How to Create Brand Voice Guidelines Your Team Will Actually Use: A Workshop Approach
Right, let's address the elephant in the room. You've probably got brand voice guidelines sitting somewhere in your shared drive, gathering digital dust like that gym membership you swore you'd use. Maybe it's beautifully designed, filled with aspirational words like "authentic" and "approachable," and absolutely nobody on your team actually follows it.
Sound familiar? You're not alone. 95% of companies have some form of brand guidelines, but only 25% have formal brand guidelines and actively enforce them. Even more telling? Less than 10% of brands maintain a high level of brand consistency across all products and marketing channels.
Here's the uncomfortable truth: most brand voice guidelines fail spectacularly at the one thing they're supposed to do – guide how your team actually communicates. But what if I told you there's a way to create brand voice guidelines that your team will not only read but genuinely want to use?
Where brand voice guidelines go wrong
Let's confront the scale of this problem. The statistics are eye-opening:
71% of businesses agree that inconsistent brand presentation leads to customer confusion. Yet despite knowing this, most companies continue creating guidelines in isolation, wondering why nothing changes.
Research shows that 75% of employees find teamwork and collaboration vital, and 63% would resign if poor communication hindered them from working effectively. When brand guidelines are created without team input, they're essentially communication barriers disguised as helpful documents.
Companies that maintain consistency in branding will likely experience a revenue increase of up to 23%. Connected teams exhibit about a 21% increase in profitability. The financial case for collaborative brand voice development is undeniable.
Traditional brand voice development goes something like this: marketing team disappears into a room, emerges with a document declaring the brand "friendly yet professional," distributes it via email, and wonders why nothing changes.
The problem isn't the guidelines themselves. It's that nobody feels ownership over them.
Why workshop-driven brand voice development changes everything
The workshop approach flips the script completely. Instead of creating guidelines for your team, you create them with your team. The psychological difference? Night and day.
➡️ Ownership psychology in action: When people contribute to creating something, they feel psychological ownership over it. Thematic analysis indicated that workshops were instrumental in providing structure and opportunity for participants to learn skills, expand perspectives, and change behaviour to improve team outcomes.
With more than 50% of adults using voice search daily and voice search used by approximately 58% of consumers to find local businesses, your brand voice needs to work in conversational contexts. Workshop participants naturally speak how customers search.
75% of consumers prefer an authentic human voice over a perfectly crafted brand message. Your customer-facing team members know exactly what this sounds like – they hear it every day.
The neuroscience of brand voice consistency
Here's what most people don't realise: brand voice isn't just about words. It's about creating neural pathways that make consistency automatic.
According to Albert Mehrabian's research, only 7% of communication is conveyed through literal content, while voice-related elements contribute to 38% of communication. This means your team's understanding of how to "sound" like your brand matters more than the specific words they choose.
82% of customers buy from a brand when they have a high emotional connection, compared to only 38% of those with a low emotional connection. Workshop-created guidelines tap into this by reflecting the emotions your team naturally expresses about your brand.
81% of consumers need to trust a brand to consider buying from it, and 93% of people say the first purchase usually decides if they will continue their relationship with a brand. Authentic brand voice guidelines – created by the people who interact with customers – build this trust.
Overcoming the collaboration paradox
The challenge: Employees cite lack of collaboration for workplace failures, yet many teams struggle to implement collaborative outcomes.
The solution: Create micro-implementation teams. Instead of asking everyone to implement everything, assign specific voice applications to specific people:
Social media voice steward: Ensures consistency across platforms
Customer communication voice champion: Reviews customer-facing emails
Content voice auditor: Checks blog posts and marketing materials
Internal voice advocate: Helps new team members understand voice guidelines
The neuroscience of consistency
Mirror neuron activation: Mirror neurons activate when we see familiar speech patterns. When your team consistently applies workshop-developed voice guidelines, customers' brains literally recognise familiarity, increasing trust and engagement.
Cognitive load reduction: Consistent brand voice reduces decision fatigue for your team. Instead of wondering "How should we say this?" every time, voice guidelines become automatic patterns.
How to set up your brand voice workshop for maximum impact
Strategic participant selection
Your workshop participants should represent every customer touchpoint where your brand voice appears:
Content creators: Copywriters, social media managers, blog writers
Customer-facing teams: Customer service, sales, support staff
Leadership representatives: Decision-makers, but not exclusively leadership
Product delivery teams: Anyone who writes customer communications
Cross-functional collaborators: HR, operations, anyone who communicates externally
Include at least two people who spend 80% of their time talking directly to customers. These are your voice reality-checkers.
Keep it between 6-10 people maximum. Research shows that smaller groups encourage more participation and lead to better collaborative outcomes.
