A brand voice anyone on the team can write in
Most brand voice documents describe a personality — friendly, bold, authentic — and then leave the writer exactly where they started. Adjectives are not instructions.
A usable voice guide is short, concrete, and mostly made of examples.
What actually helps a writer#
| Instead of | Give them |
|---|---|
| "Friendly and approachable" | Three real posts that got it right, and why |
| "Professional" | A list of words you never use |
| "Authentic" | How you talk about mistakes, with an example |
| "Bold" | One sentence rewritten weak, then strong |
The one-page voice guide#
- Five sentences that sound like us, taken from real posts.
- Five that do not, with a note on why.
- Words we never use — usually jargon and inflated claims.
- How we handle complaints, with one worked example.
- Whether we use humour, and where the line is.
Consistency comes from constraints, not inspiration#
A team writes in one voice when the choices are narrowed: known formats, known openings, a short banned-words list. That is why voice guides that describe feelings fail and ones that show sentences work — the second kind can be copied under time pressure.
Test the guide by giving it to someone who has never written for you and asking for three posts. If they miss, the guide is describing rather than instructing.
Let it change, deliberately#
Voices drift as the business changes, and that is fine when it is noticed. Review the examples once a year, replace the ones that no longer sound like you, and tell the team what changed. Silent drift is how an account ends up sounding like four different companies.
Frequently asked questions
Who should own the brand voice?
One person, with the authority to say no. Voice by committee produces the average of everyone, which sounds like nobody.
Can a small team have a real voice?
Easier than a large one. Fewer writers, fewer compromises.
How do we keep freelancers on voice?
Give them the examples, not the adjectives, and edit the first three pieces closely.
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