Building a Brand Voice: Practical Steps, Examples, and Tips for Consistency

Your brand is much more than your logo or product. It’s the entire experience a customer has with your business, and a huge part of that experience is how you communicate. This is your brand voice. For new and growing businesses, establishing a distinct and consistent brand voice is a powerful way to stand out, build trust, and create a loyal following.

But where do you start? This guide provides a practical framework for building a compelling brand voice from the ground up, complete with examples, tips, and a checklist to keep you on track.

First, Let’s Define Some Key Terms

People often use terms like brand voice, tone, and personality interchangeably, but they have distinct meanings. Understanding them is the first step to mastering your communication.

• Brand Voice: This is the unique, consistent personality your brand uses in all its communications. It’s not what you say, but how you say it. Is your brand authoritative, witty, nurturing, or playful? Your brand voice should remain constant across every platform.

• Brand Tone: If voice is your personality, tone is your mood. It’s the emotional inflection you apply to your voice in different situations. You wouldn’t use the same tone to announce a new product as you would to apologise for a service outage. Your tone adapts to the context, but your core voice remains the same.

• Brand Personality: This is the collection of human characteristics you attribute to your brand. For example, your brand might be described as "honest," "innovative," and "friendly." Your brand voice is the audible expression of this personality.

• Messaging Pillars: These are the 3-5 core themes or key messages you want your audience to associate with your brand. They are the foundational ideas that your content will consistently reinforce.

• Brand Narrative: This is the story of your brand—your origin, your mission, and your vision. It connects your messaging pillars into a cohesive and compelling story.

• Style Guide: A comprehensive document that sets out the rules for your brand’s communication. It includes guidelines on voice, tone, grammar, punctuation, and formatting to ensure consistency.

• Visual Guidelines: This is the visual equivalent of your style guide, detailing rules for your logo, colour palette, typography, and imagery.

A Step-by-Step Framework for Building Your Brand Voice

Creating a brand voice isn't about guesswork. It’s a strategic process that involves research, definition, and documentation.

1. Research Your Foundations

Before you can decide who you are, you need to understand the landscape.

• Audience Research: Who are you talking to? Understand their demographics, pain points, values, and communication preferences. Are they formal professionals who value data, or a younger audience that appreciates humour and slang?

• Competitor Analysis: How do your competitors sound? Identify gaps. If everyone in your industry sounds corporate and serious, a more human and approachable voice could be your differentiator. Note what you like and, more importantly, what you don't.

2. Define Your Brand Personality

Now, give your brand human traits. This makes it easier to write as if a real person is speaking.

• Use Archetypes: One popular method is using brand archetypes (e.g., The Hero, The Sage, The Jester). These provide a strong foundation for personality. Are you The Creator, focused on innovation, or The Caregiver, focused on support?

• Try a Trait Spectrum: Alternatively, place your brand on a spectrum for different traits. For example: 

• Funny vs. Serious

• Formal vs. Casual

• Traditional vs. Modern

• Enthusiastic vs. Reserved

3. Establish Your Messaging Pillars

What are the core ideas you want to own? These pillars will guide your content creation. For a sustainable fashion brand, they might be:

1. Ethical Production: We are transparent about our supply chain.

2. Timeless Style: We create clothes designed to last, not follow trends.

3. Community Impact: Every purchase supports a positive change.

4. Create Your Linguistic Rules

This is where you get specific about language. A simple "do and don't" list is incredibly effective.

Example: A fintech start-up aiming for a clear, empowering voice.

Do	Don't
Use simple, direct language	Use financial jargon
Write in an active, encouraging voice	Be passive or overly formal
Use contractions (e.g., you're, it's)	Sound like a traditional bank
Focus on benefits for the user	Focus only on product features

Before: "The platform's functionalities can be leveraged to facilitate the optimisation of your investment portfolio."After: "You can use the platform to build a stronger investment portfolio."