Send participants a simple homework assignment: "Bring three examples of customer communications that felt 'right' and three that felt 'wrong' for our brand." This primes them for productive discussion.
The 120-minute brand voice intensive: A proven framework
Opening: Customer voice audit (20 minutes)
Start by getting everyone into a customer-centred mindset. This isn't about what you want to sound like – it's about what actually resonates.
The voice of customer exercise: Give each participant sticky notes and ask them to write down:
Exact phrases customers use when describing their problems
Emotions customers express before working with you
Language customers use to recommend you to others
Words that make customers feel understood vs confused
Data integration: If you have customer satisfaction data, share it. In 2024, 73% of customers feel that brands treat them as unique individuals, an increase of 39% from 2023. Ask: "What specific language makes customers feel uniquely understood?"
Voice search consideration: With more than 1 billion voice searches taking place every month, ask participants: "How do customers actually ask for our services out loud?"
Discovery: The personality mapping exercise (25 minutes)
Now for the strategic bit. You're going to collectively map your brand's personality using a research-backed spectrum approach.
Set up scales for key brand voice dimensions:
Formal ↔ Casual
Serious ↔ Playful
Traditional ↔ Innovative
Expert ↔ Relatable
Direct ↔ Conversational
Enterprise ↔ Human-scale
The collaborative process: For each scale, have participants place a mark where they think your brand should sit. Don't aim for the middle – brands that consistently tell their story see a 20% increase in brand value, and middle-ground brands don't tell compelling stories.
Discussion facilitator questions:
Where do we naturally gravitate as humans?
What feels authentic to how we actually work?
Where would our happiest customers place us?
What position gives us competitive differentiation?
Digital context consideration: Digital branding efforts account for 60% of all global marketing budgets in 2024. Ask: "How does our voice need to adapt for digital-first interactions?"
Exploration: The tone variation mapping (25 minutes)
Your brand voice isn't a monotone robot. It adapts to situations whilst maintaining core characteristics. This exercise prevents the dreaded "one-size-fits-all" voice that works nowhere.
Scenario-based voice adaptation exercise: Present these different communication scenarios:
Welcome email to new customers
Apology for service issues
Social media response to praise
Technical documentation or help content
Sales outreach to cold prospects
Crisis communication
Internal team communications
Celebration of company milestones
Group task methodology: For each scenario, discuss how your core voice adapts. Create a simple matrix:
87% of customer service teams stated that customer expectations were higher than ever in 2024. Map how voice adjustments meet these elevated expectations.
Creation: Building your actionable voice pillars (35 minutes)
Time to distil everything into guidelines that actually guide. Move beyond generic adjectives to specific, implementable characteristics.
The three-pillar strategic framework:
Core personality trait: The one thing that never changes across any communication
Adaptive characteristic: How you flex authentically for different situations
Unique differentiator: What makes you sound different from every competitor
Collaborative writing session: Work together to write one-sentence descriptions for each pillar that include:
What this sounds like in practice
Specific language patterns this creates
How customers experience this trait
What this trait helps you avoid saying
Voice implementation toolkit creation:
Approved vocabulary: 20-30 words/phrases that are distinctly "you"
Forbidden language: Terms that actively work against your voice
Sentence structure preferences: How you prefer to construct thoughts
Punctuation personality: How you use dashes, ellipses, questions
Emotional range: What feelings you express and how
SEO and search integration: Voice recognition has become integral to service delivery as connected devices expand globally. Make sure your vocabulary aligns with how customers actually search for your services.
Implementation planning: Making it stick (15 minutes)
Guidelines without implementation plans are expensive wishful thinking. 70% of projects globally fail, often due to inadequate planning.
Rapid-fire implementation planning:
Voice champion identification: Who will be the day-to-day guardian of these guidelines?
Onboarding integration: How will new team members learn the voice?
Review cadence: Quarterly voice check-ins to catch drift
Measurement methodology: How will you track consistency?
Feedback loops: How will customer response inform voice evolution?
7 bonus workshop exercises that generate breakthrough insights
Exercise 1: Customer conversation roleplay audit
Setup complexity: One person plays a frustrated customer, another represents your brand voice, others observe and document authentic language patterns.
Scenario progression:
Pre-purchase confusion: Customer doesn't understand your service
Purchase friction: Customer hits a roadblock during buying
Post-purchase disappointment: Something didn't meet expectations
Renewal consideration: Customer evaluating whether to continue
Debrief methodology: How did authentic brand voice naturally emerge? What language patterns felt forced vs natural? 68% of customers will spend more money with a brand that understands them and treats them like individuals – what specific language made the "customer" feel understood?
