How to Find Your Authentic Marketing Voice on Your Phone
When you speak in an authentic voice, you attract like-minded individuals. These are the people who become your ideal clients – clients who deeply resonate with you, your values, and your vision. But how do you write the words to communicate with them in that authentic voice?
Many photographers become intimidated when they have to put words on a page to attract clients. Whether it’s the copy for your email promo or your web site’s About page, it can feel like a high-stakes game and produce stress.
But it doesn’t have to be that way. Because you spend more of your days shooting and talking than you do writing, you might feel less confident about writing your marketing copy. If you imagine that you’re just having a conversation with someone you like, and speak naturally when drafting your copy, you’re halfway there.
What you should share in your marketing copy is the subject for another article. Today, I just want to share an easy way to become more comfortable writing in your authentic voice.
Whenever I find myself challenged by a writing assignment, I find that it’s helpful to talk it out instead of writing it out – especially on a first draft. I just record what I want to say; it’s far easier to have a natural tone of voice that way. I speak as if I was having a conversation with a good friend. I then use a transcription of the recording as the basis for my copy.
Here’s how I wrote this blog post using my iPhone: You may not know that the latest version of the iPhone iOS has a “built-in secretary” in the form of Siri who can take dictation. I launched the Notes app (which comes on all iPhones). I started a new note. When the keypad appeared, I touched the microphone icon and started talking. I pretended that I was having a conversation with a friend explaining this process. The app “listened” to what I was saying and then…voilà! Her transcription appeared in Notes. I had a natural-sounding written communication which I then emailed to myself for further editing in the word processor on my laptop.
Tips: Siri will transcribe everything you say – more or less. Mistakes will be made. The more you use her, the better she understands you. You will need to edit, but a lot of time is saved on your first draft. Don’t forget to insert your punctuation by saying it, e.g. “period”; “comma”; “exclamation point,” etc. If you don’t have an iPhone with Siri (or Android’s version of her), there are other free options. Before I got my new phone and developed an ongoing relationship with Siri (she sends most of my texts now), I used the app, Dragon Dictation, which does essentially the same thing. It’s available on both iPhones, iPads, and Android.