Below is an excerpt of an initial tone of voice and style guide I created for Multiply, a financial planning app, shortly after joining as the company’s first product-focused hire. This was loosely inspired by Mailchimp’s style guide. I later collaborated on it with our Head of Growth (who was responsible for our branding and marketing), and parts of it were developed further with the arrival of our first content designer.

Language and Style Guide

This style guide applies to the language used within the product, across various comms material, and for the company and brand in general.

There are multiple areas of the business which need some form of written content, and in order to build a strong brand and deliver a valuable user experience, the type of language we use really matters.

These various areas should all follow the same general overarching style principles, but may differ in tone depending on the context.

Brand Messaging

How we talk about ourselves, the company.

  • Press releases (e.g. announcements of fundraising)
  • Corporate comms (e.g. investor decks)
  • Company listing websites (Angel List, Crunchbase, LinkedIn, Facebook, etc.)
  • General public-facing comms (e.g. the “About Us” page on the website)

Tone: Professional, fact-based, semi-promotional

Product Copy

The wording used in the product itself.

  • CTA buttons, menus, navigation
  • Error and confirmation messages
  • Labels, help text, user prompts
  • Alerts and notifications, email messaging

Tone: Intuitive, friendly, explanatory

Product Marketing

How we talk about the product to promote it and encourage engagement.

  • Product launches and updates (e.g. an email newsletter announcing a new feature)
  • Product education (e.g. a page on the website outlining what the product is/does)
  • Market positioning (e.g. description in the App Store, SEO meta tags)

Tone: Creative, friendly, engaging

Content Marketing

How we enhance people’s perception of personal finance - outside the core product experience - with engaging, relevant content.

  • Blog posts
  • Social media
  • Email newsletters
  • Podcasts and videos

Tone: Explanatory, aspirational, fun

Support Content

FAQs and Help Center content

  • Common responses for user support emails
  • Social media engagement

Tone: User-centric, compassionate, friendly

Voice & Tone

In general the overall tone of Multiply is:

  • Inclusive - jargon-free, accessible for people regardless of circumstances/knowledge
  • Friendly - comforting and personal, creating a feeling of trust and familiarity
  • Conversational - lightweight communication that’s informal and down-to-earth
  • Unambiguous - people know exactly what we mean, and exactly what to expect from us
  • Professional - we know what we’re doing, and we do it properly
  • Intelligent - empowering people to learn from our expertise

Our brand language should inform, enlighten, excite, and educate. Maintain a conversational style and simplify language when possible in order to make the text easily comprehensible and straightforward for users. Clarity is more important than cleverness.

“When you’re writing, consider the reader’s state of mind. Are they relieved to be finished with a campaign? Are they confused and seeking our help on Twitter? Are they curious about a post on our blog? Once you have an idea of their emotional state, you can adjust your tone accordingly.” (Mailchimp)

While a light-hearted tone with a touch of humour is not frowned upon, it should be used more sparingly in the product than in marketing. For example, puns or metaphors might work well in a blogpost or newsletter, but they might cause confusion in the user interface of the product. There will be some contexts within the product where delight and fun are more appropriate than others, for example in onboarding vs. in the Rex [recommendations] screen.