My website sounds corporate but my socials sound casual. How do I fix that?

Voice inconsistency signals a positioning gap. Define your tone first — what you sound like and what you never sound like — then use it as a filter for all content.

Your website sounds corporate. Your LinkedIn sounds casual. Your emails sound like a different company wrote them. This isn't a writing problem. It's a guardrails problem.

Why voice drifts

Without written guidelines, every piece of content is an improvisation. The person writing adapts to the platform, the mood, or the perceived audience. Over time, the brand sounds like five different people because five different contexts shaped it.

What tone guardrails look like

Good voice guidelines aren't vague ("be authentic"). They're specific rules that anyone can follow.

Example guardrail set:

  • We sound like a smart friend who happens to be an expert. Never like a professor.
  • We use "you" and "your." Never "one" or "stakeholders."
  • We write at an 8th-grade reading level. If a sentence has more than 20 words, split it.
  • We never use: "leverage," "synergy," "holistic," "best-in-class."
  • We always use: short paragraphs, direct questions, concrete examples.
These rules are checkable. Anyone writing for the brand can hold their draft against these guardrails and know if it fits.

A fintech app that fixed its voice

Their marketing site sounded like a bank ("optimize your financial outcomes"). Their app notifications sounded like a text from a friend ("hey, you spent $40 on coffee this week lol"). Users found the disconnect confusing.

The fix: They wrote a single page of voice rules. Core rule: "We're the friend who's good with money. Not a financial advisor. Not a frat buddy. The friend who gives you a straight answer without making you feel dumb."

Every piece of content, from the landing page to push notifications, now runs through that filter. The voice is still warm but no longer erratic.

How to build yours

List three things your brand sounds like. List three things it never sounds like. Write five example sentences in your voice. Write five sentences that violate it. That page is your voice guide.

servo generates these guardrails as part of your guided session, so every piece of content you create stays consistent.

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