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Your Content Style Guide

What’s Included

How to use this guide
Voice definition
Tone attributes
Formatting rules
AP Style overview and exceptions

Appendix A: Common AP Style rules�

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How It Works

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When to Use This Guide

You can use this style guide in two ways.

First, if you're writing content that adopts My Little Salesman’s authoritative voice—e.g., whitepapers, ebooks, web copy—keep this close to your side. This style guide is full of the insights and tactical knowledge you'll need to best represent our brand in content. ��Second, if you’re an employee—whether you contribute to content or not—consider this a helpful resource.

You won't need to follow it down to the letter when authoring content under your own name, of course. But you can still use this as a reference to help you understand the personality of the voice of My Little Salesman to online visitors, prospects, and customers. �

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What’s Included

This guide outlines our brand voice and tone guidelines, formatting conventions, and common AP Style rules.�

�

Style

Voice

Tone

Voice is constant. It describes your brand’s distinctive personality—and what prospects should always think about you.

Style is what your content looks like. This includes formatting, grammar rules, capitalization and more.

Tone is dynamic. It adapts to different scenarios and delivers on the promise of your voice.

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My Little Salesman Brand Persona and Voice

Name

Ted

Demeanor

Cornfed American (BBQ or sushi—either works)
“Shirt-off-his-back” helpfulness
Maximum approachability and optimism
Can deliver a razzing, if’n he thinks you can take it
Tech savvy—yep, that’s an Apple Watch.
Drives a Silverado but is eyeing an F-150 Lightning

Often heard saying:

“Lemme give ya a hand with that…”
“Yep, that’s totally doable. No worries.”

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Voice: Overview

The following positive and negative voice attributes outline how we always want to be perceived by our clients and prospects, as well as lines we should never cross, no matter the context or situation. �

Style

Voice

Tone

Voice is constant. It describes your brand’s distinctive personality — and what prospects should always think about you.

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Voice: Positive Attributes

How we should always be perceived:

You don’t have to use us—you get to use us.
We’re your personal problem solvers.
Your one-stop ecommerce toolbox for heavy equipment dealership.
We were innovative in 1958. We’re still innovative in 2021.
We’re still the solution that fits in your pocket.

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Voice: Negative Attributes

How we should never be perceived:

“You need to conform to our ways”
“We know better than you”
“Figure it out yourself”
“Well, this is the way it's always been done”
“I’m afraid that’s just not possible”
“Well, I don’t know what to tell you”

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Tone: Overview

Our tone pillars govern how we sound. As you create content, keep context at the forefront of your mind, since that will dictate how you adapt your tone across different situations and types of content.�

Style

Voice

Tone

Tone is dynamic. It adapts to different scenarios and delivers on the promise of your voice.

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Tone: Pillar #1 — The Why

“People don't buy what you do; they buy why you do it. And what you do simply proves what you believe.” - Simon Sinek, Start with Why

What we believe:

My Little Salesman believes that receiving the tools you need to get the job done should be simple—from any device from absolutely anywhere. Innovation should make life easier.

My Little Salesman is obsessed with stripping away any obstacles between workers and the tools they need to get the job done.

�

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Tone: Pillar #2 — The How

We’re helpful consultative problem-solvers.�Our audience just wants help getting back to work.

How You Do It

Be clear, concise and direct in your messaging.
Use simple, straightforward language—emphasizing benefits over features.
Content should be easy to read—both in word choice and layout.

How You Don’t Do It

Long sentences, adverbs, repetition, and jargon
Protracted exposition and meandering introductions
Forgetting to focus on the benefits of said features

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Tone: Pillar #2 — The How (Continued)

We’re approachable.�Our audience avoids self-proclaimed “experts” who talk down to them.

How You Do It

Be conversational and relatable.
Empathize with their challenges and strive to provide relief—even if it's only through a helpful resource.
There’s nothing wrong with a elbow-nudge-induced chuckle used in moderation.

How You Don’t Do It

Using language that is so conversational that it becomes unprofessional and denotes carelessness.
Inappropriate or ill-timed humor that demonstrates a lack of situational awareness
Rigid, over-complicated, or theoretical explanations that show we don’t know our audience

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Formatting & AP Style

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Formatting & AP Style: Overview

This section governs the editorial rules and standards we adhere to ensure that our content is free from errors and looks consistent.�

Style

Voice

Tone

Style is what your content looks like. This includes formatting, grammar rules, capitalization, and more.

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Formatting: Titles & Subheadings

We use title case for titles, headings, and subheadings. Title case capitalizes the first letter of each word with the exception of articles and short prepositions.

This Is the Correct Formatting of a Headline��This Is Not The Correct Way To Format A Headline��This is also incorrect formatting for a headline

When in doubt, use https://capitalizemytitle.com/

All subsequent subheadings should be set to H2 styling and then scale down to H3, H4, and H5 as your nested hierarchy demands.��Finally, do not bold or add any additional emphasis to any titles, headings, or subheadings.

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Formatting: Emphasis

We bold to emphasize words and phrases. Do not CAPITALIZE or underline for emphasis. Italicization is to be done tastefully and in moderation.

Italicize the titles of books, television shows, movies, songs, speeches, and works of art. The Bible does not require italics. (This is a departure from standard AP Style.)

We offset ideas—like this one—by flanking them with “em dash” markings placed without spaces.

An em dash is accomplished on MacOS by pressing and holding down the “cmd,” “shift,” and “-” keys and on a PC by pressing “alt” and typing “0151.”

(Parenthetical asides are okay, too.)

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Formatting: Lists

Formatting: Paragraph Spacing

For lists, use bullets instead of numbers, letters, or dashes.
Lists do not include chapter or section listings, which should be numbered.
Only complete sentences require punctuation in a bulleted list.
Only the first word of each line item should be capitalized.

Instead of typical block-form paragraphs, leave line spacings between thoughts. This means that one section may be three sentences while another might be just one sentence. Use the flow of conversation to determine the proper spacing between paragraphs.

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AP Style: What Is It & Why Do We Use It?

The purpose of AP Style—our external style guide of choice—is to provide us with a foundational set of rules and standards pertaining to the mechanics of writing and editorial style.

We chose AP Style because it is agile, suitable for use across a range of diverse industries, as it adopts a clean, uncluttered approach to writing.

While it's always refreshing to come across a writer who can capture attention with an engaging personality and a compelling narrative, you still need to be able to demonstrate a command of the mechanics of the English language to establish authority. ��At our organization, we view this dual mastery of messaging and writing as critical.

Our partners expect us to be as focused and detail-oriented as we are innovative. Any indication to the contrary in our writing will erode our credibility, no matter how thoughtful or persuasive our ideas may be.

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AP Style: Our Exceptions

Job titles are always capitalized when associated with an individual’s name.
Use of “&” is acceptable in headings and subheadings but not in standard body copy unless the symbol is part of a branded term or name.
Though AP style asks for percentages to be spelled out (“50 percent” versus “50%”), we support the use of the percentage symbol.
For the sake of clarity, the Oxford Comma is to be employed.

Example:

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Appendix A:

Common AP Style Rules

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