How to write brand voice guidelines that people use

Brand voice guidelines help a small business use a consistent style across its website, emails, support replies, and social posts. They give writers quick answers about word choice, sentence style, and how warm or formal to sound.

You do not need a large brand book. A useful guide fits on one or two pages. Start with writing that already sounds right, add real customer language, and give clear examples that help writers decide what to say in seconds.

What brand voice is and how it differs from tone

Brand voice is the consistent personality and point of view in your writing. Tone is how you adjust that voice for each situation.

Your voice might be clear, warm, and practical. The tone can still change:

• A sales page can sound direct and confident.
• A support email can sound calm and patient.
• An error message can sound brief and helpful.
• A social post can sound relaxed and conversational.

This distinction is a useful working rule, although some writing professionals use the terms differently. Shopify’s explanation of voice and tone uses the same practical model: voice stays recognizable while tone responds to the reader and situation.

Start with your best writing and your customers’ words

Do not begin with a blank page or a list of vague adjectives. Gather three or four pieces of writing that already sound like your business. Use a web page, email, post, or customer reply.

Next, collect phrases from customer emails, reviews, sales calls, support conversations, and search queries. Look for the words customers use for their problem and the result they want. Audience research helps you avoid internal jargon and choose familiar language, as the Office for National Statistics content guidance explains.

Ask:

• Which phrases sound like us?
• Which words feel stiff, vague, pushy, or overly casual?
• What sentence patterns appear in our best writing?
• Which customer phrases should we adopt?

Base your rules on patterns that appear more than once. Writers are more likely to trust and use a guide based on real writing.

Pick three or four voice traits

Choose three traits for a short guide. Add a fourth only if it helps writers make a decision. Give each trait a plain definition and a “this, not that” example. PATH’s voice guide and the Intelligence Community Design System both use specific examples to make broad traits practical.

Voice trait	What it means	This	Not that
Clear	Get to the point and name the action.	“Book a repair for Tuesday.”	“Schedule a service experience at your convenience.”
Practical	Give useful details and specific claims.	“We send the estimate before work starts.”	“We deliver transparent value from day one.”
Warm	Sound helpful and respectful.	“Reply here and we’ll help you sort it out.”	“Hey there! No worries at all!!!”
Confident	State what you do without inflated claims.	“We build websites for local service businesses.”	“We are the leading partner for next-level transformation.”

Add one or two short rules under each trait. For example: “Use active verbs” or “Explain technical terms before using them.”

Make a short word list

A word list gives writers quick answers. Include terms people use often in your business, especially words that cause confusion or make the company sound unlike itself.

Use	Avoid or replace	Reason
help	assist	More direct
buy	purchase	More natural in most customer copy
use	utilise	Shorter and plainer
tell us	submit a request	More human and specific
price	investment	Direct when you mean cost
get started	unlock	Avoid inflated wording

Use this list as guidance, not as a rigid ban. Legal, medical, financial, and technical writing sometimes needs specialist terms. The Government Commercial Agency style guide recommends choosing words for the context and explaining necessary terms in plain English.

Set tone by situation

Decide what the reader needs before choosing the tone. A support message on social media still needs the care of any other support message. A short error message still needs to explain the next step.

Situation	Tone to use	Keep	Avoid
Sales page	Direct, useful, confident	Specific benefits and proof	Hype and vague claims
Support email	Calm, respectful, practical	What happened and what happens next	Blame and empty apologies
Error message	Brief, plain, helpful	The problem and next action	Technical language and jokes
Social post	Warm, concise, natural	One clear point	Forced humor and excess punctuation

Add two before-and-after rewrites

Examples show how the rules work in real sentences. Add one example for sales copy and one for support.

Sales copy

Original copy: “Our comprehensive service solution leverages proven methods to deliver a seamless customer experience.”

After: “We plan, write, and publish your monthly email campaigns. You get a clear plan, finished emails, and reports that show what people clicked.”

The rewrite names the service, replaces broad claims with specific details, and uses familiar words.

Support email

Before: “We apologize for any inconvenience. Your request has been escalated to the appropriate team for resolution.”

After: “Sorry your order has not arrived. We’re checking the delivery now. We’ll email you with an update.”

The rewrite explains the problem, names the action, and tells the customer what to expect.

Keep the guide short and close to the work

Start with one page. Use a second page for the tone table and rewrites if needed. Put the guide where writers and reviewers can find it. Link to it from content briefs, templates, onboarding notes, and freelancer instructions.

Review it when you add a product, notice a repeated writing problem, or find a customer phrase worth using. GOV.UK content guidance treats style guidance as a practical reference that should stay useful as language and needs change.

Copyable one-page template

[BUSINESS NAME] BRAND VOICE GUIDE

Who we write for
[Describe your main customer in one or two sentences.]

What our writing should do
[State the job. Example: Help people understand their options and take the next step.]

OUR VOICE

1. [Trait]
What it means:
[Plain explanation.]

This:
[Example sentence.]

Not that:
[Example sentence.]

2. [Trait]
What it means:
[Plain explanation.]

This:
[Example sentence.]

Not that:
[Example sentence.]

3. [Trait]
What it means:
[Plain explanation.]

This:
[Example sentence.]

Not that:
[Example sentence.]

Words we use
[List preferred words and phrases.]

Words we avoid
[List words to avoid and better alternatives.]

TONE BY SITUATION

Sales page:
[Describe the tone and one rule.]

Support email:
[Describe the tone and one rule.]

Error message:
[Describe the tone and one rule.]

Social post:
[Describe the tone and one rule.]

Before and after

Before:
[Off-voice example.]

After:
[On-voice rewrite.]

Why:
[Name the rule the rewrite follows.]

Use this guide for
[Website, email, social posts, support, proposals, or other channels.]

Last updated:
[Date and owner.]