In startup life, we all know how the story goes: what starts out as a small group of people with a singular vision often grows into something more unwieldy as ten people turns into twenty, fifty, a hundred.<\/p>\n
There are countless books and blogs on how to define and grow your company culture, sharpen your systems, and build up kickass design libraries.<\/p>\n
But what about your copy?<\/p>\n
Not often included in design repositories, and overlooked by brand guides, copy is the red-headed stepchild of the product team. Unstructured and unnoticed, the art of great copy comes from how unnoticed it can be.<\/p>\n
But left untended, bad copy can turn into a huge problem<\/b>.<\/p>\n
Meet your new best friend: the content guide.<\/p>\n
When I joined my current team at YuLife there were a dozen of us. As a scrappy startup trying to revolutionize the stodgy life insurance market, we lived the startup dream.<\/p>\n
There was a collective energy and culture that I was able to translate into a consistent voice for speaking to customers. It was easy because I was able to check in with people and make sure that the words said what we wanted them to.<\/p>\n
Three years and over 50 new hires, the company has grown in size and scope. We still care about connecting with our users, and making sure that we live our company ideals of putting the heart back into life insurance.<\/p>\n
But it\u2019s impossible to have one person oversee every individual piece of copy across all products and platforms. Which is where Module 3 of the UX Writing Hub Academy lit a fire under me.<\/p>\n
I got to learn all about the best ways to distil the essence of the company\u2019s voice into something that we can use for all our content needs<\/b>. This aligns with our company values of appreciating the uniqueness and individuality of our users, and making sure that they know we\u2019re here for them.<\/p>\nThe elements of a content guide<\/h2>\n
You might think that a style guide isn\u2019t important to you, but no matter what level you\u2019re working at, it\u2019s worth taking the time at the start. (Trust me, you\u2019ll thank me for it later.)<\/p>\n
The most important lessons that I\u2019ve learned aren\u2019t about spelling and grammar (although let\u2019s be honest, they\u2019re vital). But what about whether or not you use contractions or formal English?<\/p>\n
You might not think there\u2019s much of a difference between \u201cDear Sir\u201d and \u201cHi Y\u2019all\u201d, but your customers will notice.<\/p>\n
A content style guide helps you to encourage consistency in voice and tone across product teams and platforms<\/b>. At YuLife, we wanted to make sure that whichever touchpoint a customer responded to, they felt like they were talking to the same voice.<\/p>\n