Brand Voice Guidelines Template (Free & Ready to Use)
Every brand needs a voice document. Without one, your marketing team writes in five different tones and your brand sounds like it has a personality disorder. Here's a complete template you can fill in today.
Why You Need Brand Voice Guidelines
Brand voice guidelines aren't a nice-to-have. They're the difference between a brand that feels cohesive and one that feels like it was written by ten different people (because it was).
Companies with documented brand voice guidelines see 33% higher brand consistency across channels. More importantly, your team stops guessing and starts writing with confidence.
The Template: 7 Sections You Need
Brand Voice Guidelines Template
1. Brand Personality
Define 3-5 personality traits that describe how your brand communicates. These are adjectives, not aspirations.
Example:
- Confident — We know our stuff. No hedging or wishy-washy language.
- Warm — Professional doesn't mean cold. We're approachable.
- Direct — We get to the point. Short sentences win.
2. Voice Dimensions
Position your brand on these four spectrums. Mark where you fall — it removes ambiguity.
3. "We Are / We Are Not" List
The fastest way to align a team. Two columns.
✅ We Are
- Helpful, not condescending
- Witty, not sarcastic
- Confident, not arrogant
- Clear, not dumbed-down
❌ We Are Not
- Corporate jargon machines
- Overly casual or slangy
- Robotic or impersonal
- Preachy or lecturing
4. Vocabulary Rules
Words matter. Define what you say and what you never say.
Preferred Terms
"team members" not "employees"
"simple" not "easy"
"build" not "leverage"
Banned Words
synergy, leverage, disrupt
thought leader, paradigm
circle back, low-hanging fruit
5. Writing Rules
Concrete rules your team can follow without interpretation.
• Sentences: max 20 words. If it needs a comma, it might need a period.
• Active voice always. "We built this" not "This was built by us."
• Headlines: sentence case. Not Title Case.
• Contractions: yes. "We're" not "We are" (unless for emphasis).
• Oxford comma: always.
• Exclamation marks: max one per page.
6. Channel-Specific Adjustments
Same voice, different volume. Adjust formality by channel.
Website: Full brand voice. Professional but warm.
Social (X/LinkedIn): Slightly more casual. Shorter. More personality.
Email: Conversational but structured. Clear CTAs.
Support: Empathetic first. Match customer's energy level.
Sales: Confident but never pushy. Let value speak.
7. Examples: Before & After
Nothing teaches voice like side-by-side comparisons.
❌ Off-brand
"We are pleased to announce that our revolutionary, best-in-class solution has been leveraged by industry-leading enterprises to drive synergistic outcomes."
✅ On-brand
"50 companies use ToneGuide to keep their writing on-brand. Here's how it works."
How to Fill This In (Without It Taking a Month)
Most brand voice documents die in committee. Here's how to get yours done in a single afternoon:
- 1. Gather 10 pieces of content your team agrees "sounds like us." Pull from website, social, emails — anywhere.
- 2. Gather 5 pieces that don't. Content that went out but felt off. Everyone has these.
- 3. Workshop the personality traits as a team. 30 minutes max. If you can't agree, the founder decides.
- 4. Fill in the template based on your examples. The before/after section writes itself.
- 5. Test it. Give the doc to someone who hasn't seen it and ask them to write a social post. If it sounds right, you're done.
The Problem With Static Documents
A PDF guidelines doc works until it doesn't. People forget to check it. New hires don't read it. It gets outdated. The team drifts back to writing in their own style.
That's why we built ToneGuide — it turns your brand voice guidelines into a living system. Upload your docs, and your team gets real-time feedback on every piece of content. No more hoping people read the PDF.