Just like Dale Carnegie’s classic How to Win Friends and Influence People teaches us that charm, empathy, and a sprinkle of humor can turn any conversation into a win, your brand’s tone of voice works the same magic.

Think of your tone like Carnegie’s advice in action: be friendly, be relatable, and — most importantly — don’t take yourself too seriously.

Here’s how to do it:

  • Know your audience
  • Be authentic and transparent
  • Keep sentences simple and conversational
  • Speak in active voice
  • Use personal pronouns
  • Leverage tone of voice automation tools

Why Does a Friendly Tone Matter?

First, it may just be the most natural choice for your brand’s character. Second, a warm and approachable tone allows your brand to foster genuine connections with your audience.

Research shows that customers are more likely to remain loyal to brands they perceive as friendly, relatable, and trustworthy.

According to The Human Brand study, customer loyalty is very much driven by perceptions of warmth and competence, traits that brands can communicate through a friendly tone.

The book emphasizes that, just like people, brands are judged based on two primary dimensions: warmth and competence.

Brands that are perceived as warm are seen as friendly, trustworthy, and caring.

The autors, Malone and Fiske, argue that our perceptions of a brand’s warmth and competence significantly influence our behaviors and decisions.

When a brand is seen as warm and competent, consumers are more likely to be loyal, make repeat purchases, and recommend the brand to others.

Conversely, if a brand fails to meet these criteria, it can lead to negative consumer attitudes and diminished brand loyalty.

The book highlights that consumers can detect inauthentic behavior and are quick to distance themselves from brands that appear disingenuous.

christiann-koepke-5SsFQ6oNbX4-unsplash.jpg

Brands that maintain transparency, align their actions with their stated values, and engage with consumers in a sincere manner are more likely to build trust and foster strong connections.

The main takeaway? Companies should carefully consider how their brand is perceived in terms of warmth and competence when developing marketing strategies and their tone of voice.

Some industries require warmth and friendliness more than others. Make it the cornerstone of your communication if your brand works in:

  • retail and e-commerce;
  • hospitality and travel;
  • health and wellness;
  • social media and digital platforms;
  • other customer service-focused niches.

If by now you are certain that your brand needs to sound friendly and warm, you are probably wondering, how the hell does one actually do it?

Where to start?

How can I Create a Friendly Brand?

To arrive at a tone of voice that reflects your brand’s character and its commitment to creating a maintaining strong relationship with its customers, you have to think about big strategic principles first.

1. Know Your Audience

To develop a tone that resonates, you need to know who you're speaking to. Understanding your audience's demographics, values, preferences and their pain points will help you choose language that feels natural and welcoming to them.

For example, Innocent Drinks, a British-based company that produces smoothies and juice drinks, does this brilliantly.

Their tone is fun and informal, reflecting the personality of their target audience — mainly millennials and Gen Z consumers who value authenticity and humor.

Their tone aligns perfectly with their funny visuals and helps the brand stand out. For example, the vacancies section on their web page is called “fancy a job?” which certainly fits them much better than boring “Vacancies” or “Work at our company” would.

You don’t need to dedicate a large budget to researching your audience. In fact, you can do it by investing only your time and attention:

  • Use data that you already have access to. Analyze customer interactions, feedback, and behavior on your website, social media channels, and customer service inquiries.

  • Use direct interactions to gather insights. Conduct informal surveys, polls, or feedback requests via email or social media, engage in conversations with customers through comments, messages, or forums.

  • Observe discussions and trends on social media platforms and online forums related to your industry.

  • Study your competitors to see how they interact with their audiences. Analyze their content, tone, and the feedback they receive from their customers.

If you have concluded that your kind of audience will appreciate a friendly and warm tone, start working on your tone of voice guide.

2. Use Simple, Conversational Language

A key element of creating a friendly tone is simplicity. A brand that speaks in overly complex, technical jargon can come off as distant and unapproachable.

To sound friendly, opt for clear and concise language. Use everyday words and conversational sentences that make the reader feel like they’re talking to a friend, not reading a corporate memo.

3. Use Personal Pronouns and Active Voice

Using personal pronouns like "we," "you," and "us" helps your brand come across as human and relatable.

It creates a sense of dialogue rather than a one-sided message. Similarly, using active voice makes your writing more direct and lively, increasing the sense of immediacy and warmth.

For example, music streaming service Spotify consistently uses the active voice and personal pronouns in its messaging, whether through app notifications or emails.

Phrases like “We found some new music for you” create a sense of collaboration between the brand and the user, making the communication feel more personal and friendly.

4. Inject Personality with Humor (But Be Careful!)

Humor, when used appropriately, can make your brand feel more approachable and fun. It can break down barriers and make your audience smile, which is an excellent way to create positive associations with your brand.

Brands like sweets company Wendy’s have become famous for their witty and playful social media interactions.

Wendy’s Twitter account often uses humor, sarcasm, and playful banter to engage with their followers, giving the brand a distinctive, approachable personality.

However, it's important to note that humor must align with your audience and brand values. What works for Wendy’s may not be suitable for a financial institution or healthcare provider.

Humor can enhance engagement and can get your company out of unpleasant situations too, but it must be done carefully. The 2021 article in Journal of Business Research explores the effect of humor in service failure situations.

The authors, Sarah Kobel and Andrea Groeppel-Klein, demonstrate that humor, when it is actually perceived as funny, can serve as an effective method of service recovery by providing a sense of relief.

mark-basarab-y421kXlUOQk-unsplash.jpg

This relief helps ease emotional tension, allowing customers to make more favorable assessments of the situation.

However, the effectiveness of humor is contingent on it being genuinely humorous, or it risks being less effective than traditional recovery methods.

5. Be Transparent and Honest

Honesty fosters trust, which is crucial to maintaining a friendly brand tone. If something goes wrong, owning up to it with a transparent, human response can turn a potentially negative situation into an opportunity to build stronger customer relationships.

Customers appreciate when brands admit mistakes rather than glossing over issues.

Automating Positivity

At Writitude, we’ve made sure to cover all the essentials for friendly, warm and approachable communication.

For brands working in retail, hospitality, health and wellness, digital platforms and other customer service-centred industries, we’ve developed an automated tone of voice guide called “Friendly and easy-going.”

Signing up for a Writitude account is all it takes to start using it, and even our free “Basic” plan gives you access to our pre-set tones.

Inside our “Friendly and easy-going” tone there are 25 rules, starting from the ban on passive voice to limiting the complexity of sentences and rarity of concepts.

But that’s not all — you can personalize your friendly tone of voice by adding your own brand glossaries or specific tone and style rules to make it uniquely yours.

Use them to ban specific words that your audience doesn’t like, or require keywords that need to be included in your copy (read more about automated glossaries here).

Want to share your tone guide with copywriters or other team members? You’ll just need to upgrade to Premium.

This upgrade also unlocks the ability to create drafts using AI in your custom tone. With this approach, you can ensure your brand’s messaging stays consistent with its unique voice and values.

--> Try Writitude for free!