Brand voice guide
A brand voice guide is a practical rulebook for how your company sounds. The best version turns real content into clear traits, do-and-don't examples, channel rules, and AI prompts that keep every post recognizably yours.
A useful guide documents writing behavior. It tells a person or AI system how to sound in public, what to avoid, and how to decide when a draft is off-brand. It should be short enough to use while reviewing a post.
Who you speak to, what they already know, and what they need from you.
Three to five traits with concrete writing behavior.
How the voice shifts across LinkedIn, Instagram, email, support, and product UI.
Words to use, words to avoid, preferred spellings, acronyms, and formatting rules.
Examples that show how generic copy becomes recognizably yours.
Instructions an AI tool should follow before drafting anything public.
A voice chart turns traits into rules. This is the section that makes a guide usable for writers, reviewers, and AI prompts.
| Trait | Means | Do | Avoid |
|---|---|---|---|
| Clear | The reader knows the point in the first sentence. | Say the concrete thing first. | Opening with abstract positioning or vague value props. |
| Useful | Every post gives the reader something to apply, decide, or understand. | Use examples, constraints, and next steps. | Stopping at advice that could fit any brand. |
| Human | The copy sounds like a person on the team, not a campaign committee. | Use natural phrasing and real customer context. | Over-polished AI copy with no point of view. |
| Consistent | The same brand is recognizable across social, email, product, and support. | Document repeatable tone, rhythm, vocabulary, and formatting rules. | Letting every channel invent its own voice. |
Start with 10 to 20 real posts, emails, or founder notes. Mark the lines that sound right, remove the lines that could belong to any competitor, then convert the patterns into rules.
Copy this structure
Searchers often look for a brand voice adjective list, but adjectives alone are too loose. Pair each one with what it is not and how it changes a draft.
Use plain language without removing useful detail.
Sound approachable while keeping the promise precise.
Explain the mechanism, then make the next step obvious.
State what the product helps with and avoid impossible guarantees.
Give examples, constraints, and review rules the team can apply.
For worked examples, use the Brand voice examples. For a reusable structure, use the Brand voice template.
The mistake is asking AI to "write in our brand voice" without giving it a usable voice system. A good prompt includes the audience, the traits, the channel, the forbidden patterns, and examples of the target style.
Fast path: paste a few posts into the free Brand Voice Analyzer. It extracts the first voice profile, which you can turn into prompt rules and review criteria.