How to Create a “Sounds Like / Doesn’t Sound Like” Brand Voice List

 

A “sounds like / doesn’t sound like” list turns vague brand voice adjectives into practical writing boundaries. Instead of telling writers to be “friendly”, “confident”, or “expert”, it shows what those traits should look like in real copy and what they should not become.

A useful list starts with a clear understanding of the tone you want the brand to express. If you need the broader context first, this guide explains what tone of voice means in marketing and how it shapes communication:
https://seolabsdp.blogspot.com/2026/04/what-is-tone-of-voice-in-marketing-with.html

Why Brand Voice Adjectives Are Often Too Vague

Words such as “friendly”, “professional”, “bold”, “human”, and “expert” sound useful until someone has to write with them.

“Be friendly” does not tell a writer whether contractions are encouraged, whether humour is appropriate, how informal the vocabulary can become, or whether phrases such as “Hey there” fit the brand.

The same problem appears with “confident”. One writer may interpret confidence as short, precise statements. Another may add superlatives or exaggerated promises.

A voice adjective gives direction, but it rarely defines the boundary. A contrast pair does both.

How “Sounds Like / Doesn’t Sound Like” Pairs Work

Each pair should describe the desired quality on one side and the nearest unhelpful extreme on the other. The negative side should identify a realistic mistake a writer could make while trying to follow the positive trait.

For example, “confident” can drift into “loud”. “Friendly” can become “overly casual”. “Expert” can become “academic and complicated”.

Voice direction	Sounds like	Doesn’t sound like
Confident	Specific, assured and clear	Loud, exaggerated or overpromising
Friendly	Helpful and approachable	Overly casual or overfamiliar
Expert	Clear, informed and useful	Academic, dense or complicated
Direct	Concise and practical	Blunt or dismissive
Warm	Considerate and human	Sentimental or intrusive
Energetic	Active and positive	Hyperbolic or pushy

These distinctions affect word choice and sentence construction. A confident sentence makes one clear, concrete claim; a loud one piles on superlatives. A friendly sentence may use natural contractions, while an overly casual one may rely on credibility-weakening slang.

How to Build the List Step by Step

1. Choose One Genuine Voice Trait

Start with a trait that already matters to the brand. Do not choose words simply because they sound attractive. If customers value clarity and reliability, “clear” or “confident” may be more useful than “playful”.

2. Define What the Trait Looks Like in Writing

Turn the adjective into observable choices. For “expert”, that might mean explaining specialist ideas in plain language, using precise terminology when needed, and giving useful context instead of displaying knowledge for its own sake.

3. Identify the Nearest Undesirable Extreme

Ask what usually goes wrong when someone tries too hard to express that trait. Friendly may become casual. Confident may become boastful. Concise may become abrupt.

The closer the negative boundary is to the positive trait, the more useful the pair becomes.

4. Turn Both Sides Into Writing Decisions

Avoid pairs that are simply two sets of adjectives. Add practical implications.

• Sounds like confident: “The audit identifies the pages causing the largest performance losses.”
• Doesn’t sound like confident: “Our revolutionary audit will completely transform your website.”

One makes a specific claim; the other depends on inflated language.

5. Test the Pair on Real Copy

Take an existing sentence and ask whether the contrast helps you improve it.

Our innovative solution delivers unparalleled results for businesses of every size.

Now apply the rule confident and specific, not loud and exaggerated:

The tool gives small teams a clear way to document and apply their brand voice.

The second sentence removes “innovative” and “unparalleled”, narrows the audience, and replaces a broad promise with a concrete use. The voice becomes more credible because the rule changed an actual writing decision.

Once your contrast pairs work on individual sentences, test whether the same voice remains consistent across a larger body of content. This tone-of-voice checklist gives you a broader audit process:
https://seolabsdp.blogspot.com/2026/04/tone-of-voice-checklist-how-to-audit.html

Common Mistakes to Avoid

Do not make both sides too similar. “Professional / not unprofessional” provides no useful boundary.

Avoid unrealistic negative extremes too. If the “doesn’t sound like” side describes writing nobody on the team would ever produce, it will not prevent real mistakes.

Do not create too many traits. A list with fifteen or twenty qualities becomes difficult to remember and harder to apply. A smaller set of distinctive rules is usually more useful.

Finally, test every pair on real content. If it cannot help you decide how to rewrite a sentence, it is probably still too abstract.

FAQ

How Many “Sounds Like / Doesn’t Sound Like” Pairs Should a Brand Have?

There is no fixed number, but a short set is easier to use than a long catalogue. Start with traits that genuinely affect writing decisions.

Can One Brand Voice Trait Have More Than One “Doesn’t Sound Like” Boundary?

Yes. A trait can drift in several directions, especially across different channels. Keep the main list simple and prioritise the boundaries writers are most likely to cross.

Should the Examples Come From Existing Brand Content?

Whenever possible, yes. Real examples make the rules easier to recognise and apply, and show whether the proposed voice matches the brand at its best.

Make the Boundary as Clear as the Direction

Good voice guidelines do not only describe how a brand should sound. They make the boundaries clear enough for a writer to make decisions while drafting, reviewing, and rewriting real copy.

A strong “sounds like / doesn’t sound like” list works less like a set of adjectives and more like a practical editing tool.