Find Your Brand Tone of Voice: Top Tips, Types, and Examples

Learn how to define the tone of voice that's right for your brand with expert guidelines and best examples for different types

Brand tone of voice is not only what you say to your audience, but how you say it. It’s the personality, mood, and emotion you convey through your word choice and writing style. And it can have a huge impact on how your brand is perceived.

Why tone of voice is important

What if Rolex started making ads that sounded like McDonald's? Or, stranger still, what if a government website started speaking with BrewDog’s unapologetic tone?

The first example isn’t as catastrophic, but it would certainly take away from Rolex’s entire brand identity, which has been built on a sense of luxuriousness and prestige.

The reason it feels wrong is the same reason kids cringe when their parents call their latest TikTok “high-key jokes, no cap”. Sure, parents have every right to use current slang in conversation. The problem usually isn’t with the words themselves but how unnatural they sound when coming from someone who wouldn’t normally use them.

And that’s why it would be weird for a government website to adopt a brash tone when guiding users through important matters like tax or immigration.

And it goes the other way, too. If BrewDog rebranded to adopt a more formal, reassuring, and factual tone of voice, you can guarantee their copy wouldn’t really land the same with their target audience.

Types of tone of voice

As people, we all have a unique tone of voice that has developed over time from a range of factors: our background, upbringing, interests, sense of humor, beliefs, outlook, and attitude all shape how we communicate. The same goes for brands.

There are many different types of tone of voice, and companies will often arrive at a combination of different traits to craft their own unique voice. Here are some examples of tone of voice:

- Formal
- Casual
- Nurturing
- Witty
- Rebellious
- Aspirational
- Straight-talking
- Uplifting
- Happy-go-lucky
- Factual
- Assertive
- Comforting

Naturally, the type of tone you use will depend on the subject matter. For example, your brand might be known for its punchy, rebellious tone in its ads and social posts, but you wouldn’t use that tone if your brand had to apologise for an oversight. Similarly, you might have a professional and formal tone but flex up to jovial when your company announces good news.

When defining your tone of voice, it’s useful to pick a maximum of five traits. That way, anyone writing for your brand can use these traits as a guide and keep within the brand’s tone no matter what the subject matter or situation.

So, which tone of voice is best for your brand?

Above all, it’s important to keep in mind that there’s a difference between good and right. Brands often want to be perceived as funny or quirky, but that doesn’t always make sense in context with their purpose, values, and target audience.

Consequently, these are the three pillars that your tone of voice should be built around.

Knowing them

To a certain degree, our personalities are shaped by the people we surround ourselves with. The same is true for brands. The way they talk to their audience is usually shaped by who their audience is—whether that’s millennials who own cars, parents with busy schedules, health-conscious adults, teenagers seeking to express their individuality, older individuals seeking reassurance—the list goes on.

The more you know about your audience, the easier it will be to talk to them in a language that they like.

Insurance company DeadHappy, for example, saw a millennial audience uninterested in life insurance. So they opted for a bold and daring tone that used dark humor to cut through the formal, and (according to the founder) “boring” tone used by most brands in their sector.

Knowing you

Your tone of voice is an extension of your point of difference. What makes you unique? Is it your origin story, your dedication to nurturing talent, your commitment to sustainability, or the expertise of your team? You don’t have to be a disruptor brand to have a point of difference.

On the contrary, many heritage brands lean on their established reputation and long-term presence in the market as their point of difference, and this informs how they communicate with their audience.

Equally, your tone of voice should embody and express your brand’s personality and set of values. It should capture the spirit of the people that make up the brand—what they believe, what they stand for, what they’re passionate about, what drives them.

For example, a brand that values openness and transparency should convey this through its tone; a brand that values thinking outside the box and "dreaming big" should speak with a tone that is aspirational rather than reserved or formal.

Examples of brands that have nailed their tone of voice

Along with the visual elements of your brand identity, your tone of voice helps reinforce your customers’ first impression of your brand. So it had best be right. To understand the nuances of tone of voice, it's helpful to look at how successful brands communicate with passion and purpose.

1. Dollar Shave Club

Steering clear of the luxury brand voice that most brands in their space use, the razor subscription service Dollar Shave Club appeals to their target audience through a relatable tone of voice that is playful, witty, smart, and feisty at times. They’ve achieved consistency by portraying this persona across all of their messaging—from their packaging and product labels to their social media campaigns.

2. Nike

Nike are well known for their bold, aspirational tone of voice. Their powerful brand persona is an extension of their mission to empower and energize their audience to pursue their goals with persistence—a feeling that is perfectly captured in their iconic tagline “Just Do It.” It’s urgent, it’s motivational and it instills a sense of self-belief.

Interestingly, if you look at other brands in their space like Puma or New Balance, the tone is not the same at all. The former has built a tone around passion, love of sport, and the joy of competing, while the latter recently rebranded to adopt a more family-oriented tone that speaks to the idea of being part of a tribe. This is a great example of how competing brands can lean on their values, purpose, and foundations to craft a unique tone of voice that stands out.

3. Mailchimp

This marketing software company is proof that B2B brands can have a distinct tone of voice just like their B2C counterparts. Across their website, social channels, and ad campaigns, Mailchimp adopts a very human tone of voice that is friendly, familiar, and straightforward. And that makes sense, as their product is all about creating simplicity for users when it comes to email marketing.

Even as they’ve grown, the company has maintained that fun and eccentric tone that connected with digital marketing professionals. However, being a B2B brand, the company knows when to dial down the humor and dial up the more formal (but still friendly) tone of voice.

These brands all have a tone that stands out from the crowd. But remember, when defining your tone of voice, don’t try to be different. When you do that, you lose track of what truly makes you unique. And when you mimic others, you end up blending in.

Ultimately, the best approach is to be true to your brand. Perhaps C.S. Lewis said it best:

“Even in literature and art, no man who bothers about originality will ever be original: whereas if you simply try to tell the truth (without caring twopence how often it has been told before) you will, nine times out of ten, become original without ever having noticed it.”

This article was written by Paul Anglin (@paulanglin), a senior copywriter and tone of voice consultant with over twenty years of experience based in Madrid, Spain. Since 2016, he has run his own studio, Craft Copywriting, where he works alongside his team writing for brands such as Nike, Apple, Microsoft, and Dunlop Sports.

To learn how to craft a tone of voice that suits your brand, check out Paul's online course, Tone of Voice for Copywriting. And to learn more copywriting techniques, sign up for Paul's first Domestika course Copywriting for Social Media.

Discover more resources for building your brand

1. Learn expert advice and copywriting techniques for writing compelling copy that gets results with five essential tips to become a better copywriter.

2. Improve your email marketing strategy by getting to grips with different types of email newsletter and how they help your business.

3. Learn how to generate powerful ideas that will help your brand build connections with your audience in Ray Smiling's online course, Creative Direction: Use Storytelling to Pitch and Sell Ideas.