A brand guidelines template gives you the sections a brand guide needs, in one document your whole team can use: brand story and positioning, voice and tone, logo usage, color, typography, imagery, UI and web components, writing rules, do and don't examples, and links to every asset. The outline below copies in one click, and the Word version adds tables for each section with guidance notes. No signup.
Download the Word template (.docx)
Most brand guidelines templates that rank on Google are design files: a Behance or Canva layout, a whiteboard, a slide deck with lorem ipsum, or a gallery of famous consumer brands. They show what a finished brand book looks like. They do not help a B2B software company decide what goes in it, or keep sellers, agencies and product teams on brand after launch. This template is the working document. For the definition and why guidelines matter, see our entry on brand guidelines.
What should brand guidelines include?
Brand story and positioning
Who you serve, the problem, your category and what makes you different, plus the boilerplate.
Voice and tone
Three or four voice traits with what each means and does not mean, and tone by channel.
Logo usage
Versions, clear space, minimum size, co-branding and the mistakes to avoid.
Color
Every color with HEX, RGB and CMYK, its job, and the text pairs that pass contrast.
Typography
Fonts and sizes for web, slides and documents, with a free fallback.
Imagery
Product screenshots, photography, icons, illustration and chart rules.
UI and web components
Buttons, forms, cards, spacing and a link to the design system.
Writing rules
Product names, capitals, numbers, dates, words to use and avoid, and claims.
Do and don't examples
A good and a bad version of a sales email, an ad, a slide and a screenshot.
Asset links and owners
Where every file lives and who to ask, so nobody has to email the designer.
Copy the brand guidelines template
Paste it into a Google Doc, Notion page or Word file, or download the .docx, which adds a table for each section (voice traits, tone by channel, logo do and don't, color values with contrast, type scale, asset owners) and grey guidance notes to delete as you write.
[COMPANY] BRAND GUIDELINES
Version [1.0] | Updated [Month Year] | Owner: [Name]
1. BRAND STORY AND POSITIONING
For [ideal customer] who [problem], [Company] is the [category] that [main benefit].
Unlike [main alternative], we [key difference]. Proof: [result, customers, data].
Boilerplate: [3 to 4 sentences used in every release and profile]
2. VOICE AND TONE
We are [trait 1], which means [ ]. We are not [ ].
We are [trait 2], which means [ ]. We are not [ ].
We are [trait 3], which means [ ]. We are not [ ].
Tone by channel: website [ ] | sales emails [ ] | LinkedIn [ ] | product UI [ ] | support [ ]
3. LOGO USAGE
Versions: [primary] [stacked] [icon] [one-color]
Clear space: [ ] | Minimum size: [ ] px / [ ] mm
Do not: stretch, recolor, rotate, add effects, place on busy backgrounds
4. COLOR
[Name] | [role] | HEX #[ ] | RGB [ ] | CMYK [ ] | text pairs that pass 4.5:1 [ ]
(repeat for primary, secondary, accent, dark neutral, light neutral, status colors)
5. TYPOGRAPHY
H1 [font, weight, size] | H2 [ ] | Body [ ] | Buttons [ ] | Slides [ ]
Free fallback for Google Docs and Slides: [ ]
6. IMAGERY AND ILLUSTRATION
Screenshots [ ] | Photography [ ] | Icons and illustration [ ] | Charts [ ]
7. UI AND WEB COMPONENTS
Buttons [ ] | Forms [ ] | Cards and tables [ ] | Spacing and grid [ ]
Design system link: [URL]
8. WRITING RULES
Product names [ ] | Company name [ ] | Headings [ ] | Numbers [ ] | Dates [ ]
Words we use [ ] | Words we avoid [ ] | Every claim needs a source
9. DO AND DON'T EXAMPLES
[Good and bad version of a sales email, LinkedIn ad, slide, screenshot]
10. ASSET LINKS AND OWNERS
Logos [URL, owner] | Fonts [ ] | Slide templates [ ] | Ad templates [ ]
Photo library [ ] | Email signature [ ] | Press kit [ ]What does B2B SaaS add to a brand guide?
A consumer brand book is mostly logo, color and photography. A software company's brand shows up in more places, and more people make things with it. Three sections matter more for B2B SaaS than the templates on Google suggest:
| Section | Why it matters in B2B SaaS | What to put in it |
|---|---|---|
| Voice and tone by channel | Sellers, founders, support and product all write to buyers, often more than marketing does | Tone for website, sales emails, LinkedIn, product UI and incident updates, each with an example sentence |
| Product screenshots and UI | Most of your visuals are your product. Ads, decks and the website all show it | Crop and frame rules, fake data that looks real, annotation style, and the shared button and form styles |
| Writing rules and claims | Buyers and reporters check numbers; procurement and legal read your pages | Exact product names, number and date formats, and a rule that every claim has a source and every customer name is approved |
The voice section should come from your positioning, not the other way round. If you have not written down who you serve and why you win, start with our value proposition canvas, then copy the result into section 1. The boilerplate in section 1 is the same paragraph that closes every release in our press release template.
