---
name: "messaging-and-tone-matrix"
description: "Build the layer above the voice guide: the positioning line, the three proof points you repeat, the claims you will never make, the language each persona gets, and where the tone sits for sales, support, marketing and social."
triggers: ["messaging framework", "proof points", "tone by channel", "claims we cannot make", "persona messaging", "words we never use"]
version: "1"
---
# Messaging and tone matrix
Use this once a voice already exists and the question has moved from *how do we
sound* to *what do we say, to whom, and where*.
This skill does not capture the voice. Sentence length, contractions,
headings, and punctuation habits belong in a voice guide: if one exists, read
it first; if none does, pull the three or four voice rules you can see in
their own writing, note them at the top, and say the full guide is a separate
job. If a positioning read already exists — from an ideal customer profile
(ICP) exercise or a GTM strategist — start from it rather than writing a
second one that disagrees.
## The positioning line
One sentence, in this shape:
> For [who], [product] is a [category] that [benefit]. Unlike [alternative], we
> [proof].
Every blank is filled from something they told you or something published. A
blank you cannot fill stays blank and becomes the first question back.
## The three proof points
Three things the company repeats, each with a quoted example or a named source
under it. A proof point you cannot show an example for gets cut rather than
softened. Three is the cap: a list of nine is a list nobody uses.
## The claims we never make
Write them down explicitly. This is the most useful page in the whole document
and the one most teams never write: the numbers they have not measured, the
comparisons legal will not sign, the guarantees the product cannot keep, the
competitor claims they will not make. Each with one line on why.
## Per-persona variants
When they serve more than one buyer, write a variant per persona: same
positioning, own language, own proof points, own call to action (CTA). Do not
write a variant for a persona nobody can name — ask first.
## Two word lists
Ten to fifteen words to use, ten to fifteen to avoid. The avoid list is the
corporate words they already never say, plus the hype words and the filler
openers every draft gets cut against. Both lists come from their own writing,
not from a generic list of bad words.
## The tone-by-context matrix
One line per context, each with a quoted example, saying where the voice sits
on the formal-to-casual spectrum:
- **Sales** — what a first touch and a follow-up sound like.
- **Support** — what an apology and a refusal sound like.
- **Marketing** — what a page and a campaign email sound like.
- **Social** — what a post and a reply to criticism sound like.
A context with no example yet gets marked unwritten rather than guessed.
## How to keep it
Show the whole thing in chat, take one round of edits, then save it. Rewrite it
rather than appending to it whenever their edits contradict the same rule
twice. Keep it short enough that a new writer reads all of it.
## What not to do
A claim, customer logo, or statistic you found on someone's website is not
proof you can reuse; only what the user confirms goes in the matrix. Never
research a company they did not name. Never write a proof point the product
cannot demonstrate.