How to Build the Best Editorial Style Guide in 10 Steps (Template)

How to Build the Best Editorial Style Guide in 10 Steps (Template) As a marketer, creating content that converts readers into customers is key to a successful content strategy. However, if your team has multiple writers, it can be tough to enforce content consistency and  brand standards. This is especially true for team members who have to write content, but arent writers by trade. So, how do you maintain a consistent voice across all the content your company creates? The answer starts with a strong editorial style guide.   Theyre the holy grail of writers guidelines, making it easy for everyone to understand your organizations voice, style, and tone. They also answer questions around formatting, appropriate usage of branded terms, and more. When every writer on your team is equipped with one, theyll be prepared to execute content that better reinforces your brand. In this post, youll learn everything you need to know about creating one that work. Table of Contents: Free Template Definition Examples Why Should Marketers Use Style Guides? Step 1. Start With the AP Style Guide Step 2. Create Guidelines For Voice, Tense, and Point of View Step 3. Translate Jargon Into Customer-Friendly Language Step 4. Explain Best Practices for Different Formats and Content Types Step 5. Identify How Branded Terms Must Be Spelled and Formatted Step 6. Define Your Brand Voice and Tone Step 7. Establish Standards of Performance Step 8. Establish Formatting Guidelines Step 9. Set Photo Guidelines Step 10. Define Guidelines for Visual Design Elements What Is ?: is the best editorial calendar platform to keep content marketing teams organized. Curious how we can help your team plan, publish, and measure content more effectively? Start here. Download Your Style Guide Template One reason companies dont bother creating style guides is because they take time. Eliminate that excuse with this free template. Download it now, then use this post to learn how to complete each section. By the time youre done, youll have a complete copy you can share with your organization.This Is How To Create A Style Guide Your Team Will Actually Use (+Free Template) What is a Content Style Guide, Anyway? For the purposes of this post, here's the definition we'll work with: A content style guide is a  document  that outlines the expectations and brand standards that every piece of content needs to meet. This should describe everything from grammar and spelling to design elements, like proper header use and logo placement. What Does a Style Guide Look Like? If you’re looking for even more information on how to build your style guide, check out the following 15 examples. MailChimp University of North Carolina Spotify Urban Outfitters Buzzfeed Drupal National Geographic Envatotuts+ Epic Content Marketing A List Apart Mozilla Google Developers GitHub Open Table FrontifyWhy Are Style Guides Important For Marketers? Style guides aren’t just for designers. They can help all content creators achieve the following: Understanding your standards of performance. What should every piece you publish include? Keep content consistent. This includes proper usage of branded terms, text formatting, and more. Learn how to write with your brand's voice. Your company should sound like your company, no matter who is writing the content. Above all, they help editors and managers save time reworking writer's content by setting clear expectations up front. Step 1. Consider Following AP Style If you ever took a journalism class, you're probably familiar with AP style. But, did you know there are other style books you can follow, too? Brands, like publishers, often base portions of their style guides on AP style. Consider ordering a copy for your office. Template Action Item: If you choose to use AP Style, drop links to external resources on AP style. Here's one from Purdue OWL, and another from Lake Sumter State College. Step 2. Establish Guidelines for Tense, Voice, and Point of View Even the best writers can use reminders on basic aspects of writing well. For team members who aren't writers by trade, including some general tips can help them avoid mistakes, too. General best practices should center around three writing elements: Tense: Should content be written in past, present, or future tense? Voice: While most writing should be in active voice, is passive voice acceptable for your brand in certain circumstances? Point of View: Should writers use first, second, or third-person perspective when writing as your company? Recommended Reading: How to Create a Marketing Strategy That Will Skyrocket Your Results By 9,360% Understanding When to Use Active Voice  vs. Passive Voice Most content should be written in active voice. However, there are times when passive voice may be preferable. In order to use the correct voice, though, it's important to understand the difference between active and passive voice. (For clarification, this isn't referring to brand voice. That will be touched on later.) Active Voice:  When using active voice, the sentence's subject performs an action. Ex: makes great software. Passive Voice:  When using passive voice, an action is applied retroactively to the subject. Ex: The great software is made by . In the active voice example,  the subject comes first, followed by a verb. This differs from the passive voice example, where  the action comes first, followed by the subject.   