Why write it down
If one person writes everything, voice may live in their head and mostly work. Once a second person writes a post, a freelancer drafts an email or you hire someone to answer customers, differences appear. One message is chatty, the next formal, the third full of jargon. Readers notice, even if they cannot say why.
A voice and tone guide is a short document that explains how the business sounds and gives people enough examples to match it. It does not need to be a design project. One or two pages that people actually open are better than a long manual no one reads.
This article assumes you already have a rough sense of your personality. If not, defining a brand voice is the step before this one; here the focus is on turning it into something people can use.
Voice versus tone
These two terms are often confused:
- Voice is the consistent personality: how you sound in general.
- Tone is how that voice adjusts to the situation: a celebratory announcement sounds different from an apology.
A friend who is cheerful and direct is still cheerful and direct at a funeral, but they speak differently there. Your guide should cover both.
What to include
1. A one-sentence summary
State your voice in a sentence a new writer could repeat. For example: “We write like a knowledgeable neighbour: friendly, practical and never pushy.” This is an illustration, not a recommendation.
2. Three or four traits, each with a boundary
Traits alone are vague. “Friendly” can mean many things. Pair each trait with what it does and does not mean.
| Trait | We mean | We do not mean |
|---|---|---|
| Friendly | Warm, uses “you” and contractions | Slang, jokes in every message |
| Practical | Gives steps and specifics | Long background before the point |
| Honest | Says what a product will not do | Overpromising to close a sale |
| Calm | Plain statements | Exclamation marks and urgency |
3. Words we use and words we avoid
A short list is surprisingly helpful. Include product names and their correct spelling, terms you prefer (“customers” rather than “users”, perhaps), and phrases you want to avoid, such as jargon or empty superlatives. Mention how you handle capitalisation, numbers, dates and currency if consistency matters.
4. Before-and-after examples
Examples teach faster than descriptions. Take a few real pieces of your own writing and show an off-brand version next to an on-brand one.
- Off-brand: “We are delighted to announce the launch of our innovative new solution!”
- On-brand: “Our booking tool is now live. You can pick a time, pay and get a reminder in one place.”
Keep examples current, and add new ones when questions come up.
5. Tone by situation
List the situations you write for most and describe the tone to use. Common ones include:
- Welcome messages and onboarding
- Promotions and announcements
- Customer service replies and complaints
- Error messages and apologies
- Social media posts
For each, give two or three lines: what the reader likely feels, what they need, and how you should sound. For an apology, for example: acknowledge the problem plainly, say what you are doing, avoid jokes.
6. Basic writing rules
Add a handful of principles that apply everywhere, such as writing in the active voice, keeping sentences short, using plain language and never making claims you cannot support. These match general copywriting basics, and they help new writers who are less sure of their instincts.
7. A quick pre-publish check
End with five or six questions anyone can ask before sending something:
- Could the reader tell what to do next?
- Does it sound like us when read aloud?
- Have we avoided words on our “avoid” list?
- Is every claim true and specific?
- Would we say this to a customer face to face?
How to build it without much effort
- Collect samples. Gather a dozen things you have written that felt right and a few that felt off.
- Look for patterns. What do the good ones have in common? Sentence length, vocabulary, level of formality?
- Draft the guide using the sections above. Aim for a maximum of two pages.
- Test it. Ask someone who has not seen your voice before to write a short message using the guide, then see how close it is. Where it misses, add a clarifying example.
- Share it where people work, such as the shared drive, content calendar or onboarding pack, rather than leaving it in an email attachment.
Keep it alive
A guide is never finished. Review it every few months or after a notable change, like a new audience, product line or channel. If you notice people repeatedly asking the same question, add the answer. If part of the guide is never used, remove it.
Your guide should also fit with the rest of your brand. Your visual brand identity, the brand story you tell and how much brand consistency you keep across channels all shape how people experience the business, so they are worth checking against the guide from time to time. Voice is one part of that picture, not all of it.
Common problems
- Too long. Long documents go unread. Prioritise.
- Too abstract. Without examples, adjectives like “authentic” mean little.
- Too aspirational. Describe how you can realistically write, not how you wish you sounded.
- Never used. If the guide is not part of how drafts get reviewed, it will be ignored.
A simple, honest guide that people can scan in five minutes is enough to make writing on brand a lot easier.