When creating content for public consumption there are several tenets to keep in mind, such as audience knowledge, word economy, inclusiveness and grammar. Paying attention to these areas of your writing ensures your content marketing is clear, concise and understandable by your target audience. There is, however, one more area to be on the lookout for: active voice.
Making a purposeful choice to use active voice in your content marketing pieces is one of the best ways to guarantee your content is taken seriously and that it motivates and encourages your audience to take action.
In this article, we discuss the difference between active and passive voice, the best ways to identify each, why it is important to use active voice in your content marketing and examples for how to turn writing that is in passive voice into active voice.
What Is Voice?
The first step to identifying active and passive voice is to understand what each means. In any piece of writing, verbs have five properties. Grammarly describes these as, “voice, mood, tense, person and number.”
In terms of voice, there are two options: active and passive. It is important to note that both forms are grammatically correct and have their own time and place in writing. Active voice is often the better choice for any sort of content marketing material due to its directness and simplicity. Below you will find a summary of active and passive voice, and what areas of writing they are typically used in.
Learn how to identify active voice in your content marketing.
Active Voice
In active voice, the focus is on what the subject of the sentence is doing. In English, simple sentences start with the subject (the noun that is doing something). After that comes the verb (the action word) followed by the direct object (the noun in the sentence that is the object of the subject’s action). Here is a short example: “I (subject) throw (verb) the ball (direct object).”
This writing method creates strong, direct and easy-to-read content. Active voice projects confidence and takes control of a piece of writing. Since the subject matter is clear and easily understood, it engages with the reader and establishes trust.
In this voice, sentences and subject matter aren’t long or drawn out. As such, the content marketer maintains momentum while writing, essentially keeping the customer interested and actively involved with your brand. Additionally, an active voice is not overly academic and allows readers to connect with your brand easily without feeling alienated by not understanding what you are trying to convey.
Passive Voice
In passive voice, on the other hand, the subject is not the agent of the sentence, where the agent is the one enacting the verb. It is subtler and can appear weaker, tedious and even impersonal – not exactly the tone you’re looking for in content marketing! Passive voice does have a prominent place in writing, but it is not broadly used in content marketing. It is primarily saved for academic or legal forms of writing for several reasons.
Here are a few reasons someone might choose to use passive voice:
- Active voice can be thought of as simplistic, something academics naturally try to avoid.
- As subject matter tends to be more in-depth with these types of writing, the use of passive voice (which tends to have a higher word count than active voice) allows the writer the space to show that the action is more important than the performer of the action.
Here is an example of a passive sentence. “The ball (object) was thrown (verb) by me (agent).”
Identifying Active And Passive Voice
The next step to using active voice in your content marketing is being able to identify each type of voice. This is quite simple once you know what you are looking for. The primary difference is essentially the word order. If you read a sentence, and it is clear who the agent is (and this subject is identified in the first part of the sentence), it is likely already in active voice.
A passive sentence can be a bit harder to identify; however, there are some tips for spotting this type of voice. One of these is to look for the following helping verbs:
am, is, are, was, were, being, been, be, have, has, do, did, does, will, would, shall, should, may, must, can and could.
Another way to identify a passive sentence is to read your sentence out loud. If it sounds a bit awkward and you need to read it more than once, chances are it is in passive voice.
Examples of active and passive voice are found below:
| Active voice | Passive voice |
| She wrote the blog. | The blog was written by her. |
| The dog chased the cat. | The cat was chased by the dog. |
| My daughter sang a song. | The song was sung by my daughter. |
As you can see, with active voice the subject and action are quite clear, whereas the passive voice takes a bit more reading to identify what is really happening. When sentences are this short and simple (in both the active and passive forms), it may be difficult to understand why you would want to stay clear of passive voice in your content marketing. Here are a few examples that illustrate when passive voice becomes unwieldly:
| Active voice | Passive voice |
| Customers love our selection of games. | Our selection of games are loved by customers. |
| Every employee must pass an entrance exam before joining the company. | An entrance exam must be passed by every employee before joining the company. |
| We will do everything to ensure you have a wonderful experience at our store. | To ensure you have a wonderful experience at our store, everything will be done by us. |
The last sentence is a great example of how passive voice can turn something that is simple and easy to understand into something more complicated than it needs to be.
Now that you know how to identify active and passive voice, it’s important to understand why active voice is preferred over passive voice in content marketing.
Use active voice in your content marketing.
Choosing Active Voice For Your Content Marketing
The goal of any type of content marketing is to connect with the reader for a specific purpose. In the field of content marketing, it is crucial to engage your audience with confidence and conviction. Understanding the difference between active and passive voice plays a significant role in refining your sales and lead-generating copy. These are some of the benefits using active voice in your content marketing offers:
Engage: Action verbs and active voice captivate readers and directly involve them in the story.
Readability: It is often easier to understand active language and phrases, particularly for non-native English speakers.
Persuade: The goal of all content is to prompt readers to act, whether that involves engaging in business with your company or sharing your content. Incorporating action verbs and active language into your writing enhances its persuasiveness.
Momentum: Passive voice tends to make content lengthy and less exciting to read. By employing active language consistently, you can maintain readers’ interest throughout your marketing content, preventing them from simply scrolling to the end or leaving altogether.
While all these aspects hold significance in content marketing, ensuring readability and establishing a genuine connection with your audience are paramount. When your content is easily comprehensible and resonates with your brand, readers are more likely to be persuaded to respond to your call to action (CTA).
Switching From Passive To Active Voice
While the benefits of using active voice are clear, how do you train yourself to recognize passive voice and make using active voice second nature? One of the easiest ways to switch something from passive to active voice is to change the word order so that the subject of the sentence is at the beginning, followed by some sort of action.
Another way to switch your writing to active voice is to eliminate the helping verbs we mentioned earlier in the article. As long as you’re able to quickly identify who is performing the action in your sentence, chances are your writing is in active voice. If you’re still unsure after taking these steps, read your content out loud. Oftentimes this will help you identify passive sentences you may have missed.
How can you switch from passive to active voice?
Is It Ever Okay To Use Passive Voice?
While it is true that the goal should be to use active voice as much as possible in your content marketing, there may be times where passive voice should be used instead. Remember, a passive sentence is still grammatically correct. Active voice is concise, but this specificity can be detrimental on occasion. Active voice can sometimes be interpreted as forceful or even intimidating, so when dealing with a sensitive or negative subject, it may be wise to use passive voice to soften the language. Additionally, you will likely see examples of passive voice in business blogs (including this blog) as an article written in purely active voice appears choppy and abrupt. As with any style choice, variety is key.
It’s also worth saying that long-form blogs perform better than short-form blogs, and when you’re trying to increase your word count, the use of passive voice is an easy way to do it!
Last, there are times when you may have a client who prefers the use of passive voice, especially those in academic, legal or tech industries. Keep in mind that even in those cases, some modulation of voice is essential.
While it may seem tedious, taking the time to make sure your content marketing is in active rather than passive voice can have a huge impact on the quality and effectiveness of your content marketing. Using active voice will help you to gain the trust of your customers, engage with them and persuade them to take a chance with your brand. You want your target audience to read your content and immediately understand what their next steps should be; using active voice over passive voice is a surefire way to achieve this goal.
Need Help With Your Content Marketing Strategy?
If you would like help with your content marketing strategy, please contact us at Three Girls Media, Inc. We have an exceptional group of marketing specialists who are eager and highly qualified to help you create the best possible content marketing for you and your brand.
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