Writing in a Conversational Tone: Tips for Content Creators

The internet is a content reservoir for anyone seeking to learn about a particular topic, get info about a product or service, or conveniently purchase products and services.

To benefit the reader, content on the internet must be inclusive. That means it should be easy to read and comprehend for anyone accessing it.

A fail-safe way writers can ensure their content is accessible to every reader is by writing in a conversational tone.

Writing in a conversational tone assumes a friendly one-on-one chat style, making your readers feel you are addressing them personally. As a result, the written message does not sound like you are targeting an undifferentiated crowd or audience.

Besides, people feel part of a conversation when you address them directly. The friendly tone captivates their attention and excites their feel-good hormones.

If you ask them, seasoned writers will attest to the value of conversational writing. They know that speaking directly to the reader by writing conversationally works in their favor. This is true whether a writer is creating a landing page, a blog post, or any form of web content.

Most significantly, veteran writers know that a conversational writing style is tremendously converting in content marketing.

So, whether you are a novice seeking to hone your writing skills or an experienced writer looking for refresher tips in conversational writing, this article is an exclusive.

Here, you’ll find easy-to-digest details for some of the key topics in conversational writing, including:

• The meaning of a conversational tone in writing.
• Tone in writing, and why it matters to the reader?
• Why writers use conversational writing.
• How to write in a conversational tone (with tips and examples).

Because knowing what is a conversation tone is crucial in understanding why you should use it in writing, I’ll be wise to start by answering that vital question.

What is a Conversational Tone in Writing?

In an era of Artificial Intelligence, it’s not unusual to wonder if a human or some generative AI has created the content you are consuming.

The difference often underlined between the two is that human writing has the creativity and emotional seasoning an AI writing tool lacks. If you want, we can say AI writing lacks a conversational tone.

So, what exactly is a conversational writing tone?

A conversational writing tone is an informal style of writing that assumes a casual and personal connection with the reader. It taps into the writer’s creativity and emotion to create content that tickles the feelings and attention of the reader.

Careful though!

Although it is informal and easy to read, conversational writing doesn’t lack quality and professionalism. Besides, the words used in a conversational writing style should not be disrespectful or inappropriate.

Instead, writing conversationally simply implies that the writer readily connects with the reader through the choice of words, the writing structures, and the tone.

As a difference from formal writing, conversational writing allows the writer to deviate from the vocabulary and complex structures of formal writing.

And that there is a core difference in formal vs. conversational writing:

This difference explains why the conversational tone has become the preferred style in internet business and language.

Because it is a globally accessible business platform, the internet allows people with different school levels to acquire business information. That could mean:

• Info about a product or service.
• Knowledge of business-related topics.
• Prompts to the purchase of a product or service and the delivery details.

For this reason, any content on the internet must be easily accessible to every reader, regardless of their reading abilities. And your writing tone has a lot to do with how easily consumers access content on the internet.

On that note, it’s crucial that I engage you in a brief discussion on tone in writing and why it matters to the reader.

Tone in Writing. Does it Matter to the Reader?

In my college days, one of my most admired professors often repeated that reading is a conversation with the writer. My brain made the simplest interpretation of the statement at the time: “By reading, you listen to the writer.”

Simple, right?

But there’s a million-dollar question on the writer-reader connection:

What’s the knob that turns on the positive conversation between a reader and the writer?

It’s called tone.

A writing tone reveals the writer’s attitude toward the topic and the target audience. It has an effect similar to the tone of voice in oral communication.

Thus, whether in written or spoken communication, a writer’s tone has a decisive impact on the reader. That’s because tone determines the receiver’s attitude toward the message and controls the listening and attention levels.

To be more practical, check out this example:

For any reader, this message sends a first impression that the writer is enthusiastic about the product and believes in its quality: “The best phone on the market right now.”

Second, the writer speaks directly to the reader, “Just for you!”

Besides, the writer creates a sense of urgency by including the phrase, “Right now.” That kind of tells readers they need to act ASAP.

These aspects are enough to make any reader want to read on. Granted a sneak peek, you might catch the reader smiling or nodding with satisfaction.

But what if the writer opted for the phrase below?

First off, this message is directed to “anyone.” That gives the impression the reader isn’t interested in me as a unique buyer. Instead, he is targeting anyone from anywhere who might be looking to buy a phone. And that’s not the precious you.

Besides, the writer also says, “today.” And if you know how indefinite the term can be, you know that today can refer to a period encompassing several years around the current day.

Worse still, this phone is “one of the best.” So, rather than make me want to go for the phone right now, the message triggers a curiosity to find out which other phones are the best in the market.

So, here’s the point in all this.

Tone can make or break a reader’s attitude towards the writer’s message. To be on the safe side, writers should always keep the reader in mind in order to strike a winning writing tone.

But, exactly why should writers use a conversational tone in writing? I’m giving the game away in the next section.

Why Writers Use Conversational Writing

I somewhat anticipated the primary reason writers use conversational writing in the introduction. To restate it, today’s global citizen — practically everyone — relies on the internet to access info about every product, service, and topic under the sun.

As such, any writer feeding info to the web should remember that it must be accessible to everyone, irrespective of their school level.

Since that might sound academic and even political, let’s break it down into 6 layman reasons why writers use conversational writing.

1. The Writer Clicks Better with the Reader

Conversational writing gives the audience the feeling of listening to a real human from the word go. That motivates the reader to keep reading and respond to any prompts to action. After all, “the writer is real and understands me.”

2. The Message Presents as Easy-to-Comprehend

Conversational writing uses simple language without complex vocabulary or grammar structures. That makes the message easy to read and understand and facilitates a reader’s recall of the details.

