Define Your Cafe Brand Voice With Examples
Your captions, your menu descriptions, your review replies, and your website copy all sound like they were written by different people, because they were. A part time barista posts the Instagram, you write the site, and a friend wrote the About page two years ago and nobody has touched it since. Short answer: a brand voice is not warm and quirky written on a sticky note. It is a short list of decisions about which words your shop uses and does not use, shown through real before and after lines, specific enough that any staff member could write in it and still sound like the same shop.
I'm going to walk you through this the way I'd actually do it in one sitting at a table with a stack of your own shop's writing in front of me. Collect ten real things your shop has already written. Mark the ones that sound right. Name three things those have in common. Turn that into a short list of words to use and avoid, and a one page guide with four before and after examples. By the end you will have something you could hand to a new hire on their first day.
Start With What You Already Wrote
Do not start by brainstorming adjectives. Start by collecting ten real things your shop has already written, a menu description, a caption from six months ago, a reply to a review, a sign taped to the register, an email to a supplier if it has any personality at all. Print them or paste them into one document so you can see them side by side.
Read through all ten and mark the ones that make you nod, the ones where you think, yes, that's us, that's exactly how we'd say it. Do not overthink this step. Your gut reaction to your own past writing is more useful here than a careful analysis, because it is telling you something true about what already feels natural, before anyone tried to define it on purpose.
Now look only at the lines you marked and ask what they actually have in common. Not a vague feeling, but something concrete: do they tend to be short? Do they use a specific word for coffee, like cup instead of beverage? Do they mention a detail, where the beans came from, how long something has been roasting, that the other lines skip? Write down three specific things, in plain language, not abstract adjectives. That list of three things is the actual start of your voice, built from evidence you already had sitting in your own files, not from a brainstorm.
It helps just as much to look at the lines you did not mark, the ones that made you wince a little or feel like someone else wrote them. Those are just as informative as the ones you liked, because they tell you what to actively avoid, not just what to lean into. A caption that reads a little too polished, a review reply that sounds like it came from a corporate template, an About paragraph nobody at the shop would say out loud, all of that belongs in your avoid pile, and it deserves the same close attention as the lines that sounded right.
Do this exercise with actual print outs or a real document you can mark up, not just scrolling through old posts on a phone. Seeing all ten pieces of writing at the same size, side by side, on paper or on one screen, makes the pattern far easier to spot than trying to hold them in your head while scrolling one at a time through a feed.
Words to Use and Words to Avoid
Once you have your three specific things, turn them into a short, practical list: words and phrases your shop uses, and words and phrases it avoids. This is the part that makes a voice guide usable, because adjectives like friendly or approachable tell a new hire almost nothing about what to type. A list of specific words does.
For a shop with a warm, casual voice, the use list might include things like drop by, our regulars, the good stuff, and the avoid list might include formal phrases like patrons are invited to or premium beverage selection, since those read as stiff next to how the shop talks to people in person.
For a shop with a precise, sourcing led voice, the use list might include specific, concrete language, the farm name, the processing method, the exact roast date, and the avoid list might include vague marketing language like handcrafted with love or the perfect cup, phrases that sound nice but say nothing specific enough to be useful or believable.
Neither voice is better than the other. What matters is that the list is specific enough to guide a sentence, not so vague that two different people reading it would write two completely different things and both believe they followed it correctly.
A good test for whether an item belongs on either list: could you point to it in one of the ten pieces you collected earlier. If a use list word never appears anywhere in your own past writing, it is probably an aspiration rather than a real trait, and it belongs in a different conversation about where you want the voice to go, not in a guide meant to describe how the shop already, genuinely sounds.
Four Before and After Examples
Examples do more work than any adjective list ever will, because they show the decision in action rather than describing it abstractly. Here are four, built for two fictional shops, one with a friendly, casual voice, one with a precise, sourcing led voice, so you can see how the same real situation produces genuinely different, equally legitimate writing.
