Brand voice and messaging

Most brand voice documents don’t get used. They describe a personality in adjectives, hand you three words like “bold, warm, human,” and leave the writer to guess what that means in a subject line.

The test of a voice guide isn’t whether it’s accurate. It’s whether someone can write from it on a Tuesday afternoon without asking anyone a question.

What I write

Brand voice guidelines. Messaging frameworks and hierarchies. Positioning and value proposition copy. Tone guidance by channel. Before-and-after examples that show the voice applied. Boilerplate and about copy.

How I approach it

I start with what already exists. A brand almost always has a voice somewhere in its best work, and the job is to find it and name it rather than invent something from scratch.

Then I make it usable. Every principle gets an example of what it looks like in practice and what it looks like when someone gets it wrong. That contrast is what makes a guide teachable, and it’s what most voice documents skip.

Channel matters, too. A voice that works in long-form web copy needs different instructions at 40 characters in a subject line or a paid social headline. A guide that ignores that gets ignored in return.

Why it pays off

Voice work looks soft next to conversion copy. It isn’t. An unclear voice means every piece of copy gets relitigated in review, freelancers need three rounds to get close, and the brand sounds like a different company on every channel.

A guide people actually use makes all of that faster.

Who this is for

Teams with more than one person writing, brands whose copy sounds inconsistent across channels, and companies going through a repositioning or a rebrand.

Frequently asked questions

What’s the difference between brand voice and tone?

Voice is who the brand is; it doesn’t change. Tone is how that voice adjusts to the situation. The same brand sounds different in an apology email than in a product launch, but it’s recognizably the same brand in both. A voice guide defines the first and gives guidance on the second.

What should a brand voice guide include?

Enough that a writer can use it on a Tuesday afternoon without asking anyone a question. That means principles, each with an example of what it looks like done right and done wrong, plus guidance by channel. A guide that’s a list of adjectives isn’t a guide.

Why do most brand voice documents go unused?

Because they describe a personality instead of giving instructions. “Bold, warm, human” tells a writer nothing about how to open a subject line. The guides that get used show the voice in practice, side by side with what the voice is not.

How do you keep brand voice consistent when several people write?

A guide they can actually apply, and a set of real examples from the brand’s own copy. The examples do most of the work. Writers imitate what they see much more reliably than they follow what they’re told.

Tell me what your copy needs to do

Email: hello@greenwagonmedia.com
Call or text: (631) 210-7282