- Before the Workshop: Gather Material
- Exercise 1: Audit What You Sound Like Now
- Exercise 2: Listen to Customers
- Exercise 3: Choose Three or Four Voice Traits
- Exercise 4: This, Not That
- Exercise 5: Rewrite Sample Copy
- After the Workshop: Agree and Test
- A Half-Day Workshop Agenda
- Using Competitors to Sharpen Your Voice
- Pitfalls to Avoid
- Frequently Asked Questions
Brand voice is how your organization sounds when it writes and speaks. Most brands already have a voice, often an accidental one shaped by whoever wrote the website years ago. Finding a deliberate voice is less about invention and more about discovery: identifying what is true about how your company thinks, how your customers talk and how you want people to feel, then capturing it clearly enough that anyone can write in it.
This guide sets out a workshop method you can run with a small group in half a day. Turning the results into a written guidelines document is covered in our separate guide to brand voice guidelines.
Before the Workshop: Gather Material
- Your own copy: homepage, product pages, emails, social posts, proposals and support replies. Print a selection.
- Customer language: reviews, testimonials, interview transcripts and sales call notes.
- Competitors' copy: homepage headlines and a few paragraphs from three to five competitors.
- Brands people admire: examples of writing participants like, from any industry.
Invite five to eight people: leadership, marketing, sales or customer success, and at least one person who writes regularly.
Exercise 1: Audit What You Sound Like Now
Spread out your current copy and ask participants to describe it in three words each, without discussion. Then compare. If one page sounds warm and another sounds legalistic, the brand has no consistent voice yet. Mark passages people feel proud of and passages that make them wince, and discuss why. This reveals what the team already values.
Exercise 2: Listen to Customers
Read customer quotes aloud. Note how customers describe their problems and your company, the words they choose, their level of formality and what they praise. A voice that mirrors customers' natural language feels familiar and trustworthy; a voice that ignores it feels like marketing.
Exercise 3: Choose Three or Four Voice Traits
Ask each participant to suggest adjectives that describe the company at its best. Group similar words and vote. Aim for three or four traits that are distinct from each other and from competitors. "Professional" and "trustworthy" are expected of everyone and differentiate no one; "plain-spoken", "curious" or "quietly confident" give writers something to work with.
Exercise 4: This, Not That
For each trait, define the boundary on either side. A trait without boundaries is easy to overdo.
| Trait | This | Not that |
|---|---|---|
| Confident | Clear recommendations | Arrogant or dismissive |
| Friendly | Warm and approachable | Overfamiliar or jokey |
| Plain-spoken | Simple words, short sentences | Simplistic or patronizing |
| Expert | Specific, accurate detail | Jargon-heavy or academic |
Exercise 5: Rewrite Sample Copy
Give pairs a short piece of existing copy, such as an error message, a product description or an email, and ask them to rewrite it in the new voice. Read the versions aloud. Where they sound consistent, the traits are working; where they differ wildly, the definitions need sharpening.
Before: "Your request has been received and will be processed in due course." After (friendly, plain-spoken): "Thanks, we've got your request. You'll hear from us within one working day."
After the Workshop: Agree and Test
Write up the traits, boundaries and best rewrites, and share them with the group for comments. Test the voice on a few real pieces, such as a landing page and an email, and see how customers respond. Then turn the result into guidelines and examples that every writer can use.
A Half-Day Workshop Agenda
| Time | Activity |
|---|---|
| 0:00 to 0:20 | Context: who we serve, how we want them to feel |
| 0:20 to 1:00 | Audit of current copy and silent three-word descriptions |
| 1:00 to 1:30 | Customer language review |
| 1:30 to 1:45 | Break |
| 1:45 to 2:30 | Choosing traits and voting |
| 2:30 to 3:15 | This, not that boundaries |
| 3:15 to 4:00 | Rewriting sample copy in pairs and reading aloud |
Using Competitors to Sharpen Your Voice
Read competitors' copy aloud during the workshop. If it sounds interchangeable with your own, you have found a problem worth solving. Ask what voice would stand out in this market: if every competitor sounds formal and technical, a plain-spoken, human voice will be noticed; if competitors are playful, calm expertise may be the differentiator. The aim is not to be different for its own sake, but to sound recognisably like yourselves rather than like the category.
Pitfalls to Avoid
Voice workshops can go wrong in predictable ways. The loudest person's taste can dominate, so use silent exercises and voting. Teams may choose aspirational traits that do not match how the company actually behaves, which creates copy that rings false. Some groups pick traits so similar that writers cannot tell them apart. And many workshops end without testing the voice on real copy, which is where weaknesses become obvious. Build in rewriting exercises and a follow-up review to catch these issues early.
Frequently Asked Questions
Audit your existing copy, study how customers talk, choose three or four distinctive voice traits, define each with "this, not that" boundaries, and test the voice by rewriting real copy.
Three or four. Fewer may not give writers enough direction; more becomes hard to remember and apply.
A small group including leadership, marketing, people who talk to customers, and those who write regularly. Customer language should inform the result.
Yes, gradually, as the company and audience evolve. Sudden changes confuse customers, so evolve the voice deliberately and update guidelines when you do.