Brand voice
How do you talk to your users?
More than just the words
Developing a brand voice requires some big-picture thinking.
Voice
The overarching personality that defines who you are as a brand.
Tone
How you adjust your brand voice for different channels.
Style guide
We develop guidelines to train your writers (and AI).
What is brand voice?
Think of your favorite brands. You like their products, but you probably also like the way they talk. This is their brand voice — the brand’s consistent personality throughout all of their communications.
More “serious” brands like a government agency or accounting firm probably have a more professional brand voice with formal language. More casual brands probably use slang or a “buddy-buddy” type of voice.
Whatever you choose, you’ve got to stick to one. It’s an integral part of your brand identity.
The problem with AI...
Everyone asks us, “Aren’t you worried about AI?” The short answer: no.
AI can be very useful, but a writer it is not. Beyond the reports that show consumers distrust AI-generated content, it all ends up sounding the same. You can ask AI to use a style guide or reference your website, but it still leads to so-so results. Only a human can sound like...well, a human.
Fun fact: We made this image with Adobe Photoshop’s Firefly. The prompt was, “Create an image with a white background featuring a creepy robot that has a speech bubble to the right that contains the text ‘Hello I am your brand.’” This was 100% unintentionally bad, but it proved our point nonetheless.
What is tone of voice?
Tone of voice adapts the brand voice for different channels and situations. Brand voice always guides tone of voice, but tone of voice can change depending on the platform. Even the most casual of brands wouldn’t use slang or an “oopsy daisy!” tone for serious matters, such as product recalls.
Example: One person, various tones
Jenny was promoted and wants to announce it on social media. On LinkedIn, where she’s speaking to her professional network, her post may look something like this:
But her Instagram post, where she’s talking to her friends, might look like this:
Big difference, right? Both are written by the same person with the same personality, but altered slightly for the audience who will see it. One Jenny, various tones of voice.
Style guide
Brand voice and tone of voice doesn’t rely on word choice alone. The style you use also conveys a certain personality. For example, writing headlines in title case (i.e., capitalizing every word) feels more formal than sentence case (i.e., only capitalizing the first letter). A brand with a more conversational brand voice might use contractions or emojis in their communications than a more buttoned-up company. The list goes on.
We create style guides to ensure your brand voice is the same no matter who is writing the content.