Brand voice for restaurants and pubs: how to find yours and keep it

Your brand voice is how your venue sounds wherever it writes: captions, menus, emails, review replies, the chalkboard outside. To pin it down, pick three plain words that describe the place, list the words you always use and the ones you never use, decide how you talk about price, and set simple emoji and hashtag rules. Put it all on one page and give it to everyone who posts.

#What is brand voice for a restaurant or pub?

Brand voice is the personality that comes through in your writing, and it should stay the same whoever's holding the phone. Tone is how that voice adjusts to the moment. Mailchimp's content style guide sums it up neatly: "You have the same voice all the time, but your tone changes."

In a venue, your Thursday quiz post and your reply to a one-star review should sound like they came from the same people. You just wouldn't crack jokes in the second one.

Why bother? Because the minute more than one person posts, you start sounding like different places unless a few rules are written down. The manager writes like a brochure and the bar supervisor writes like a group chat. Guests pick up on that, even if they couldn't tell you why. A clear voice also makes the rest of your social media marketing quicker, because half the decisions are already made.

#How do you find your venue's voice?

Start with how you already talk. An hour and a coffee will do it.

First, gather ten or so things you've written that felt right. The review reply you were secretly a bit proud of. The chalkboard line that made people laugh. How the menu describes the pie. Then read your best Google reviews and note the words guests use about you, because "cosy", "proper" and "no fuss" tell you more than any mood board.

Next, choose three words. Make them words a regular would use about the place, and write down what each one means in practice. "Warm" might mean you use first names and say thanks; it might also mean you never get gushing about it.

Then place yourself on the four scales that the Nielsen Norman Group uses for tone of voice: formal or casual, serious or funny, respectful or irreverent, matter-of-fact or enthusiastic. A village gastropub might land on casual, a little funny, respectful and matter-of-fact. A late-night cocktail bar might be far more irreverent and enthusiastic. Neither is wrong. They just need to be decided.

#Words you use and words you never use

The quickest way to make a voice stick is two short lists. Staff can check a post against them in ten seconds.

House words are the names and phrases that are yours. Decide what you call things and use the same word every time: the snug or the side room, Sunday lunch or Sunday roast, the garden or the beer garden. Dish names in posts should match the menu exactly. And decide how you address people. Most venues sound better saying "you" than "our valued customers".

Then the never list. Mine would start with menu clichés like "mouth-watering", "delectable", "indulge" and "yummy", then corporate filler like "we apologise for any inconvenience caused". Add anything nobody on your team would say out loud.

Drinks wording needs its own line on that list, because the advertising code covers it: the CAP Code applies to marketing in non-paid space you control online, which includes your own social accounts. Section 18 of the CAP Code says alcohol marketing must not imply drink can boost confidence or popularity, help with boredom, loneliness or other problems, or change someone's mood, and it must not present drinking as a challenge. So "you deserve it after the week you've had", "liquid courage" and "can you finish the yard?" go on the never list for any pub or bar. The captions guide has more examples. This is general information, not legal advice.

#How should you talk about price?

Decide once and write it down, because price is where voices wobble most. One person writes "ONLY £10!!!" and the next writes "£10.00".

My suggestions for a sheet:

• Show prices in posts unless there's a good reason not to. People want to know before they book.
• Write £18.50 when there are pence and £6 when there aren't. Never £6.00.
• Drop "only", "just" and "bargain". A plain number reads as confident.
• Write deals as simple sums: "Two courses £22", "Pie and a pint £16".
• Use "from £" only when the cheapest option is really there to order.
• If a set menu or group booking carries a service charge or deposit, say so in the same post.

Price rises deserve a sentence too. I'd say it once, plainly, with the reason if there is one, and skip the long apology, which tends to read as guilty.

#Emoji, hashtags and exclamation marks

Small mechanics like these are where a feed starts to look messy, usually because nobody owns them. Set the limits now and nobody has to guess.

For emoji, pick a number (I'd say two per post at most), a short list of ones that suit the venue, and where they go. At the end of a line works. In place of words doesn't, because a pint and a football emoji tell nobody what time kick-off is.

For hashtags, Instagram's help centre says (as of October 2026) you can use up to five tags on a post, which settles the old "how many" argument. A fixed pattern is easiest for staff: your town, the topic of the post, and your own venue tag.

Keep exclamation marks to one per post at most (plenty of posts need none), and the same goes for capitals.

#An example brand voice sheet

Below is a finished sheet for a made-up venue, The Gilded Pike, a pub with a kitchen in a market town. Yours should fit on one page and read like you. If a regular saw it, they should nod.

Every rule on it has an example, because in my view staff copy examples far more readily than they follow abstract rules. The drinks line is pure facts (drink, strength, price, times), which steers clear of most of the CAP Code problems above.

#How to keep everyone on the same voice

A voice sheet only works if people use it. Pin it wherever the posting happens, in the shared drive or taped inside the office door, and keep a bank of ten posts that nailed it so new staff can see the voice in action.

Use it beyond Instagram. Your review replies are where tone matters most, since you keep the voice but turn the jokes right down. Your emails should sound like the same place as your posts. If you run more than one venue, give each its own sheet with a few shared basics; there's more on that in the guide to managing social media for a group of venues.

Then build in a check. Reading a post aloud catches most problems, and a quick scan against the never list catches the rest. In Venuesmith, each location keeps its own brand rules (tone, banned words, caption length and hashtag style), and a separate reviewer checks every draft against them and rewrites it if it drifts.

Finally, revisit the sheet when the venue changes. A new chef or a refurb can mean the old words don't fit any more. Every six months is a sensible default.