Too many teams rush into creating brand guidelines… and end up with a pretty PDF no one opens. Or worse — nothing at all.
It’s not because the idea of brand guidelines is broken. It’s because most brands start in the wrong place.
They skip the questions, the kind that actually help you understand your brand, and jump straight into templates, tone words, and design elements. The result? Guidelines that collect digital dust, and content that still doesn’t really sound like your brand (like, at all).
At ClearVoice, we believe that brand and editorial guidelines should be built to be used. That’s exactly why we built the Brand & Editorial Guidelines Builder — a practical tool to help you define your brand voice, tone, and preferences to make content easier to create (and easier to get right).
Whether you’re starting from scratch or looking to refine your existing framework, our Builder gives you the clarity you need to scale content without losing your identity. With customizable templates, AI prompts, and practical advice, it’s designed to support marketers, content strategists, and teams of all sizes..
And it all starts by asking the right questions.
Why Most Guidelines Fall Flat
If you’ve ever tried rolling out brand guidelines and someone says, “Wait, we have those?” — yep, that’s the problem. You’re not alone.
Here’s why most guidelines miss the mark:
- They focus on adjectives, not actions.
“Bold, honest, and professional” might sound good on paper, but what does that even mean in a subject line? In a tweet? In a thought leadership article? These words need to be tied to examples and context to have an impact. - They skip internal discovery.
Great content aligns brand voice with what your audience actually needs. That alignment can’t happen without internal input from marketing, sales, product, and leadership. Without this foundation, you’re building in a vacuum. - They aren’t tied to real content workflows.
If the guidelines don’t help freelancers, writers, or editors execute better content, they’re just noise. Guidelines need to live in your workflow, not just a folder.
Which brings us to where all great guidelines begin: with the right questions.
Step 1: The Power of the Right Questions
Before you define (or redefine) your brand voice, you need to hear it. Like, really hear it. Not just what you want it to sound like, but what it already sounds like (and what it shouldn’t). AKA: you have to understand it.
Already have brand and editorial guidelines? Awesome, but that doesn’t mean you shouldn’t revisit or revamp them. We encourage you to consider these questions as a ‘start from scratch’ exercise.
Step 1 of the ClearVoice Brand & Editorial Guidelines Builder focuses on exactly that — a thoughtfully designed questionnaire that helps teams uncover:
- Your brand’s personality and tone in different situations
- How your brand shouldn’t sound (an underrated detail)
- Audience pain points and what they expect from your voice
- Strategic goals your content supports
- Key differences in tone across formats and funnel stages
Here are just a few of the questions and prompts we include:
- “What emotions do you want your content to evoke?”
- “How should we sound when we’re speaking to a skeptical audience?”
- “What type of language or phrases should we avoid?”
- “What is one thing your brand would never say?”
- “How do our competitors sound, and how do we want to sound different?”
- “How do we want to sound at the top of the funnel vs. bottom?”
- “Are there any internal terms or phrases that should be explained or avoided externally?”
These are just a handful. The full Builder goes deeper, but even these alone can spark some surprising realizations.
Pro Tip: Don’t answer these questions alone. Pull in folks from sales, product, and customer success — they often know your audience better than anyone. And they’ll spot tone issues you’d never think of. Collaboration is essential here.
Why this step matters:
Too often, marketers feel pressure to rush to execution: “We need content out next week.” But without investing time in foundational clarity, you’ll end up editing endlessly, rebriefing freelancers, and correcting tone inconsistencies that could have been solved upstream.
By investing in Step 1, you’re not just defining your brand voice — you’re empowering every team member to speak with it.
👉 You can grab the full questionnaire in the free Builder here.
Step 2: Turning Input Into a Brand Voice System
Once you’ve gathered your answers, now what? You need to turn them into something useful; something that doesn’t just exist, but you actually use.
That’s where Step 2 of the Builder comes in. You have two options — and both lead to a usable, scalable brand voice system.
Option 2a: Manual Creation
For brands that want full control, the manual template offers a step-by-step process to formalize your guidelines. You’ll input the questionnaire responses directly into a customizable doc or slide deck, covering everything from voice principles to editorial tone, target personas, content formats, and SEO preferences.
This approach is ideal if:
- You want stakeholder involvement throughout
- You plan to revisit and update guidelines quarterly
- You need to align multiple content contributors across teams or geos
Option 2b: AI-Assisted Creation
If you want to move faster or use your responses as a springboard, the Builder includes a pre-written prompt designed for tools like ChatGPT or Claude. Just paste your questionnaire answers into the prompt, and let the AI generate a draft of your brand and editorial guidelines. Then, review and refine.
This approach is great for:
- Solopreneurs or lean marketing teams
- Teams short on time who need a v1 fast
- Those using AI across their content workflow and want their brand voice to guide generative output
Example AI prompt from the Builder:
Act as a content marketing expert. Using the responses from the brand and editorial questionnaire below, generate a cohesive set of brand and editorial guidelines — including our voice, tone, audience, and content preferences. The output should be clear, usable, and feel like us.
Questionnaire: [Insert completed questionnaire]
Brand Guideline Template: [insert brand guideline template]
No matter which route you take, the output is the same:
→ A practical, usable guide that helps your team create more aligned, consistent, and compelling content.
Which Path Is Right for You?
Still not sure whether to go manual or AI-assisted? The right approach depends on your team structure, goals, and how far along you are in the process.
Here are a few common scenarios — and the recommended method for each:
- Solo marketer building from scratch → AI-assisted
- Mid-size team looking to get buy-in → Manual
- Brand with outdated guidelines needing refresh → Hybrid (AI draft + manual polish)
- Agency creating reusable frameworks → Manual (templated)
- Startup testing brand tone across channels → AI-assisted (then evolve)
Each path is designed to meet you where you are — and guide you toward brand clarity, faster.
And remember: these aren’t one-time efforts. Great brand guidelines evolve alongside your audience and strategy. Whether you’re just starting out or formalizing for the first time, these tools help you build something sustainable.
Don’t Just Define It. Use It.
Too many guidelines sit unused, not because they’re bad, but because they were built in isolation. They don’t reflect how teams actually create, or how brands actually speak.
That’s what the ClearVoice Builder is for.
To help you build something people want to use. It gives you:
- A structured questionnaire to uncover brand voice and tone
- Manual and AI-assisted options to build or enhance guidelines
- Real-world advice for embedding the final output into workflows
It’s not just a template. It’s a system.
And it’s just one example of how ClearVoice helps brands create content that connects. Whether you need to build foundational clarity, improve consistency across content types, or scale production with trusted freelance talent, we can help.
👉 Download the Builder now, and if you’re ready to take your brand to the next level, let’s talk.
We’ll help you clarify your voice, sharpen your content, and bring your brand to life across every touchpoint. Connect with a Content Specialist and see how you can upgrade your content marketing strategies.