Exercise 2: competitive voice differentiation analysis
Research preparation: Before the workshop, have participants collect competitor communications examples.
Differentiation exercise: Create a voice positioning map where you plot competitors across key dimensions:
Human ↔ Corporate
Innovative ↔ Traditional
Accessible ↔ Expert
Direct ↔ Consultative
Strategic positioning: Identify the "white space" where your authentic voice can own a unique position. 50% of consumers are more likely to buy from brands they recognise – uniqueness drives recognition.
Exercise 3: Crisis communication stress test
Scenario setup: Present a realistic crisis your brand might face. Give teams 10 minutes to write crisis communications using their workshop-developed voice.
Learning objective: Crisis reveals true brand character. Does your voice guidelines hold up under pressure? Can team members apply them consistently when stakes are high?
Real-world application: 90% of consumers expect an immediate response to customer service issues. Your voice guidelines must work in high-pressure, fast-response situations.
Exercise 4: Voice evolution timeline mapping
Historical analysis: Map how your industry's communication has evolved over the past decade. What voice characteristics are becoming outdated? What emerging trends align with your authentic brand personality?
Future-proofing consideration: By 2024, voice search branding represents a $40 billion opportunity for brands worldwide. How does your voice work in voice search contexts?
Exercise 5: The cascading workshop methodology
For large organizations: Run department-specific workshops first, then cross-functional alignment sessions.
Process flow:
Department voice discovery: Each department explores how core brand voice manifests in their specific context
Cross-functional voice harmonization: Representatives align on shared voice characteristics
Implementation pilot programs: Test voice consistency across departments before full rollout
Success metrics: Only 18% of companies clearly communicate ROI to their organizations. Document voice consistency improvements in measurable business terms.
Exercise 6: The customer co-creation approach
For customer-obsessed brands: Include select customers in voice development workshops.
Methodology: Invite 2-3 key customers as voice validation participants. Their role: reality-check whether proposed voice characteristics match their experience of your brand.
Customer insight integration: 75% of CEOs acknowledge the importance of customer feedback analysis in business growth. Use customer perspectives to validate workshop outcomes.
Exercise 7: The remote-first workshop adaptation
Digital workshop tools: Use collaborative platforms like Miro or Figma for voice mapping exercises.
Engagement maintenance: Break 120-minute workshop into two 60-minute sessions to maintain remote engagement.
Documentation accessibility: Create shared digital voice guidelines that remote team members can access and reference easily.
7 best tools for brand voice guideline workshops
Running an effective brand voice workshop requires the right digital toolkit. Here are the essential tools that will transform your workshop from chaotic brainstorming into structured, actionable brand voice development.
1. Miro: The workshop powerhouse for collaborative mapping
Why it's perfect for brand voice workshops: Miro is a cloud-based collaboration tool featuring a digital whiteboard that can be used for research, ideation, building customer journeys and user story maps. With over 60 million users and 200,000+ organizations using it, Miro has proven itself as the gold standard for workshop facilitation.
Brand voice workshop applications:
Voice mapping exercises: Use Miro's infinite canvas to map brand personality across different scenarios
Customer journey voice analysis: Visualise how voice adapts at different customer touchpoints
Collaborative voice pillar creation: Multiple team members can simultaneously contribute to voice characteristic development
Template advantage: Access 2,500+ templates including persona mapping, empathy maps, and workshop frameworks
Standout features for voice workshops:
Real-time collaboration with live cursors showing who's working where
Voting and commenting features for democratic voice characteristic selection
Integration with 160+ apps including Slack, Teams, and Google Workspace
Timer and facilitation tools to keep workshop sessions on track
Presentation mode for sharing workshop outcomes
💵 Pricing: Free plan allows 3 editable boards; paid plans start at $8/user/month for unlimited boards.
2. FigJam: Streamlined voice workshops for design-focused teams
FigJam is a whiteboard tool integrated with Figma, designed for team brainstorming and collaboration. Built specifically for creative collaboration, it's perfect for teams already using Figma for design work.
Brand voice workshop strengths:
Seamless design integration: Move directly from voice workshops to visual brand applications
Real-time collaboration: Multiple participants can contribute simultaneously with live cursors
Interactive engagement tools: Voting, reactions, and commenting keep workshop energy high
Template library: Pre-built workshop templates for persona development and brand mapping
Unique advantages:
Significantly more cost-effective than competitors (roughly a third of Miro's cost)
Drag-and-drop simplicity reduces technical friction during workshops
Voice call integration eliminates need for separate communication tools
Mobile accessibility for hybrid workshop participants
💵 Pricing: $5/user/month with unlimited free day passes for external participants.