Hear the difference? Active voices sounds much more fluid, while passive voice sounds formal. Past vs. Present vs. Future Tense Tenses tell readers when something will occur, or when it happened in the past. There are three tenses, each with four tense subcategories. Present Tense Present tense is an unchanging, repeated, or reoccurring action that exists right now. Present Tense Subcategories: Simple Present: The preferred use of present tense. It uses the least amount of words of all of the other forms, and is best for crafting clear and concise messaging. Present Progressive:  Indicates an action is ongoing that happens at the same time someone writes the statement. Present Perfect: An action that happens at an indefinite time in the past or begins in the past and continues to the present. Present Perfect Progressive: An action that begins in the past, continues to the present and may continue into the future. Past Tense Past tense expresses an action that starts and ends at a previous point in time. Past Tense Subcategories: Simple Past:   This is the preferred use of past tense. Like simple present tense, it is the least wordy of all the past tense sub-categories and is preferred because of its ability to be clear and concise. Past Progressive: An ongoing action that happens in the past at the same time as another action. Past Perfect: An action that happens in the past before another past action. Past Perfect Progressive: An action that begins in the past and ends before another action occurs. Future Tense Future tense expresses an action that occurs in the future. It is recommended that writers avoid writing in this style when they create content for potential customers. Future Tense Subcategories: Simple Future: As with the other two tenses, simple future is the preferred use of the tense as it is the least wordy and can be the most concise. Future Progressive: Indicates an ongoing action that happens in the future. Future Perfect: An action that happens in the future before another future action. Future Perfect Progressive: A future ongoing action that begins in the future before another future action. Point of View Point of view refers to the perspective the author assumes when writing. The Three Points of View: First Person: The speaker refers to themselves/itself. Ex: I get organized with . Second Person: The speaker addresses the reader directly. Ex: You can get organized with . Third Person/em: The speaker refers to a person, place, thing, or idea. Ex: helps marketers get organized. Template Action Item: Under the General Writing Best Practices header record the following information: Decide whether you will write in active or passive voice.  Explain when (or if) using active or passive voice is acceptable in your content. Teach writers how to choose between tenses. Show examples of different tenses and when to use each one. Choose a POV. Choose your POV and explain why content should be written in that POV. Include example text.Step 3. Translate Jargon Into Customer-Friendly Language Next, your style guide should explain how to translate jargon into conversational language customers will understand. Every company and industry uses some type of jargon. This could include acronyms, shorthand that refers to products, or terms you use internally (that most people wouldn't understand out of context). List common pieces of jargon and internal language, and offer better alternatives to use in content and copy instead. For example, a hybrid car manufacturer might use the term, "advanced technology-partial zero emission vehicle". What a mouthful, right? A car shopper might better understand "hybrid car" or "natural gas engine." Template Action Item:  Underneath The Internal Jargon Translations header: Record each piece of jargon that comes up in your customer-facing content on the left-hand side of the chart. Record the customer friendly translation of said jargon on the right-hand side of the chart. Add rows based on the number of terms that your writers will frequently come across. Step 4. Explain Writing Best Practices for Different Formats and Content Types The next piece of your style guide revolves around choosing and outlining expectations for the types of content your marketing team will create. There are many different types of content that you can choose to create. Some common content types include: Blog Posts Case Studies Infographics Podcasts Video Scripts Social Posts Website Content Email Now, you may have different style standards for different types of content. For example, social media posts would likely follow different best practices than video scripts. Take a look at MailChimp's style guide. They offer specific writing recommendations for numerous different channels and content types: Follow their lead with your own style guide. Include each type of content your team creates. Step 5. Identify How Branded Terms Must Be Spelled and Formatted Another section of your style guide should identify brand names, trademarks, and so forth that must be spelled a specific way every single time it is mentioned. Sometimes, this may have legal ramifications, like when you're using trademarked terms. Take a look at this example from Microsoft.com: Note that both Intel and Core feature different legal trademark symbols. Failure to get these right could result in a letter from Intel's lawyers. Here's another example from the same page: Note that PixelSense is written not only with a trademark symbol, but with a capital S. This is likely a branding consideration the company wants to keep consistent. If you have any branded terms that need to be spelled or formatted a certain way, whether for legal or stylistic reasons, document them in your style guide. Template Action Item: Under the Brand Terminology header, record each branded term your content uses in the chart in your template. If your company has a large number of products, consider including only those that writers will need to reference most often. Step 6. Define Your Brand Voice and Tone The next part of your style guide should explain the voice, tone, and style that your branded content should take. What is Brand Voice? Brand voice is the purposeful and consistent personification, or characterization of a brand often expressed through words, tone, and culture. As a marketer, it’s important to bring across this voice at all times, whether that be through content or any other media form. You may already have your brand voice figure out, but if you don’t try a brainstorming session with the following framework: We are [insert desired perception], but we are not [insert antonym of desired perception]. For example, if we were doing a brand voice session for a major software company, it might look something like: We are professional but not stuffy. We are smart but not arrogant. We are technology savvy but not inaccessible. Repeat this process 15 to 20 times. Then, choose four or five pairings that best fit your brand voice, and record them in your template.