A menu item description. Before, generic: a smooth and delicious blend of premium beans. Friendly casual after: our house blend, easy drinking, the one regulars order without looking at the menu. Precise sourcing led after: a washed process blend from two farms in the same valley, roasted light to keep the fruit forward.
A closing time social post. Before, generic: we are now closed, see you tomorrow. Friendly casual after: doors are locked, but we'll have the lights on again at seven. Precise sourcing led after: closed for the day. Tomorrow's cupping notes for the new arrival go up at seven.
A review reply to a positive review. Before, generic: thank you for your kind words, we appreciate your business. Friendly casual after: this made our whole morning, thank you, see you again soon. Precise sourcing led after: glad the new single origin came through the way we hoped, thanks for trying it. An About page opening line. Before, generic: welcome to our cafe, where quality meets community. Friendly casual after: we started this place because the neighborhood needed somewhere to sit down. Precise sourcing led after: we roast in small batches and change the menu when the coffee itself changes, not on a schedule.
Notice what changed in every single example above: the generic version could belong to almost any cafe anywhere, while both after versions could only belong to the specific fictional shop they were written for. That is the actual test of a working voice. If you could swap your own copy with a competitor's and nobody would notice the difference, the voice has not been defined yet, no matter how many adjectives are floating around describing it.
It is worth writing a fifth and sixth example specific to your own shop once you have the pattern down from these four, since the exercise gets easier and more revealing the more real situations you run it against. A caption for a new seasonal drink, a sign explaining a temporary closure, anything you find yourself writing regularly is worth running through the same before and after process.
The One Page Guide
Once you have the three specific traits, the use and avoid list, and the four before and after examples, put it all on one page with six headings: who this shop sounds like in one sentence, three things our writing always does, three things our writing never does, words we use, words we avoid, and four before and after examples.
Keep it to one page on purpose. A voice guide that runs five pages will not get read by a busy staff member on a slow Tuesday morning, and a guide that does not get read cannot do its job. One page, printed and taped somewhere staff see it, or saved somewhere they would open it, is worth more than a longer document that lives forgotten in a folder.
Hand this page to anyone who writes anything public for your shop, a new hire covering social media for a week, a friend helping with a menu redesign, and the test of whether it worked is simple: could that person write something in your voice using only this page, without having worked there for six months first. If the answer is yes, the guide is doing its job.
It is worth running that test rather than assuming the answer. Hand the finished page to someone who does not already know your shop's writing well, give them a small, real task, a caption for tomorrow's special, a reply to a hypothetical review, and see what they produce using only the page. What comes back will tell you honestly whether the guide is specific enough, or whether it still leans on things only someone who already knows the shop well would understand correctly.
Where This Fits and What It Does Not Promise
A defined voice is a separate task from figuring out who your customers are or how your shop positions itself against others nearby. Those are worth their own dedicated thinking, and this post is not trying to cover them. This is narrowly about making sure whoever writes for your shop, whenever they write for it, sounds like the same place.
It is worth being honest about what this does not promise. A defined voice does not guarantee more customers, more engagement, or better conversion on your website, and nothing here claims that. What it does is remove the jarring inconsistency a customer notices, even subconsciously, when your Instagram sounds like one shop and your About page sounds like an entirely different one. That consistency is worth having on its own terms, whether or not it moves any specific number.
A related but separate problem worth naming: even shops with a strong sense of their own voice sometimes have thin copy across the board, not inconsistent copy, just not much of it. A defined voice does not fix a page that barely says anything, it just makes sure whatever is said, however much or little there is, sounds like it came from the same place. Filling out thin pages is its own project, worth doing alongside this one, not instead of it.
Once your one page guide exists, treat it as a living document rather than something finished forever. Revisit it every few months, add a new before and after example when a good piece of writing comes out of your shop, and update the avoid list if you notice a phrase creeping in that does not fit. A voice guide that grows a little over time, built from real writing your shop keeps producing, stays useful far longer than one written once and never looked at again.
