Textok

On Monday, don't delay, a comma there should stay

In formal texts 🎩, a comma after the day of the week makes the date stand out and be more easily understood. For example, "You are invited to the gala on Saturday, December 7, 2024." 👗

In informal writing, a comma is typically left out. Make your choice depending on your brand's character and automate the consistency on textok.com!

Last week Katya Firyan and Olga Procevska had the opportunity to talk about their Textok journey and introduce the product to Jason Malki and StrtupBoost. To read the article, follow the link in the first comment!

Short or long? You need both!

Creating variety in sentence lengths enhances the flow and impact of your text.

Short sentences drive action 🚀Longer sentences delve deeper into details, painting vivid pictures 🎨 and enriching your message.

This balance not only improves readability but also makes your communication more compelling and persuasive.

Find more tone and style rules on textok.com!

WHEN TEXTOK IS NOT FOR YOU
Our previously published list wouldn’t be complete without the list of Who Textok is NOT for. So, here it goes. Textok is not for you if
- You only produce content occasionally
- Your brand is very young and you haven’t found your voice yet
- Your brand’s reputation doesn’t depend on the quality of your texts
- Only you write all of your texts
- You don’t write for a living

WHO IS TEXTOK FOR?

Oftentimes, when a new product comes up, it’s seriously hard to understand if it’s for you. So, we’ve compiled an honest list of how to realise you need Textok.

Textok is for you if
- You communicate with your customers a lot through text:
via blog posts, emails, social media, etc.
- Your brand has a distinct tone of voice or you would like to develop one
- You write texts for different audiences, channels or brands
- More than one person writes texts for your company
- Your company has a brand book or writing guidelines on paper or PDF

HAVE TEXTOK's BETA ACCOUNT? 😼

Last week we launched Textok’s new version with paid accounts (and a free trial period). Your Beta account will be active until the end of June 2024, then your account will be deactivated.

—> Let us know if you need help to transfer any information from your Beta account to your free trial account. We would also be happy to show you around a brand-new Textok and help you make you first custom tone of voice guide.

Today we're launched on Product Hunt (see the link to the product page in the first comment) 🤩 We hope for your support, dear friends 🎯 But even if you can't upvote Textok in the next 24h, we'll be happy to hear from you any other day, on any other occasion 🍀

BIG NEWS 😻

Today we launch Textok’s brand new version. Apart from the new UI and pictures of cats, with whom we have long-standing relationships, Textok has loads of innovative functionality for people who write and really care about the quality of texts.

🏂 Need one source of truth for your text writing team? It’s Textok.
🤸‍♀️ Need a deeper insight for compiling your custom tone of voice guides? It’s Textok.
🏋‍♀️ Looking for a tool to drastically decrease feedback loops with your numerous copywriters? Yes, it’s Textok too.

There’s no consistency without automation, and if brand voice consistency is what you’d like to reach in your communication — (you guessed it right!) it’s Textok. 😎

So, go to textok.com and grab your free trial Premium account. Try it out now and tell us what you think! It’d mean a world to us.

There is a problem with 'there is'

Descriptive phrases that include 'there is' can make the text slower and clumsier. 🐢 Enable this rule in your custom tone of voice to steer your copywriting away from lifeless terrains of description into the green grass of action! 🦌

Find more tone and style rules on textok.com!

Assertive is good. 🌟 Too assertive — not so good. 👎

Different audiences perceive emotions differently—what feels passionate to one group might seem confrontational to another.

You know your brand's audience. With Textok's custom tone of voice, you can tailor your approach to resonate exactly as you want it to.

Find more tone and style rules on textok.com!

Contractions make a difference!

Contractions are a common feature of informal speech. We use them every day, all the time. They are also totally ok for corporate hashtag # communication , but not for all of it.

Private banking, premium real estate or law — in some industries professionalism is valued above everything else. 💼 Create a tone of voice for such cases and switch off contractions!

Find more tone and style rules on textok.com !

hashtag # branding hashtag # brandcommunication hashtag # toneofvoice

Positionion your prepositions!

"With the use of our cutting-edge technology", "in order to ensure", "at this point in time" — prepositions can add unnecessary complexity to sentences and make them harder to understand. They also make sentences longer, which can make brand communication seem wordy or unfocused.

