How to create a style guide for your business
A style guide sets out a standard for language, grammar and tone across your business. It’s an essential part of keeping your copy consistent and authoritative, regardless of who the author is.
At Inkwell, we’re huge believers in the value of style guides. They’re easy to put together and save countless hours of editing further down the line. And while a great brand might draw a customer in, it’s your copy that will make the sale.
Why a style guide matters
A consistent style of writing builds credibility and helps to establish customer loyalty. Whether customers are reading a marketing email or browsing your website, you need to make sure they’re getting a unified message.
You might instinctively know how you want customers to see your business. But as your company grows, it will become harder to maintain a cohesive style.
When multiple people are writing your content, you end up with a tangle of voices and language. One person might naturally write in a formal tone and use jargon; another might do the opposite. As a result, you can end up with a vague and muddled message.
What to include in your style guide
First things first – a style guide is not a dictionary! There’s no need to put together an extensive list of each word or phrase you might use. Instead, try to group them together by rules.
A style guide is also different to a brand document. A brand doc will outline typography and colour palette, while an editorial style guide should focus solely on content.
Here are four steps to building a style guide for your business:
Choose an existing style guide to follow
There are already a number of extraordinarily thorough style guides online. Many businesses choose a well-known style guide to act as a general rule of thumb, then create a supplementary document that is customised to fit its specific needs.
We use the The Guardian and Observer style guide at Inkwell. It’s comprehensive and kept up to date – we’ve yet to come across a word or phrase it hasn’t covered. But it’s a good idea to do some research and make sure your chosen style guide fits your brand.
Establish your tone of voice
Write a short paragraph that explains your company’s tone of voice. Think about who your audience is and why they will connect to this particular tone. Here are some examples:
Our audience is made up of business leaders in the software space. Our tone of voice is professional and authoritative, but engaging. Since our target customers are busy people, we should use short articles and lists to make it easier to read on the go.
Our audience is made up of parents. Our tone of voice is friendly and positive. The language should reassure our audience and give them a sense that we’re all in it together. Note that the tone should stay professional and never become silly – our audience needs to know that they can trust our advice.
List common words or phrases
Start by making a list of words or phrases that your company uses regularly. These could be:
Product names or services you offer
Common industry terminology
How you refer to your audience (for example, customers, users or members)
Think carefully about common mistakes people make with spelling or usage. Do you use American English or British English? Do people frequently use acronyms that your audience might not understand? Make a note of any rules to remember.
Since we specialise in covering business and entrepreneurship, here are some examples from our own style guide.
Acronyms to be written out in full in their first usage, eg. unique selling point (USP), key performance indicators (KPIs)
ecommerce, not e-commerce
Job titles are written in lowercase
startup, not start-up or start up
You can also include a section on words or phrases to avoid. The Office for National Statistics (ONS) singles out words like “dialogue” and “facilitate” as being too vague for its audience.
Similarly, think about popular phrases that might spark a negative response from your audience. A good example is “girl boss”, a neologism that has gone from empowering to patronising.
Consider formatting and punctuation
Make sure your style guide outlines any rules around formatting too. Think about what will make your content readable, as well as best practice for search engines. This might include:
The length and style of blog titles
How to format quotes
Whether to use bullet point or numbered lists
Rules around exclamation marks
When to use header tags
Once your style guide is in good shape, share it with your team. Make sure it’s hosted in an easily accessible place, so your staff can refer to it when they’re writing or editing work.
Your style guide is something that should keep evolving. If we regularly correct a phrase or change a formatting style, we’ll codify it in our style guide. By encouraging your team to keep the guide up to date, it can become an invaluable central resource for your business.
Got plenty of content but not sure it all connects? Our content strategy service is completely bespoke, whether you want to improve existing processes or start from scratch. Get in touch with the team today.
