create-a-brand-voice-guide

name	create-a-brand-voice-guide
category	write
description	Turn communication principles into practical language rules and examples. Use when multiple people or agents need a consistent voice that remains accurate, accessible, respectful, and adaptable across channels.

create-a-brand-voice-guide

Define choices writers can apply, not a list of flattering adjectives.

Procedure

1. Gather brand purpose, audience evidence, existing content, support conversations, high-stakes messages, and legal terms.
2. Audit examples that feel right, wrong, unclear, inaccessible, or inconsistent and record why.
3. Select three to five voice principles expressed as behaviors with audience benefit.
4. For each principle, write “do,” “avoid,” before-and-after, and boundary examples.
5. Define terminology, names, capitalization, pronouns, contractions, numbers, dates, jargon, and reading-level choices.
6. Add adaptations for product UI, marketing, support, social, incident, legal, accessibility, and international contexts.
7. Specify how voice changes under urgency, error, apology, grief, safety, or uncertainty.
8. Include inclusive language, translation, alt text, link, form, and screen-reader considerations.
9. Test the guide by revising several real pieces with different writers and comparing decisions.
10. Publish owner, source examples, exceptions, review cadence, and contribution process.

Guardrails

• Voice must never override accuracy, consent, accessibility, safety, or required legal meaning.
• Do not imitate a living person's identity or stereotype a community.
• Avoid absolute bans that make necessary technical or regulated language impossible.
• Keep private support conversations and customer text de-identified.

Done

• A voice guide document contains behavioral principles, examples, terms, and context adaptations
• Real writing tests produce consistent explainable revisions
• High-stakes and accessibility boundaries are explicit
• Ownership, exceptions, and review evidence are recorded