A Simple Guide: Using AI for Creating a Brand Voice Guide

Does the voice of your brand ever feel… a little scattered? One day your emails sound formal, the next day your social media posts are full of emojis. If you’re nodding along, please know you’re not alone. Maintaining a consistent voice is a genuine challenge, especially when you’re busy running the show or managing a small team.

Many people think creating a "brand voice guide" is a massive, time-consuming project reserved for big corporations. It feels daunting. But what if you could create a foundational, genuinely useful document in under an hour? This is where a little help from a smart assistant comes in. Today, I’ll walk you through a simple exercise for using AI for creating a brand voice guide that feels authentic to you and gives you the clarity you need to move forward with confidence.

Step 1: Before You Ask the AI, Define Your Core Personality

This is the most important step, and it doesn't involve any technology at all. The AI is a powerful tool, but it can’t read your mind. It needs clear instructions based on your vision. If you give it vague input, you’ll get vague (and unhelpful) output.

Here’s a simple exercise to get the clarity you need. I call it the “Three Adjective Exercise.”

1. Imagine your brand is a person. If you were introducing this person to a friend, what three adjectives would you use to describe their personality?
2. Write them down. Be specific! Instead of "nice," try "warm" or "gracious." Instead of "smart," try "insightful" or "witty."
3. For each adjective, write a short sentence explaining what you mean. This adds crucial context.

For example, for our blog, The Creative Co-Pilot, our three adjectives might be:

• Reassuring: We calm fears about technology and make our readers feel capable.
• Practical: We focus on real-world actions, not abstract theory.
• Professional: We are clear, respectful, and avoid overly casual slang or jargon.

That’s it! You now have the core ingredients for your brand voice. You did the strategic thinking; now we can ask the AI to do the heavy lifting.

Step 2: Your Prompt for Using AI to Create a Brand Voice Guide

Now we’ll turn your three adjectives into a clear set of instructions for a tool like ChatGPT or Claude. You can copy and paste the template below, replacing the bracketed text with your own adjectives and descriptions. This prompt is designed to give you a structured document that is immediately useful.

Here is the prompt template:

Act as a brand strategist. I need to create a simple but clear brand voice guide for my business. Our brand personality can be described with these three core adjectives:

1. [Your First Adjective]: [Your one-sentence explanation of it.]

2. [Your Second Adjective]: [Your one-sentence explanation of it.]

3. [Your Third Adjective]: [Your one-sentence explanation of it.]

Based on this, please generate a brand voice guide with the following sections:

1. Overall Voice Summary: A short paragraph describing our voice.

2. Core Attributes: A table with three columns: "Attribute," "What This Means," and "What to Avoid." Populate it with my three adjectives.

3. Vocabulary & Phrasing: A bulleted list of "Use these words" and "Avoid these words" that align with our voice.

When you run this prompt, the AI will generate a structured guide that defines your voice, explains how to apply it, and provides clear guardrails for what to avoid. It instantly transforms your ideas into a professional document.

Step 3: Put Your New Guide into Action with Examples

A guide is only useful if it makes your life easier. The final step is to ask the AI to generate examples based on the guide it just created. This ensures the voice feels right and gives you tangible assets you can use today.

Try a follow-up prompt like this:

Excellent. Now, using the brand voice guide you just created, please write two examples:

1. A short, welcoming email to a new newsletter subscriber.

2. A social media post announcing a new blog article titled "[Your Article Title]."

What you’ll get back are examples written in your specific brand voice. You can tweak them, of course, but the foundation is there. You’ve gone from a scattered voice to a clear guide and ready-to-use content in just a few simple steps.

You're Still the Pilot

Think of this process like using a calculator. You wouldn't say the calculator "did the math" for you in a way that diminishes your role. You understood the problem, knew what formula to apply, and used the tool to get the answer quickly and accurately.

It's the same here. You did the essential strategic work of defining your brand's soul. The AI is simply your co-pilot, helping you articulate that soul with clarity and consistency. You haven't handed over control; you've just built yourself a better compass to guide you on your way.

- Alex