Content Overview
Here’s an uncomfortable truth: 50% of people recognise AI-generated content, and 52% are less engaged by it. If you’re using AI tools without proper brand voice training, you’re actively pushing your audience away.
The problem isn’t AI itself. It’s that most businesses are using it wrong. They’re either using generic prompts that produce generic content, or worse, they’re training AI on their existing content, which might already be inconsistent or off-brand.
At Distl, we’ve developed a different approach. Instead of training AI on where your brand is now, we train it on where you want to be.
P.S “Go and copy my existing website style” doesn’t work either unless everything on it was following a brand strategy.
“Any business using ChatGPT or any other AI tool straight out of the box likely has shiny object syndrome and is just impressed by the speed.
Pretend you paid $1,000 for the next piece of work you ask it to make then ask yourself if you’re still impressed.” – Jack Headford, Operations Lead
Step 1: Audit Your Desired Position, Not Your Current State
The biggest mistake businesses make is feeding their existing content to AI and expecting magic from simple requests. If you aren’t guided by a brand strategy, or if your current content is already generic, you’re just teaching AI to be mediocre.
Instead, start by defining where you want to be positioned. This requires honest answers to tough questions:
What are you uniquely doing that no one else is?
This isn’t about being “client-focused” or “results-driven”, everyone says that. What’s your actual differentiator? For Distl, it’s being the holistic agency that walks clients through the best solutions for their specific situation and budget, with all services in-house. We integrate branding and digital marketing to build long-term equity. (Hence, we highlight how our brand strategists and SEO specialists can work together to build the AI tools for your business).
What do you want to be known for?
There’s often a gap between what you do and what you’re known for. Maybe you offer ten services but want to be the go-to for three specific ones that are good entry points. Your AI tools should reinforce your desired reputation.
Who is your exact ideal customer?
“Small to medium businesses in Perth” or “people looking for [insert service]” is nowhere near specific enough. Are they B2B SaaS companies with 20-50 employees? Local service businesses with 5-10 staff? Feed in their location, pain points, previous experiences, long term goals and every detail you can imagine. This won’t shut you off to anyone not fitting all criteria, but it will lock you on for your ideal customers.
In our workshops, we often find businesses think they know these answers. But when pressed to articulate what makes them genuinely different, they struggle. This can feel disheartening at first but truly it’s an opportunity to finally have a business direction. Once you decide on how to articulate your unique position, so will AI.
This audit isn’t something you can rush through in an afternoon (and please don’t ask ChatGPT to do it for you, it will guess, it will infer and it will get it wrong). It requires strategic thinking, competitive analysis, and often, external perspective. That’s why at Distl, our brand strategy process includes comprehensive competitor analysis and market positioning work.
Step 2: Document Your Brand Voice Elements
Once you know your position, you need to document how you’ll express it. This goes far beyond choosing whether you’re “professional” or “casual.”
Vocabulary Choices
What specific terms do you use? Do you say “clients” or “partners”? “Solutions” or “services”? Are you detail-oriented, providing comprehensive explanations, or do you get straight to the point?
Sentence Structure
Do you prefer short, punchy sentences? Or comprehensive explanations with multiple clauses? Look at this article, we vary sentence length for rhythm, but keep paragraphs short for readability. That’s intentional, and your AI tools need to understand these preferences.
Technical vs Conversational Balance
How much industry knowledge do you assume? Do you explain every acronym, or trust your audience knows the basics? This balance shapes whether your content feels accessible or exclusive.
Document these elements in detail. Don’t just say “friendly tone”, specify “warm but authoritative, like a knowledgeable colleague sharing insights over coffee, not a lecturer at a podium.”
This documentation becomes the foundation for your AI training. Without it, you’re asking AI to guess at your voice, and it will default to generic every time.
Step 3: Create Comprehensive AI Training Prompts
Now comes the technical implementation. Most businesses fail here because they think a simple prompt like “write in our brand voice” is enough. It’s not.
Your AI training needs multiple layers of context:
Company Mission and Values
Don’t just list them, explain how they influence your communication. If innovation is a core value, your content should showcase new approaches and challenge conventional thinking, innovation can’t be stated it can only be demonstrated.
Industry Positioning
Where do you sit in your market? Are you the premium option? The accessible alternative? The technical specialist? This positioning should colour every piece of content.
