Why your brand voice is failing (and how to fix it without sounding like everyone else)

Let’s get brutally honest for a second.

A lot of brand voices out there sound like they were cobbled together during a three-hour brainstorming session fueled by lukewarm coffee and the crushing need to "just get something live.” The result? Something that vaguely resembles communication but mostly just feels like a brand’s soul got sucked into a Google Doc and never came back.

In a sea of sameness, your brand voice isn’t just your "tone." It’s your entire personality—digitally rendered and expected to perform. If that voice isn’t compelling, consistent, and actually yours, then congratulations: you’re blending right into the beige wallpaper of the internet.



But don’t worry, this isn’t a roast. (Okay, it’s a little bit of a roast.) This is your roadmap to building a voice that cuts through the noise, makes people care, and doesn’t make potential customers sigh in confusion or cringe into the void.

What is brand voice, really?

Let’s start with the basics. A brand voice is not just what you say—it’s how you say it. It's the distinct style, tone, vocabulary, rhythm, and grammar choices that define how your brand communicates with the world.

Imagine your brand went to a dinner party. Is it telling stories over wine with flair and sarcasm? Calmly explaining things like a wise professor with a podcast? Whispering apologies for existing? (If it’s that last one... we need to talk.)

Your voice should reflect your brand’s values, vibe, and target audience. And more importantly—it should feel human. Not “we hired a copywriter who lives in a spreadsheet” human. Actually human.

The top 3 reasons your brand voice is falling flat

Let’s get into it. If your voice isn’t doing what it’s supposed to do—aka make people notice, care, and convert—it’s probably because of one (or all) of the following sins:

1. You're trying to please everyone

And let’s be honest, that never works. Vanilla may be a popular ice cream flavor, but nobody remembers it. When you try to appeal to everyone, you appeal to no one. You become background noise. White noise. That thing people scroll past on their way to something more interesting (like, I don’t know, a video of a dog playing a keyboard).

A powerful voice means taking a stance. Having a tone. Being something. Because when you try to avoid offending or alienating anyone, you accidentally alienate everyone by being wildly forgettable.

2. You’re copying someone cooler than you

You know the ones: sassy DTC brands on Twitter, cheeky fintech apps, chaotic-neutral beverage companies who speak exclusively in memes. It’s tempting to think, “Wow, that works for them. We should do that too!”

No. No, you should not.

Stealing someone else’s voice is like showing up to a costume party dressed as their personality. It’s awkward, obvious, and kind of sad. Just because a brand’s irreverent tone works for them doesn’t mean it’ll work for you. Your audience might not want sarcasm. They might want clarity. Or comfort. Or authority. Or literally anything else.

Be yourself. Or better yet—be the version of your brand that’s most effective for your actual customers.

3. Your copy sounds like it was written by a computer

Here’s a dead giveaway that your brand voice is in trouble: your homepage reads like someone copied and pasted bullet points from a product spec sheet into a Word doc and said “Nailed it.”

There’s no warmth. No surprise. No charm. No you.

It’s all “streamlined solutions” and “cutting-edge tools” and “transformative experiences” that mean absolutely nothing when they show up in the same sentence. It’s giving: “corporate buzzword salad with a drizzle of beige.”

Let’s do better.

How to build a brand voice that doesn't make readers cringe

Here’s the good news: you don’t need to blow up your entire brand to build a voice that works. You just need to get clear, get consistent, and stop sounding like a marketing robot from 2013.

Step 1: Define your brand like it's a person

Think of your brand as a living, breathing entity that shows up to a party. What does it wear? What does it say? Who does it hang out with? Does it confidently make jokes or stand awkwardly in the corner, offering unsolicited facts about cloud storage?

Give it traits. Give it quirks. Give it a vibe.

Ask yourself:

  • What does my brand believe in?

  • How does my brand speak to people it wants to impress?

  • How does it respond to complaints?

  • Is it more fun uncle or chill mentor? Bold innovator or trusted librarian?

Humans connect to other humans. So build a voice that actually feels human.

Step 2: Pick three key voice traits

This is the part where you go from “meh” to memorable. Choose three core voice traits that describe how your brand should sound across all platforms. Examples:

  • Warm, witty, grounded

  • Bold, direct, no-nonsense

  • Smart, playful, a little weird

  • Calm, confident, insightful

Avoid generic nonsense like “professional” and “friendly”—those don’t mean anything without context. (Everyone thinks they’re friendly. Even robots who email you about your car’s extended warranty.)

Make sure your three traits actually inform the way you write. Your voice traits should influence word choice, sentence structure, pacing, and even emoji usage (or lack thereof—please don’t use them ironically if you’re a law firm).

Step 3: Stress-test the voice across different verticals

Brand voice isn’t just for taglines and Instagram captions. It needs to work across everything:

  • Landing pages

  • Sales decks

  • Emails

  • Error messages (yes, even the 404 page)

  • FAQs

  • Blog posts like this very one you’re reading (meta!)

Try this: take a single message—like “Your payment didn’t go through”—and write it in your brand voice. If you can’t tell the difference between yours and any other brand’s version of the same message, your voice isn’t distinct enough yet.

Bonus tip: read your writing out loud. If it makes you cringe or feel like a customer service bot from 2008, try again.

Let your voice grow with proper controls

Like most good things—wine, friendships, the confidence to say “no” in a meeting—your brand voice evolves over time. It gets sharper. Smarter. More in sync with your audience.

But that doesn’t mean it should shape-shift with every passing trend. Stick to your foundation. If your audience changes, or you expand into new markets, adjust thoughtfully—not reactively. Your voice should grow, not panic.

Final thoughts (aka a pep talk you didn't know you needed)

If you’ve made it this far, congrats. That’s already more effort than most brands put into their voice.

A strong brand voice can:

  • Build trust

  • Increase engagement

  • Make boring industries actually interesting (yes, even B2B software)

  • Turn casual browsers into loyal fans

But only if you actually use it. Consistently. Boldly. Like you mean it.

And if all else fails—and you’re staring at your “About” page like it’s written in ancient runes—maybe it’s time to call in help.

Someone with range. With words. With... Casey.