Minimize prepositions for more clarity and impact! 🎯

Find more tone and style rules on textok.com!

Customer-centric market research analysis and performance-driven solutions. Quality-focused approach and innovation-driven customer satisfaction strategy.

Does it spark joy?

We think the answer is no, so we say NO to noun strings — three or more nouns in a row. 🧵 They make writing dull and clumsy. Add this rule to your custom tone of voice, and never see a caravan of nouns in your texts again! 🚫✏️

Find more tone and style rules on textok.com!

Lights, camera, action! 🎬

Using action verbs can make a company's message more dynamic by highlighting what it does or what its product or service can achieve, rather than just describing its characteristics with "be" verbs.

With this rule, you'll steer your content producers away from phrases like "Our product is reliable" and instead promote writing with active verbs, such as "Count on our product for reliable performance." 🚀

Find more tone and style rules on textok.com!

Did you say “exceptional” twice? Photo in the first comment 🙂

Even the best brands can make repetitions that lower the appeal of their texts. Repeating the same words over and over again can make your copy sound dull and, well, repetitive.

Avoid that with the “Forbid word repetition” rule in Textok. It will flag words that you can change to brighten up your copy. ✨

Find more tone and style rules on textok.com!

Collocations are words that often go together.

Collocations like "strong coffee" ☕️, "heavy rain" 🌧️ or “powerful impact” 💥 are popular and easy to understand.

Others, such as “serene wilderness” 🌲 or “whimsical beauty” ✨ are cool, but rare, especially for non-native English speakers.

Which means that they can leave a part of your audience feeling puzzled. If your brand is communicating with a wide and diverse audience around the world, it makes sense to leave such serenely wild and whimsically beautiful phrases out of your texts.

Your message may be simpler, but it will get across! 👍

Find more tone and style rules on textok.com!

We all know passive voice is bad for brand copywriting, don't we?

But it still creeps into our copy from time to time. With Textok, you can automate the ban 🚫 on passive voice, eliminating the need to search for it manually.

You can also spare yourself the effort of explaining “please, no passive voice” to all of your copywriters and content producers. 📝 Do it once, and it will be done forever!

Find more tone and style rules on textok.com!

Sometimes, an uncompromising call to action is exactly what you need. At other times, it can do more harm than good. 🛑

In cases such as apologies, official invitation letters, and customer support emails, demanding something from your audience may not always be the right approach. Politeness is of high value in such situations.

With Textok, you can create a custom tone of voice for each communication channel or text genre.

Take this opportunity to forbid explicit demands and require an extra dose of politeness where needed. 💼

Find more tone and style rules on textok.com!

It's a savvy move to safeguard your company's reputation! 🌟

Let's face it, slips happen, often — unintentionally so. By eliminating unnecessary gendered or homophobic language with an automated solution, brands ensure everyone in their audience feels valued and included. 🌈

Find more tone and style rules on textok.com!

Why is being formal good?

And when is it not?

Choose your register right.
🧐 Formality creates a barrier that can bring more efficiency and clarity.
😃 Familiarity can strike a better cord with younger audiences, but also can sometimes sound incompetent.

Mastering the level of formality is one of the communication managers' vital tasks.
Read more about the formality registers (and how Textok automates them) on Textok's blog (link in the first comment).

Who would want to require abstract nouns in their texts? 🤔

Yet abstract nouns can convey a sense of professionalism and expertise. If these are of particular value in your industry, you absolutely should go for gib concepts! 💼

It can also help a brand to stand out from competitors who may use more colloquial or casual language. So cheers to the abstract! 🥂

Find more tone and style rules on textok.com!

Emojis are great! But tricky…

If your audience is wide and diverse, it's easy to hit the wrong note with seemingly benign emojis of a water gun, a peach or others you can't even imagine! 🔫🍑

Some brands like it hot, but for some, the most reasonable business decision is to stay on the safe side. Choose your way with Textok and keep it consistent in every text!

Find more tone and style rules on textok.com!

We all know that confidence is good, right? 🚀

The problem is that sometimes subtle signals of uncertainty can seep into our brand's communication without us even realizing it.

