Writing an audience and brand voice that gets the best from Wheremore

Your project’s Primary Audience and Brand Voice Notes help Wheremore choose relevant angles, pitch explanations at the right level and express a recognisable point of view. They inform topic and subtopic suggestions, article theses, outlines and drafts, and repurposing into LinkedIn posts, X posts and YouTube ideas and scripts.

Use these settings before starting content generation, or revise them when the output consistently misses your readers’ needs or your brand’s approach.

Open your project settings

Open Manage Projects and find the relevant project.
Select Edit Project.
Complete the audience and brand voice fields using the guidance below.
Select Update Project.

The project displays the saved guidance under Primary Audience and Brand Voice Notes. Use separate settings for projects serving different brands or readers.

Updating these fields does not rewrite saved content. An article already in progress can retain the audience and voice associated with its approved thesis. To test changed settings, start a fresh generation with a newly approved direction. For social and YouTube repurposing, start a new run rather than judging an existing saved result.

Give each input a clear job

Input	What to put there
Primary Audience	Who the reader or viewer is, what they already understand, their situation and what they need from the content.
Brand Voice Notes	How the brand expresses itself, what it prioritises and how it approaches recommendations, interpretation and trade-offs.
Article thesis or selected content angle	The particular argument or question this piece will develop.
Source material	The facts, examples, methods and attributed experience available to support the content.

Keep recurring brand guidance in the project settings. Approve each article’s particular argument through its thesis. A voice field should not make every piece reach the same conclusion.

1. Describe the audience’s situation

A role or demographic alone leaves important questions unanswered. “Small business owners” could describe a beginner looking for instructions or an experienced operator choosing between expensive alternatives.

Include:

Who they are: their role, experience or relevant circumstances.
What they know: what can be assumed and what needs explaining.
Why they arrive: the decision, problem or question bringing them to the content.
What constrains them: time, money, access, confidence or other relevant limits.
What a useful answer gives them: an action, comparison, explanation or informed judgement.

Describe their needs without prescribing tone. “Needs a quick explanation before buying” belongs in audience guidance. “Use warm, concise language” belongs in brand voice.

Audience template

Replace the bracketed text and remove anything that does not apply.

We write for [specific reader or viewer] who [relevant situation].

They already understand [knowledge to assume]. Explain [unfamiliar concepts] when needed.

They usually come to us when [decision, question or problem]. They need [useful outcome], while working within [relevant constraints].

Prioritise [the information that matters most to them]. Avoid spending space on [irrelevant basics or a different audience’s needs].

2. Describe expression and editorial judgement

Brand voice includes the sound of the writing and the approach behind it. “Friendly and knowledgeable” gives limited direction. Explain how that should affect the content.

Instead of only saying…	Explain the behaviour you want
Authoritative	Give a clear recommendation when its reasons are supported; explain the trade-off and where the recommendation stops applying.
Approachable	Explain unfamiliar terms with an everyday example, without speaking down to the reader.
Practical	Connect the explanation to a choice or action the audience can realistically make.
Independent	Evaluate choices against the reader’s priorities; distinguish a seller’s claims from established facts.

Include four kinds of guidance:

Expression: tone, sentence rhythm, vocabulary, humour and language preferences.
Priorities: what the brand pays attention to when assessing a subject.
Judgement: whether it recommends, compares, questions assumptions or explains neutrally—and how it handles trade-offs.
Boundaries: claims, habits or implications it must avoid.

If the brand takes a neutral educational approach, say so. You do not need to invent strong opinions to get distinctive content.

Start with representative writing

Read three to five pieces that reflect the voice you want. Look for patterns in their openings, explanations, recommendations, examples and treatment of uncertainty. Notice what they leave out as well as what they include.

Turn those observations into instructions. Summarise the patterns in the voice field rather than pasting several complete articles into it. If you have no existing content, write a few sample sentences showing your preferred approach.

Keep the guidance focused and resolve contradictions. “Never use jargon” conflicts with “write for specialists using precise technical terms.” A better instruction might be: “Use the terms this audience knows; explain unfamiliar ones when they affect the decision.”

Brand voice template

Expression: [tone, rhythm and vocabulary]. Use [language or spelling preference]. Humour should be [appropriate approach, or none].

Editorial priorities: We assess this subject through [the reader-relevant criteria the brand values]. Focus on [what deserves attention].

Judgement: [Explain neutrally / compare alternatives / make supported recommendations]. When recommending, explain [reasons, trade-offs and conditions]. Avoid [an unhelpful habit such as treating price or popularity as proof of quality].

Ownership: Use [I / we / third person] where appropriate. Do not invent personal experience, testing, customer results or permanent brand beliefs. Attribute another person’s distinctive method or experience.

Format: Adapt the opening, structure and level of detail to the piece. For video, use natural spoken language and transitions. For short posts, focus on one useful point without losing a qualification that changes its meaning.

Avoid: [specific clichés, tonal habits or recurring mistakes].

Example of the approach we want: [one or two original sentences].

