I conducted a brand voice workshop and then developed an in-depth brand voice and tone document, editorial style guidelines, and a writing examples and best practices document for this small but nimble VR/MR agency.

Client: 8ninths

Project: Development of Brand Voice & Tone Guidelines and associated deliverables

Timeline: 4 months

Delivery Date: February, 2016

The 8ninths team was very careful in their selection of a copywriter; I went through several interviews before being offered this project. That turned out for the good, because by the time I started, I already had a strong sense of who they were as a company and as people.

We started the project with a half-day workshop to suss out and document the 8ninths brand voice. This was an incredibly valuable experience for me as I listened to the team debate adjectives and verbs that described them and whether their brand was like Steve Jobs or not. I even managed to RickRoll them in the part of the deck where we talked about their theme song. A fun day.

Deliverable 1: brand voice & tone guidelines

Drawing from the work we’d done, I developed a comprehensive Brand Voice & Tone document that covers:

• brand and audience “who” and “why”
• content types and topics
• brand voice
• varying tones of the voice based on content type and audience situation
• what authenticity means to the brand
• use of language: voice, verbs, pronouns, sentence structure, jargon, humor, etc.
• tips for maintaining the voice in all communications

Deliverable 2: editorial style guide

Once we had all agreed on the Brand Voice & Tone guidelines, I set down detailed rules for how to implement them in writing. The Editorial Style Guide includes rules for:

• capitalization
• grammar and usage
• punctuation
• diction
• captions
• headlines and subheads
• links, buttons, and other CTAs
• lists

Deliverable 3: writing best practices and examples

Examples of how to incorporate style guidelines into the kind of writing 8ninths uses were an important last step in this process. This document applied the already-established guidelines to various types of writing, including “do” and “don’t” examples across categories including:

• verbs
• adjectives
• nouns
• links and CTAs
• inclusive language
• blog posts
• social media posts

Let’s talk brand voice

If your organization needs a set of guidelines to focus its communications, I can help. Check out my services.