This insights post is a summary of the original blog post published by Phillips Group. Click here to view the original, full-length blog post.
If your company has many individuals who write or contribute content to your overall brand efforts, it’s certainly worth having an in-house style guide for everyone to follow to ensure consistency. Don’t think you need it? If you conducted a quick audit of your communications right now, would you find:
- Your brand name written in slightly different ways?
- A mix of US-English and Australian-English spelling?
- Industry acronyms and language your audience may not understand?
- Long, complicated paragraphs that are difficult to read?
Despite your brand’s best intentions, it’s not uncommon for content to be exposed to multiple updates by various team members or outside contractors. Quality is sometimes sacrificed for pressing deadlines or the need to simply ‘get the information out’.
A writing style guide offers a handy reference for your content creators. They can quickly check your preferences for naming conventions, common mistakes to avoid, and tips for finding that all important brand voice.
Steps for Crafting a Writing Style Guide
1. Start with a statement
This is an opportunity to remind your team, or any external writers, about your brand values and the purpose of your content.
2. Clarify your brand
Provide some hard and fast rules about your corporate identity. Describe how your company’s name should be used, how your leadership team should be referred to, and any other need-to-know information specific to your brand.
3. Describe your audience
Outline their pain points and what they need from your content. What writing style suits your target audience? Fun, casual and approachable? Formal, sharp and authoritative?
4. Explain formatting rules
Provide guidelines on content formatting (e.g. headings, sub-headings, fonts, bullet points, use of capitals, and how to format dates, times and numbers). If you have content templates, provide links.
If you want to catch the final tips available from our partners at Phillips Group, be sure to head over to the full blog post: Creating an in-house writing style guide.
