How to create instructions on the content style (+ free instructions & examples)

Each content team has a different idea of ​​what “on brand” means – until they write it down. I have found that a guide for the content style is of crucial importance in order to do it correctly without several revisions or descriptions.

I have seen documents and cheats for long and both work as long as they explain Why They do things as they do.

That is the real strength: knowing when something strengthens your message – and when it settles. Especially now it was never more important with teams who write AI faster, both more importantly to train both tools And Your people sound like you.

So what exactly goes into a guide for the content style – and why is it so important? I’m glad you asked. I’ll show you.

Table of contents

What is a guide for the content style?

A content-style guide, which is sometimes referred to as branded voice instructions or editorial guidelines, is your team’s point of contact on how your brand communicates in writing. It covers everything that is to be said, grammar, punctuation, formatting and tone over everything they publish.

Yes, also whether you use them with them or activate the word for a large intestine!

Why are the content of content important?

Are you debating over and over again about the same comma or sound selection?

It is tired of giving your team Exactly the same feedback over and over again?

Be frustrated if each editor requires different stylistic changes – in conflict with each other in conflict?

These are all things that I have experienced as a writer and editor. And do you guess what? They are all signs you need a style guide.

Regardless of whether you work with freelancers, agencies or internal marketers, a solid guide for the content style helps you:

• Build a consistent branded voice. Each writer interprets “friendly” or “significantly” differently. A trademark leader clarifies this.
• Avoid common mistakes. If your company name has a tricky spelling or formatting (look at, hub spot), you can lock it up instead of correcting them every time.
• Facifying cooperation. Well -documented instructions reduce nit -picking changes and helps you to give constructive feedback without killing a person’s trust.

Style Guide VS brand guide

A Content style manual If the rules determine how your brand sounds in writing – cover sound, voice, grammar, punctuation and formatting about everything you publish.

A Brand leader can mean many things. It can concentrate on visual elements such as logos, colors and typography, or I have also seen that they have been expanded to include messaging, branded values ​​and positioning.

Both play a key role in how people experience their brand. One shapes what they see, the other shapes what they hear.

After we have cleared it, I will show you how to create a content style manual that actually works.

How to create a writing style manual

1. Use a style guide template.
2. Check the mission and values ​​of your brand.
3. Create buyers for your target group.
4. Define the voice and tone of your company.
5. Choose for a reference style manual.
6. List disruptive words and brand phrases
7. Set guidelines for graphics.
8. Share your formatting recommendations.
9. Describe your SEO requirements.
10. Add recommended methods to obtain reliable data.
11. Outline forbidden topics.
12. Give examples of the completion of the writing style manual.

There is no uniform formula but there Is A frame that works.

Regardless of whether you start over or what you have already received, list the 12 steps that I recommend to create a style guide that eliminates things for your team, gives your brand consistency and also makes your AI tools more intelligent.

1. Use a style guide template.

A content -style manual covers a lot -from brand values ​​to grammar rules. You may Start from the front, but I recommend switching things off with a solid template. It will help bring your ideas to your side faster – and make sure that you do not forget something obvious (e.g. whether you want to use the title case in H2S).

Drift Kings Media’s Free Style Guide template is a great starting point. Or let one of the examples inspire you at the end of this article and make it your own.

2. Check the mission and values ​​of your brand.

Not every brand has a formal mission statement or basic values. And actually I love it somehow if you don’t do it because it is a great discussion and leads to a session that creates a lot of clarity for both internal and external communication.

Are you wondering what it looks like? I have found that it may be difficult to say what you want to do, but find out what you don’t want, usually creates a killer discussion. Here are some of my favorite questions to get this going:

• In which increase in the industry in which you are, does she drive crazy?
• How are you doing? not Do you want to hit over?
• What would you like to ensure? never to do?
• What are you doing never Do you want to sacrifice?

A few short answers to these questions help your content style guide to life so that your authors can gather behind them Why They do things as they do.

What else should you consider?

If your brand stands for transparency, your content should avoid a hype and lean into clarity. If the inclusiveness is a core value, your guide should reflect both in language and in examples.

If your brand says and what it does not match, readers (and you will trust me) can see the separation-as if you are looking at a TV show with bad lip-synchronization.

