While writing the copy for this site and our social media posts, I keep bumping up against issues of tone while talking about what we do. Here are some thoughts about keeping things positive.

I want to get across the steps we’ve taken with the business to be more eco focused, as well as encouraging other people to do similar. However it’s really easy to come across as critical, preachy or downright negative. There’s a lot of impact caused by the choices we make on a day to day basis and the more we look at things the more I realise we are all part of ‘the problem’. It’s easy to scapegoat certain groups, corporations or politicians in general but at the end of the day we are the ones voting people in or buying their products. We need to campaign for better corporate and political choices but also makes changes to our own consumption to send a message.

So… how to encourage change and show our own efforts without bashing people over the head with it?

Persuasion over Criticising

As soon as we set ourselves up telling people what to do, there’s probably going to be pushback on that just because people don’t like being told what to do. It’s also not for me to be telling anyone what to do as that just comes off as self-righteous. I’ve got some eco minded suggestions, but am constantly learning more myself and it’s not always as easy as it sounds to choose the more eco friendly option. For example I’m fortunate enough to not need a car as I don’t have kids and work from home, but lots of people might struggle without a car. I find people who set themselves up as “thought leaders” incredibly pompous so really don’t want to sound like that.

Full article at Intention web design: Eco focused copywriting: Hitting the right tone