Brand voice guide prompt: free ChatGPT template
Updated · By Robert Breen
Use this to turn your own best writing into a short brand voice guide you can paste into prompts, a Custom GPT or an AI agent's instructions. Ask an AI to "describe our brand voice" from nothing and you get "friendly yet professional, innovative yet approachable," which fits every company on earth. This prompt studies real messages you've sent and liked, names what they share and turns it into rules with examples.
The prompt
Copy it into ChatGPT (or Claude, Gemini or Copilot) and replace every [BLANK] with your own details. It uses the four parts from Prompt Writing 101: Role, Context, Task and Format.
Role: You are a writing coach helping [BUSINESS] describe how we sound when we write at our best. Context: Our customers are [CUSTOMERS]. Below are examples of our own writing that we liked. What we never want to sound like: [AVOID]. Base every rule on patterns you can see in the examples; don't invent a personality, values or a history for us. Task: Write a one-page brand voice guide that a new employee, or an AI, could follow. Format: Sections: Our voice in three words (one sentence each on what it means for us), Do (5 bullets), Don't (5 bullets), Words we use, Words we avoid, and this generic sentence rewritten in our voice: [GENERIC SENTENCE]. For each Do and Don't, quote a few words from the examples that show it. Examples of our writing: [WRITING EXAMPLES]
Fill in the blanks
[BUSINESS]- Your business name and what you do.
[CUSTOMERS]- Who you write to most.
[AVOID]- The tones you dislike, such as corporate, pushy or full of puns.
[GENERIC SENTENCE]- A bland line you often see, so the guide ends with a before and after.
[WRITING EXAMPLES]- Three to six short pieces you were happy with: replies, posts, emails. Mix the types. Remove customer names and private details first.
Example, filled in
A made-up example from the free lesson Reply Faster: Turn a Messy Customer Email Thread into a Clear, Friendly Reply. Cedar Lane Bakery is the made-up bakery in the Reply Faster lesson. Its owner uses lines from the lesson's final reply to Dana, plus a chalkboard sign, as examples.
Role: You are a writing coach helping Cedar Lane Bakery, a small neighborhood bakery, describe how we sound when we write at our best. Context: Our customers are neighbors who order cakes for birthdays and stop in for bread. Below are examples of our own writing that we liked. What we never want to sound like: corporate, pushy or cutesy. Base every rule on patterns you can see in the examples; don't invent a personality, values or a history for us. Task: Write a one-page brand voice guide that a new employee, or an AI, could follow. Format: Sections: Our voice in three words (one sentence each on what it means for us), Do (5 bullets), Don't (5 bullets), Words we use, Words we avoid, and this generic sentence rewritten in our voice: "We apologize for any inconvenience this may have caused." For each Do and Don't, quote a few words from the examples that show it. Examples of our writing: 1. "I'm so sorry about the mix-up. The Sunday date was our mistake, and it's fixed." 2. "Our lemon recipe has no nuts, but our kitchen also bakes with nuts, so we can't guarantee the cake is nut-free. I wanted you to know so your sister-in-law can decide what's right for her." 3. Chalkboard sign: "Sourdough comes out of the oven at 7. When it's gone, it's gone until tomorrow."
What a good answer looks like
- Three voice words that are specific to you, each explained ("Honest: we say what we can't promise, like the nut allergy line").
- Do and Don't rules backed by quotes from your own examples.
- A rewrite of the generic sentence you'd actually send.
- Nothing about your mission, history or values that you didn't provide.
How to check it before you use it
An AI draft can sound right and still say something you never told it. Use the habit from the Reply Faster lesson: check every promise, name, date and number against what you gave it before anything goes out.
- Check every rule against the examples: if a rule has no quote behind it, or the quote isn't in your examples, delete the rule.
- Watch for invented backstory. "Family recipes since 1985" in the guide will end up in your marketing if you don't catch it now.
- Test the guide: paste it into a new chat with a real task, like a customer reply, and see whether the result sounds like you.
- Add new examples you liked every few months and run it again.
Why this prompt works
Examples beat adjectives. Showing the AI real writing is a form of few-shot prompting, and asking it to quote the evidence behind each rule keeps the guide tied to how you actually write. The finished guide is the kind of file the Custom GPT lesson uploads as knowledge, so every post starts in your brand voice.
Practice it in the free lesson
Build a Custom GPT Social Media Assistant: See why generic prompts give generic results, then build a Custom GPT loaded with your brand voice and watch the output transform. You do every step yourself in a practice copy of ChatGPT, and nothing touches your real accounts.
Also useful: Build a Custom GPT Ad Copy Writer for Search and Social Ads
Terms used here
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