Big Star Content » Content Strategy » Style Guides

Style Guides

The first thing any new writer is going to ask for when you hire them to create content for you is guidance on what kind of style you want them to write in. That's because style guides are written with the writer in mind. Style guidelines outline your unique tone, style, language, usages and examples so that any experienced writer can create copy that matches what already exists on your website or in your marketing materials.

Just like a design style guide protects your visual assets, copy style guidelines ensure consistency in your communications and protect your brand voice in your marketplace. The value of copy style guidelines is not only in the time saved for the writer in 'getting it right', the guidelines also act as a definitive source for your team to use in judging the quality and consistency of the content being produced for you – making sure you are getting value out of your content.

Writers know what writers need

As copywriters and editors, we understand intuitively what another writer would need to create copy that is consistent in style and manner to the content you already have. We know what language to use in a style guide and what information is required to show any copywriter or content contributor how to write for your business. We have read a ton of style guides ourselves and written a lot too. We have even written a quick guide to what we would want in a good style guide.

Give better briefings with style guidelines

With a style guide as a supplement, you can focus your briefs on what the objectives for the communication are, not how it should sound or what the strapline is. You will be better able to deliver a concise brief and readily answer any style questions that the team might have by referring them to the style guide. As things change over time, such as a new strapline or product, the style guide can be updated to reflect the change and distributed to all content contributors without having to re-brief.

We know that consistency pays for itself in the long run

A unique voice and presence in a marketplace is hard to develop, and must be protected. Get a professional copywriter to write your copy style guidelines and start getting the benefits out of your content that you deserve: quality, consistency and on-brand. Hire a style guide writer that knows how to communicate to other writers in the right way to clearly articulate your unique brand attributes and messages.

Do you need style guidelines for your business? Call or email us now.

Read our article on Style Guidelines