Writing
Brand Language
Our messaging
Our brand messaging is designed to elevate awareness and understanding of how Fannie Mae is powering America’s housing and to reinforce Fannie Mae’s role as a cornerstone of the U.S. housing market.
Our strategy
Two core principles shape our messaging strategy:
- Audience-first messaging. Everyone should understand the message. When possible, connect to the audience through real stories and experiences.
- Lead with the benefit and demonstrate impact. What is the benefit to the audience? What is the impact to the housing market? Where applicable, show proof with the data.
Our themes
Everything we communicate must align with at least one of these five foundational pillars of our messaging strategy:
- Stability
- Expertise
- Access
- Leadership
- Service
Our voice and tone
Our brand voice is confident, accurate, and compelling. Here are fundamentals of how we can communicate with clarity.
Do
Be clear, direct, accurate, and concise. Use plain language and basic sentence structures to simplify complex concepts.
Be authentic. Use second-person pronouns, like you, we, and us. And it’s OK to use contractions and sentence fragments.
Use active language. To convey that we get things done, use active voice, like “we drive results.” Use gerunds (-ing words) to express forward momentum.
Be empowering and positive. We are industry experts who educate our audience in an enthusiastic and professional way.
Be compelling. For longer-form pieces, break it up with call-outs, sidebars, checklists, graphs, short headlines, and single-sentence paragraphs.
Don't
Use jargon or complicated industry-speak, or acronyms.
Use stiff or formal third-person narrative.
Use passive structures like “results are driven by ...”
Use scolding or arrogant language.
Use flowery or overly formal language.
Jam too much information into a piece.
Visit this page for additional guidance on our writing style.