AXON TONE & VOICE
Content Goals
Every piece of content we create shares many common goals:
INSPIRE: Axon is a place fueled by its vision to protect life. Think of everything we write as one more brick in the bridge to helping others understand our vision. Build from there and watch what happens.
INFORM: We are asking people to trust in products that can have a dramatic impact on saving lives. Which means, marketing jargon won’t suffice. Focus on the actual strengths of our products. Lead with truth by thinking about what your audience needs from you.
RESPECT: Whether it’s B2B or the public sector, our audience comes from different backgrounds that shape what they think of public safety, guns and violence. These opinions ultimately affect how they perceive Axon. Keep this in mind when writing content or responding to criticism. Be open, humble and receptive to healthy dialogue. Our goal is to create ambassadors of our mission that align with our mission to Protect Life.
In order to achieve those goals, we make sure our content is:
SIMPLE: Say what you need to say in as few words as possible.
WARM: Tech language can be cold and inhuman. Don’t be afraid to use language that feels more human in approach.
APPROPRIATE: Write in a way that suits the situation. Just like in face-to-face conversations, adapt your tone depending on who you’re writing to and what you’re writing about.
WHAT IS A BRAND'S “VOICE”
One of the most significant impacts we can make is how we communicate as a brand. Communication is the ongoing conversation we have with anyone who has an impact on our business. At its core, this refers to how we communicate with our customers about our products and services. But a brand is much more than the product it makes. Everything we do as a “maker of things” is fueled by why we do what we do. Think of a brand voice as the marriage between product and personality, which is driven by our mission to Protect Life and to make the bullet obsolete. Protect Life by making the bullet obsolete. This differentiates us from every other brand in the world. As our influence continues to grow globally, we have the opportunity to inspire the public to demand more non-lethal methods of de-escalation and recruit top tier talent who are looking for a mission they can believe in.
This document gives us a guideline and empowers us to communicate at that level they can believe in and truly get behind.
VOICE VS TONE
Knowing your audience is critical. The way you speak to a manager is probably a lot different than the way to you speak to your close friend, which is different than the way you might talk to your kids, your dog or your neighbor. Your voice will never change, but your tone will differ based on who you’re talking with. In addition, tone takes into consideration the emotional state of your audience based on the situation. Let’s start by examining Axon’s voice.
As a tech company, we know there’s a fine line between giving critical information and going overboard with confusing terminology, unfocused and boring. We want to give people enough information that helps them understand, make a decision or take the next step. We’d rather give an audience enough information than risk losing them with too much information. Whether we are talking with a potential employee, a curious observer on Reddit or the Chief of Police, we want to communicate simply, but effectively. Moreover, we want them to catch on to our mission and become Axon ambassadors on the road to Protecting Life.
So, when we communicate through copy:
WE ARE ROOTED IN FACTS. We know that our mission is subject to scrutiny, and we can’t afford to offer pie-in-the-sky promises without a road map of how we plan on getting there. While we don’t need to outline specifics at every turn, everything we write should point back to our expertise and history as a company that continues to make products to Protect Life.
WE ARE HELPFUL PARTNERS, NOT GUIDES. We understand technology can be intimidating and we know our audience isn’t spending hours looking at code. We do not want to be seen as a “guide” in our mission. A guide refers an expert who has travelled down a path many times and is helping someone as they trek through an experience for the first time. Where we are and where we are going is only made possible by partnering with others. Communicating as partners allows us to be nimble and adaptable.
WE SPEAK HUMAN. We do everything we can to strip away the tech speak garble and just talk to our audience. For our B2B audience, tech specs are important, but equally important is how these specs are communicated. For our public audience, specs only matter when they confirm a mission-focused message. Don’t be afraid to break a few rules if it means talking in a way people will understand.
WE ARE CONFIDENT, NOT CONDESCENDING. We know who we are and stand behind the products we make. But we never want to appear standoffish or rude. We know many will never experience the scenarios our technology is designed to improve. We understand many will approach our products with beliefs and biases informed by knowledge and personal history. We therefore must always be willing to welcome conversation and embrace discussion.
WE'RE QUIRKY WHEN WE CAN BE. Our mission holds great weight, and humor can detract from our approach to change being taken seriously. But caution should not bar us from capturing attention. We are a revolutionary tech company with a geeky side, and we should feel empowered to share our passion so long as it doesn’t detract from our focus. The goal is to communicate, not to entertain. If we keep this objective in mind, our messaging will be balanced.
AXON'S TONE SHOULD BE STRAIGHTFORWARD AND CONCISE. We know a lot of companies stress being simple, however our purpose for keeping things simple is rooted in our business pillars: Obsolete the bullet, Protect Truth, Accelerate Justice and Build for Racial, equity, diversity and inclusion. This all points to our ultimate mission of Protecting Life.
KEEP THINGS CONSISTENT AND OPT FOR CLARITY OVER ENTERTAINMENT. When you are finished writing, ask yourself, “Does this communicate what needs to be said?” Pay attention to how people respond. Are they asking questions that are driving them closer to a decision or opinion, or are they asking for more clarity? If it’s the latter, you may want to rethink your tone. Again, be careful with humor. It’s better to avoid it altogether if you’re questioning whether or not humor is appropriate.
