The top 5 tone of voice mistakes I see most often (and how to fix them)

Tone of voice projects are up there with some of the most interesting pieces of work a creative agency takes on.

Done well, they shape how a brand communicates for years across all company touchpoints. They give everyone from the senior copywriter to the new starter in customer service a clear, shared way of speaking.

When they’re done badly they become a very expensive PDF that nobody opens.

But what exactly is a brand tone of voice?

Put simply, it’s how your brand talks to people. This can be on social media, in emails or across the company website.

Your tone of voice shapes how you share content and communicate in a way that is true to your company vision, values and culture. This helps people understand who your brand is and reflects how you are perceived by the public.

Importantly, tone of voice exists on a spectrum and changes depending on the situation. Just as your friend can be silly and boisterous over coffee, they are more reserved in a work meeting. They’re the same person with the same personality, just in a different situation.

The same is true of brand tone of voice. Think of it this way. It is likely you will talk to a new customer in a different tone to an existing customer. The same is true of the subject matter – your tone when handling a complaint will be different to an onboarding enquiry.

Over the years I’ve worked with organisations across tech, culture, design and beyond, and when it comes to brand tone of voice I see the same mistakes crop up. So I’ve put together the top five mistakes I see and importantly, what to do instead.

1. Going overboard on the adjectives

“We are a bold, warm and professional organisation.”

The problem isn’t that these words are wrong, it’s that they’re meaningless without context. Many brands think they’re warm and tell me a brand that doesn’t think they’re professional?

Tone of voice that actually sticks has to come from somewhere. It needs to be rooted in what the brand does, how it does it, and why that matters.

Before you reach for the adjectives, go deeper. What does this brand genuinely believe? What do customers feel when things go well? What makes the organisation different from the competitor doing roughly the same thing? The answers to those questions is where you real tone of voice lies.

2. Writing guidelines for the boardroom, not the people who’ll use them

A 90-page tone of voice document sounds thorough. Yes, it probably took months to put together. It also probably lives in a folder on the intranet nobody can find, full of principles nobody can remember.

The goal of tone of voice guidelines isn’t to be comprehensive, it’s to be useful. Useful means accessible to a junior copywriter on a tight deadline, an agency partner you’ve never briefed before, and yes, the new hire in customer service who just wants a few quick pointers.

Many of us learn best through being shown, so include real-life examples of what works well and what doesn’t. This is a useful way to help users understand what is appropriate across different departments and touchpoints. Rather than saying, “be fun, but don’t be unprofessional” include an example to explain.

When you’re building guidelines, ask yourself: could someone who’s never worked on this brand pick this up and feel confident using it? If the answer is no, it needs reworking.

3. Copying what competitors are doing

This one’s more common than perhaps we’d like to admit. A client points to a competitor and says “we want to sound like them.” And there’s a temptation, especially under time pressure, to use that as a starting point.

The problem is that a tone of voice built on imitation is fragile. It doesn’t feel authentic because it isn’t – it’s another company’s tone of voice. Customers will notice even if they can’t always articulate why and when something feels ‘off’ trust is broken.

Take for example the airline industry. The tone of voice used by Ryanair is worlds apart from that used by British Airways. If British Airways started posting on social media in the same tone as Ryanair, it would certainly raise a few eyebrows.

Competitor research is valuable, but as a way of mapping the landscape and finding the gaps. But remember, it’s not a shortcut and could ultimately result in a tone of voice that doesn’t work for your particular company and culture.

4. Treating tone of voice as a one-off project

Sign off the guidelines, share with staff. Job done, right?

Not as such. Brands change, leadership changes, products evolve and the audience shifts. A tone of voice that felt spot-on at launch can quietly drift out of alignment or get ignored without anyone really noticing until it’s too late.

The most effective tone of voice projects build in some kind of ongoing rhythm: a check-in, a refresh, a point of contact who keeps it alive internally.

It doesn’t have to be elaborate, but treating tone of voice as a living thing rather than a deliverable to be ticked off and marked as complete, makes a real difference to whether it gets adopted and sustained in the longer-term

5. Forgetting that tone of voice has to be flexible

Brands don’t just communicate in one place. Think about it. They talk to customers on social media, in onboarding emails, in error messages, in out-of-office replies, in website copy. And the tone that works brilliantly in a campaign headline likely won’t translate to a complaints procedure webpage.

Good tone of voice guidelines account for this. They give people a clear sense of the core voice and then show how that voice adapts to different contexts, audiences and channels, without losing its essential character.

Think of it less like a script and more like a personality. As I said above, a person can be warm and funny with friends and still be clear and professional in a meeting. Same person, different register. That’s what sets good tone of voice guidelines apart.

So, what does good tone of voice look like?

I believe it starts with a proper discovery and by this I mean interviews, honest conversations, a real understanding of what makes the brand tick. This then feeds into guidelines that are genuinely usable rather than just impressively long. And importantly, gets reviewed and not forgotten about.

Does your brand need help with a tone of voice strategy, it might be time to talk. Get in touch and let’s do it properly.