Why Your Construction Business Needs a Clear Tone of Voice
When we start working with a new client, one of the first things we ask is “How do you want to sound?” “How do you want to come across when someone reads your website, an e-shot, or a social post?”
In other words, how do you stand out and connect with your audience? What’s your tone of voice? You’d be surprised how many companies respond with “we don’t know.”
Tone of voice (TOV) is your personality and shapes how people feel about you. It creates trust and helps people to recognise your brand. But it's also something companies often overlook. In the construction sector, where many businesses look and sound similar on paper, how you communicate makes you stand out.
What is tone of voice?
Tone of voice isn't just about the words you use. It’s how you sound across every touchpoint. It’s your personality and what makes you stand out from the crowd.
Your tone could be formal and authoritative, friendly and approachable or technical and precise. It doesn’t really matter how you want to portray your business; what matters is that you use it consistently.
Every communication, including your website, your LinkedIn, your tenders, e-shots, and client emails, should all sound like the same company. When they don't, clients start to notice the inconsistency and question whether you're reliable and trustworthy.
TOV and your message matrix should work together
Your tone of voice doesn't work on its own. It should go hand in hand with your key messaging.
These core statements define what you do, who you do it for, why you're different, and the proof points that support your key messages. As we explained in our recent blog on why every construction business needs a key message matrix, getting your messaging strategy right before you start a campaign is essential.
And the same applies to your tone of voice. Your message matrix tells you what to say. Your tone of voice defines how to say it. When you develop these together, every piece of communication you produce is consistent and on brand. That's why when we work with our client on brand strategy, we develop TOV and messaging together.
Why you need to adapt your tone
A defined tone of voice doesn't mean you communicate the same way with everyone. An email to a Tier 1 contractor's procurement team will read differently to one for a private developer or facilities manager. The language, level of technical detail and emphasis will change slightly depending on your audience.
A well-defined tone of voice gives you the flexibility to adapt your delivery to your audience, without losing your identity. You might need to be more formal in a tender document than in a LinkedIn post. More technical in a case study aimed at a structural engineer than in an introductory e-shot to a property developer. But, and it's an important but, your underlying personality will stay the same.
Getting your TOV right from the start
A good TOV framework doesn't need to be complicated. It should define a handful of core characteristics - the adjectives that best describe how you want to sound- and back these up with examples so your teams know exactly what "formal and authoritative" sounds like in an e-shot. Or what "friendly and approachable" looks like in an email.
But don’t stop at adjectives. Do you want writers to use contractions? First person? Short sentences? Technical terminology? Can they use humour? Setting out additional writing styles will help to ensure a consistent approach.
Get the foundations right first
At CME, we regularly see businesses wanting to start with the output.
They need a website. A brochure. A social media campaign. An e-shot.
But before you decide what you're going to produce, you need to know what you're going to say and how you're going to say it.
If your business doesn't have a defined tone of voice, or your marketing sounds different depending on who's writing it, we can fix that. Call us on 0843 506 5202.