How to Build a Brand Voice Guide

Your brand voice is the personality behind everything you publish. It's what makes your content sound unmistakably like you — distinctive in a category where everyone is writing about the same topics, competing for the same keywords, and trying to reach the same buyers.

Most companies know they need a consistent brand voice. Far fewer have actually documented it in a way that's useful across a team, scalable with AI tools, or operable by writers who join six months from now.

This guide walks through how to define and document your brand voice so that it actually gets used.

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What Brand Voice Is (and Isn't)

Brand voice is the consistent personality, tone, and style that comes through in all your communications. It's not about any single piece of content — it's about the pattern that makes all your content sound coherent over time.

What brand voice isn't:

• A list of adjectives ("We are professional, innovative, and friendly")
• A logo or visual identity
• Your content strategy or editorial calendar

What brand voice is:

• The words you choose (and the ones you avoid)
• The sentence structures and rhythms you favor
• The level of formality and the register you write in
• The specific personality that comes through in your writing

Think of it like a person. If a colleague described your brand as a person, what would they say? "She's direct and doesn't waste your time. She knows her stuff but doesn't show off about it. She'll tell you something isn't going to work even if it's not what you want to hear."

That's brand voice: specific, recognizable, defensible.

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Step 1: Audit Your Best Existing Content

If you've been publishing any content, start here. Pull your 10 best-performing pieces — the ones that generated the most engagement, shares, or responses.

Look for patterns:

• What sentence lengths tend to appear?
• What words come up repeatedly?
• What tone (direct? warm? playful? analytical?) is consistent?
• What do readers say when they respond to this content?

Your brand voice already exists — it's in the content that's performed best. Your job is to identify and codify it.

If you're starting from scratch (no existing content), base your voice on your founder's communication style, informed by what resonates with your ICP.

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Step 2: Define Your Voice Attributes

Choose 3–5 adjectives that describe your brand's personality. Not generic adjectives ("professional," "helpful") — specific ones that rule something out.

Examples of specific, useful voice attributes:

• Direct, not vague: We say what we mean. We don't hedge, qualify, or equivocate. If something doesn't work, we say so.

• Knowledgeable, not academic: We know our stuff deeply, but we explain it like a smart colleague, not a textbook. No jargon for its own sake.

• Specific, not general: We use numbers, names, and examples. "Most companies" becomes "78% of B2B companies." "A long time" becomes "6–12 months."

• Warm, not cheerful: We care about the people we're talking to, but we're not relentlessly upbeat. We're real.

• Opinionated, not dogmatic: We have genuine POVs and we express them clearly. We're also willing to say when we're uncertain or when something is more complex than it seems.

For each attribute, write the full definition: what it means, what it looks like in practice, and what it doesn't mean (the counterpart).

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Step 3: Write Examples for Each Attribute

A voice attribute without an example is nearly useless. Writers — including AI — can't apply abstract guidance without concrete illustration.

Format for each attribute:

Attribute: Direct, not vague

What it means: We say the thing we mean in the most precise way possible. We don't soften our points with qualifiers. We don't use passive voice to avoid taking a position.

Example (in voice): "Keyword stuffing doesn't work. It never did, and Google's getting better at identifying it every year. Write for your reader, not your keyword count."

Example (out of voice): "It's generally advisable to avoid over-optimization of keywords, as this may potentially impact your content's performance in ways that could be viewed negatively by search engine algorithms."

We say: "This approach doesn't work." We don't say: "This approach may not always be optimal in all contexts."

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Step 4: Define Your Tone Spectrum

Voice is consistent. Tone is situational.

Your tone adapts based on context — an error message sounds different from a case study, which sounds different from a thought leadership essay. But all of them should still feel like the same brand.

Define your tone for different contexts:

Teaching/educational content (blog posts, guides): Tone: Clear, direct, authoritative. Like a knowledgeable colleague who respects your time. Practical over theoretical.

Marketing/landing pages: Tone: Confident and aspirational, but not hype-y. "Here's what becomes possible" rather than "REVOLUTIONARY AI TOOL CHANGES EVERYTHING."

Customer-facing communications (emails, support): Tone: Warm, specific, accountable. Acknowledge the issue, address it directly, offer a clear path forward.

