# How to create and reuse brand voices in WordPress

> Turn a brand voice into instructions an AI model can follow: who it is, what it believes, words to avoid, a real sample, and a short test before scaling.

Source: https://sourcedwriter.com/blog/create-reuse-brand-voices-wordpress/

Ask an AI model for "a friendly, professional tone" and you get the average of every friendly, professional page it has read. That's why AI drafts so often sound like no one in particular. A voice that survives AI drafting is written as **instructions**, not adjectives, and it lives where the writing happens, so every article starts from it. Here is how to build one and reuse it.

## 1. Decide whose voice it is

A voice belongs to someone: a brand, a publication, or a named writer. Keep one voice per real writer or publication, not one per article; the point is that readers recognise it across posts.

If a real person's name goes on the article, the voice should match how they actually write, and they should review the draft before it goes out. Decide too whether and how you disclose AI assistance, and do it the same way every time.

## 2. Write instructions, not adjectives

For every adjective in your style guide, ask what a writer would do differently because of it:

| Vague | Specific enough to follow |
| --- | --- |
| Friendly | Writes to the reader as "you"; uses contractions; no exclamation marks |
| Expert | Names real products, versions and prices; explains why, not just what |
| Honest | Gives a verdict, including when the answer is "it depends", and says on what |
| Concise | Short paragraphs; one idea per sentence; no summary at the end |
| On-brand | Never says *solution*, *seamless* or *game-changer*; says *customers*, not *users* |

Then cover the rest of what a writer would need to know:

- **Audience**: who reads it and what they already know.
- **Expertise**: the topics this voice speaks on with authority, and the ones it doesn't.
- **Point of view**: first person for experience, second person for instructions, or neither.
- **Opinions**: what the voice believes and recommends, so drafts take positions instead of listing options.
- **Structure**: how articles open and end, and what never appears (for example, a closing "In conclusion").
- **Words, claims and styles to avoid**: banned phrases, clichés, and claims that always need a source. This list usually changes the output more than everything else combined.

## 3. Add a real writing sample

A sample teaches what instructions can't: sentence length, rhythm, how often the writer jokes or hedges. Use two to four paragraphs of the voice's best real writing, ideally an article rather than marketing copy. Don't ask a model to imitate a named living author; describe the traits you admire instead.

## 4. Test it before you scale it

Before using a voice on a whole article, have it write a short opening on a typical topic, then check:

- Is the point of view right?
- Does any avoided word or phrase appear?
- Does it take a position, or just list possibilities?
- Read it next to the sample: could the same person have written both?

Change one thing at a time and test again. A voice that fails on 150 words will fail on 1,500.

## 5. Store it where the writing happens

A voice kept in a document nobody opens doesn't get used. Store it in the site itself, attached to the author who will sign the articles, so choosing the voice also sets the byline. Then each new article starts by selecting it, not by pasting style notes into a prompt.

## 6. Maintain it from your edits

The best source of new rules is your own editing. When editors keep making the same change, such as cutting the same phrase, softening the same kind of claim or moving the verdict up, turn it into a rule in the voice. Review each voice every few months, and note what changed so you can tell why drafts sound different.

## Common mistakes

- **Adjective lists.** "Warm, witty, authoritative" gives a model nothing to act on.
- **Contradictory rules.** "Concise" and "cover every edge case" can't both win; say which does.
- **One voice per article.** Voices that change every time aren't voices.
- **Imitating a person.** Describe traits; don't ask for someone's style by name.

## Where tooling helps

In [AI Blog Writer with Sources](https://sourcedwriter.com/), a voice is a **writer profile** stored in WordPress: audience, personality, tone, expertise, point of view, preferred vocabulary, structure, words and claims to avoid, and a writing sample. Each profile is linked to a WordPress author account, so drafts written with it are credited to that author, and you choose it in the brief for every new article. **Propose editable profile** drafts a profile from a description or a sample for you to edit, and **Preview this style** writes a short opening so you can run the test in step 4 before writing a whole article. Each profile belongs to the user who created it. See the [writer profiles guide](https://sourcedwriter.com/docs/writer-profiles/).