How To Speak Like a Brand That Knows What It Stands For
Welcome to Brand Materials, a brand strategy series where we’ll explore how to create a brand that feels aligned, human, and rooted in what actually matters to you.
Expect thought-provoking prompts, purposeful frameworks, and guidance that values clarity over performative noise. This is a strategic companion for founders who want to build something that fits their industry, their life, and their energy.
Your brand voice isn’t just a tone: it’s a point of view.
It’s how your business makes sense of the world, and how it invites others to see things the same way. It’s the difference between saying something helpful… and saying something only you could have said.
This isn’t about whether you use contractions or exclamation points. It’s about how your voice reflects your positioning, values, and emotional intention.
In this post, you’ll learn how to shape a brand voice that positions you as someone worth listening to. One that builds recognition, resonance, and a sense of ‘I’ve been waiting for a brand like this!’
What is Brand Voice?
Your brand voice is the personality behind your words. It’s how your business sounds. from your website and emails to your Instagram captions and product descriptions.
If you’ve ever read something and instantly known who wrote it (without even seeing the name), that’s brand voice.
Think of voice as the consistent way your brand speaks. Is it warm and welcoming? Bold and irreverent? Quietly confident? Curious and poetic? Voice brings cohesion to your messaging, making it feel intentional and recognizable.
Brand Voice vs. Tone
Voice stays consistent. It’s the anchor of your brand’s expression.
Tone, on the other hand, is how that voice adapts depending on context. Think of it like this: you speak differently in a job interview than you do texting your best friend — but you’re still “you.” Your tone flexes to fit the moment.
For example:
A wellness brand might use a calm, grounding tone when writing a blog post about burnout—and a more energizing tone when announcing a new product launch.
A coaching brand might use a compassionate, open tone in their welcome emails—and a more direct, motivating tone when selling a program.
The core voice (empathetic, wise, supportive) doesn’t change. It just expresses itself in different ways depending on the message and the moment.
Why Voice Matters (Even Early On)
For new business owners, building a brand voice might feel like a task for later. Something you worry about after you have your offers built, your website live, your first few clients in the door.
But voice helps you show up as a real presence. It makes readers stop scrolling. Even a simple voice (one that sounds like you, but a little more focused) is enough to create connection.
You don’t need to be a copywriter or have a 30-page brand guide. You just need to be intentional.
Ask:
How do I naturally speak when I’m most confident and clear?
What words or phrases do I use again and again?
What kind of tone helps my audience feel safe, seen, or inspired?
The more you can answer these, the more your voice will start to emerge.
Brand Voice as a Point of View System
Most conversations about brand voice start and stop with adjectives: warm, witty, trustworthy, calm. That’s helpful, especially when you’re just starting, but tone alone won’t make your brand unforgettable.
What actually creates resonance isn’t just how you sound, but what you consistently stand for. This is where brand voice becomes more than personality: it becomes a Point of View System.
Your POV System is a set of consistent perspectives, opinions, and beliefs that shape how you show up and communicate. It’s the underlying logic that answers:
What does your brand believe about your industry?
What are you tired of seeing?
What gets you excited?
What do you do differently — and why?
It’s not just your tone that builds trust. It’s your clarity. Your conviction. Your ability to articulate a truth your audience has felt but couldn’t name. A voice like that doesn’t just sound good. It makes people say, ‘Yes. That’s exactly it.’
Why POV Creates Connection
People want perspective. They want to know how you see the world. What you’re willing to push back on. What matters to you, beyond algorithms and engagement.
The right people will be drawn in — not just because your copy is clever, but because your ideas feel aligned. You’re not just building a brand voice that people recognize. You’re building one they remember, and more importantly, trust.
How to Find Your Brand Voice
Here is a step-by-step guide to putting your brand voice to paper:
Consider your values
What does your brand stand for? Your voice should be a natural extension of those values. If compassion is at the heart of your brand, your voice might feel warm, empathetic, and relationship-driven. If you're still refining your values, revisit our post on defining Brand Values to gain clarity.
Return to your mission
Your brand mission gives your voice purpose. It reminds you what you're trying to change, support, or reimagine. A brand advocating for slow, sustainable living might choose calming, invitational language. A brand pushing for social change might be more assertive or galvanizing. Let your mission shape the emotional undercurrent of your communication.
Imagine your brand as a person
If your brand walked into a room, how would it speak? Would it ask questions or offer clarity? Lead with warmth or insight? Visualize the personality behind the brand: its pace, rhythm, and emotional presence. Then, define five core keywords that capture that energy.
Connect with your audience
What kind of voice makes your Ideal Client feel seen? Do they respond to intimacy and softness, or structure and strength? Voice is relational, not performative. The more deeply you understand your audience’s emotional language, the more fluently your brand can speak it.
Look to your competition
Scan your industry. What’s overdone? What’s missing? If everyone else sounds polished and impersonal, there’s room for rawness. If your space is saturated with trendspeak, maybe your power is in stillness or substance. Identifying the gaps allows you to refine a voice that sets you apart—whether it’s by being more conversational, more poetic, or more playful.
Contrast Exercise
A great way to sharpen your brand voice is to define what it isn’t. This simple contrast exercise can help:
Our brand voice sounds like: Grounded and authoritative, but still conversational. We combine expertise with warmth, making our audience feel like they’re being guided, not lectured.
Our brand voice is not: Dry, clinical, or detached. We avoid overly technical jargon, keeping our tone warm, approachable, and easy to understand.