Social media: Tone: Slightly more casual and conversational. Opinions and specific takes are welcome. Self-promotion is minimized.

Error states and negative news: Tone: Honest, direct, accountable. No corporate deflection. No blame-shifting.

Document this for your most common content contexts.

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Step 5: Create a Words-We-Use/Words-We-Avoid List

Specific word choices are the most actionable part of a brand voice guide. Include:

Words and phrases we use:

• "Here's the thing" (sets up a direct point)
• "In practice" (signals practical vs. theoretical)
• "The data shows" (evidence-based framing)
• Specific numbers over vague ranges ("3–6 months" not "several months")

Words and phrases we avoid:

• "Leverage" (overused, often pretentious — use "use")
• "Synergy," "disruptive," "cutting-edge" (hollow buzzwords)
• "Utilize" (use "use")
• "Obviously" or "clearly" (condescending)
• "In today's digital landscape" (cliché opening)
• Excessive passive voice ("it should be noted that")

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Step 6: Test It with Real Examples

Before finalizing, test your brand voice guide by running 3–5 real content pieces through it:

1. Pull a sample piece from your existing content
2. Evaluate it against each voice attribute
3. Identify specific sentences that violate the guide
4. Rewrite those sentences in the correct voice

Do this exercise with your team. If everyone interprets the guide differently, it needs to be more specific. If everyone interprets it the same way and the rewrites feel right, it's working.

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Step 7: Operationalize the Guide

A brand voice guide that sits in a Google Doc and gets referenced once per year doesn't change how content gets made.

Make it operational:

Brief template integration: Add a voice notes section to every content brief. Include 1–2 specific voice reminders relevant to that piece.

Onboarding for new writers: Every new writer (internal or freelance) reads the brand voice guide before their first assignment. Give them a graded test assignment.

AI context: For AI-assisted drafting, include your voice attributes and word list in your prompt framework. Tools like Averi have Brand Core specifically for this — you configure your voice once and it applies to every draft.

Editorial checklist: Add a voice check to your pre-publication checklist. Does this piece sound like us?

Regular review: Revisit annually. As your company evolves, your voice may shift slightly. The guide should evolve with it.

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Common Mistakes to Avoid

Generic adjectives: "Professional, innovative, and customer-focused" describes every company. These adjectives don't constrain anything. Be specific enough that someone could fail the test.

No examples: Abstract guidance without concrete examples is impossible to apply consistently. Every attribute needs positive and negative examples.

Making it too long: A 50-page brand voice manual won't be read. Aim for 2–4 pages that cover the most important elements in depth.

Treating it as permanent: Voice evolves. A startup's voice at seed stage will differ from its voice at Series B. Update the guide as the company matures.

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How Averi Helps

Averi's Brand Core was built specifically to solve the brand voice problem at scale. You input your voice attributes, tone guidance, and example sentences once. Averi applies them automatically to every piece of content created in the platform — whether it's a blog post, case study, email, or social post.

This means every writer (human or AI) on your team produces content that sounds like the brand, consistently, without needing to re-read the style guide before every piece.

Set up your Brand Core →

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FAQ

How long should a brand voice guide be?

2–5 pages is the sweet spot. Long enough to cover voice attributes, tone spectrum, and a words list with examples. Short enough that someone actually reads it before their first assignment.

How do I create a brand voice guide for a new company with no existing content?

Start with the founder's authentic communication style. Record a 30-minute conversation between the founding team about your product and your customers. Transcribe it. That transcript is your first source of voice data — it shows how the founders naturally talk about the company.

How do I maintain brand voice when working with freelancers?

Include the brand voice guide in your writer onboarding packet. Add specific voice notes to every brief. Do a graded test assignment before ongoing work. And build an editing step where you check for voice consistency before publishing.

Can AI maintain my brand voice?

Yes, if configured correctly. AI tools that let you input brand voice parameters (voice attributes, example sentences, word lists) can apply those consistently across all drafted content. This is significantly better than prompting from scratch each time.

How often should I update my brand voice guide?

Review annually at minimum. Major company transitions (new category, significant growth, rebrand, acquisition) may warrant more frequent updates. The guide should reflect how the company sounds today, not how it sounded at launch.