Related Reading
More from Hillcane on this topic, plus the pages on the site that sit next to the work.
Frequently Asked Questions
What is a brand voice, really?
A brand voice is a short list of decisions about which words and phrases your shop uses and avoids, shown through real before and after lines rather than adjectives like warm or approachable. A generic menu line, a smooth and delicious blend of premium beans, could belong to any cafe; a voiced version, the one regulars order without looking at the menu, belongs to one. A good guide lets a new hire write correctly on day one.
How do I start defining my shop's voice?
Collect ten real things your shop has already written, such as a menu description, a caption from six months ago, a review reply, and a sign at the register, and put them side by side on paper or one screen. Mark the ones that sound like you, then name three concrete things they share, such as short sentences or saying cup instead of beverage. The lines that make you wince become your avoid pile.
Should my voice guide be long and detailed?
No. One page with six headings is enough: who this shop sounds like in one sentence, three things the writing always does, three things it never does, words to use, words to avoid, and four before and after examples. A five page guide will not get read by a busy staff member on a slow Tuesday morning. Print the page and tape it where staff see it, then revisit it every few months.
What kind of words belong in the avoid list?
Whatever does not match how your shop talks. For a friendly, casual shop, that might mean stiff phrases like patrons are invited to or premium beverage selection. For a precise, sourcing led shop, it means vague lines like handcrafted with love or the perfect cup, which sound nice but say nothing checkable. Build the list from the lines that made you wince among the ten pieces of writing you collected.
Can two different shops have completely different but equally good voices?
Yes. In the fictional examples, a friendly, casual shop posts at closing that doors are locked but the lights come on again at seven, while a precise, sourcing led shop says tomorrow's cupping notes for the new arrival go up at seven. Both are correct for their shop. What matters is a voice specific and consistent enough to guide real writing, so two staff members following it would produce similar lines.
Does defining a brand voice increase sales or engagement?
No claim like that is made here. A defined voice removes the inconsistency customers notice when your Instagram, menu, review replies, and About page sound like different businesses, often because a part time barista, the owner, and a friend each wrote one. That consistency is worth having on its own terms. The practical test is handing the one page guide to someone new and seeing whether their caption sounds like your shop.
Who should use the one page voice guide?
Anyone who writes anything public for the shop: a staff member covering social media for a week, a friend helping with a menu redesign, a new hire. Test it by handing the page to someone who does not know your writing, giving them a small real task, such as a caption for tomorrow's special or a reply to a sample review, and checking whether the result sounds like your shop without six months of experience.
Does a defined voice fix a website with very little written content?
No, those are separate problems. A voice guide makes sure whatever is written sounds consistent, but it does not add content to a thin page, and a page that barely says anything stays thin in any voice. Filling out sparse pages is its own worthwhile project alongside the voice work. Once pages grow, the use and avoid lists and four before and after examples keep the new copy sounding like one shop.
How many before and after examples should I write?
Four is a workable start, covering different situations: a menu description, a closing time social post, a reply to a positive review, and an About page opening line. That range shows the voice across different kinds of writing without making the one page guide too long. Once the pattern is clear, add a fifth and sixth from your own recurring writing, such as a seasonal drink caption or a temporary closure sign.
Should I write my voice guide alone or with my staff?
Either can work, but reading the ten collected examples together with staff, especially anyone who writes for the shop regularly, tends to surface more honest reactions about what sounds right and what does not than working through it alone. Their instincts about what feels natural are part of the same evidence you are drawing from.
Work with Hillcane
A brand voice is not an adjective list. It is a short set of decisions about which words your shop uses, shown through real before and after lines, specific enough that any staff member could write in it correctly.
If you want help finding your shop's actual voice in the writing you already have, reach Hillcane at hillcane.co/contact or call (256) 384-2449.
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