Take it out Maddy Osman Founder of The blogsmith Who knows how serious the brands should take through their content as inclusive.

“We wanted our content practices to reflect what the blog with the blog with and had to find a way to find a team with different backgrounds on the same side.” says Osman.

In order to promote these values, Maddy got the ball rolling by determining clear guidelines in their style.

“I sat down with team members to maintain brainstorming what inclusiveness would look like on PAby – the Things that we usually don’t mind in daily speech. Regardless of whether it is alternatives to outdated words such as blacklist or workers or examples for people first. “

The conclusion here is that your style guide as it is express Their values.

3. Create buyer personas for your target group.

Imagine you write to a gene Z buyer against a boomer. The same product, completely different tone. Therefore, I always add simplified personas to a style guide – not in complete marketing profiles, but enough to capture content who you speak to.

New for buyers? I did everything, from semi -fictitious characters with names to descriptions of pain points and messaging on a high level. Both are fantastic. But if you want to tackle this for the first time, I recommend starting with Drift Kings Media’s Persona generator.

Amanda Price Content Manager at ImageFix is ​​also completely on board: “Understand who we communicate with is just as important as understanding our brand itself.”

Price adds that detailed buyer personas ensure “Relates to abstract rules and begins a proper and useful instrument to establish a real connection with our readers.”

She is right. And if there are personas, your guide is less about rules and more about relationships.

At least I recommend: including:

• A brief description of the audience
• Key pain points
• Communication projects
• Solutions that your brand offers
• Preferred tone (formal, talkative, etc.)

If you can go one step further and involve the actual phrasing that you use – or a language that can demonstrably win you will help your authors to create content that feels personally, relevant and usually converted well

4. Define the voice and tone of your company.

Voice and sound are constantly confused and overlooked.

I have had more than a few animated discussions about the difference with other copywriters. That may say a lot about my personality … but it also suggests how important this section is.

Because if you want your content (or your AI output) to sound in the Brandnee, you have to spend some time here.

So I collapse it:

• Agree is the personality of your brand. Your branded voice should be consistent across all content.
• clay is how this voice adapts to different channels or situations.

Imagine this: When I speak to my customers, I sound like me. When I talk to my family, I Despite it Sounds like me, but the sound is often very different. Your brand should work the same way.

To define their tone, many brands references The four tonal dimensions of the Nielsen Norman Group:

• Formally against casual
• Ernst against funny
• Respectfully disrespectful
• Factual and enthusiastic

This is a solid starting point. That means I usually like to go deeper and take my friend Justin BlackmanApproach from the Brand Voice Academy. It begins with over 100 tone descriptors and distilled the voice of a brand into one of nine styles that fall in three categories:

• Relevant
• Outlook drives
• Accessible

It is the most comprehensive (and most effective) approach that I have seen – and it works beautiful, especially if you want to define a voice that are scaled across channels, teams and AI tools.

Regardless of the approach you take, make sure you codify it with examples. Think: “Say that, not that.”

For example, if you are a coaching brand that acts with humor but never wants to act as sarcastic or mean, you may have this:

✅ The count begins untidy. So make snacks.

✅ You don’t need any other planner. You need a plan that fits your life.

❌ It’s not that difficult, do you know?

❌ You can give up great – congratulations.

If it is helpful, they can also encourage people to channel their inner (celebrity name here). (For me it is always Robin Arzon from Peloton.)

Are you wondering what else to include in this section?

• Preferred perspective: First person, second person, third person?
• Writing style: Friendly guide? Trustworthy expert? Just talking of the same age?
• Favorite phrases: A few contact points can help authors (and AI tools) to capture their branded voice faster.

Especially if you use generative AI, this section helps to learn what “how you sound” Strictly speaking means.

5. Decide on a reference style manual.

Would you like to stop arguing about EM lines and serial commas? Consider select a reference style and stay with it – and simply note all variations in the content style guide.

Many brands use them Associated Press Stylbook (AP) Chicago manual of style. Personally, I find AP better for online content – less formal, easier to remind you and use it widespread by the media.

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Bernard MeyerSenior Director of Communications and Creative OmnicSubmit that he prefers AP style if he helps omnicingly to look friendlier and less formal.

Pro tip: Get your team an online subscription. It is easier to search – and become much more likely – than a dusty print copy.

