Different Tones of Voice: Why Brands Can Use More of Them

Any time you create content, your tone tells the reader how to feel about what they’re reading. Your brand tone communicates a distinct personality and style, unique to your business. But what makes up tone? And how do you differentiate between the different tones of voice, and your distinct brand voice?

If we turn to literature, Walter Cummins, former editor of The Literary Review, describes tone of voice as a combination of elements such as:

“Sentence rhythms and patterns, word choices, enunciations, syntax, and pauses…the details that a writer chooses to note imply a distinct worldview. There’s also an attitude toward people and places, situations, and events that emerges.” 

What are tones of voice in brand content

Your tone of voice reflects how you want your audience to feel when interacting with your content. It sets the emotional tone for communication, shaping the mood and feelings your audience associates with your message. A well-defined tone is an integral part of your brand content strategy, helping to create content that resonates with specific audiences and contexts.

When establishing a tone of voice for a particular content type or piece, start by asking yourself: How do we want our target audience to feel when they consume this content? For instance, the tone might aim to make them feel reassured, inspired, motivated, or optimistic. This emotional connection differs from how you want your brand to be perceived overall, which is conveyed through your brand voice. While your tone adapts to specific scenarios, your voice reflects your brand’s consistent personality.

Good writing doesn’t explicitly tell your audience what to feel; instead, it evokes emotions through storytelling, thoughtful word choices, and a rhythmic flow. Your tone may vary based on the content type, but maintaining consistency in tone of voice ensures a cohesive customer experience across all platforms and channels.

Defining tone vs. voice in brand communication

Tone	Voice
Your brand’s feelings and attitudes about certain topics and subjects. Felt by your audience as a mood.	Your brand’s personality as expressed in writing. Felt by your audience as a consistent presence across all content types and channels.

Understanding the distinction between tone and voice is crucial for creating effective content. While your voice remains constant as the foundation of your brand’s identity, your tone can adapt to suit different audiences, content types, or situations. This flexibility, combined with tone of voice consistency, allows brands to communicate authentically while maintaining a unified presence in their brand content strategy.

Examples of tones of voice for different content types

There are far too many brands out there aiming for a “human” tone of voice in their content – but in comparison to what, robot…alien? In our opinion, if you know you want a human-sounding tone of voice, you’ll probably still need to decide the specific characteristics of human expression you want to develop in your content. After all, no one mentally labels the vocal tone of a disgruntled bus driver or a fastidious relative by thinking “gee, how human of them!” The most human sounding content is unnoticeable, in that it engages the receiver in their interpretation of how that person sounds without much effort involved. Communication is full of nuances, and good writing tries to capture them.

As you build out your content strategy for different types of content, you’ll want to not only discover your brand voice, but the different types of tones of voice for different types of content. Technical content isn’t the place to be facetious, but a combination of pragmatic and occasionally witty (there’s some pretty fun release notes out there) might make solving technical problems a little more enjoyable. Legal information needs to be clear, sincere, and matter-of-fact. Healthcare content tends to be empathetic, reassuring, and approachable. 

If you’re looking for inspiration, here’s a short list of some different types of tone to get you started. 

Type of Tone	Description
Animated	Lively and energetic
Joyful	Expressing delight
Informative	Passes on knowledge to reader
Satirical	Irony or sarcasm designed to be funny
Witty	Funny, clever, somewhat intellectual
Contemplative	Deep in thought, ruminating on ideas.
Pragmatic	Practical, logical
Solemn	Sincere, borderline serious
Facetious	Inserting humor at inappropriate times
Haughty	Arrogant and aloof
Affable	Friendly, easy to approach
Compassionate	Empathetic, willingness to help
Optimistic	Conveys positivity about the future
Reverent	A sense of awe or respect
Whimsical	Playful and out of the ordinary
Authoritative	Assured or self-confident
Informal	Conversational and expressive, much like spoken communication
Discursive	Rambling, takes tangents in conversation
Light-hearted	Bright and cheerful

Why brands should use multiple tones of voice

Brands can afford to speak in more creative tones of voice for their different content types and channels because it gives your content a competitive edge over those who aim only for “friendly, professional, and human.”  Research shows that consumer’s emotional responses to products and brands are powerful, predictable drivers of buying decisions.

Using multiple tones of voice enables brands to connect with diverse audience segments and adapt to various content types. A single tone may not resonate in all contexts, but a flexible approach allows you to tailor your tone to fit specific needs, whether for formal reports, engaging social media posts, or empathetic customer support.

The better you nail a unique tone of voice, consistently for that audience, content, or channel, the better you elicit an emotion from your audience that might lead to better conversions, customer satisfaction, and loyalty. That’s worth getting creative for!

Building flexibility without losing consistency

Consistency across your communications builds trust and reliability. A branding style guide plays a pivotal role here by defining the boundaries for tone adaptation. This ensures your team can confidently adjust the tone for different scenarios while preserving the essence of your brand’s personality.

With a balance of flexibility and consistency, you can craft content that meets your audience’s emotional and informational needs while maintaining the professional standards of effective business writing. This approach not only strengthens your brand’s voice but also elevates the overall customer experience.

Tips for aligning tones of voice across teams

Documenting the different types of tone of voice and where they are appropriate in your enterprise content is essential. That’s to make sure that each individual content contributor isn’t inserting their own tone of voice into every piece of content they create, which creates a jarring customer experience. Once you’ve distilled the different types of tone of voice into the different content types and channels you should:

• Create a detailed tone of voice section in your content guidelines. 
• Give content creators examples of what a certain tone of voice looks like in writing. That might be telling them to avoid too many exclamation marks, or refrain from making certain pop culture references that a global audience might not understand. 
• Make sure that all your different tones of voice are inclusive. Being unique doesn’t have to come at the expense of respectful use of language. 
• A/B test different types of tone for different audiences and content types. Don’t leave it up to chance!
• Use technology to help align your writers to your style guide, and choose the right tone of voice while they’re creating content. It’s a frustrating experience to spend a lot of time writing a piece of content only to have to go and edit it extensively because the tone of voice was off. 
• Make sure you’re controlling for consistent terminology use. Your choice of words is a big part of your tone of voice, so adjust your terminology to suit your audience, and keep it consistent throughout. 

Using Acrolinx to perfect your tone of voice strategy

At Acrolinx, we know that effective content is clear, correct, consistent, scannable, inclusive, and in the right tone of voice — no matter who’s writing it. Which is why our software helps you conveniently deploy and manage your content guidelines across your enterprise. You tell Acrolinx what type of writer guidance you want for a particular type of content or audience — and Acrolinx automatically aligns your content to that particular style, tone, voice, and terminology. It’s never been easier to hone a particular tone of voice for different audiences and content types, address new markets, edit existing content goals, and A/B test your content strategy at scale.