Make sure you stand tall and project a strong image. 💪Consistently, in every text you produce.

Find more tone and style rules on textok.com!

Our cutting-edge product will take your experience to the next level! With state-of-the-art technology and unparalleled innovation, this is a game-changer. Say goodbye to ordinary and hello to extraordinary! 🚀💡🌟

Doooh! Clichés are overused phrases that have become stale and predictable. They are so popular that they may get into your texts even without noticing. As consumers are increasingly drawn to authentic brands that communicate genuine messages, consider forbidding clichés to create your own, unique tone of voice.

Find more tone and style rules on textok.com!

🌹 🥀 Love. Pain. Loss. Gender. Sexuality. Discrimination.

Doesn’t it seem odd how difficult it is to choose words for things everyone inevitably comes across at some point in life?

Sadly, we humans have mistreated each other for as long as we have existed. But we at Textok want to believe that humanity has already gone a long way to acknowledge and fight discrimination.

We, copywriters, are at the informational forefront. 🚩 We also know that the fight is far from over and contributing to it is a must for our team.

We are opening a series of articles and guides that would help every writer on their journey to a more inclusive copy.

--> Follow the link in the first comment to read about sexism in copywriting.

Let's keep it classy, folks! 🎩

If you are in an industry where professionalism and competence are the most important things, you may want to cut back on friendliness. 😜

Or, more precisely, on the most casual or its aspects — slang, contractions, and all those cool words we throw around with friends. Save them for some occasions (like social media), and keep them out of your website or customer support emails.

Create a custom tone of voice for each channel your brand uses to communicate!

Find more tone and style rules on textok.com!

Verbs? They're like the hype squad, getting everyone pumped up and ready to go! But hold your horses, because sometimes, it's all about the nouns and adjectives – they're the storytellers!✨

In brand communication, the words we choose depend on what we want to achieve and who we're talking to. Using lots of verbs can get people moving and understanding things quickly. 🚗💨

But sometimes, focusing more on nouns and adjectives helps paint 🎨a clearer picture and explain things better, especially in certain types of writing.

So, it's all about finding the right balance. Whether it's action-packed verbs or descriptive nouns and adjectives, the goal is to make sure our message clicks with our audience, making it easier for them to connect and get what we're saying.

Find more tone and style rules on textok.com!

They say happiness is a journey, not a destination.

Same thing with the tone and style guides 😄

They are constantly evolving. Along with the audience and your understanding of how to reach it better.

There are hundreds of aspects of writing. And it’s copywriter’s job to consider them for defining brand's tone and style in texts.

But it Textok’s job to automate them ensuring consistency 🤖

Read more about the tuning of a tone of voice guide in a blog post (link in the first comment).

To Rare or Not to Rare? 🤔

Using rare words can turn your brand into a secret society that only PhDs in linguistic acrobatics can join. 🤓Let's not alienate our customers; after all, we want them to buy our products, not solve a linguistic puzzle!

Yet, at the same time, the strategic deployment of rare words can make your message stand out in the crowded marketplace. It's like a fancy cocktail party for your words! 🍸

With Textok YOU decide in which cases, and how many rare and unusual words you want to see in your brand's texts.

Find more tone and style rules on textok.com!

TOP FEEDBACK WE RECEIVED 🤩

“It’s the future of the profession, it costs next to nothing, better start using it now" — this is the most beautiful pitch for Textok, given by our future client. We met him at Collision Conf and he was planning to sign up all of his marketing department.
Here are the most popular use cases we heard from our potential customers:
🫶 (agency) We already HAVE TO write according to the style and tone guides that companies give us. You mean we can automate that compliance?! Where do I sign?
🫶 (marketing department) OMG, are you serious? We can even have a separate custom tone for each audience type?! When do you launch?
🫶 (an influencer) I think I have quite a unique voice, which AI tools don’t get. It would be amazing if I could define it with Textok and start using text generation with my unique tone to speed up my drafts!
🫶 (a freelance writer) I write a lot (sigh). If Textok indeed can automate following the tone requirements, it would be such a relief! Texts are so generic with AI-generation tools.