Three Reasons Why You Need a Copywriting Style Guide More Than You Think

When people hear “style guide” in the context of content marketing, they may immediately think of the kind journalists use, which cover endless grammatical details on how to refer to groups and individuals and whether to use an Oxford comma. 

But for many businesses, a copywriting style guide is much more far-reaching: it’s a roadmap that directs the voice and tone of your communication. Style guides are how companies like Shopify or MailChimp ensure every web page, blog post, and press release has a consistent, distinctive style. This is tremendously important to get people to connect with your brand.

If you’re a big, consumer-facing corporation, the need for a copywriting style guide is non-negotiable. You can’t just have the head of marketing at Coca-Cola email new hires suggesting they read through a couple of ads and make sure they “write like that.” Instead, you need to train them on the intricacies of how to capture Coca-Cola’s brand voice; in fact, they’ve created a 144-page style guide on the subject!

But what about smaller businesses? At what point does a copywriting style guide become a good idea? At what point does it become a necessity?

The Components of a Copywriting Style Guide

Before we discuss the reasons you need a style guide, let’s delve deeper into what it is.

A style guide is a tool for creating consistency across all your forms of communication, including website copy, social media content, blogs, and press releases. 

Imagine that a law firm called Pro Contracts hires a social media manager. The head of the firm tweets, “In the modern age, contracts are more important than ever. Here’s a useful article on what you need in a contract.” The next day, the new hire tweets, “Everyone is trying to rob you, the world is a cesspool, and if you don’t have a good contract you’re screwed. WATCH OUT!.” 

These are two very different approaches, and together they create the sense that Pro Contracts has no idea of what they stand for. That’s a very bad message.

What Pro Contracts needs is a document that describes their voice and tone. Should the copy be staid and professional, or fun and edgy? Should the voice be that of a teacher or a friendly neighbor? What words and phrases should be used and avoided? Do you call your customers ``our clientele” or “my peeps?” 

And while you don’t need the sort of detailed grammar rules you’ll get in a professional writer’s tool like the AP Stylebook you do need to decide on basic usage. It may not matter to many people if you use “e-book” on one website page and “eBook” on another, but conflicting usage in your copy can create a negative impression and make you look less professional. 

Three essential reasons why you need a copywriting style guide

Ideally, every business should have a copywriting style guide, but here are three cases where it’s an absolute must:

You’re hiring a social media manager

If you outsource your social media, your social media manager needs a clear sense of your voice and tone. While they will attempt to create that by looking through your past posts (if any), asking questions about what you want, and offering advice on what will actually work to promote your business, the process is likely to involve trial and error and a lot of back and forth as they zero in on that voice. It could save you time and money to have this guide on hand to easily resolve those conflicts.

You’re adding new content to your website

Businesses often build out their sites in bits and pieces, adding pages as they develop new services. This can happen over a series of years, and unless you carefully study your existing content, you can wind up with each page having a different format, a different approach to subheaders, different word choices, and even content that contradicts something on a different page. When we’re hired to revamp website copy, one of our tasks is to turn a crazy quilt of pages into something consistent. A style guide can prevent this anarchic approach to content creation.

You’re building a marketing team

Most solopreneurs have a fairly consistent voice they use; their own. But once you move beyond solo status, with multiple people writing website copy, blogs, business proposals, and other content, that voice will be drowned out by the distinct voices of your team members. The more people on your team, the less clear your voice becomes. A style guide gets everyone on the same page.

Your Content Tells Potential Customers Who You Are

Your company needs a distinct brand voice. (If it doesn’t have one, here are a few tips on creating one.) But if you aren’t using that voice consistently then you’re not using it effectively. 

And if you need help on creating a style guide, building a brand voice, or revising a website, well then, peeps, just drop us a line.