Written by Katya Firyan, co-founder of Writitude
Navigating the digital landscape without automated brand voice and style guidelines is like trying to operate a remote control without any instructions. Confusing, right?
Especially when multiple team members are crafting content for your brand.
It's not a question of whether you need automated brand writing guidelines — it's about how soon you can implement them.
These guidelines serve as your compass, ensuring your brand voice resonates consistently across all digital platforms.
With over 5.4 billion active internet users globally, imagine them encountering an inconsistent brand.
Chaos!
Establishing automated tone of voice and style guidelines is not a one-day task, but it translates into better brand recognition and a clearer identity (hence — higher revenue and brand value).
See here a full report with Lucid Press research data (2024)
And who wouldn't want that?
With Writitude, you invest time in defining your brand guidelines once, and then it automates compliance for every writer who contributes to your brand.
Let's create a stronger, more identifiable brand voice! Your audience awaits.
Understanding the Importance of Your Brand’s Tone and Style Guidelines
- Ensure brand consistency and solidify recognition
- Streamline marketing efforts
- Enhance customer perception and loyalty through well-defined guidelines
Why Writing Guidelines are Essential
Adhering to writing guidelines is vital for maintaining a consistent brand identity.
These guidelines outline what sets your brand’s tone of voice apart, from emotions and specific words to style elements.
Moreover, your company’s tone and style guide is single the most important document your writers will ever use.
Leaving them without this guidance will not reflect well on your content (not saying, it’s just cruel, as it will inevitably lead to loops of feedback that could be easily avoided).
Maintaining Brand Consistency
It takes 5-7 interactions with your brand for a potential client to recall it.
When all channels maintain uniformity in their messages, customers see your brand as reliable and trustworthy.
And Brand guidelines that Brand voice and style guide is a significant part of, are the fundamental pillars of brand consistency.
The "2021 State of Brand Consistency" report by Lucidpress reveals eye-opening statistics: 85% of organizations have brand guidelines, yet only 31% apply them consistently.
Off-brand content? It’s a disaster. Brands risk losing coherent customer experiences and fail to reflect their core values.
Picture this: when your brand sends mixed messages, customers feel confused. They lose trust. And they start looking elsewhere.
You can't afford that. None of us can.
Consistent use of digital brand guidelines solidifies brand recognition, leading to a stronger presence in customers' minds (and this is exactly what you want).
This just means more engaged audience, loyal customers, and a potent brand image.
Streamlining Marketing Efforts
Clear and specific brand guidelines provide clear instructions to marketers and creatives on using brand elements correctly.
This eliminates guesswork and wasted time, leading to more effective strategies.
But brand voice guidelines’ automation take them to just another level. There’s no consistency without automation.
Influencing Customer Perception (at scale)
Strong brand guidelines directly influence how customers see your brand. Consistency in brand elements improves recognition and builds trust, making customers more likely to convert and stay loyal.
Brand voice and style guidelines evolve with your company. As your brand grows — for the brand to stay heard — your guidelines should reflect new goals, products, and customer needs.
Creating Effective Digital Brand Guidelines
We have written about how to create you brand voice guidelines and roll them out in our previous articles.
We also made available the ultimate tone of voice guidelines templatefor everyone to benefit.
It may seem like a lot of work. And, honestly, it is. Think — long hours invested into you communications audit, crystalizing your main messages and tone of voice pillars, understanding how they will shone through everything you say.
But laying the foundation ensures a streamlined process that aligns your team, reduces ambiguity, and facilitates consistent brand interactions across platforms.
Bearing these in mind, let's start investing into this bright future, and see some examples of such guidelines.
Examples of Successful Brand Voice Guidelines
Despite the market and audience habits shifts, some brands stand out for their successful use of brand guidelines. Here are a few examples we can admire.
Starbucks
“By using both functional and expressive voices, we’ll create more space for brand relevance, connection and joy”, says theis guide.
Functional and expressive — how does that translate into their texts?
“That first sip feeling” “So much yes” “Your favourites are back (Awww yes)” “Roses are red and stars are aligned. Find the perfect drink for your Valentine.”
All great examples of the copy we love. Short sentences. To the point (functional = helpful), but expressive. Writing with nouns and verbs. Adjectives? Not so much.
We definitely see how we could automate those guidelines with Writitude!
Mailchimp
Translating B2B jargon to a “normal language”, Mailchimp is plainspoken and genuine, with a hint of a dry humour.
Think — large sentence length variety, use of incomplete sentences and there also must be a long list of forbidden business jargon words in their glossaries.
Notice how strategic brand guidelines usage not only helps maintain brand consistency but also simplifies marketing procedures.
By having pre-established tone of voice rules, teams gain clarity over their tasks, and they can better carry out their responsibilities, disseminating a cohesive brand voice.
Slack
In its communication Slack is brief, clear and empathetic. We love how precise they are in translating empathy into words, infusing their text with it:
- Use gender-neutral pronouns.
- Use a variety of emoji skin tones.
- Don’t use sexist, racist, or ableist language.
- Make an effort to trial your voice and tone with people from a diversity of backgrounds, in different settings (on mobile, with flaky wifi, etc.).
- Don’t assume any level of technical fluency from your users — keep instructions clear.
Address a Big Elephant in the Room to Ensure Consistency
Sticking to digital brand guidelines isn't a one-off task. It's an ongoing initiative that requires strategic efforts. How can a business make sure it's on track though?
Remember, brand voice guidelines aren't a set-in-stone document. They should evolve as your brand does. Review and update these guidelines regularly to reflect the brand's current ethos.
Moreover (and we won't get tired repeating this) — there's no consistency without automation.
- Communications Audits
Looking through your communications in different channels and doing a regular audit is a great practice for instilling consistency. Conducting frequent audits helps identify deviation points and rectify inconsistencies
Not a lot of brands do it (because everyone is busy, of course), but it’s a useful tool to adopt.
- Employee Familiarization
Informing your team about the guidelines, any changes in them, sharing great examples and training your new writers is a crucial step.
Initiative frequent sessions where the employee can familiarize themselves more with the brand guidelines, ensuring everybody representing the brand is on the same page.
- Using brand voice automation software
Technology offers solutions like brand voice automation, verification and management software, which makes maintaining consistency much easier.
These tools automate the process of ensuring that every piece of textual content aligns with your brand guidelines.
The digital realm is vast, dynamic, and competitive. Hence, maintaining brand consistency can be challenging.
But by adhering to your digital brand guidelines and incorporating these tips, your brand can shine equally across all channels.
Bringing It All Back Home: The Power of Automation
So, creating distinctive, crystal-clear brand voice guidelines enhances your brand’s consistency, streamlines communication across your team, and strengthens your brand's identity.
But it just doesn’t work without automation.
Do you want your brand to shine? Of course, you do. Consistency is critical.
Brand voice guidelines help, but we must apply them every time. No exceptions. No excuses. To do that — automate them.
This is one single task in your 2024 to-do list you still can achieve for your brand voice. Let's roll!