These are prompts to help you write the field, not compulsory headings. Remove lines that do not help describe your brand.

3. Use complete examples as a starting point

The following examples are fictional. Adapt their level of specificity rather than copying a voice that does not fit your organisation.

Example: a clothing-repair service

Primary Audience

Adults deciding whether to repair an everyday garment. They can describe the damage but may not know sewing terms or which repairs are realistic. They want to understand likely options, effort and visible results before attempting a repair or paying someone. Assume limited equipment. Explain the difference between a simple home repair and work better handled by a specialist.

Brand Voice Notes

Patient, direct and encouraging. Use everyday language and explain sewing terms when they help someone choose. Value usefulness, comfort and keeping a garment wearable; do not shame people for replacing something or buying inexpensive clothes.

Give a clear next step where possible and explain when the fabric or damage changes the advice. Be honest about repairs that may remain visible. Use “we” for recommendations, but never imply we inspected or repaired the reader’s garment. Avoid guaranteed results, invented prices and sentimental claims about every item being worth saving. Use UK English.

Example: “A visible repair can be the right choice for a working jacket. For a formal sleeve, the finish may matter more than the speed of the fix.”

Example: an exhibition-design practice

Primary Audience

Museum programme leads commissioning a small temporary exhibition. They understand their collection and visitors but may not have specialist design or fabrication knowledge. They need to weigh access, interpretation, installation effort and reuse within a fixed space and schedule. Explain technical choices through their effect on the visitor experience and the delivery team.

Brand Voice Notes

Measured, observant and precise. Describe how a design choice affects people moving through and understanding an exhibition. Treat accessibility and legibility as part of the design decision from the outset.

Compare options fairly and explain the compromises. Recommend when the brief supplies enough information; identify the missing requirement when it does not. Avoid grand claims about transformation, invented visitor feedback and claims that one design suits every venue. Use “we” for an explicit design recommendation, not to imply a project history or evaluation that has not been supplied.

Example: “A movable display gives the team flexibility, but its position still needs to preserve a clear route and a comfortable reading distance.”

Keep the brand’s priorities consistent while allowing the format to change.

Articles: develop the approved thesis through useful explanation, evidence, examples and judgement. Let the structure suit the topic.
LinkedIn and X: make the chosen point understandable within the post. Avoid compressing a conditional claim into an absolute promise.
YouTube: define what the viewer should understand or be able to decide. Use natural spoken progression, concrete examples and transitions. A script should work aloud rather than simply read through article headings.

You can add channel preferences to Brand Voice Notes, such as “In video, introduce unfamiliar terms before using them” or “Keep humour out of short updates about service disruption.” Avoid instructions that force every format into the same opening or fixed number of points.

For repurposing, the supplied content remains the factual foundation. A different angle or recommendation may develop from it, but the voice does not authorise invented examples, outcomes or experience.

5. Test and refine the settings

Save the audience and voice guidance.
Start a fresh piece or repurposing run using representative content.
Check whether the output assumes the right knowledge and answers the audience’s actual question.
Look for the brand’s priorities and judgement, as well as its vocabulary and tone.
Identify the earliest stage where the direction goes wrong. An unsuitable topic, thesis or video angle will not necessarily be fixed by polishing the wording.
Revise the instruction responsible for the problem, then test again. Keep the source and task consistent when comparing settings.

For YouTube, read a passage aloud. For social posts, check that the main point survives without the reader needing the entire original article. Across all formats, ask whether the recommendation explains its reasons rather than merely sounding confident.

If the output still misses the mark

What you see	What to check
Generic but polished writing	Add the brand’s priorities and approach to judgement, not just more tone adjectives.
Too much introductory explanation	State what the audience already knows and where the explanation should begin.
Research summaries crowd out the answer	Clarify the reader’s decision and check that the approved thesis or angle gives the piece a useful purpose.
Every piece has the same shape	Remove rigid opening or structure rules. Keep the voice consistent while varying the approach.
Confident claims or implied firsthand experience	Clarify ownership and uncertainty. Supply genuine experience where relevant; do not ask the voice to manufacture it.
A script sounds like an article read aloud	Add spoken-language preferences and check the selected video purpose.
Changed settings do not appear in the result	Check the selected project and start a fresh workflow. Existing approved directions and saved outputs can retain their earlier context.

Keep factual support separate from voice

Brand guidance can shape interpretation and supported recommendations. It does not establish that a factual claim is true. “We recommend” can express a judgement; “we tested” asserts an experience that must actually have been supplied.

Review sources and remaining findings before publishing. A working link alone does not establish support for a claim. Preserve qualifications that change the meaning, and check that repurposing has not expanded a source’s conclusion.

Before you save

The audience describes knowledge, circumstances and a useful outcome.
The voice explains expression, editorial priorities and judgement.
The guidance does not invent experience or require unsupported certainty.
The project settings leave room for different theses, angles and formats.
The instructions are specific, consistent and relevant to this brand.
You have a representative article, social post or YouTube script to test them against.