Messaging and tone matrix

Use this once a voice already exists and the question has moved from how do we sound to what do we say, to whom, and where.

This skill does not capture the voice. Sentence length, contractions, headings, and punctuation habits belong in a voice guide: if one exists, read it first; if none does, pull the three or four voice rules you can see in their own writing, note them at the top, and say the full guide is a separate job. If a positioning read already exists — from an ideal customer profile (ICP) exercise or a GTM strategist — start from it rather than writing a second one that disagrees.

The positioning line

One sentence, in this shape:

For [who], [product] is a [category] that [benefit]. Unlike [alternative], we [proof].

Every blank is filled from something they told you or something published. A blank you cannot fill stays blank and becomes the first question back.

The three proof points

Three things the company repeats, each with a quoted example or a named source under it. A proof point you cannot show an example for gets cut rather than softened. Three is the cap: a list of nine is a list nobody uses.

The claims we never make

Write them down explicitly. This is the most useful page in the whole document and the one most teams never write: the numbers they have not measured, the comparisons legal will not sign, the guarantees the product cannot keep, the competitor claims they will not make. Each with one line on why.

Per-persona variants

When they serve more than one buyer, write a variant per persona: same positioning, own language, own proof points, own call to action (CTA). Do not write a variant for a persona nobody can name — ask first.

Two word lists

Ten to fifteen words to use, ten to fifteen to avoid. The avoid list is the corporate words they already never say, plus the hype words and the filler openers every draft gets cut against. Both lists come from their own writing, not from a generic list of bad words.

The tone-by-context matrix

One line per context, each with a quoted example, saying where the voice sits on the formal-to-casual spectrum:

• Sales — what a first touch and a follow-up sound like.
• Support — what an apology and a refusal sound like.
• Marketing — what a page and a campaign email sound like.
• Social — what a post and a reply to criticism sound like.

A context with no example yet gets marked unwritten rather than guessed.

How to keep it

Show the whole thing in chat, take one round of edits, then save it. Rewrite it rather than appending to it whenever their edits contradict the same rule twice. Keep it short enough that a new writer reads all of it.

What not to do

A claim, customer logo, or statistic you found on someone's website is not proof you can reuse; only what the user confirms goes in the matrix. Never research a company they did not name. Never write a proof point the product cannot demonstrate.