Write a reusable brand voice guide
After this, you'll be able to package your brand voice and pillars into one reusable guide, store it where Claude reads it every time, and keep every future output on-brand without re-explaining yourself.
Before you start
Complete Turn fuzzy values into brand pillars first; with your voice and pillars sharp, this lesson packages them into one guide Claude reads every time you write.
The idea
A voice you cannot hand to someone else is a voice that lives and dies in your head. The point of naming your voice was never the naming. It was getting it out of your head and into a document Claude (and a teammate, and future-you) can use on demand.
A brand voice guide is a short reference that captures how your brand sounds: your voice traits, your pillars, words you love, words you ban, and a few before-and-after rewrites. It is the single source everyone writes from. You can keep it as an Artifact (a document Claude builds in its own window that you can edit and reuse) or as plain notes.
The durable way to make Claude use it is not a settings menu. Claude's older custom "Styles" are moving into Skills, so do not rely on a Styles button. Instead, you put the guide where Claude always sees it: paste it into your creative Project's instructions (the standing brief from Module 0), and keep a few real examples alongside it.
Why examples carry the load is worth repeating. Telling Claude "sound warm and dry" helps a little. Showing it three captions you actually wrote, labeled "this is our voice," helps enormously. So your guide is not only rules; it is a small gallery of your best on-brand writing for Claude to imitate.
Here is the before and after: Without a guide, every new piece starts with you re-describing the voice and editing the AI tells back out by hand. With a guide in the Project, you ask for a caption and the first draft already lands close, because Claude is writing from your rules and your examples, not its average.
Keep it alive. A voice guide is not carved in stone. When a new phrase becomes "so us" or you catch a word you never want again, add it. The guide that drifts out of date quietly pulls your output back toward generic, so a five-minute update now and then keeps every future draft sharp.
Get the voice out of your head and into a guide Claude reads every time, because rules plus real examples stored in the Project are what keep you on-brand without effort.
Try it (10 min)
Watch out for
- Relying on a Styles menu to hold your voice. Custom Styles are moving into Skills, so put the guide in your Project instructions instead, where Claude always reads it.
- Writing rules with no examples. 'Sound warm' is weak on its own; three labeled samples of your real writing teach Claude far more.
- Making the guide a novel. One page that someone could follow on a busy day beats ten pages nobody opens.
- Writing it once and forgetting it. A guide that drifts out of date slowly drags your output back toward generic; update it when your voice shifts.
Paste this into Claude
Help me turn my brand voice and pillars into one reusable voice guide I can paste into a Claude Project. My voice traits: [FROM LESSON 1]. My pillars: [FROM LESSON 2]. 2 to 3 things I have written and like: [PASTE THEM]. Words or phrases I never want to use: [LIST ANY]. Please build me a short brand voice guide as a document with these sections: 1. Voice in one line. 2. Voice traits (with a one-line "what this means" each). 3. Words and phrases we love / words we ban. 4. Three before-and-after rewrites (a generic line, then the same line in my voice). 5. A note telling future-me to paste this into the Project instructions and keep the examples attached.
What a good response looks like
Here's your brand voice guide for a calm skincare brand: **Voice in one line:** Plain, warm, and quietly confident. Like a friend who actually reads ingredient lists. **Voice traits:** - Plain: short words, no science-y flexing. - Warm: talks to one tired person, not a market. - Honest: names what a product will NOT do. **We love:** "gentle," "for tired skin," "no fuss." **We ban:** "miracle," "transform," "glow-up," exclamation marks we do not mean. **Before and after:** - Generic: "Transform your skin with our revolutionary serum!" → Ours: "A quiet serum for tired skin. It will not fix your week, but it helps." **Note to future-me:** paste this whole guide into the skincare Project's instructions, and keep the three sample captions attached as files so Claude writes from real examples, not only rules.
What good looks like
- You have a single voice guide document covering voice, traits, do/ban words, and example rewrites
- Your guide includes 2 to 3 real samples of your writing labeled as your voice, not only rules
- You pasted the guide into your creative Project's instructions, not a Styles menu
- You can explain why stored examples make Claude's first drafts land closer than rules alone
When this breaks
- Breaks when the guide lives in a file Claude never sees. A voice guide only works when it sits in the Project Claude reads every chat, not in a folder on your desktop.
- Breaks when it is all adjectives and no samples. Claude imitates examples better than it follows descriptions, so a guide without real writing underperforms.
AI can help with this
Use Claude, ChatGPT, Gemini, Canva, Adobe Express, Firefly, Midjourney, Codex, or another approved creative tool based on the job. Give the assistant real brand context, examples, exclusions, and a review standard, then use human taste to choose what survives.
You can now
You can complete the lesson outcome against a real creative job, brand, asset, or campaign.
- You have a single voice guide document covering voice, traits, do/ban words, and example rewrites.
- You can verify that your guide includes 2 to 3 real samples of your writing labeled as your voice, not only rules.
- You pasted the guide into your creative Project's instructions, not a Styles menu.
- You can explain why stored examples make the creative assistant's first drafts land closer than rules alone.
Key takeaways
A brand voice guide gets your voice out of your head and into a reusable document. Store the rules plus real examples in your Project instructions, and every future draft starts on-brand.
- A voice guide captures your traits, pillars, do/ban words, and example rewrites in one reference.
- Build it as an Artifact (a document Claude makes in its own editable window) or as plain notes.
- Store it in your Project's instructions, not a Styles menu; custom Styles are migrating to Skills.
- Include real samples of your writing, because Claude imitates examples better than it follows adjectives.
- Update the guide when your voice shifts, or it quietly pulls your output back toward generic.
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