the thing is, despite his fascination with the book, it can’t help him learn to speak German. Because, you know... he can't read. I mean sure, once he does then the book would be a vital tool in becoming fluent. But the book won’t magically turn him into a German speaker on its own.

And it’s the same with your brand voice 🗣

Taking the time to develop a unique and consistent style of communicating that conveys your organisational personality - and creating a writing toolkit that shows people how to nail that sound - is a great thing to do 👍 It’s what I’m always banging on about! But it’s important to understand exactly how it will (and won’t) help your business. And the key thing I want to hammer home today is that working on your brand voice won’t help your team suddenly become great writers if they weren’t already.

Brand voice work isn’t about teaching people how to write well - it’s about teaching people who already know how to write well how to write in a certain style. Sure, everyone in the business should be on board with your voice - they should understand your brand values and personality and have a good idea of how those things affect communications. But that doesn’t mean they’ll suddenly be equipped to craft compelling copy for your website or latest marketing campaign 🙅‍♀️ You’ll still need to use talented, experienced writers (whether in-house or freelance) to create your content.

Because brand voice work doesn’t turn bad writers into good ones - it turns good writers into on-brand ones 👌 So I guess the moral of the story is don’t throw out the German dictionary - just don’t expect handing it to a toddler will make them bilingual!

P.S. Has this been something you’ve come up against? Have you nailed your brand voice, but been wondering why your comms still don’t always hit the mark? Or is this idea a familiar one and it’s just the reality of finding great writers that you struggle with? I’d love to hear how this resonates with you 🙋‍♀️

INTERROBANG

An interrobang is what you call it when you use both a question mark and an exclamation mark at the end of a sentence. (Like “Wow Beth, do you know how much of a nerd you are?!” 🤓) It does actually have its own glyph (‽) but it’s most often represented by the two separate pieces of punctuation.

The term was coined thanks to an American ad agency guy called Martin K. Speckter, who was the first to propose combining the two marks and naming the phenomenon. In an article in a typography magazine (now that’s nerdy) he called for name suggestions, and submissions included exclarotive, QuizDing, and (my personal fave) exclamaquest. In the end he settled on interrobang - a fun mash-up of the Latin interrogatio (‘to question’) and bang (old-school printers slang for exclamation marks) 👌

catch-me-from-the-socially-distanced-safety-of-your-own-home

Fun as it is for every branded email I open to still be emphasising how these are ‘unprecedented times’, I'm thinking that maybe, now we're a few months into this thing, it's time to think beyond the obvious in our corona comms 🤦‍♀️

So in this interview with Mike Foster, The Entrepreneurs Mentor, I answer three big questions: What's the one thing that definitely shouldn't change about our marketing right now? How do we know if our comms are striking the right tone in the lockdown (and post-lockdown) context? And how do we figure out exactly how our products and services fit into people’s lives right now - and what should that mean for how we market ourselves? 🤔

Sounds good, I’ll have a watch >

⭐ Too many companies are either making tenuous claims about why this pandemic makes their offering relevant, or just ignoring the whole thing and continuing to use old marketing that’s now horrendously tone deaf. Both are a no-no! So here’s a few brands doing a GREAT job of subtly contextualising their stuff, to kickstart ideas for your comms.

⭐ Get some inspiration about current trends in brand voice - and see why they led me to start a LinkedIn post with the word vagina...

⭐ Is your business a workhorse, a butterfly, or a camel? Finding out will show you exactly how your brand is relevant to people at the moment - plus give you some clear direction about how you should be positioning your products and services in the corona context.

⭐ One of the hardest tasks of great writing is knowing when to shut up! See which brand I think has nailed it in their corona comms…

Whatever the pros and cons of so many countries across the globe going into lockdown (and I know it’s a divisive topic), one thing’s for sure - it’s been a big win for the environment! 🌳 These before and after pics of some of the world’s smoggiest cities are genuinely amazing, as well as a helpful reminder that our actions really do have an impact on our planet.

Get a load of nature’s big win >

“Look no further for your copy and brand voice needs! Beth has an amazing way with words to get your message clearly heard and she is professional and passionate; I would highly recommend her.”

Lucy Self
Founder of the taboo-busting stain-remover brand Save My Knickers
*Just to be clear, this is a figure of speech. My clients aren’t horses. They’re people.

Want to be gettable and irresistible?

Just shoot me a message at beth@bethanyjoy.org
and we’ll chat about how I can help.