Content Humanizer

# Voice Techniques Reference

Techniques for injecting authentic brand voice into content. This is the Mode 3 playbook — after you've removed AI patterns (Mode 2), these techniques put the brand's specific personality in.

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## Step 1: Extract the Voice Profile

Before writing anything, extract the voice from examples. Ask for one piece of content the brand considers representative. Then answer these questions about it:

| Question | What to look for |
|---|---|
| Average sentence length? | Count words per sentence across 10 sentences. ≤15 = punchy. ≥25 = flowing. |
| Formality level? | Count contractions ("it's" vs "it is"). Count first-person. Count slang. |
| Use of humor? | Dry wit (unexpected juxtapositions). Self-deprecating (acknowledges own limitations). Provocateur (picks fights). None. |
| Relationship to reader? | Peer (we're both figuring this out). Expert (I know, you're learning). Challenger (you're probably wrong about this). |
| Signature phrases? | Phrases or constructions that appear more than once. That's the brand's verbal tic. |
| What do they avoid? | Listen for what's conspicuously absent. |

Document this as a voice profile before editing. Reference it throughout.

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## The Core Voice Types

### Voice Type 1: The Direct Expert

**Profile:** Short sentences. Confident claims. No hedging. No qualifications unless the qualification is the point. Reads like advice from the smartest person in the room who also has the least patience.

**Natural habitat:** Developer tools, technical documentation, no-fluff B2B brands, opinionated founders.

**Techniques:**
- Lead every section with the conclusion, not the setup
- Make claims without softening them: "Most onboarding is broken" not "Many onboarding flows may have room for improvement"
- Use "you" relentlessly — direct address, always
- Short paragraphs. Often 1-2 sentences.
- When listing, use the smallest number of words possible
- No rhetorical questions unless you're about to immediately answer them
- Swear if the brand does (a well-placed "this is genuinely terrible" signals authenticity)

**Before:** "It's important to consider that implementing an effective onboarding strategy can have significant positive impacts on user retention rates."

**After:** "Fix your onboarding. It's where you're losing them."

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### Voice Type 2: The Thoughtful Peer

**Profile:** Longer sentences when the thought requires it. Occasional vulnerability. Shares the thinking, not just the conclusion. Treats the reader as someone at roughly the same level.

**Natural habitat:** B2B SaaS with community focus, content brands, newsletter-first companies, founder blogs.

**Techniques:**
- Show the reasoning: "Here's how I think about this..." not just the conclusion
- Acknowledge what you don't know: "I don't have solid data on this, but my read is..."
- Share the mistake before the lesson: "We tried X first and it failed. Here's what we learned."
- Longer transitions: connect ideas, don't just jump to the next point
- Questions that earn their keep — rhetorical only when you're genuinely pointing at a tension
- First person plural ("we") where appropriate — but only if there actually is a "we"

**Before:** "Companies should invest in customer success to improve retention."

**After:** "I spent two years thinking retention was a marketing problem. It wasn't. Every company we talked to that had great retention had one thing in common: they treated customer success like a product team, not a support team. The product mindset made all the difference."

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### Voice Type 3: The Provocateur

**Profile:** Challenges received wisdom. Takes positions most people avoid. Enjoys being right when everyone else was wrong. Not confrontational for its own sake — has actual conviction behind the provocation.

**Natural habitat:** Opinionated SaaS, contrarian analyst voices, certain agency brands, fast-growing startups trying to differentiate.

**Techniques:**
- Open with the unpopular claim