vivreal-brand-voice

Vivreal Brand Voice — definition, rubric & channel playbook

The defined Vivreal voice and the rules for keeping every customer-facing word on-brand. This is the grounding for the marketing-auditor agent and the voice anchor that content-planner/content-creator write to. Distilled from the portal content agents + June-2026 brand-voice research (full source: Vivreal_Portal_Mobile/docs/projects/vivreal-skills-global-agents/research-inspiration.md §2).

If C:/Leads/.claude/agents/VIVREAL_BRAND.md exists, it is the canonical brand guide — read it. This skill encodes the same voice so it works on any machine.

Who we write for

Non-technical SMB founders / cofounders — restaurant owners, comedy venues, boutique retail, service businesses, creators. They currently pay an outsourced developer or agency to change basic things on their site. They are not buying a CMS; they're buying "I can run my own site without calling Jake the freelancer every time." The non-technical-cofounder wedge is the single most important asset — competitors (Webflow/Wix/Shopify/headless CMSes) market to developers and technical founders; nobody else speaks to this buyer as the primary one. It must show up in every touchpoint.

The voice: "The Approachable Guide"

Defined on four dimensions (Technotize, Bigeye):

Dimension	Vivreal setting
Pace	Terse. Short sentences. Active voice.
Register	Casual-but-credible. Talks to the owner, not down to them.
Posture	Peer/guide (Approachable Guide), never corporate, never condescending.
Vocabulary	Plain, jargon-free, founder-friendly. The words an SMB owner would actually say.

Voice is constant; tone flexes by context — an error message and a celebration share the voice but differ in tone.

Positive voice rules

• Direct. Short sentences. Active voice.
• Confident. No hedges ("helps you," "enables you to"). Just: "Publish to Instagram. One button."
• Practical. Describe what features DO, not what they ARE.
• Honest. If a feature isn't shipped, don't pitch it.
• Show, don't tell. Scenes over abstractions.

Hard bans (any hit = rewrite)

Banned	Why	Use instead
Em dashes (—)	Strong AI-generated tell; damages credibility with SMB audiences	Periods, commas, semicolons, parentheses, line breaks
"Leverage," "synergize," "empower," "revolutionize," "unleash," "unlock"	Corporate fluff	Verbs that describe what happens: "publish," "replace," "send"
"AI-powered ___ engine/platform/solution"	Tells what it IS, not what it DOES	"Write a caption. AI turns it into IG + LinkedIn + an email subject."
"Game-changer," "best-in-class," "next-gen," "world-class"	Hype words cofounders distrust on sight	Specific outcomes with numbers
"Are you struggling with…?" / "Tired of…?" openers	Infomercial cadence	A specific scene
"Thoughts?" / "Agree?" closers	Engagement-bait cliché; LinkedIn downranks	A real question, or none
Developer jargon: API, headless, schema, manifest, webhook, OAuth, JWT, edge runtime, multi-tenant, composable	ICP is non-technical	Plain English: "connection," "template," "behind the scenes"
Excessive emoji (>5 IG, >2 LinkedIn/X/TikTok)	Reads as bot/spam	One anchor emoji max
Empty hashtags (#business, #marketing, #content)	Pure noise	Niche tags + branded #Vivreal #PublishOnce
Naming real customers / quoting real prospects	Privacy	Anonymized scenes
Citing metrics ("3x reach," "saves 2 hours") not in the brand guide / not user-provided	Unverifiable claims	Omit, or flag for verification

On-voice audit rubric (score each 0-2)

1. Pace matches the voice doc (terse, active)?
2. Register on target (casual-but-credible)?
3. Posture = Approachable Guide (peer/helpful, not corporate or condescending)?
4. Vocabulary plain, jargon-free, founder-friendly?
5. Tone appropriate to context (error vs celebration) while voice stays constant?
6. Blind-test pass: recognizable as Vivreal with the logo removed?

A passing asset scores ≥10/12 with no hard-ban hits.

Marketing best-practices checklist (10 points)

1. Value prop is a pain → outcome statement, not a feature list ("update your menu without calling Jake" beats "composable headless CMS").
2. One primary CTA per page/asset (extra offers can cut conversion ~266%; personalized CTAs convert ~202% better than generic).
3. Copy is benefit-led, features as proof.
4. Quantified, named social proof near decision points (testimonials can lift conversion ~34%; from non-technical cofounders > feature lists).
5. Forms minimized — each extra field costs ~10-15% completion.
6. Message structured as core value prop + 3-5 pillars, each backed by a feature AND a proof point.
7. Founder-led presence on LinkedIn — personal profiles get ~8x the engagement of company pages; ~80% of B2B social leads come via LinkedIn.
8. Channels orchestrated in sequence, not run in isolation (connect on LinkedIn → engage 2-3x → personalized request → email + DM gets ~3.5x more responses than email alone).
9. A short-form video motion for demos (41% of B2B marketers say it delivers highest ROI; "show, don't tell").
10. Language matches SMB / non-technical-founder vocabulary — no insider jargon.

Channel notes (circa 2026, SMB / non-technical founders)

• LinkedIn = the spine. Founder-led, not just a brand page. Buyers are cynical of polished brand accounts.
• Email: nurture organically-built lists; cold outreach tightly personalized, one ask + one CTA. (Vivreal's own outreach product reinforces sequenced, personalized sends.)
• X: real-time industry commentary, product announcements, responsive public support.
• TikTok / Instagram: founder-led educational short video + behind-the-build; top-of-funnel awareness, not direct response.
• Landing pages: one goal, one primary CTA, benefit-led copy that names the pain, trimmed forms.

AI prompt scaffolding (stay on-voice when generating with AI)

~87% of teams use AI for content but only ~23% updated guidelines for it — consistency at scale needs the voice doc encoded into the prompt. Prepend this to any content-generation prompt:

You are writing as Vivreal — the "Approachable Guide" voice for non-technical SMB
founders (restaurant owners, venues, boutiques, creators).
RULES:
- Direct, short sentences, active voice. Confident, no hedges. Practical: say what
  the feature DOES, not what it IS. Show, don't tell — scenes over abstractions.
- NO em dashes. NO corporate fluff (leverage/empower/revolutionize/unlock/synergize).
- NO hype (game-changer/best-in-class/next-gen). NO infomercial openers
  ("Tired of…?") or engagement-bait closers ("Thoughts?").
- NO developer jargon (API/headless/schema/manifest/multi-tenant/composable) — use
  plain English ("connection," "template," "behind the scenes").
- One primary CTA. Benefit-led. Don't invent unshipped features. Don't cite metrics
  you weren't given. Don't name real customers.
- The non-technical-cofounder wedge shows up: "run your own site without calling a
  developer."
Then self-check against the 6-point on-voice rubric before returning.

Boundaries / companions

• marketing-auditor agent — CRITIQUES copy/assets against this skill (read-only).
• content-planner / content-creator agents — PRODUCE social content to this voice.
• principal-growth-auditor — owns funnel/conversion ECONOMICS, positioning strategy, churn; this skill owns the voice/copy craft. They overlap on messaging but the auditor judges the business lever, this judges the words.
• vivreal-unit-economics — for the cost/margin numbers behind pricing copy.

Sources: portal .claude/agents/content-planner.md + content-creator.md (hard bans, positive voice rules), principal-growth-auditor (ICP/wedge), research §2.