How to find your brand's tone of voice

Your tone of voice isn't three adjectives on a slide. A practical way to find how your brand sounds, write it down and get people using it.

Ask ten companies to describe their tone of voice and most will say the same thing: friendly, professional, approachable. That isn't a voice. It's a description of not being rude.

Tone of voice is how your brand sounds when nobody's checking it. It shows up in the headline, and it shows up in the error message too. Here's how to find yours.

Start with what you believe

A voice comes from a point of view. Write down what your company thinks is wrong with your industry, what you'd never do and what you'd argue about over dinner. People with opinions sound like someone. Companies without them sound like everyone.

Listen to your best people

Somebody at your company already sounds right. It might be a founder on a call or a salesperson in an email. Collect the real things they say. A brand voice is usually found, not invented.

Choose what you're not

Adjectives only mean something when they cost you something. "Confident, not arrogant" helps a writer make a decision. "Warm, never soppy" does too. If the opposite of your word is something no company would want to be, cross it out.

If your voice could belong to your competitor, it isn't a voice.

Show it, don't describe it

Rewrite real things: a homepage line, an out-of-stock notice, a late delivery apology. Put the before and after side by side. A page of examples will do more than ten pages of principles, because people copy what they can see.

Tone of voice examples: same message, different brand

Take a simple message: your order is delayed. A careful, reassuring brand might say: "Your order's running late. We're sorry. Here's exactly when it will reach you." A playful brand might say: "Bad news: your parcel's taken the scenic route. Good news: it'll be with you by Friday." Neither is right or wrong. Both give the same facts, and both sound like someone.

Try this with your own difficult messages. Refunds, cancellations and apologies show a voice better than any headline, because that's when companies go back to sounding like companies. If your voice survives a complaint, it'll survive anything.

Make it easy to use

Keep the guide short enough to read in one sitting, and put it where people write. Then review real work together for the first few months. A tone of voice only exists once people are using it without being asked.