5. Map Your Tone Across Touchpoints

Your voice is constant, but your tone must adapt. Create a simple table to guide your team.

Scenario	Core Voice	Tone to Apply	Example Snippet
Product Launch	Empowering, Clear	Enthusiastic, Confident, Visionary	"Meet the new way to manage your money. It’s smart, simple, and built for you."
Apology Email	Empowering, Clear	Humble, Accountable, Reassuring	"We made a mistake, and we're sorry. Here’s what happened and what we’re doing."
Support Chat	Empowering, Clear	Helpful, Patient, Empathetic	"I understand how frustrating that must be. Let’s work together to fix this."
Website Microcopy	Empowering, Clear	Concise, Action-Oriented	(On a button) "Start saving" instead of "Submit."

6. Document Everything in a Style Guide

A simple, accessible style guide is your single source of truth. It doesn't need to be 100 pages long. A concise document covering your personality, voice principles, do's and don'ts, grammar rules, and tone examples is perfect for a start-up.

7. Enable Your Team (and Yourself)

Documentation is useless if no one uses it.

• Create Templates: Provide pre-written templates for common communications like sales emails, social media updates, and customer service replies.

• Share Examples: Keep a running list of "gold standard" examples of your brand voice in action.

8. Govern and Measure

Consistency requires oversight.

• Governance: For a small team, this might be a quick peer review process. For larger teams, it might involve a designated brand guardian who approves key communications.

• Measurement:

• Qualitative: Do customers describe your brand in a way that aligns with your intended personality? Monitor social media comments and survey feedback.

• Quantitative: Track metrics like engagement rate on social posts or open rates on emails. A/B test headlines and copy to see what resonates.

Tips for Start-ups and SMEs

• Founder-to-Team Handover: As a founder, the brand voice often starts with you. When you hire, you must deliberately document and teach it. Run workshops and make your style guide a core part of onboarding.

• Finding a Voice with Limited Resources: You don't need a big budget. Your unique story, your passion, and your direct connection to customers are your greatest assets. Be authentic—it’s the one thing big corporations struggle with.

• Using AI Responsibly: AI tools are great for generating first drafts or overcoming writer's block. However, never copy and paste directly. Use them as an assistant, then heavily edit the output to infuse your unique brand voice, personality, and human touch.

• Consistency When Outsourcing: Provide freelancers and agencies with your style guide from day one. It's not an optional extra; it’s a critical part of the brief.

A Note on Accessibility, Inclusivity, and Localisation

A great brand voice is one that everyone can understand and feel included by.

• Plain English: Aim for a reading age that suits a broad audience (tools like the Flesch-Kincaid test can help). Avoid jargon and complex sentences. Clarity builds trust.

• Inclusive Language: Use gender-neutral terms (e.g., "team" instead of "guys," "they" instead of "he/she" when gender is unknown). Be mindful of language that could exclude or alienate any group.

• Localisation: If you operate in multiple English-speaking markets, be aware of differences. It’s not just about spelling (e.g., organise vs. organize), but also idioms and cultural references that might not translate well between the UK and the US.

Your Brand Voice Consistency Checklist

Use this quick checklist to keep your communications aligned.

1. Does this sound like us? (Refer to personality traits)

2. Is it aligned with our messaging pillars?

3. Does it follow our "do and don't" linguistic rules?

4. Is the tone appropriate for this specific context and audience?

5. Is the language clear, simple, and jargon-free?

6. Is it inclusive and accessible?

7. Does it offer value to the reader?

8. Is the grammar and formatting consistent with our style guide?

9. Would our ideal customer connect with this message?

10. Have I proofread it for spelling and punctuation errors?

Building a brand voice is an ongoing process of refinement, not a one-time task. By following these steps, you can create a voice that not only represents your business but also builds meaningful, lasting connections with your customers.

If you’re ready to define your strategy and unlock your business’s full potential, our team at Puzzle Creative is here to help you piece it all together.