Open almost any brand voice guide and you’ll find some version of the same instructions: Be friendly. Be professional. Be authoritative.
It sounds nice. And it’s not wrong, per se. But it tells the writer almost nothing.
You don’t want a brand voice guide that loose. You need one that virtually eliminates guesswork from page one. Whether content is being written internally, outsourced to another agency or developed by an AI tool, everyone needs to be on the same page with which words to use, which ones to avoid and where the boundaries are.
The results? More consistent content, fewer editing rounds and a brand that makes sense to your audience.
Begin With Specific Voice Characteristics
Again, “friendly, professional and authoritative” isn’t necessarily wrong; it’s just incomplete and leaves a lot to interpretation. What does friendly mean for your company? Conversational? Warm? Funny? Approachable but still polished?
Instead of listing meaningless adjectives, define what each characteristic looks like in practice.
For example, a cybersecurity firm might describe its voice as “knowledgeable without being alarmist.” The guide then might specify that writers’ content should demonstrate expertise without relying on fear-based messaging about hackers lurking around every digital corner.
A law firm might choose “confident, not absolute,” while a financial services company could aim for “educational, not prescriptive.” These are every bit as short, but their distinctions give writers something they can actually use. And further elaboration can cement these descriptions.
Define How Tone Changes With Context
Your brand voice should remain recognizable, but your tone can (and should) change depending on what you’re communicating.
A social media post celebrating an employee anniversary shouldn’t sound exactly like a notice about a cybersecurity incident. A blog explaining a complicated financial concept might need a different level of formality than an email welcoming a new client.
Identify your major content types and explain how the tone might shift for each. Social media might be “conversational and energetic,” blog content might be “clear and educational” and client communications might be “concise but reassuring.”
This keeps writers from confusing “consistent voice” with “everything has to sound exactly the same in every situation.”
Create a Preferred-Terms List
Every organization organically develops its own vocabulary, so document it as you go.
Note how you refer to your company, employees, customers, products and services. Document preferred capitalization, acronyms and industry terminology. If your company always says “clients” instead of “customers,” put it in the guide. If an acronym should always be spelled out on first reference, say so.
This section is especially valuable when multiple people create content. Tiny inconsistencies might seem insignificant individually, but together, they can make a brand feel unsettlingly disjointed.
Establish Off-Limits Language, Too
Knowing what to say is important. Knowing what not to say is just as (if not a bit more) crucial to your content.
Keep a running list of words, phrases and claims that don’t fit the brand. Maybe you never call your services “cheap.” Maybe buzzwords such as “revolutionary,” “game-changing” and “cutting-edge” have been banished from the building. Perhaps your audience knows the industry well enough that certain overly simplified terms feel patronizing.
For regulated businesses, this section also has another job: identifying language that could create compliance concerns.
Financial firms, law firms, cybersecurity companies and other regulated or risk-sensitive organizations should work with the appropriate compliance or legal professionals to document language that requires additional scrutiny. Words such as “guaranteed,” “risk-free,” “best” or “proven” can carry implications that go far beyond style.
To be clear, though: The goal isn’t to turn your voice guide into a compliance manual. It’s just to help writers recognize potential problems before content reaches review.
More Showing, Less Telling
One of the most useful sections of a brand voice guide is a collection of real examples.
Show writers a generic sentence, then rewrite it in your brand voice. You can also include examples of headlines, calls to action, social posts and introductions to drive your point home. Demonstrate how you explain complex concepts and how much industry jargon is acceptable.
Bonus points if you include examples from previously published content that everyone agrees got the voice exactly right.
These examples become particularly important as companies incorporate generative artificial intelligence into content workflows. “Write this in our brand voice” isn’t a very useful AI prompt. Detailed instructions, preferred terminology, prohibited language and concrete examples give both humans and AI systems clearer parameters to work within.
Treat Your Voice Guide as a Living Document
Your brand voice guide shouldn’t disappear into a shared drive the day after it’s approved.
Update it when new terminology emerges, services change, compliance teams identify recurring issues or editors notice themselves making the same corrections over and over. If every writer keeps making the same mistake, the problem might not be the writers. The guide might simply need better instructions.
A strong voice guide makes content creation easier without making every piece of content identical. Writers spend less time wondering what “sounds like us,” editors spend less time rewriting and customers encounter a more consistent brand everywhere they find you.
Need help finding your voice? Mischa Communications helps businesses turn expertise into clear, consistent content, including organizations where brand standards and compliance requirements have to work together. Let’s build a voice your audience can recognize!
