Brand Voice and Writing Guidelines: How to Build Them
A brand voice guide puts how a brand sounds into writing, with examples. Here are its sections, how to prepare it and the mistakes to avoid.
rabbitclip teamPublished: 6 min read
Short answer
A brand voice and writing guide is a short document that explains how a brand sounds in every text it writes: which words it uses, which it avoids, how it builds sentences and which principles stay fixed in every situation. A good guide works through examples, not adjectives. A new writer who closes it should be able to write one of the brand's sentences correctly without help.
This article does not cover visual rules such as logos and colours; those belong to a brand guide. The question here is how a brand keeps one voice when different people write its texts. Picture a spa group: the branch manager writes the notice, an agency writes the advert and customer service writes the reply. Without a guide it looks as though three brands are speaking.
What is a brand voice guide and what problem does it solve?
The guide is a shared decision about how writing is done. When a website, an email, a social post and customer replies are written by different people, tone and word choice drift. The guide stops that drift; when a new writer or agency arrives, they open the document instead of starting from scratch.
A guide is not a list of bans. Its real job is to make decisions easier in unclear cases: whether to address the customer formally or casually, where humour fits, when a technical term is explained. When those questions have a written answer, the same argument is not reopened in every text.
What sections does the guide contain?
Keep the guide short; for most businesses a few pages are enough. Nobody opens a long document. The sections follow the order of the questions a writer asks while drafting.
Every section holds one rule and at least one example. A rule without an example lets everyone read it their own way.
- Brand summary: who, for whom, doing what (a few sentences)
- Voice principles: three or four, each with an example
- Address and language: form of address, sentence length, technical term rule
- Preferred and avoided words: two short lists
- Before and after examples: the same message written weakly and well
- Differences by channel: email, social media, customer replies
How do you define a brand voice?
Describing a voice with adjectives is not enough. Words such as friendly and professional let everyone justify their own style. A more useful method is to set pairs of limits: formal but not cold, plain but not simple, confident but not boastful. Each pair draws a line for decisions.
The practical way to find the voice is to pick the brand's three best texts and write down what they share. Are the sentences short, how is the reader addressed, is there exaggeration, are there figures or concrete examples? What they share is the raw material of the principles. The adjectives come afterwards, as evidence.
How do you write example sentences and word lists?
The example is the most valuable part of the guide. Write the same message twice: once in a way that does not fit the brand and once in a way that does. Side by side, the difference is understood faster than any explanation. Choose examples from the brand's real situations: a refund reply, a campaign notice, an apology.
The word list has two columns: what we use and what we do not. Keep it short; a list beyond twenty words goes unread. Put a preferred alternative beside every avoided word, otherwise the writer is left with nothing to use.
- Choose examples from real situations: refund, notice, apology
- Give every rule at least one before and after example
- Keep the word list short and give each ban a replacement
- Set a concrete limit for sentence length
How is the guide used by a team and kept current?
The guide lives in one place everyone who writes can reach, and it has an owner. The owner answers questions and updates the document. A guide with no owner goes stale within months and nobody trusts it.
When a new agency or writer starts, the first task is to read the guide and write a trial text that follows it. If the text does not fit, the problem is often not the writer but an unclear section of the document. In this way every trial improves the guide by a step.
What mistakes are common when preparing a guide?
The first mistake is writing the guide once and leaving it. The brand grows, channels multiply and tone changes; if the document is not updated it no longer reflects reality. The second mistake is filling the guide with grand adjectives: innovative, reliable, dynamic. These words appear in every brand and tell the writer nothing.
The third mistake is writing it too long. A forty-page document stays on the shelf. The fourth mistake is writing it with the marketing team alone; customer service and sales use the brand voice more than anyone and should be part of the process.
- Writing the document and never updating it
- Settling for adjectives found in every brand
- Writing it longer than needed
- Leaving customer service and sales out of the process
- Writing rules without examples
When is a writing guide unnecessary or the wrong choice?
In a small business where one person writes every text, a detailed guide may be unnecessary. A half page note with three principles and a few examples is enough. The guide earns its value once more than one person starts writing.
If the brand does not yet know who it is, meaning the positioning is still unsettled, writing a voice guide is premature. First decide who is being told what, then write how it is said. Otherwise the guide fixes the voice of an unclear brand.
A brand voice guide is made of examples, not adjectives; it is short, not long, and it has an owner instead of being written once. Principles, a rule for address, two word lists and before and after examples are enough for most teams. If you would like to build your brand's guide together, or review your current texts with an ear for voice, you are welcome to arrange a discovery call with rabbitclip.
FAQ
Are brand voice and brand tone the same thing?
Voice is the fixed identity of the brand; tone changes with the situation. The brand always speaks with the same voice, but in a different tone in an apology than in a campaign notice.
How long should the guide be?
A few pages are enough for most businesses. A long document nobody reads is worth less than a short one with examples.
Who should write the guide?
The marketing team prepares the draft, but customer service and sales should take part too. These teams use the brand voice more than anyone.
How often should the guide be updated?
Review it when the brand or its channels change and when a new writer or agency joins. Giving the document an owner keeps it current.
Do we need a guide if we write with AI tools?
Yes. AI tools also produce more consistent text when given the principles and examples from a guide. Text produced without one tends to come out generic.