How to Test and Refine Your Brand Voice
Testing your brand voice allows you to experiment, refine, and uncover the nuances that make your voice yours. Here’s how:
Start small, then iterate
Choose a single piece of content — a homepage headline, an Instagram caption, a newsletter intro — and write it in a few different tones. Does one feel too formal? Another too casual? Which version feels most natural, yet still compelling?
Notice engagement
Engagement can be strategic data — but not all engagement is created equal. Beyond likes, what type of language makes them respond, share, or take action? Are there certain words, phrases, or storytelling techniques that seem to spark more connection?
Test across contexts
Every platform demands a different expression of your voice. Long-form content allows for nuance. Captions need clarity and punch. Your voice should flex without fracturing, remaining recognizable whether you’re writing a landing page or sending a thank-you email.
Gut check the alignment
Your voice should feel right when you write in it. Does it flow effortlessly, or does it feel forced? Do you recognize yourself in your words? A brand voice that feels aligned will never feel like a struggle to use.
Voice is something you refine over time. The more you use it, the more natural and distinct it becomes. The goal isn’t just to sound different, but to sound like you, so that when someone reads your words, they know exactly who’s speaking, even before they see your name.
How to Systemize and Sustain Your Voice
A distinct brand voice isn’t just something you find. It’s something you build infrastructure around. Because consistency comes from systems that make your voice repeatable — whether you’re writing an email, briefing a copywriter, or posting from your phone at the airport.
Here are three tools to help you anchor and operationalize your voice:
Develop a brand voice guide
This is your internal blueprint. It should include:
- Your core voice descriptors (e.g. warm, irreverent, grounded)
- Notes on sentence rhythm, structure, and tone
- Phrases you love (and avoid)
- How your tone shifts across platforms (e.g. more poetic in long-form, more punchy in short-form)
Think of it as a practical reference — something you can use in your own writing process or hand off to collaborators.
Build a brand language library
This can be as simple as a Notion board or Google Doc. Start collecting:
- Common phrases and messaging blocks you use repeatedly
- Headlines, hooks, and metaphors that feel on-brand
- Word banks for specific moods (invitational, firm, funny)
- Copy-and-paste examples of your voice in action (e.g. a great Instagram caption, or a DM reply that felt very “you”)
Over time, this becomes your go-to toolkit for writing anything without starting from scratch.
This is a toolkit you can pull from whenever you’re writing.
Document your POV
If voice is what your brand sounds like, POV is what it believes. Start a running list of:
- The beliefs, mantras, and hot takes that drive your content
- The objections or myths you love to challenge
- The values that shape how you speak, sell, and serve
This keeps your messaging from getting watered down, and helps you stay rooted in what makes your brand’s voice unmistakable.
What You Might Be Wondering:
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Your brand voice doesn’t have to be wildly different from everyone else’s, but it should feel authentic to you and your audience. Start by identifying the words, phrases, and tone that naturally fit. If you’re unsure, revisit your values, mission, and audience to find a voice that aligns with both your personality and the people you serve.
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Your voice should have a consistent core personality, but your tone can shift based on context. A wellness brand might sound calm and nurturing in a long-form blog post but friendly and inviting in an Instagram caption.
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The best way to refine your brand voice is by testing it in real-world content and observing engagement. Try these methods:
Write the same piece of content in different tones and see which one resonates most.
Compare audience responses on social media, emails, or blog posts.
Get feedback from your ideal clients. Does your messaging feel aligned with them?
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For consistency, you can:
Share past content that best reflects the tone you want to maintain.
Provide keywords, phrases, or stylistic preferences that feel aligned with your brand (as well as any to avoid).
Offer insights into your audience, values, and messaging priorities to guide their writing.
If you don’t have a brand voice guide yet, many copywriters can create one for you — helping you define how your brand sounds, what language feels natural, and how your tone shifts across different platforms. This way, whether you're writing your own content or outsourcing, your brand voice remains distinct and consistent.
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If multiple people are writing for your brand (such as team members, social media managers, or guest writers), having a brand voice guide is essential. This guide can include:
Core personality traits of your brand voice.
Examples of tone and messaging that feel on-brand.
Words, phrases, or stylistic elements to use (or avoid).
Providing writers with clear brand voice guidelines helps ensure consistency, even when multiple people contribute content.
Recap & Next Steps
Your brand voice is more than just how you sound. It’s all about how you make your audience feel. To recap:
Clarify your brand’s core voice and point of view.
Test and refine
Create a Voice Guide and Language Library
Brand voice is more than a writing style. It shapes how your brand expresses its worldview, filters your content, and builds emotional continuity When your voice is clear, aligned, and rooted in a distinct point of view, your brand signals belonging.
A clear, authentic, and mission-aligned voice turns your brand into a meaningful presence, inviting your audience into conversations that feel engaging, genuine, and purposeful.
Read the Next Post: The Storybrand Framework
In the next post in the Brand Materials series, we’ll explore the Storybrand Framework — a storytelling method that helps clarify your brand message and position your audience the hero of your story, showing them how they fit into your brand.
If your messaging feels scattered or self-centered, this framework will help you shift the focus, build trust, and guide your audience through a story they want to be part of.
Ready to Build With Purpose?
Studio Founded is a creative sanctuary for thoughtful founders, built on strategy and soul.
Inside, you’ll find brand strategy workbooks, Notion systems, and intentional templates designed to help you clarify your message, connect with your people, and grow your brand with depth. Whether you're finding your voice, refining your offers, or rebuilding from burnout, there’s a tool here to support your next step.
