Extract and codify brand voice from example content
advancedClaude SonnetMarketingBrandbrandvoicestyle-guidecopywriting
Use case
Use this prompt when you need to document your brand voice — for onboarding new writers, briefing agencies, or creating a style standard. The prompt analyzes real content samples to extract the voice patterns already present, rather than inventing a voice from scratch.
The prompt
You are a brand strategist and editorial director. Analyze the following content samples and extract a practical brand voice guide. Brand context: - Company name:{{company_name}}- Product/service:{{product}}- Target audience:{{target_audience}}- Brand positioning (how you want to be seen):{{positioning}}- Content samples (paste 3–5 examples of your best existing content):{{content_samples}}Analyze the samples and produce a brand voice guide with these sections: ## 1. Voice Summary (2–3 sentences) Describe the brand voice in plain English — the way you'd describe a person's personality. Not buzzwords. ## 2. Voice Dimensions (4 attributes) For each attribute: - Name it (one or two words) - Describe what it means in practice (2–3 sentences) - Give an example: what this sounds like ("we say this") vs. what it doesn't ("we don't say this") - Rate it on a spectrum (e.g., Formal ←——→ Casual: we are at 3/5) ## 3. Vocabulary: Words We Use / Words We Avoid Two lists: - Words and phrases that appear in the samples and feel on-brand - Words and phrases that would feel off-brand (and why) ## 4. Grammar and Formatting Patterns Specific rules observed in the samples: sentence length, use of contractions, Oxford comma, active vs. passive voice, em dashes, bullet formatting, etc. ## 5. The "Gut Check" Test Three questions a writer can ask themselves to check if a piece of content is on-brand. Make these specific, not generic ("Does it sound like us?" is too vague). ## 6. The Voice in Action: Before/After Examples Take 2 generic sentences and rewrite them in the brand voice. Show the contrast clearly.
Variables
{{{{company_name}}}}Replace with your {{company name}}{{{{product}}}}Replace with your {{product}}{{{{target_audience}}}}Replace with your {{target audience}}{{{{positioning}}}}Replace with your {{positioning}}{{{{content_samples}}}}Replace with your {{content samples}}
Example
Input
company_name: Anchor Analytics product: business intelligence platform for operations teams target_audience: operations directors and VPs at mid-market companies positioning: the BI tool for people who don't have data teams — powerful but doesn't require a data scientist content_samples: | Sample 1 (homepage hero): "Your data shouldn't need a translator. Anchor connects to your existing tools and surfaces the insights your ops team actually needs — without a SQL query in sight." Sample 2 (blog intro): "Most dashboards show you what happened. Anchor shows you what to do about it. There's a difference, and it matters more than most vendors will admit." Sample 3 (product email): "We noticed you haven't connected your CRM yet. That's where most of the good stuff lives — customer acquisition costs, pipeline velocity, retention signals. Five minutes to connect, permanent improvement to your weekly review." Sample 4 (social post): "The fastest path to bad decisions is a beautiful dashboard with the wrong metrics. Anchor helps you find the right ones. No data team required."
Output
## 1. Voice Summary Anchor speaks like a trusted operations expert who's done the hard work so you don't have to — confident, direct, and a little impatient with unnecessary complexity. The brand respects its audience's intelligence without overwhelming them with technical detail. It says hard things simply. ## 2. Voice Dimensions **Confident, not arrogant** Anchor makes direct claims without hedging. It doesn't say "may help improve" — it says "improves." But it earns that confidence by making the claim specific and relevant. It never punches at competitors by name. We say: "Most dashboards show you what happened. Anchor shows you what to do about it." We don't say: "Anchor is the industry-leading solution for modern data teams." Spectrum: Humble ←—●——→ Arrogant (2.5/5) **Plain over clever** Anchor avoids jargon, buzzwords, and metaphors that obscure meaning. When it makes a point, it makes it directly. Wit is welcome when it serves the idea, not when it replaces it. We say: "No data team required." We don't say: "Democratizing data-driven decision-making for the modern enterprise." Spectrum: Jargon-heavy ←——●——→ Plain language (4/5) [Remaining dimensions and sections follow same format] ## 3. Vocabulary We use: "actually," "matters," "without [painful thing]," "five minutes," "your team," "the right metrics," "surfaces," "connects" We avoid: "synergy," "robust," "leverage," "best-in-class," "holistic," "empower," "solutions," "seamlessly" ## 5. The Gut Check Test 1. "Would an ops director read this and think 'yes, they get it' — or would they roll their eyes?" 2. "Is there a word or phrase in here that we'd never say out loud in a meeting? If yes, cut it." 3. "Does this make a claim that someone could push back on? If it's impossible to disagree with, it's probably not saying anything."
Tips for best results
- 1Run this prompt with your 5 best-performing pieces of content, not your most polished brand materials. Best performers reflect what your audience actually responds to.
- 2After generating the guide, test it: give a writer the voice guide and a brief, then have a different person rate the output against the guide. The gap reveals where the guide needs more specificity.
- 3The 'we say / we don't say' pairs in section 2 are the most useful for day-to-day writers — make sure these are concrete examples, not abstract descriptions.
- 4Update this guide annually or after a major rebrand. Voice evolves; a guide that's 3 years old can become a constraint rather than a tool.
- 5Ask Claude to apply the voice guide to a draft you've already written and suggest specific line edits. This is where the guide proves its value.
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