STORIES CAN BE A POWERFUL AGENT FOR COMMUNICATION. Our company is full of stories of people whose lives were changed because of our training and products. Think about how you can appropriately weave a story into your copy. At the very least, use these stories as a method to get you thinking about what type of tone you should use and how it can motivate your copy into something that resonates with the intended audience.
Basic Mechanics and Grammar
We want to our content to feel globally consistent. The following guide is designed to help us adhere to our unique style and should be followed unless otherwise noted below.
In an active voice, the subject of the sentence does the action. In a passive voice, the subject of the sentence has the action done to it.
Yes: Marti logged into the account.
No: The account was logged into by Marti.
Words like "was" and "by" may indicate that you're writing in a passive voice. Scan for these words and reword sentences where they appear.
One exception is when you want to specifically emphasize the action over the subject. In some cases, this is fine.
Your account was flagged by our abuse team.
If there’s a chance your reader won’t recognize an abbreviation or acronym, spell it out the first time you mention it. Then, use the short version for all other references. If the abbreviation isn’t clearly related to the full version, specify in parentheses.
First use: Network Operations Center (NOC)
Second use: NOC
First use: Coordinated Universal Time (UTC)
Second use: UTC
If the abbreviation or acronym is well known, like API or HTML, use it instead (and don’t worry about spelling it out).
Title case refers to capitalizing the first letter of every word. This Would Be An Example Of That. Sentence case refers to writing like you would a normal sentence by capitalizing the first word of the sentence. This is an example of writing in a sentence case format. We prefer writing in sentence case format as it is easier to follow, especially when there isn’t a single source creating content.
Public facing content should not use bullets. Do not use periods unless there is more than one sentence in your content. For example, a single headline to a digital ad should not have a period.
Example for a T7 ad headline:
Eg for a T7 ad headline: TASER 7 is the non-lethal promise to your community
They’re wonderful. Feel free to use them, however you should avoid use when writing content that will be translated into another language.
Spell out any number from zero to nine. From 10 on up, just go with digits unless it’s the first word of a sentence. Numbers over 3 digits get commas:
999
1,000
150,000
Write out big numbers in full. Abbreviate them if there are space restraints, as in a tweet or a chart: 1k, 150k. Sometimes it feels weird to use the numeral. If it's an expression that typically uses spelled-out numbers, leave them that way.
A friendly welcome email can help you make a great first impression.
That is a third-party integration.
Put your best foot forward with the all-in-one Marketing Platform that grows with you.
Go with numerical dates: 8/19/19 when giving specific dates for information. When using a date in a sentence, spell out the month and just use numbers for the day: “Be sure to join us August 19th.” Abbreviate the month when space is an issue: Aug. 19
No. Never use them unless they are purposefully used for an advertisement.
Spell out fractions. Use decimal points when a number can’t be easily written out as a fraction, like 1.375 or 47.2.
Yes: two-thirds
No: 2/3
Use the % symbol instead of spelling out "percent."
Use a hyphen (-) to indicate a range or span of numbers.
It takes 20-30 days.
When writing about US currency, use the dollar sign before the amount. Include a decimal and number of cents if more than 0.
$20
$19.99
¥1
€1
Use dashes without spaces between numbers. Use a country code if your reader is in another country.
555-867-5309
+1-404-123-4567
Use the degree symbol and the capital F abbreviation for Fahrenheit.
98°F
Use numerals and am or pm, with a space in between. Don’t use minutes for on-the-hour time.
7 am
7:30 pm
7 am – 10:30 pm
Specify time zones when writing about an event or something else people would need to schedule.
Abbreviate time zones within the continental United States as follows:
Eastern time: ET
Central time: CT
Mountain time: MT
Pacific time: PT
When referring to international time zones, spell them out: Nepal Standard Time, Australian Eastern Time. If a time zone does not have a set name, use its Coordinated Universal Time (UTC) offset.
When referring to decades more than 100 years ago, be more specific:
the 1900s
the 1890s
We use a few different forms of capitalization. Title case capitalizes the first letter of every word except articles, prepositions, and conjunctions. When writing out an email address or website URL, use all lowercase: www.axon.com (http://www.axon.com/). Do not capitalize all letters when mentioning “Axon”. Only our logo should do this. “TASER” always has every letter capitalized. It is ok to capitalize call to action prompts, such as “CLICK HERE”.
Here’s a few words that often trip people up:
add-on (noun, adjective), add on (verb)
back end (noun), back-end (adjective)
best seller (noun), best-selling (adjective)
beta
brick-and-mortar
checkbox
coworker
click-through rate (CTR)
cost per click
double-click
drop-down (noun, adjective), drop down (verb)
e-commerce (the industry)
ePub
email (never hyphenate, never capitalize unless it begins a sentence)
To name
From name
Reply-to name
Subject line
Cc, Bcc
emoji (singular and plural)
front end (noun), front-end (adjective)
geolocation
hashtag
homepage
integrate
internet (never capitalize unless it begins a sentence)
login (noun, adjective), log in (verb)
Like (the social media activity)
multichannel
nonprofit
OK
online (never capitalize unless it begins a sentence)
opt-in (noun, adjective) , opt in (verb)
pay-per-click (PPC)
pop-up (noun, adjective), pop up (verb)
pre-sale
signup (noun, adjective), sign up (verb)
sync
third party (noun), third-party (adjective)
tweet, retweet
username
URL
website
Wi-Fi