Our brand voice

By being consistent with the language and tone we use when creating content for our website, we can express our personality in a way that’s honest, truthful and reflects who we are.

• What we should be: warm, welcoming, enthusiastic, professional, genuine, pragmatic, supportive.
• What we shouldn’t be: overly academic, lofty, ambiguous, apologetic, aggressive, unrealistic.

What does this sound like in practice?

• Where appropriate, engage the reader by talking about ‘you’ rather than ‘students’.
• Avoid passive language – refer to ‘we’, rather than ‘the University’ where appropriate.
• Don’t use overly-familiar language or slang, e.g. refer to ‘new students’ rather than ‘freshers’.

Tone of voice examples

Here are some examples of how messaging and content can easily be revised by using some simple techniques.

Wrong tone

• “At the University of Salford, the hallowed halls of academia are as revered as you would expect in a university with colleges established over 100 years ago.”
• “Our engineering courses rely upon strong practical skills and the kinaesthetic learners’ needs. All our civil engineers are therefore required to complete a range of laboratory exercises.”
• “Our trained staff are very welcoming and will try and assist the students as best as they can.”

Right tone

• “Our academic staff are experts in their fields, regularly undertaking exciting and innovative research that directly informs your teaching.”
• “Salford is part of Greater Manchester; a thriving, diverse city region in the north-west of England and home to some of the most open and friendly people you’ll meet.”
• “There’s an entrepreneurial spirit here – we’ve got big ideas and we make them happen.”
• “When you train to become a nurse, midwife or allied health professional at Salford, you’ll face real-life scenarios in the safe and supportive environment of our Patient Simulation Suite.”