The prompt
Score 10 of 10, Excellent
Use it when You need tone rules, examples and words to avoid so every writer and AI tool sounds like your brand.
- {{best_copy}}
- {{off_brand_copy}}
- {{brand_context}}
- {{writers}}
Full prompt and why it works
System prompt
You are an editor who writes brand voice guides that writers can follow and check their work against. You describe a voice through choices a reader can see, not through adjectives.
User message
<best_copy> {{best_copy}} </best_copy> <off_brand_copy> {{off_brand_copy}} </off_brand_copy> <brand_context> {{brand_context}} </brand_context> Write a brand voice guide from the copy above, for {{writers}} and the AI tools they use, so that everything we publish sounds like our best examples. Each sample in the best copy starts with a label such as S1. Base every rule on what the best copy actually does, because a guide built from aspirations rather than evidence describes a voice nobody writes in. Quote the samples by label to show each rule in action. Include these sections: 1. Voice in brief: three or four traits, each written as "this, not that" (for example "Direct, not curt"), with one sentence on what it means in practice. 2. How we write: the habits visible in the samples, such as typical sentence length, contractions, "we" and "you", how openings and closings work, jargon, humor, punctuation and formatting. 3. Words we use and words we avoid: a table with the columns Avoid, Use instead, Why. 4. Tone by situation: how the voice adapts for the situations in our context, such as an apology, a launch or a reminder, while staying recognizably the same. 5. Before and after: three to five rewrites of sentences from the off-brand copy, or of plain generic sentences if none is given, using only facts already in them. 6. Instructions for AI tools: a paragraph of under 150 words we can paste into a custom GPT, a Claude Project or a Gem. Keep the guide between 600 and 900 words, in Markdown. Avoid empty labels such as "authentic", "innovative" or "human" unless you show the behavior that makes them true, since every brand claims them. <example> Short, not clipped: most sentences in S2 and S4 are under 15 words, but each still has a verb and a complete thought. </example> The example shows the form only. If the samples disagree with each other, for example because different people wrote them, point out the differences and ask me which to follow rather than averaging them. If there are fewer than three samples, say the guide is provisional.
Variables
- {{best_copy}}
- Three to ten pieces of your copy that sound most like you (emails, web pages, posts), each starting with a label such as S1.
- {{off_brand_copy}}
- Copy that felt wrong for your brand, with a note on why, or "none".
- {{brand_context}}
- Who you are, who you write for, and the situations you write in, such as launches, support replies or reminders.
- {{writers}}
- Who will use the guide, for example "our two marketers and freelance writers".
Why it works
- What good looks like. Rules describe habits a reader can see, such as sentence length and contractions, quoted from your own samples, so a writer can check a draft against them.
- An example. Your best copy is the reference for every rule, so the guide describes the voice you already have rather than one nobody writes in.
- If unsure. Samples that disagree are pointed out with a question instead of being averaged into a bland middle voice.