Terms to Avoid
Be specific about what you don’t want. Generic phrases like “cutting-edge solutions” or “synergistic approach” might be on your blacklist. At Distl, we avoid corporate buzzwords that make us sound like everyone else.
Inclusivity Rules
How do you ensure your content welcomes all audiences? This might include pronoun usage, avoiding ableist language, or being mindful of cultural references.
Here’s a framework for your training prompt:
“You are writing as [Company Name], a [specific position] in the [industry] market. We help [specific audience] achieve [specific outcomes] through [unique approach]. Our voice is [detailed description], and we always [key behaviours]. We never [things to avoid]. When discussing [topic], we emphasise [key points] because [strategic reason].”
This isn’t a one-time setup. As you create content and see what works, you refine these prompts. Your AI tools should evolve with your brand, not remain static.
Step 4: Test and Iterate Across Channels
Your brand voice isn’t monolithic, it adapts to context while maintaining core consistency. The way you write a blog post differs from a social media caption, even while both sound unmistakably like you.
Platform-Specific Adaptations
LinkedIn might get your more professional voice, while Instagram sees your creative side. Email campaigns might be more direct than blog posts. Document these variations explicitly.
“Turn this into an email” won’t work unless you define how you write emails first, it’s up to you where you compromise and how much tinkering you do, this is more just a note to not get frustrated if it still remains a manual task when you haven’t actually told these tools what to do clearly.
Testing Methodology
Run your AI-generated content through multiple filters:
- Does it sound like it could only come from your brand?
- Would your best client recognise it as yours without seeing your logo?
- Does it reinforce your strategic position?
At Distl, we test content by asking: “Could our competitors have written this?” If yes, it needs work.
Performance Tracking
Monitor how different voice variations perform:
- Which tone generates more engagement?
- What style drives conversions?
- Where do readers drop off?
Use these insights to refine your AI training continuously. The goal isn’t perfection from day one—it’s consistent improvement based on real data.
Cross-Channel Consistency
While tone might vary, core elements must remain consistent. Your unique value proposition, key messages, and brand personality should shine through whether someone’s reading your website, your emails, or your social posts.
Step 5: Implement Governance and Quality Control
AI tools are powerful, but they’re not autonomous. You need human oversight to ensure quality and authenticity.
Human Review Process
Every piece of AI-generated content needs human review. This ensures the content genuinely reflects your brand and adds value. At Distl, our account managers understand each client’s brand deeply, allowing them to spot when something’s off and adjust our inputs or base knowledge.
Brand Compliance Checking
Create a checklist for content review:
- Does it reinforce our unique position?
- Is the vocabulary consistent with our guidelines?
- Does it include our key messages?
- Would this help us get recommended by AI search engines?
Regular Training Updates
Your market evolves, your business grows, and your brand voice should mature too. Schedule reviews of your AI training to ensure it remains current and effective.
Team Training Requirements
Everyone creating content needs to understand your brand voice, whether they’re using AI tools or not. This might mean workshops, documentation, or regular feedback sessions. At Distl, every team member who touches client content goes through brand training.
The Distl Difference: Integration Over Isolation
What makes our approach unique is integration. When you work with Distl, your digital marketing account manager is involved in every branding workshop. They understand your voice, your position, and your goals. This integration matters because brand voice isn’t just about content, when your brand strategy and digital execution work together, you create compound value.
Making It Happen: Your Next Steps
Training AI is an ongoing process that requires strategy, documentation, and refinement. But the payoff is substantial: content that actually sounds like you, positions you uniquely in the market, and gets you recommended by AI search engines.
The businesses that will thrive in the AI era aren’t those with the most content, they’re those with the most distinctive, consistent voices who understand how these tools play into their business strategy. In a world where AI-generated content is everywhere, authenticity becomes your competitive advantage.
You can start this process internally, but consider this: if you’re too close to your business, can you objectively identify what makes you unique? That’s where external expertise becomes valuable. At Distl, we combine brand strategy expertise with technical SEO knowledge to create AI tools that don’t just sound good—they perform.
Ready to make AI work for your brand voice?
Contact Distl today for a comprehensive brand voice audit and custom AI tool development.
Jack Headford
Account Manager & Operations Lead
