No, I’m not talking about Strunk & White or the AP Stylebook — although it never hurts to have one of those close at hand! I mean a clear and concise handbook specific to your company’s message. Consistency of tone and style will unify your brand communications.
AP Stylebook “T” Page
Photo by George Kelly
This handbook can help a company of any age or size, but it’s especially crucial to startups and young businesses. When you are just starting out, many things about your company will be in flux, perhaps even the name or main product or service. These documents will help you ensure consistency in your brand communications as your business grows and your offerings expand and change. It is a centralized file for all the data you need to write the backbone of marketing copy, and you can pull from this information when creating a media kit.
Here are some items you should keep track of in your stylebook:
- Company boilerplate
- Names of your products or services
- Names of your leadership and each person’s current title in full
- Information on any awards you have won
- Company statistics: These can include key information like size of your company and when it was founded. Make sure you keep these numbers up-to-date.
- Special phrases: Include anything you use regularly in copy, such as taglines or central marketing quotes.
With this reference document, you can prevent sloppy errors like making a product name plural on your website and singular in your ad copy, or writing on one page of your brochure that your company started in 2011 and on another page that it was founded in 2012.
Add to this a few more traditional stylebook elements. Clarify when your business will use formal or informal language in print and online. In addition, lay out some guidelines for whether your business materials will use serial commas, contractions, and so forth, and whether you will capitalize names in email and website addresses. Standardizing these elements will give your website and marketing materials a polished, professional feel.
Again, this is crucial to startups as well as large corporations. Even if you live and breathe your company right now and think you will never forget these details, you have to plan ahead for growth. At some point, you won’t have a hand in every document related to your business, and your new employees won’t intuitively know this information.
Can you think of more elements that a company stylebook could include?
Check back soon for more posts on finding the right tone for your brand communications.
