What Tone of Voice Work Actually Involves

It’s less about picking adjectives (“We’re bold! We’re friendly!”) and more about figuring out why people at this company sound the way they do — and why that either works or doesn’t.

Tone is culture, not copy

If you’re building a tone of voice from scratch — or refreshing an old one — the process usually starts with one big question: how do you want to come across, and why aren’t you sounding like that now?

The answers are rarely tidy. Some teams don’t agree. Others have a tone that’s fine in a deck, but falls apart when it hits customer service or the footer of a newsletter. And more often than not, what’s written down in a brand book has nothing to do with how people actually write day to day.

The job, then, isn’t just creative. It’s cultural. You’re unearthing inconsistencies, making space for voices that have been muted, and helping people feel confident speaking as the brand and as themselves.

What people think it involves:

• A few big workshops
• A list of keywords
• Maybe a new set of rules for email greetings

What it actually involves:

• Figuring out which parts of the voice are accidental and which are deliberate
• Mediating between stakeholders who all have different ideas of what “friendly” means
• Writing actual content in the new tone to prove it works
• Editing existing content that sort of matches… but not quite
• Helping teams use the voice without second-guessing themselves every time they write a sentence

The end result?

When it works, you don’t just get nicer copy. You get clearer thinking. You get brand decks that finally sound like the people behind them. You get customer emails that don’t make you wince. You get teams who trust each other — and the voice they’re using.

So no, tone of voice work isn’t just about adjectives. It’s about coherence, confidence, and showing up with intention.

And honestly? It’s one of the best parts of the job.