PSA: You’re (probably) thinking about tone of voice all wrong

Little task for you. It’ll take two seconds, I swear.

Think about the words you want people to associate with your brand’s tone of voice, and how you want to come across.

Go on, take a moment.

Got them?

If you used words like “clear”, “trustworthy”, “relatable”, or similar, you’re not alone.

But you are missing out on a huge opportunity.  

A common tone of voice misconception

Everybody wants their brand to sound “clear”, “trustworthy”, and “relatable”. And of course, those are good things to aim for. But here’s the problem: they’re not actually your tone of voice.

They’re just the baseline expectations for not creating awful content.

It’s like running a restaurant and saying you want the food to be ‘edible’. Yes. Great, you should want that. I want that for you, too.

But what kind of edible food do you want to serve? Gourmet French cuisine? Desserts only? Grab and go falafel wraps?

A customer looking for a cheap meal deal won’t care that the food in a Michelin star restaurant is just as ‘edible’ as the Sandwiches in Tesco. That’s not what they’re looking for.

Put simply, generic adjectives don’t help anyone.

And if you give a tone of voice brief that says “professional, but friendly,” every writer will interpret that differently — and likely default to a standard that isn’t dissimilar to what you’d get from ChatGPT.

Defining your own (actual) tone of voice

Think once more about a word to describe your brand voice.

If the opposite of that word would result in generally poor content (unclear, untrustworthy, or unrelatable, for example), then you're not defining your specific tone — you're just describing basic content hygiene.

Your actual tone comes across in rhythm, sentence length, word choice, and punctuation. It’s the reason a skincare brand and a financial services organisation can both sound “professional” with completely different voices.

Defining your own tone of voice — and doing it properly — requires thinking in spectrums. Where do you sit between various adjectives. Are you more formal or conversational? Are you warm, or slightly detached? Are you playful, serious, or a mixture of both? Think outside of the box, are you cynical? Idealistic? Diplomatic? Realistic? Pragmatic?

Once you start defining your place on the scale, it’s possible to work out a tone of voice that actually feels unique to you and your brand. 

Taking tone of voice to the next level

When I work with clients on tone of voice strategy, I get into the weeds. Some love this, some hate it, but all of them are glad we’ve done it by the end of the project.

I don’t just ask how they want to come across. Because of course they’re going to say clear, trustworthy, and relatable. Instead, I ask what kind of associations they want people to have with the brand. I ask them what they dislike in marketing — what they’d actively hate to sound like. I ask them who they’re speaking to, and what traits they love about their audience. I ask them who they’re not speaking to, and what they’d never, ever stand for.  

Once, I even asked a client, if your brand was a celebrity, who would they be?  

And let’s be honest, ‘your brand is the organisational equivalent of Tate McRae’ was never going to make it into the final TOV document. But it did get us both thinking on an extremely specific level.

Who is this brand for? How should it come across? Who is going to engage with it? What should we say, and what should we not say? And that’s way, way more valuable than a couple of lines of text that confirm your tone of voice is professional but friendly.

Because tone shouldn’t be something you bolt on after the messaging’s done. It’s not a personality slider you set to “friendly” and forget about. It’s much, much more strategic than that.

Why tone of voice matters

Content is abundant right now.

More specifically, average, faceless, generic content is abundant right now.

AI has made it easier to churn out slop at scale — but harder to make content stand out. But that’s where a good tone of voice comes in.

Your tone is what makes someone stop scrolling. It’s how your audience recognises you in a sea of sameness. It’s not about being louder, it’s about being unmistakable.

With AI now handling so much of the generic, filler content, audiences are gravitating towards brands that feel real. Human. Specific. Genuine. The kind of voice that makes someone think: “Oh, I know who wrote this.” Or better yet: “This sounds like someone I like and trust.”

Full-service tone of voice strategy (or, the salesy bit)

If you’re sitting on tone of voice guidelines that feel vague, flat or like it could belong to at least five other companies in your industry, it might be time for a rethink.

And as it happens, tone of voice work is one of my favourite parts of the job — whether you need a full rework or just a strategic steer. I’ve helped B2B and consumer brands find a voice that fits.

So, if you want to reap the benefits of a strong tone of voice, let’s talk. I’m ready and waiting.