Brand voice examples and how to define yours

Voice and tone are different

Voice is constant: it is who is speaking. Tone changes with the situation: the same person sounds different in a proposal, in an apology and in a thank-you note. A brand needs one voice and a range of tones, and mixing the two up is why messages from the same person can feel like they come from different people.

Describe it in pairs

A single adjective such as friendly means little, because everyone claims it. A pair says what to do and where to stop, which is what a writer needs.

• Direct, not blunt.
• Warm, not casual.
• Precise, not technical.
• Confident, not loud.

One message in three voices

The facts stay the same; the voice decides the words. This example is invented.

Define yours in an hour

You do not need a workshop. You need five texts you wrote and liked.

• Collect five messages or paragraphs you wrote that sound like you.
• Underline the words and sentence shapes that repeat.
• List three words you would never use.
• Write three to five pairs from what you found.
• Rewrite one old message in the pairs.
• Ask someone who knows you whether it sounds like you.

Where voice shows

It shows in your website headline, your bio, the first line of a proposal and the way you open a talk. When these sound alike, a reader recognises you before they see your name.

Mistakes to avoid

These are the usual ways a voice fails.

• Describing it with generic adjectives such as professional or friendly.
• Choosing a voice you cannot keep up when you are tired or in a hurry.
• Using one voice on the website and a different one in emails and proposals.
• Writing the guide and never using it.

How we handle it at brand.app

Tone of voice is part of the positioning step, together with the key messages. We set it out with you from the way you already write and speak, and you approve it before anything is designed.