3. Conceptboard: Secure collaboration for enterprise voice development
Why it's ideal for brand voice workshops: Conceptboard is built for teams needing a secure, structured way to collaborate, especially remote teams. GDPR-compliant with robust security features, it's perfect for enterprises handling sensitive brand information.
Enterprise brand voice workshop features:
Security compliance: GDPR-compliant with role-based access controls
Moderation tools: Workshop facilitators can control who contributes when
File integration: Import existing brand documents directly into workshop boards
Video collaboration: Integrated video calls keep workshop discussions flowing
Workshop-specific advantages:
Structured collaboration prevents workshop chaos
Version control tracks voice guideline evolution
Export options for creating polished final guidelines
Multi-language support for global brand voice development
💵 Plans start at $6/user/month with enterprise features available.
4. Lucidspark: Ideas to action for implementation-focused workshops
Why it transforms brand voice workshops: Lucidspark helps teams brainstorm together, share ideas, swap feedback and create workflows and project documentation. Its strength lies in moving from ideation to structured implementation plans.
Brand voice workshop applications:
Idea to implementation tracking: Transform workshop insights into actionable voice guidelines
Breakout collaboration: Split large workshop groups into focused working sessions
Dynamic organisation: Use Lucid Cards and Dynamic Tables to structure voice characteristics
Voting and prioritisation: Democratic selection of core voice traits
Implementation advantages:
Call Others to Me feature: Instantly gather workshop participants to review decisions
Timer integration: Keep workshop exercises on schedule
Task assignment: Convert voice decisions into team implementation tasks
Integration ecosystem: Connect with project management tools for post-workshop execution
💵 Pricing: Free plan available; paid plans start at $7.95/user/month.
5. Stormboard: Template-driven voice workshop structure
Why it excels for brand voice development: Stormboard's digital workspace enables teams to prioritise, organise and refine ideas. Its strength lies in providing structured frameworks that prevent voice workshops from becoming chaotic brainstorming sessions.
Structured workshop advantages:
Template library: Pre-built frameworks for brand voice development
Digital sticky notes: Organised idea capture and categorisation
Prioritisation tools: Democratic ranking of voice characteristics
Report generation: Automatic documentation of workshop outcomes
Integration benefits:
Connects with Jira, Trello, and Zapier for post-workshop implementation
Export options for creating formal voice guideline documents
Meeting integration for seamless workshop recording
💵 Pricing: Plans start at $5/user/month.
6. Microsoft Whiteboard: Enterprise integration for Office 365 teams
Why it's valuable for brand voice workshops: For teams already embedded in the Microsoft ecosystem, Microsoft Whiteboard provides seamless integration with Teams, SharePoint, and Office 365.
Enterprise workshop benefits:
Teams integration: Launch voice workshops directly from video calls
SharePoint connectivity: Store and share workshop outcomes in company repositories
Security compliance: Enterprise-grade security for sensitive brand discussions
Template access: Microsoft's growing library of collaboration templates
Brand voice workshop features:
Multi-device accessibility for hybrid workshop participants
Real-time collaboration with Office 365 authentication
OneNote integration for detailed workshop documentation
PowerPoint export for executive voice guideline presentations
💵 Pricing: Included with Office 365 subscriptions.
7. ClickUp Whiteboards: Project management meets voice workshop facilitation
Why it's unique for brand voice development: ClickUp's whiteboard isn't just for brainstorming — it connects directly to project management, making it perfect for teams who need to move from voice workshops to implementation tracking.
Workshop-to-implementation advantages:
Task creation: Convert voice workshop decisions directly into assignable tasks
Timeline integration: Build voice implementation schedules within the same platform
Documentation hub: Store voice guidelines alongside project management
Team communication: Built-in chat and commenting for ongoing voice discussions
Brand voice workshop applications:
Mind mapping for voice characteristic development
Gantt chart creation for voice implementation timelines
Template customisation for repeatable voice workshop processes
Dashboard creation for tracking voice consistency metrics
💵 Pricing: Free plan includes up to 3 whiteboards; paid plans start at $7/user/month.
The bottom line: Why workshop approaches deliver lasting results
Creating brand voice guidelines through collaborative workshops is demonstrably more effective.
Your workshop-created guidelines will be:
More realistic because they're based on how your team naturally communicates with customers
More adoptable because the people using them helped create them
More effective because they reflect actual customer interactions rather than theoretical positioning
More sustainable because everyone understands the reasoning and research behind them
More differentiated because they emerge from your unique team dynamics and customer relationships
Ready to ditch those dusty, ignored brand voice guidelines for something your team will actually use? It's time to get everyone in the room and start the conversation that transforms how your brand speaks to the world.
Book a call with me to get help with creating powerful brand guidelines
