Is your tone of voice actually just tone of vague?

“We’re conversational… but professional.”
“We’re bold, but never arrogant.”
“We sound like a friend — but, like, a smart friend.”

Sound familiar?

That’s not a tone of voice. That’s a vibe. And vibes don’t help anyone write better copy.

The truth is, most tone of voice documents are where good writing goes to die. Full of aspirational adjectives, abstract statements, and not a single usable example in sight. They describe the idea of how the brand wants to sound — but not the reality of how to get there.

So instead of guiding people, they leave writers guessing. Marketers interpreting. Legal teams rewriting. And suddenly, that “conversational but professional” line becomes either a weirdly casual disclaimer or a press release with emojis.

If your tone guide can’t survive a product page, a LinkedIn post, and a legal disclaimer — it’s not a tone guide. It’s tone-flavoured air.

Why most tone guides are useless

Most tone of voice docs look good on paper. Literally. Beautiful fonts, branded layouts, a tidy set of three to five adjectives. Maybe even a colour-coded mood board.

But when it comes to actually writing copy? They fall apart.

Here’s why:

🧼 They’re full of adjectives, but empty on meaning

“Confident.” “Authentic.” “Approachable.”
Great — but what does that sound like on a product page? In a subject line? In a disclaimer?

Without examples, those words are just decoration. No one knows how to use them — so everyone makes it up as they go.

📖 They describe, but don’t define

“We’re human, but professional.”
Okay… does that mean contractions are fine? Can I use humour? How short is too short?

If your guide raises more questions than it answers, it’s not a guide. It’s a brand poem.

🗂️ They live in PDFs no one opens

Even if your tone guide is good, it’s often buried in a shared drive, forgotten after onboarding, or only used when someone’s already broken the rules.

A tone of voice isn’t a reference doc — it’s a tool. If it’s not usable day-to-day, it’s not doing its job.

How to write tone rules people can actually use

A good tone guide doesn’t just describe the vibe. It gives people the tools to write like the brand — whether they’re drafting a homepage hero, an error message, or an internal announcement.

Here’s what makes it actually work:

✍️ Give real examples — not just adjectives

Don’t say “We’re confident.”
Show what a confident sentence looks like. Then contrast it with one that misses the mark.

People remember examples. They don’t remember brand adjectives — especially the ones every other company also claims.

📚 Add context: when and how to flex

Your blog doesn’t need the same tone as your privacy policy. But that doesn’t mean the guide should just shrug and say “use your judgement.”

Instead, explain how your tone flexes in different places.
Eg: “We write more informally on social and in blog intros, but keep product pages sharper and more direct.”

🧠 Align marketing, legal, and product

If your tone works for your campaign team but gets stripped out by legal or rewritten by product, something’s broken.

A strong guide bridges those gaps — giving everyone shared rules they can stick to. Think sentence structure, voice, and word choices — not just vibes.

Before / after: vague tone rules vs. ones that actually help

If your tone guide includes phrases like these, it’s probably not guiding much:

These don’t just describe tone — they give people a way in. A real feel for how the brand sounds in action.

3 questions every writer should be able to answer before they draft

A good tone of voice guide doesn’t just sit in a folder. It gives your team the clarity and confidence to write without second-guessing every sentence.

Before anyone starts typing, they should be able to answer these:

1. Who are we speaking to — and what do they expect from us?

Tone isn’t about you. It’s about how your audience wants to hear from you. Are they cautious? Overloaded? Time-poor but detail-hungry?

If your tone doesn’t reflect their mindset, it won’t land.

2. How formal (or informal) should we be — here, and now?

Tone flexes by channel and context. The way you explain something in a product manual isn’t the same as a social post or a landing page.

Your tone guide should help you calibrate — not guess.

3. What’s non-negotiable — no matter what we’re writing?

These are your tone guardrails. The things that don’t change. Maybe it’s active voice. Maybe it’s using plain English. Maybe it’s never using jargon, no matter how “industry standard” it is.

If your guide doesn’t spell this out, people will write their own rules — and you’ll lose consistency fast.

And if no one can answer these questions after reading your tone guide? That’s the guide’s problem — not the writer’s.

Stop describing your tone. Start defining it.

“Conversational but professional” isn’t helpful. Neither is “bold yet empathetic” or “human but credible.” These are brand daydreams — not instructions.

If you want your team (or your writers, or your agency) to actually sound like your brand, you need to go beyond the adjectives. Give them rules. Examples. Context. And yes — permission to flex when the situation calls for it.

Because a tone guide isn’t just there to make you sound good. It’s there to make you sound like you — consistently, confidently, and on purpose.

Send this to whoever wrote “we’re conversational but professional” and called it a tone guide.