Tone of Voice

Learn more about the essentials of written language and Allianz tone of voice principles

Use the power of words to create our unique voice.

"The whole art of language is to be understood."

– Confucius

Well-structured, well-written content makes your website user-friendly and easy to understand. By using the right tone of voice and amount of information, you can increase the time users spend on your website, encourage them to interact with your content, and generate leads.

You will see that good copywriting is less about large amounts of text, but much more about choosing a purposeful and activating way to communicate. The page templates contain specific copywriting examples in the sample copy.

When setting up your website, it might be helpful to involve a professional copywriter.

Information copy

The focus lies on providing users with information, explanations and further details. Always be aware to reduce all information to the essence and anticipate the exact details users need at this exact level. Try to not overwhelm users with too much information.

Headline as part of the paragraph stage component

Headline

Expresses the main message of the page
Short and catchy
Draws user's attention
Two rows maximum
Up to 32 characters (including blank) per row

Subtitle

Used to give more details and contextualize the information of the respective component
Short and concise
Improves scannability and structure of components
May help the users to better decide, if the information is interesting to them. However, a subtitle is not always needed and can also be left empty.

Subtitle as more describing part of the headline

Body copy of the pro/con module within Product Detail Page

Body copy

Describes and gives further information
Use short sentences, reduce to the essence
Effective, easily scannable and highly informative content
Empathize with your target groups
Point out the expected and needed information
Provide more information on a second level rather than longer paragraphs

Interaction copy

The focus lies on interacting with users and guiding them to complete different actions. Be specific. They need to understand what they can do next, and why.

CTAs – Links and buttons

Draw the user's attention
Short and precisely
Tell the user what action to take next, and to expect from this action
Reduce to a maximum of 1-3 words
Apply imperative case only if you want to give strong and direct instructions

Links and buttons as contact options within Product Detail Page

Footer navigation

Specify the navigation
Give the user an overview at a glance
No more than 1-2 words
All of your copy elements need to be consistent (e. g. use nouns for all product categories or use imperatives for all possible actions to take)

Tooltips

Help users to understand unknown or unfamiliar objects that aren’t described directly in the user interface
A simple structure containing a small amount of information
Direct wording provides valuable instructions or information
Keep the number of characters between 120 to 150

Product comparison table with tooltips

Image with caption

Captions

Describe an image or a video
Provide quick information to help users understand what they are seeing
Captions should be new images, not obvious information already found in the image or video
If credits are required for the content, include them here