GEO GUIDE
A Brand Voice Guide: Sounding Like One Company Everywhere
Updated 2026-10-19 · this page makes no search or citation promises
The direct answer: a consistent brand voice = three written decisions — word boundaries (words you always use / never use), sentence personality (length, form of address, humour), and the promise style (what you may promise, what you never do). Write them down and hand them to everyone who writes copy; without a document, consistency is luck.
The direct answer: a consistent brand voice = three written decisions — word boundaries (words you always use / never use), sentence personality (length, form of address, humour), and the promise style (what you may promise, what you never do). Write them down and hand them to everyone who writes copy; without a document, consistency is luck.
The three decisions
- Word boundaries: list the words you always use (verifiable capabilities) and the banned ones (unverifiable claims like “industry-leading”).
- Sentence personality: short or long, “you” formal or informal, humour allowed or not — decide and give examples.
- Promise style: how you phrase commitments (with time points and boundaries), and the claims you never make.
Consistency across channels
- Website and ads are two intensities of one voice, not two people.
- Support replies inherit the word boundaries — support is where a voice is most easily trusted or exposed.
- Social allows looser sentences; the banned-word list still applies.
The relaxation rule
Consistency is not rigidity: social channels may loosen sentence style, but three lines never relax — no fabrication, no competitor bashing, no promises you cannot keep.
How to start
Take three pieces of your best real copy (not templates) and extract the three decisions from them — existing copy is the only reliable source of a voice document. Then have the team restate each decision in one sentence; if their restatements match, the definition is clear.