6. List disruptive words and brand phrases.

This is one of the most practical (and used!) Sections of every guide.

Contain:

• Proper formatting for your brand name (HubSpot, not Drift Kings Media or Hub -Spot)
• Product names, slogans or phrases with preferred spelling and punctuation
• Frequently missed words (e-commerce vs. e-commerce etc.)
• Professional title formatting (marketing director vs. marketing director)
• Final use (Bachelor’s degree against Bachelor of Arts)

Also make sure that language ideas based on regional use (color vs. color, apartment vs. flat) and including alternatives (block list vs. blacklist, “student” in the first year against “newcomer”) are based.

This section saves editors so much Time – and also helps AI tools to become more precise.

7. Set guidelines for graphics.

Here you do not have to rewrite your brand design manual, but if your authors are expected to edit, edit or write visual content, you are, however Do have to give them a direction.

Give joint questions such as:

• Where should pictures come from and how should they be attributed?
• How many pictures per post?
• Should pictures contain old text?
• What are the preferred image sizes, file types and alignment rules?
• Are screenshots allowed?
• Should text wrap pictures?
• How do you deal with video cot?

If you have a paid stock image account, list it. If you want all graphics to have a descriptive old text (you should), make it clear.

If you expect authors to include infographic content for designers and have guidelines about what should be included, I also recommend that this to share this.

8. Share your formatting recommendations.

Here you prevent the formatting of chaos before it happens. Cover your guidelines for at least

• Body text: Preferred font, size, color (if applicable)
• Header: How many levels? Use of the title against the case?
• Hyperlinks: Should the writers link entire phrases or only keywords?
• Lists: Bulleted or numbered? Point at the end?
• Styling: When it becomes fat, italic or use quotation marks
• Special characters: When are the amplifiers, EM/EN lines, acronyms, etc. used.

With consistent formatting, your readers can fly over and digest their information more easily.

9. Describe your SEO requirements.

You don’t have to insert a complete SEO strategy here, but a basic overview helps authors to avoid keyword fecting or structural problems. I always recommend covering:

• Keyword consumption: Where can you include target keywords (titles, header, old text, etc.).
• Content structure: How to use header and organize ideas
• Link strategy: Internal and external links as well as left -wing interior guidelines
• Length expectations: General words of word for important content types
• Meta -Days: If authors are expected to write meta titles/descriptions, indicate the instructions

In addition to these sections, I add links to external sources such as Drift Kings Media’s Guide for SEO to ensure that authors can find answers to their questions from reputable sources.

10. Add recommended methods to obtain reliable data.

You have probably seen that Stat about people only has an attention span of 8 seconds. BBC expose it in 2017.

This is the problem, if you leave the data from the second hand (or fifth), she is out there. So if you want your brand to sound credible, you have to be picky.

Because “trust me, brother” doesn’t cut it.

This medium -sized contribution, which links to a blog, also linked to a summary from 2016. This is lazy research. If you want to be credible, you have to make it clear to your authors that he will not fly.

If you take trust and transparency seriously, your style guide must indicate what “good” looks like.

If you want to create trustworthy, relevant content, you must be picky what you quote and where it comes from. And that means teaching your team – and your AI tools – how to recognize the difference between solid data and sketchy fillers.

And AI is notoriously not trustworthy, both in the following instructions and in the current data. Sometimes it does things too.

So call sources that you want to avoid and guidelines.

For example:

Examples of great sources:

• Primary data and studies: Surveys, interviews, customer analyzes, original research
• Proposed industry studies: Deloitte, Gartner, McKinsey, BCG, Pew, Drift Kings Media Research
• Government + non -profit sources: People’s counting office, World Bank, Who, Nih
• Relevant news agencies and trading poles: Think Harvard Business Review or Adweeknot the substance of your cousin

“Sources” to avoid:

• Aggregator blogs Without clear citation path
• Roundups that quote roundups (If 3 clicks are required to get to the source, stop)

• LinkedIn thinker posts This link to nothing
• Sketchy data without date
• Everything that sounds: “According to a recently carried out study, I saw somewhere …”

You may also like to specify an example of how you want to quote data.

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This helps to answer most of the questions about the data source, but you also want to decide whether competitor statistics and data are permitted.

