What are brand voice guidelines?
Brand voice guidelines are a document that tells anyone writing for a brand how it should sound. A good one lets a new writer produce on-brand copy on their first day without asking anyone a question.
Most brand voice documents don’t do that. They describe a personality in adjectives and leave the writer to guess what those mean in a subject line. The guides that get used show the voice in practice.
What a usable guide includes
Principles, each with an example of the voice done right and done wrong. Guidance by channel, since a voice that works in long-form web copy needs different instructions at 40 characters. Real examples pulled from the brand’s own best copy. And a short list of words the brand doesn’t use.
Voice vs. tone
Voice is who the brand is and doesn’t change. Tone is how the voice adjusts to the moment. An apology email and a product launch sound different, but it’s recognizably the same brand in both. Guidelines define the first and give direction on the second.
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