3. Conversational Writing Triggers Trust

Have you heard about the illusory truth effect?

This theory proposes that people perceive easy-to-read content as more truthful than content written in complex language and grammar. The subconscious ‘illusion’ creates trust in the content and the writer, encouraging the reader to keep reading to the end of the page or convert marketing info to a purchase.

4. Everyone Understands Conversational Language

Writing in the same tone one uses when talking about life makes your writing inclusive. Everyone feels like the writer is talking to them personally, and no one feels left out because they can’t understand the message.

5. Conversational Writing Optimizes Content for SEO

A primary element that Google uses when ranking content is user intent (search intent). This refers to the specific reason a reader types a particular query or keyword.

By pleasing the user with an easy-to-understand answer to their query, conversational writing makes your content rank higher on Google SERP.

6. It is Crucial in Building a Brand

Easy-to-read conversational writing is inclusive, creates trust, establishes a bond with the writer, and makes you rank better on Google.

For all these reasons, a conversational writing style is crucial in creating your unique brand. And where there’s a brand, readers know they can find the exact info, service, or product they are looking for. Plus, they quickly access it as easy-to-read content.

Now, if we stopped here, we’ll leave out the heart of this whole write-up. Our key question: If writing in a conversational tone is so important, how do you write conversationally?

How to Write in a Conversational Tone (Tips and Examples)

Now that you know why you should write in a conversational style, we can cement that knowledge with some tips for writing in a conversational tone.

So, how do you make your writing sound conversational?

Below are the top 5 tips for how to write in a conversational tone, with examples to make them real.

1. Sound Like a Human Communicating with Another Human

Sounding like a human writing for another human is not about the current human or AI Chat Open Assistant Chatbot question.

Instead, it’s about writing in a similar tone and style as when you speak to someone. You want your readers to hear you talk while they read your writing.

Remember my interpretation of the professor’s message? “By reading, you listen to the writer.”

Some of the writing choices that make conversation writing sound human include:

• Using personal pronouns (“I/We” for the writer and “you” for the reader).
• The use of contractions (“you’ll” instead of “you will”).
• Engaging the reader’s emotions (You’ll like what you see!”)
• Using transitional words (so, but, if, besides, because, etc.).
• Avoiding niche jargon unless you are writing for an expert audience.
• Asking questions to keep the reader engaged (“Want to know how that works”).
• Sparingly using fragment sentences (“Without further ado.”/ “Here’s how.”) but avoiding filler words like (“umm”, “Say what?”).

2. Make your Writing a First-Person Narrative

Conversational writing involves one human speaking to another human. As such, you can significantly enhance your writing with credible personal anecdotes so your readers know you speak from experience.

As an example, compare these two sentences:

While the first sounds like something anyone does, the second makes a strong case and stands out as a tested and proven action that the writer does.

Consequently, the reader is more likely to believe whatever information follows the second sentence and keep reading to see what comes next.

In a nutshell, the writer’s voice in conversational writing is more appealing and credible, and the reader feels that the writer is speaking from experience, not hearsay.

3. Avoid Long, Complex Sentences

Long and complex sentences are a common feature in formal academic writing, say in thesis or business writing. But when writing for an “everyone” audience, it’s best to use short and simple sentences.

Shorter sentences are easier to read and comprehend. Longer sentences create the risk of losing the thread of thought for both the writer and the reader.

Try this.

“My girlfriend was late arriving at the movies, so I decided to take a stroll around town to shorten the waiting time.”

Although this is not an unnecessarily long sentence, reading it makes you hold your breath to complete it.

Instead, shorter sentences will sound better and remove unnecessary redundancies. See the less complex version of the example sentence here:

“My girlfriend was running late for our date at the movies. I decided to stroll while I waited.”

In conversational writing, shorter sentences also help you keep paragraphs within the recommended length: between 3 and 4 sentences maximum.

4. Turn Passive Voice into Active Voice

Writing in the passive voice swaps the place of the subject and the object in a sentence. But, is it OK to use passive voice in writing?

Grammatically, yes.

However, the passive voice lacks the clarity of the active voice, and you should use it only when it does a better job. For example, when the action should take center stage, as in the case of “The king was crowned in May.”

If you, like me, have a weakness for passive writing, consider using the suggestions of a reliable writing tool at the editing stage.

Alternatively, think about how you talk to a friend.

Do you say, “You are cherished by me,” or “I cherish you?”

I bet you chose the second.

And that works best for conversational writing.

5. Maintain Professionalism While Writing Conversationally

Some content creators equate conversational writing with humorous or funny writing. While a little sense of humor can go a long way in captivating the reader’s attention, it is not synonymous with a conversational writing style.

Instead, a great conversational writer should know when to stay formal and professional to enhance credibility among readers.

For instance, if you are writing about the best approach for preventing a compromised IoT device from maliciously accessing data and devices on a local network, it is vital to sound professional while staying conversational.

You can do that with short and practical answer phrases that use the simplest form of technical terms you cannot avoid.

For example, you can say “Install a network security system on each device” in place of “Install a software firewall on each cyber appliance.” This way, even a grade 6 reader will understand what needs to be done.

Key Takeaways

Writing in a conversational tone should be every content creator’s business. However, each writer must figure out how conversational they should get depending on the topic and the target audience.

All in all, using simple language, writing easy-to-read short sentences, addressing the reader personally, and all the other rules of conversational writing will work in favor of any writer.

Here’s a final pro tip: Sit at the reader’s chair when writing. That way, you know what makes your readers feel like you are talking to them one-on-one.