Teach AI your Tone of Voice
When you first start using AI for your business, you might notice it sounds a bit like a robot. It often churns out generic "corporate soup" that could belong to any business, anywhere.
To fix this, we need to show the AI how your company actually talks. We do this by creating a Brand Voice Guide. Think of this as a simple instruction manual that captures your company's personality and communication style. It tells the AI exactly how you want your business to sound.
It is a team effort to get this right. This guide walks you through the four things we need you to gather and send to us. Once we have everything in one place, we will do the rest.
What we need you to gather
Work through the four steps below and collect everything into a single folder or document to share with us.
About 10 examples of your best writing
3 or 4 personality traits that describe your voice
A list of key words to use and words to avoid
Examples of how your tone changes by audience
Find your "gold standard" writing
The best way to guide an AI is to show it what "great" looks like. We are looking for pieces of writing that contain your "benchmark" phrases — the ones that make you say, "Yes, that is exactly how we put things."
Try to find about 10 different items. Having a good mix helps the AI understand your style across different situations.
Website Pages
Key pages from your website, like your "About Us" or "Services" pages.
Internal Guides
Your employee handbook or internal culture guides.
Onboarding Packs
Onboarding packs for new clients or customers.
Proposals and Pitches
Recent project proposals or pitches that were successful.
Brand Guidelines
Your current brand guidelines or style documents.
Define your company's personality
Think about how you would describe your company's communication style to another person. Instead of just saying you are "professional," try to be specific. Pick 3 or 4 traits and add a simple rule for each. Here are some examples to get you started.
Confident, but helpful
We know our stuff, but we never talk down to people.
Direct, but warm
We get straight to the point, but we keep things friendly.
Practical, but visionary
We have big ideas, but we always keep them grounded in reality.
Build a "rulebook" for words
Every business has its own vocabulary. We need to know which words you love and which ones you want to ban. This keeps the AI on track and stops it from using annoying jargon.
Your Products and Services
List the names of what you offer and a quick note on what they actually mean.
Words to Always Use
Are there certain phrases or industry terms you use as benchmarks? Let us know so the AI can highlight them.
Words to Avoid
Is there a list of words that make you cringe? Whether it is "synergy" or "game-changer," let us know so we can tell the AI to bin them.
Show us your voice in different situations
Your company's voice stays the same, but the tone might shift depending on who you are talking to. An internal note to your team usually sounds different from a formal proposal to a new client.
If you have examples of how your style changes in different contexts, include those too. This helps us create different "profiles" so your AI knows when to be a bit more casual and when to pull out the suit and tie.
Internal Communication
Team emails, Slack messages, internal memos. Usually more relaxed and casual.
Client-Facing Communication
Proposals, presentations, formal emails. Usually more polished and structured.
Send it over and we'll do the rest
Do not worry about making everything look perfect. Collect your writing samples, personality traits, word lists, and any tone examples into a single folder or document and share it with us.
Once we have your material, we will analyse the text to pull out the core principles, phrases, and traits that make your company sound like you. We will then turn those into a custom Brand Voice Guide that your whole organisation can use with AI — so every piece of content sounds authentically yours.