My general rule is “yes!” If it is reliable and trustworthy, but also has to call for your business.

If you are worried about search engine optimization (SEO), Osman, who is also under the rank Top 100 content marketers from SemrushShare that she is not “Against the use of data from competitors. However, from SEO perspective, you have to be careful if the data you relate are a keyword competitor.”

In addition, it also depends on the core values ​​of your brand. Meyer prefers to include ” Helpful data, even if the data comes from our competitors. ” Because omni wants to appear as a customer -oriented brand.

11. Outline forbidden topics.

Even if your team has a good judgment, it helps to formulate things – especially for freelance participants.

List all content outside of limits, including:

• Politics or religion (Unless your brand expressly addresses her)
• Legal advice (Promotion of linking with resources or advice from a lawyer)
• Controversial topics Without entering an expert

Stand this as determined how intelligent limits determine – so writers know what not touch. And if there is ever an exception to the rule, outline the process to apply for this.

12. Specify examples to consolidate the writing style guide.

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This is the section that most instructions skip – and the one that makes the biggest difference.

Meyer agrees “The more specific you can do (your style guide), the better your team will understand how you can take it effectively.”

Osman also prefers examples. After her, “Stylish preferences are much more sensible for writers if they see them in reality – similar to a case study.”

So I write content style guides to show the team what “good” looks like:

• Use Do’s and Donts. Add a wrong example and then mark it to show how a writer can fix it.
• Add visual examples. For formatting and graphics, I prefer to add visual examples to support the contributors what the brand requires.
• Preferred text. I think that authors are more successful in reducing the brand tone and the voice when they provide examples of this in practice.
• Editorial process. What are the steps from the task for processing to publication? You do not need a detailed SOP, but a high -ranking overview of the river makes it easier for the authors to understand and meet expectations.

Style leaders are living documents. The world is not static, customer expectations are not static, so I have the feeling that it is unrealistic to believe that they will never work on them.

What you should include in your style guide (+ checklist)

My favorite leaders in the content style are easy to follow because they are hyper clear. Against this background, it is not a matter of having rules for … now.

It’s about making everything easier for your team and your customer base.

Pro tip: This should not simply go to writers. I would recommend sharing this with all core teams with customers. It is helpful when marketing, sales and customer service talk about things in the same way.

What you shouldn’t include in your style guide

Do not try to do to much. I have shared a lot of things that you can include and that I recommend that are recorded on a certain level. But you don’t have to go into detail in detail. I recommend the following – or at least with a specific link SOP documents.

Content operating notes

Yes, content ops are the backbone of your process. But things such as editorial calendars, inquiry forms, approval workflows and publication time plans are not part of your style guide. Keep these reference links in your project playbooks. Your authors need to write instructions, no lesson in Airtable.

Recommendations for visual style

This is one of these “calls”. I personally like a page with the company logo, typography and color palette. After all, they are of crucial importance for the brand and it is helpful to integrate new team members.

But think of high -ranking instead of 6 pages about the use of the logo. Instead, insert this detail into a separate brand and a visual style manual to convey the brand identity elements.

Training materials

Stay as high as possible. If important information authors have to refer, add links to reference documents or instructions for the style guide, but do not go overboard.

Rule of thumb: If it feels like a text, dilute it.

How to get others to use their style

If you insert all this work, you want people to use them. Most become, but not everyone. I know feels Personally, especially if people paid me to advise themselves about their things and then ignore them, but I promise that it is not personal at all.

This is an area in which the change management principles rule over the quarter. Here is what I found as best:

1. Participate others early.

Your freelancers do not take care of it, but if you have internal writers, Get your buy-in and give people the feeling of being part of the process. Even if they don’t take all You can feel a certain property of your suggestions.

If possible, I like to make two equally great options for different categories and let people comply with these options. I’m always fine with what you choose.

2. Just do it.

Keep it where people are already working. Link on onboarding documents, put it in slack and refer to briefs.

Personally, I love a lively document with a table of contents and quick insurance sections that are easy to fly over.

3. Update it.

It is not a static document.

Not everyone should edit access, but I ask teams to mark questions or inconsistencies when they appear, and we regularly check and update the DOC. It doesn’t have to be perfect on the first day. Just keep it useful – and make your workflow updates.

