Tone of Voice: How to Sound Like One Company
A simple way to define a tone of voice that a whole team can actually use.
Tone of voice is your brand personality in words. It matters because customers read far more of your writing than they see of your logo.
Three or four traits
Pick a small number of traits and define each with a "but not". For example:
- Direct, but not blunt.
- Warm, but not gushing.
- Expert, but not academic.
The second half is what makes the trait usable.
Show before and after
Rules are abstract. Examples teach. Take a real sentence from your website and rewrite it in the new voice. Do this for a headline, an error message and an email.
Flex by context
Voice stays constant. Tone shifts. You sound more careful in a billing email than in a launch tweet, but still like the same company.
Practical rules
- Prefer short sentences and plain words. GOV.UK's content design guidance is an excellent reference for clear writing.
- Decide on small things: contractions, emoji, exclamation marks.
- Write for reading on a phone.
Where it lives
Add a voice section to your brand guidelines and connect it to your brand strategy so the traits are grounded in something real.
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