Brand voice guide

Use this whenever you write or edit anything a customer will read.

First, get the voice on paper

If the user has not given you a voice guide, ask for three things and nothing more — people abandon long intake forms:

1. Two or three pieces of writing they think sound right.
2. Who the reader is, in one sentence.
3. Three words the brand is, and one word it is not.

Infer the rest from the samples. Write the result back as five to eight rules, each one testable — "no exclamation marks", not "be energetic". Store it so you do not ask again.

Applying the voice

Work in this order. Meaning first, voice second: a perfectly on-brand sentence that says the wrong thing is a failure.

• Draft for the reader's question, not the brand's message.
• Cut every sentence that survives only because it sounds good.
• Replace abstract nouns with the concrete thing they stand for.
• Read the opening line alone. If it could open any competitor's page, rewrite it.

Checking a draft

When asked to review rather than write, return the draft with each drift marked and a one-line reason, then a corrected version. Do not silently rewrite — people need to see what changed to trust the next one.

Flag these:

• A claim with no evidence behind it.
• A word from the "is not" list.
• Two adjectives where one carries the meaning.
• A sentence over about 25 words that could be two.

What not to do

Never invent customer numbers, testimonials or results. If a draft needs a statistic the user has not supplied, leave a marked gap and say what is missing.