You may think that style guides are just for large organisations with big marketing departments that have to maintain a strong corporate image across many business units, or even countries. Wrong.
A simple style guide is also an important business tool for small business – even if you are the only person creating material. Actually, it’s one of the easiest things you can do (from a communication point of view) to develop a consistent message for your business.
Don’t be afraid – they don’t have to be complex or lengthy, in fact the simpler they are, the more usable they become.
What’s covered in a style guide?
A basic style guide sets out the rules for:
- the punctuation and spelling of your business name, including derivatives
- how to format and write postal addresses, phone numbers, website URLs and email addresses
- heading punctuation
- the use of your business motto/slogan
- using acronyms and abbreviations
- any other preferred spelling, grammar and punctuation.
Some tips for a good style guide:
- Consistent tone: Stick to one tone on your website. Whether it’s conversational, formal, or cheeky – keep it the same across the site.
- Consistent writing style and formatting: One page you’ve written a huge narrative, the next everything is short and in bullet points. Visitors will get confused and leave your site as it doesn’t seem trustworthy.
- Consistent message: Web content is a powerful marketing tool. Like any marketing, you need to have a think about the message you are trying to send. Work out a clear call to action, understand why someone may need your product or service, and make sure your content has a purpose.
Headings
A common question I’m asked relates to headings. Do you capitalise each letter? Do you just capitalise the first letter? Well it’s up to you. Personally I prefer sentence case (when you just capitalise the first letter, like in a sentence), but as long as you keep it consistent, title case (when the first letter of each word is capitalised) can work too.
All caps however aren’t a good idea as it makes your headings hard to read.
The final word
Remember – a style guide is most useful if you can print it out and stick it on the wall where you can see it. It’s no use gathering dust on a shelf, or hidden away in a drawer!
What are you going to include in your style guide?
{ 5 comments… read them below or add one }
I am currently writing a style guide for a publisher I work for. The best thing about estabilshing a style guide is that it makes your job so much easier! I also enjoy having to go deep into the theory of grammar and pluck out the reasons for my choices.
One thing we never seem to agree on at work is the possessive form of our organisation’s acronym. (It doesn’t help that it ends in ’s’.)
Great post, Sally.
@Bill – I’m so glad to hear someone else has that problem! I did myself a real doozy naming my business SNOBS when the true acronym for the full business name should be S.N.O.B
That means SNOBs isn’t a correct way to write it either because the last work of the title (businesswomen) is already plural. Aargh!
I mostly write SNOBS when abbreviating the business name and SNOBS’ when referring to something on the site – like “SNOBS’ subscribers” or “SNOBS’ New Kids on the Block section”.
I think I’ve got it right, kinda.
Carlee, Chief SNOB
Thanks for your comments!
@Pam – I usually create a cheat sheet for my projects and quite often will develop this into a mini style guide for my client. It helps prevent content becoming dis-jointed as soon as others maintain it.
@Bill – I feel your pain. And the more rules are set in place, the more rules will be ignored.
What a great article Sally! Very helpful and some great tips.