Style guide for Upsales
Welcome to your guide to writing style and terminology for all communication—whether an app, a website, or a white paper. If you write about computer technology this guide is for you.
OBS: This page is currently under development!
OBS: This page is currently under development!
Core principles
Upsales have three tone of voice principles for all communication.
Crisp and clear
We’re to the point. And put simplicity above all.
How to:
- Get to the point fast
- Start with the key takeaway
- Put the most important thing in the most noticeable spot
- Make choices and next steps obvious
- Give just enough information to make decisions confidently
Easy to read
We keep things short. And always choose the easiest way to say something.
How to:
- Avoid sounding pompous, overly formal or academic
- Avoid fluffy and abstract texts with no meaning
- Avoid unnecessary words in sentences
- Make texts easy to skim with subheadings and paragraphs
- Go with the easier word when comparing synonyms
Entrepreneurial
We bring new ideas to the table. And our ambitions shine through in everything we do.
How to:
- Avoid sounding pompous, overly formal or academic
- Avoid fluffy and abstract texts with no meaning
- Avoid unnecessary words in sentences
- Make texts easy to skim with subheadings and paragraphs
- Go with the easier word when comparing synonyms
Marketing communication
Use tools to make your writing a bit more hassle-free.
Audience
Our audience is who we’re communicating with.
When creating content, we write for the highest-level decision-makers only. We don’t risk diluting our brand.
When creating content, we write for the highest-level decision-makers only. We don’t risk diluting our brand.
A CEO will never read a blog post written for a sales executive. A sales executive with ambitions, however, might read a post created for a CEO. Don’t fall into the trap of creating content for everyone.
Message
Our message is what we are communicating. Upsales have three core topics in which we’d like to be seen.
How to grow a business
Sharing expertise in entrepreneurship and how to create growth in organisations.
Sales insights
Sharing the lastest insights and findings from our own data.
Sales advice
Sharing high-quality tips and tricks on how to improve the sales process.
Product communication
Use tools to make your writing a bit more hassle-free.
Emotions
Upsales is for sales professionals. The core messaging is about helping people sell more. However, it’s also about using the magic of Upsales technology to get an advantage.
Therefore, your reader’s primary motivation/emotion is likely to be one or more of:
Therefore, your reader’s primary motivation/emotion is likely to be one or more of:
“I need to reach/exceed my sales targets”
Emotions: Assertive, optimistic, impatient
Emotions: Assertive, optimistic, impatient
“How do I use this feature in Upsales?”
Emotions: Excited, curious or frustrated
Emotions: Excited, curious or frustrated
So first decide on your reader’s emotion. Are they:
- In a hurry?
- Looking for information to complete an action?
- Browsing for educational content?
- Comparing Upsales against a competitor?
After you have decided, adopt the Upsales “character” when writing...
Character
Upsales character is:
Sales focused
Helping you compete and sell more
Advanced
Offers new technology/AI
Powerful
Lots of integrations, features
Dynamic
Responds to customer queries quickly
Evolving
Building new features to respond to changing customer needs
Empowering
Sharing expertise on how to uncover hidden sales opportunities
Voice
Show this character in your writing voice by being:
Clear
Write “use” or “help” instead of “utilize” or “assist”
Easy to read
Contract words where possible, so use “isn’t” instead of “is not”
Friendly
Use “avoid” rather than “do not” where possible, eg “Avoid adding too many contacts” rather than “Do not add too many contacts”
Confident
Avoid using “if” and try to start sentences with verbs in how-to articles.
“Contact us if you’d like to try this feature” instead of “if you would like to try this feature, contact Upsales.”
“Contact us if you’d like to try this feature” instead of “if you would like to try this feature, contact Upsales.”
Personal
Write as if you’re talking to one person. “You can also set up user accounts” instead of “It is also possible to set up user accounts”
Helpful
Explain why the reader should do something. “Add more details to your contacts so you can become more granular in your reporting”
Jargon
It’s fine to use jargon when you’re talking about industry-specific things.
For example: landing page, funnel, pipeline, signals, closing, content, deliverability.
Avoid using jargon when it’s a buzzword (a word that isn’t specific, doesn’t help the reader, and there is not one simple definition).
For example, “synergy”, “value-added” or “turn key”.
For example: landing page, funnel, pipeline, signals, closing, content, deliverability.
Avoid using jargon when it’s a buzzword (a word that isn’t specific, doesn’t help the reader, and there is not one simple definition).
For example, “synergy”, “value-added” or “turn key”.
Financial communication
Use tools to make your writing a bit more hassle-free.
Writing tools
Use these tools to sprinkle stardust over your words (and help customers get from A to B)
Readability
When you want everyone to understand your words, paste in your content to the Hemingwayapp.
This highlights potentially difficult sentences/words. Rewrite any that appear, and aim for a Grade 6 score.
Try to keep all sentences below 20 words.
Visit Hemingwayapp.comThis highlights potentially difficult sentences/words. Rewrite any that appear, and aim for a Grade 6 score.
Try to keep all sentences below 20 words.
Grammarly
Grammarly not only helps you with spelling, we've also added our Upsales glossary into the plugin wich helps you with the choice of words.
Install the Grammarly pluginMicrosoft writing guidelines
When in doubt, the people at Microsoft have been writing things for quite some time and they've got some quite extensive guidelines to learn from.
Visit Microsoft writing guidelinesHow to style your text
Bullets
Use bullets for lists, rather than paragraphs.
Italics
Avoid - se bold or hyperlinks if you want to emphasise a word.
Italics are used inside the Upsales products to indicate something inactive or disabled.
Italics are used inside the Upsales products to indicate something inactive or disabled.
Bold
Use bold to highlight important words in a sentence. For example: “You can edit a user's status at any time, even if you have previously deactivated or deleted that user.”
Underlining
Avoid – people will think it’s a link.
How to write your body text
Features
Capitalise the first word and either put in bold or hyperlink.
Example: The Sales board displays sales information.
Example: The Sales board displays sales information.
Article intro
Keep your first sentence under 15 words – it helps draw people in to read more.
Paragraphs
Keep to one idea per paragraph:
Avoid
A manual opt-in is useful when you have imported contacts that have previously opted in outside of Upsales. There are also single or double opt-ins. You can add these to your forms.
Instead..
A manual opt-in is useful when you have imported contacts that have previously opted in outside of Upsales.
There are also single or double opt-ins. You can add these to your forms.
There are also single or double opt-ins. You can add these to your forms.
How to write product names
Tiered product names are BASIC and PRO. These are always uppercase (Easy booking BASIC, Sales process PRO)
Capitalise the first word of any product/feature :
- Sales process
- Sales board
- Insights