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Glossary Stand out from your competitors 2 min read

What is tone of voice?

Lewis Dowling Managing Director and Consultant

Short answer

Tone of voice is how your business sounds when it writes or speaks. It's in the words you pick, and whether you crack the odd joke or play it straight. A clear tone of voice means customers get the same personality from you everywhere, whoever on your team is doing the writing.

Also known as: Brand identity, Brand guidelines, Messaging framework, Plain English

Contents

Why it matters

People decide whether they trust you partly on how you sound. If your website's chatty but your sales emails read like legal letters, customers notice. They might not be able to say what's wrong. It just feels a bit like dealing with two different companies.

Words are also one of the cheapest ways to stand out. Plenty of businesses in your sector probably look similar and sell similar things. Sounding like actual humans can set you apart without a big rebrand.

And it helps your team. Once everyone knows how the business should sound, writing gets quicker. There's less second-guessing, and far fewer emails that start with "Please be advised". (Eugh.)

Common mistakes

  • Mixing it up with visual identity.

    Logos and colours are how you look. Tone of voice is how you sound. You need both, and they should feel like the same personality.

  • Picking words everyone picks.

    "Friendly, professional, and approachable" describes almost every business on the planet (this is just good writing). It won't help anyone write differently.

  • Writing a guide nobody uses.

    A tone of voice guide that lives in a forgotten folder doesn't change anything. It needs examples people can copy and someone who keeps it alive.

  • Thinking tone means jokes.

    Some brands are playful. Some are calm and reassuring. The point is to be consistent and fit your audience.

How to get started

  • Gather what you've already written. Pull together your website, a few emails, some social posts, and a proposal or two. Read them side by side.
  • Notice where it already sounds like you. There's usually a bit someone wrote that just feels right. Start there.
  • Describe your personality in a few traits. Make them specific enough to be useful. "Plain-spoken, a bit cheeky" gives a writer more to go on than "friendly".
  • Add a "but" to each trait. For example, "confident, but never arrogant". It stops people taking a trait too far.
  • Write before and after examples. Take a dull sentence and rewrite it in your voice. People learn far more from examples than from rules.
  • Try it on something everyday. An out-of-office reply or an invoice reminder is a good test. If your voice works there, it'll work anywhere.

FAQs

What's the difference between tone and voice?

People often use them to mean the same thing. When they're split, voice is your overall personality, which stays the same. Tone is how you adjust it for the moment. You'd sound the same person in an apology and a sales pitch, just in a different mood.

Does a small business need a tone of voice?

Yes, especially once more than one person is writing on its behalf. Without one, your brand ends up sounding like whoever wrote the last thing.

How long should a tone of voice guide be?

Shorter than you'd think. A few pages with clear traits and plenty of examples is more useful than a 50-page document nobody finishes.

Can AI write in our tone of voice?

It can help, if you give it a clear guide and good examples. But you'll still want a person checking the output. AI tends to drift back towards a generic, polished sound that doesn't feel like anyone in particular. (How boring.)

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