What’s inside the Brand Voice Guide.
10 pages with real content in place. Rewrite them, reorder them, or add your own.
- 1Page 1Cover: how Tidewell sounds, the voice in one line under a giant quotation mark, and the contents
- 2Page 2Our voice: four principles, each with what we are and aren't and a before-and-after rewrite
- 3Page 3Voice and tone: a five-step tone dial from reassuring to celebratory, two questions to set it, and the same message written at each step
- 4Page 4Tone by situation: buying, renewing, a new claim, a claim declined, a late payment and a storm warning, each with how the reader feels, the dial and a line to start from
- 5Page 5Do and don't: three full rewrites (a renewal letter, a declined claim and a missed payment) with notes on each change
- 6Page 6Grammar and mechanics: numbers, money, units, phone numbers, dates and times, capitals, contractions, how we refer to ourselves and our product names
- 7Page 7Punctuation and format: the serial comma, dashes, headings, lists, links and button labels, then quotes, full stops and exclamation marks
- 8Page 8Inclusive and accessible writing: a reading-grade scale with our target, people-first and gender-neutral words, alt text and accessible formats
- 9Page 9Write for the channel: push, text message, email subject, in-app error, social reply and help centre, each with its limit
- 10Page 10Say this, not that: the jargon word list, words we don't use, Canadian spelling and an eight-point checklist
When to use it.
Brand Voice Guide is a 10-page A4 voice and writing guide for marketing, product and support teams, shown for a Canadian home insurer. It teaches by rewriting: four voice principles, each with a before and after, a tone dial with one message at five settings, six customer moments, and three full rewrites with notes on every change. Then come grammar and mechanics, punctuation and format, inclusive and accessible writing, and rules for each channel from push notifications to the help centre. It closes with a jargon word list and an eight-point checklist to run before anything is published.
Made for
- Branding studios and agencies
- Freelance designers handing over a brand
- In-house brand and marketing teams
- Founders defining a new brand
Make it yours in four steps.
Open it in Reports and work through it, or let Docsiv AI do the first pass with your details.
- Step 1
Replace Tidewell's name, logo and the one-line voice on the cover with your own.
- Step 2
Rewrite the four principles and their before-and-after examples with real lines from your own emails and letters.
- Step 3
Set your tone dial and customer moments, and swap in the channels your team writes for.
- Step 4
Change the grammar rules, word list and spelling to your house style, then share the guide as a link or PDF.
Start from the Brand Voice Guide now.
Questions about this template.
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Is the Brand Voice Guide template free?
Yes. Create a free account and it opens in Docsiv's Reports app, ready to edit and share. The Free plan includes every Docsiv app and 500 AI credits a month.
Can I change the colours, fonts and text?
Yes, all of it. The template uses Host Grotesk and Literata with #0f2740, #c6eadc, #e9e6df, #f7f5f0, #f2b33d, and you can change any of them, rewrite every word and add or remove pages.
What can I export it as?
Reports in Docsiv offers: Report pages with charts, PDF and HTML exports. Once it's saved, you can also share it with a link.
Can Docsiv AI write the brand voice guide for me?
Yes. Tell Docsiv AI about the client or project and it can draft the content in this template's style, which you then review and edit. AI uses credits; the Free plan includes 500 a month.
Start your brand guidelines with Docsiv AI
Describe the client or the project and Docsiv AI writes a first draft of your brand voice guide for you to edit, share and send.