Examples of writing style manual

If you want to see a writing style guide in action, you will find some examples of writing style guides that I liked from well-known companies such as Google, Shopify and Intuit.

1. Google

In Google’s style guide, I found that Google is very explicitly in its destination to create clear, consistent content. It is divided into simple sections so that people can easily navigate, which could appear like a complicated document

What I liked: My absolute favorite part of this guide is the statement. “This guideline contains guidelines, do not regulate. Disconnect from it if you improve your content.”

Every rule in which “does not follow the rules” is a great victory in my book.

2. Intuit

I’m kidney about this stuff. When I divided things into categories that highlight what is most important for intuit, I was excited.

• Word list – it makes sense to start with tax and money words because the bread and butter of intuit is.
• Anti -racist language – To make it easier to concentrate on inclusiveness and avoid words that can be harmful
• formatting – no style guide is complete without him
• Voice and sound – Of course I concentrated here. As I examined the style guide of intuit, I found a long list of words that appears appropriate because intuit deals with financial topics. In addition, their guidelines in terms of anti -racist language and formatting are also in a nutshell.

What I liked: I will not lie – I love this guide. It is beautifully designed and so easy to follow. It also contains a new section for regular guests so that people can easily see what may have changed.

3. Shopify

I found the content -style guide from Shopify extensive. It leads the authors through voice and sound, including language, grammar and other stylish guidelines.

In contrast to intuit, I noticed that Shopify was over his clearer Language and sound requirements – They even contained DOS and notes with examples to explain how to correspond to the sound of Shopify.

What I liked: Despite the coverage of a series of style preferences, I estimated that Shopify contained an example of every concept.

4. Microsoft

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As with Shopify, the Microsoft Content Style Guide is extensive and covers everything, from real nouns to pre -free communication. I also liked the examples that contain Microsoft. Nevertheless, Microsoft tried to stay minimalist and did not add any examples of everything like Shopify.

What I liked: I found Microsoft’s Style Guide easier to navigate with the sidebar. You can filter the list of entries according to the title to find things faster. I also love your heading: “Make every word important.” I think it speaks for the meaning of the choice of words and clarity.

5. Apple

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Instead of overwhelming writers with a laundry list from do this, not in front of the bat, concentrate it the why Behind every word. That means if people want to dig deeper, especially with technical content, you can do it literally Put in the AZ of Apple’s style, start with AAC and wrap them with zoom.

In addition, this suggests that users follow the Style Chicago manual and the Collegiate Dictionary from Merriam-Webster.

What I liked: Although many content markets may not prefer it, I liked Apple’s minimalist approach, since a style guide usually applies to things that deviate from a reference manual. It also reflects Apple “Less Is”.

6. Mailchimp

I was curious to see how the notoriously shabby approach from Mailchimp could change by intuit after its takeover of 2021. Although it is still playful and funny, his language has become much clearer (at least in my opinion). I am not sure whether I would intuitively attribute this or follow more, which I consider as a trend in the industry.

While I generally do not include a fan of media -specific guidelines in a style guide, Mailchimp does a great job. Since its style guideline is not based on a single formal document, it could add process guidelines without overwhelming the readers.

What I liked: I loved Mailchimp’s word list because it describes exactly how to deal with problematic words in a minimalist way.

7. Yokel Local

This example comes from the HubSpot partner Yokel Local. I love his simplicity, which makes it easier for both in -house and freelance freelancers without going into the weed.

What I liked: While Yokel Local remained minimalistic, I thought it was great that it still contained examples to help writers get into the right attitude.

Polish your editorial and content style.

Style leaders may appear a strange thing that they are obsessed with, but they make it so much easier for the writers to take up and thus run.

Whenever I work with someone who has no guideline for the content style, I create a formal or informal-because it saves all the time, frustration and back and forth changes across the board. I properly build it into the process, regardless of whether it is integrated into a work declaration or just something that I develop naturally during onboarding and early designs.

It’s worth it. Every time.

It saves a boat charge from time and frustration for all parties – including the AI ​​members of their team (Wink, Wink). If everyone knows what the expectation is and why they use the voice and the sound they do, they have a coherent team.

Remember – keep it as easy as possible and focus on clarity. The result will be satisfied that feels like it and sounds.

Note from the publisher: This post was originally published in May 2015 and updated for completeness.