How to Teach Claude Your Brand Voice (Styles, Projects and a Voice Guide)

To make Claude write in your brand voice, write a one-page voice guide, then create a custom Style from 3-5 of your best pieces (Use style > Create & edit styles > Add Writing Example). Keep the guide and samples in a Claude Project so every chat starts with them, and review drafts against the guide.

  • By Praveen Jha · Updated 2026-10-22 · 8 min read · Content & writing
Best for
Founders, consultants, marketers and small content teams
Time
45 minutes to set up, then seconds per draft
Cost
Styles and Projects work on free plans; Free accounts get up to 5 projects
Works in
claude.ai and Claude Desktop
Level
Beginner

Why Claude drifts away from your voice

Without guidance, Claude writes in a careful, general-purpose register: balanced, polite and a little long. That is fine for a first draft and wrong for a brand. Three things fix it: rules it can follow (a voice guide), examples it can imitate (a custom Style built from your writing), and a place that loads both every time (a Project).

Step 1: Write a one-page voice guide

Keep it short enough that you would read it yourself. Claude follows specific rules far better than adjectives like "friendly but professional".

  • Who you write for: one sentence on the reader, their job and what they already know.
  • Three voice traits with a do and a don't each: for example, "Direct: lead with the answer. Don't open with background."
  • Words you use and words you never use: product names, preferred terms, banned filler.
  • Sentence rules: average sentence length, contractions yes or no, British or American spelling, how you format numbers.
  • One before-and-after example: a generic paragraph rewritten in your voice. This single example often does more than the rest of the page.

Step 2: Create a custom Style from your writing

  1. In a chat, open the Search and tools menu in the lower left and choose Use style.
  2. Click Create & edit styles, then Create custom style.
  3. Select Add Writing Example and upload or paste 3-5 pieces you are proud of. Claude accepts PDF, DOC and TXT files or pasted text.
  4. Click Create style. Claude analyses the samples and generates the style.
  5. Rename it (for example "Brand voice") and open its instructions to check what Claude inferred. Edit anything that is wrong.

Pick samples on purpose: Use pieces of the same type you want Claude to produce. Five LinkedIn posts produce a LinkedIn voice; a mix of legal pages and tweets produces mush.

Step 3: Put the guide and samples in a Project

  1. Go to claude.ai/projects and click + New Project. Name it after the brand or channel.
  2. Click Set project instructions and paste a short instruction: "Follow the voice guide in project knowledge for every draft. If a request conflicts with it, ask before breaking a rule."
  3. Use the + button in the project knowledge panel to add the voice guide, your best samples and a short product fact sheet.
  4. Start every writing chat inside this project and select your custom Style.

Chats inside a project do not share context with each other, but they all read the same project knowledge and instructions. That is what keeps drafts consistent across weeks.

Step 4: Test it before you trust it

Give Claude a brief you have already written yourself, then compare its draft with yours. Ask it to mark every sentence that breaks the voice guide. Fix the guide where it was vague, and repeat once or twice. Most of the improvement comes from sharpening two or three rules, not from adding more of them.

Applying this to a services business

For a consultant or tutor, the voice is part of what clients buy. A useful split is one project per channel (website, LinkedIn, email) sharing the same voice guide, with channel-specific samples. The rules stay identical while the length and format change.

Copy-paste prompts

Draft a voice guide from your samples

Here are 4 pieces I wrote: [paste]. Write a one-page voice guide from them: the reader, three voice traits each with a do and a don't, words I use and avoid, sentence rules, and one before-and-after example. Only describe patterns you can point to in the samples.

Voice check on a draft

Check this draft against the voice guide in project knowledge: [paste draft]. List every sentence that breaks a rule, name the rule, and suggest a rewrite. Do not change sentences that already comply.

Rewrite in voice

Rewrite the text below in our brand voice. Keep every fact and number. Keep it within 10% of the original length. [paste text]

Troubleshooting

  • Drafts sound like a parody of you Your samples over-represent one habit. Add more varied samples and add a rule such as "use signature phrases at most once per piece".
  • Claude ignores the voice guide in some chats Check the chat is inside the project and the style is selected. The selected style applies to new messages, edits and retries, not to replies already written.
  • The style changes facts or adds claims Add "never add facts, numbers or claims that are not in the brief" to the project instructions.
  • Different team members get different results On Team plans, share the project so everyone works from the same knowledge, and keep the voice guide as the single source of truth.

FAQ

Can Claude learn my writing style?

Yes. Create a custom Style from writing examples: open Use style, choose Create & edit styles, then Create custom style and Add Writing Example. Claude analyses the samples and writes style instructions you can edit.

What is the difference between a Style and a Project?

A Style changes how Claude writes in any chat where it is selected. A Project is a workspace with its own instructions and knowledge files. Use the Style for tone and the Project for the rules, facts and examples behind it.

How many writing samples should I give Claude?

Three to five strong samples of the same content type usually work better than a large mixed set. Quality and consistency matter more than volume.

Do I need a paid plan for brand voice in Claude?

No. Styles and Projects are available on free accounts, with a limit of five projects for free users. Paid plans add more usage and larger project knowledge through automatic retrieval.

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