How do you check brand colors for accessibility?
Check every pair of text and background colors you plan to use. The W3C's WCAG 2.2 contrast guidance asks for a contrast ratio of at least 4.5:1 for normal text and 3:1 for large text, which it defines as at least 18 point, or 14 point bold. Many bright brand colors fail as text on white, so the guide should say where each color can and cannot carry text.
Illustrative palette for a fictional company. Ratios calculated with the WCAG relative luminance formula.
| Text color | Background | Contrast ratio | Normal text (4.5:1) |
|---|---|---|---|
| Navy #1F3A5F | White #FFFFFF | 11.5:1 | Passes |
| Blue #2F6FED | White #FFFFFF | 4.55:1 | Passes, only just |
| White #FFFFFF | Blue #2F6FED (button) | 4.55:1 | Passes |
| Amber #F2A93B | White #FFFFFF | 2.0:1 | Fails: use for shapes and charts only |
| Amber #F2A93B | Navy #1F3A5F | 5.7:1 | Passes |
What does a filled brand guide look like?
Illustrative, not a real company. Northpine is a fictional procurement software company for mid-size manufacturers.
| Section | Northpine's entry |
|---|---|
| Positioning | For procurement leads at manufacturers with 200 to 2,000 employees who lose time chasing supplier quotes by email, Northpine is purchasing software that collects, compares and approves quotes in one place. Unlike ERP purchasing modules, it works the day it is set up. |
| Voice traits | Practical (we show the steps, not the vision; not dull). Exact (numbers and part names; not technical for its own sake). Calm (we fix problems; not alarming). |
| Tone by channel | Website: plain and confident. Sales email: short, one question. Product UI: instructions only. Incident update: what happened, what we did, when it is fixed. |
| Writing rules | "Northpine" never "NorthPine". Feature names in sentence case ("Quote compare"). Numerals for all numbers. No savings claim without a named customer or a source. |
| Imagery | Product screenshots with fictional supplier names. Photos of real plants and buyers, no stock handshakes. |
| Assets | One shared folder: logos, fonts, slide template, ad templates, screenshot library, press kit. Owner: head of marketing. |
Which public brand guides are worth studying?
Two B2B software companies publish theirs in full:
- Mailchimp's Content Style Guide covers voice and tone, grammar, accessibility, writing for social media, translation and a word list. It is public under a Creative Commons Attribution-NonCommercial 4.0 license, and Mailchimp invites other teams to adapt it with credit.
- Atlassian's design foundations cover color, typography, iconography, illustration, logos, spacing and accessibility, the visual and UI half of a SaaS brand guide.
HubSpot's roundup of brand style guides adds Slack, Asana, Dropbox and ClickUp among other software brands. Read them for structure, then write yours shorter: a guide people use beats a long one they do not open.
How to roll out your brand guidelines
- Fill in sections 1, 2 and 10 first. Positioning, voice and asset links cover most day-to-day questions.
- Check colors for contrast before you publish the palette, and mark which colors can carry text.
- Collect real do and don't examples from your last month of emails, ads and decks.
- Put it where people work: a shared document or intranet page, linked from your slide and ad templates and from every creative brief. Give everyone the same signature too: our email signature template fills your brand color into a copy-paste HTML signature.
- Name an owner and a review date on the first page, and update it when positioning or product names change.
Writing guidelines from scratch? Our brand voice and visual identity entries explain each half, and our guide to rebranding a company covers when a new guide is part of a bigger change. Our brand service designs a new logo, colors, type and a brand guide, plus templates for your deck and social posts.
Frequently asked
What is a branding guideline?
A document that sets how a company looks and sounds everywhere: its positioning, voice and tone, logo rules, colors, fonts, imagery and the files people need. Our glossary entry on brand guidelines covers the definition. This template is the working document: ten sections you fill in for your own company.
What is a style guide used for?
To let anyone who writes, designs or sells for the company produce work that looks and sounds the same without asking the design team. In a B2B software company that includes sellers building decks, agencies making ads, product teams writing UI copy and new hires writing their first LinkedIn post.
How do you create a simple brand guideline?
Start with five things: your logo files in every format, three to five colors with their HEX and RGB values, two fonts with a free fallback, three voice traits with an example sentence each, and a link to the folder that holds every file. That fits on a few pages. Add the rest of the template's ten sections as the team grows.
Can you give some examples of brand playbooks?
Two public B2B software examples worth reading: Mailchimp's Content Style Guide, which covers voice and tone, grammar, accessibility and writing for different channels and is published under a Creative Commons license, and Atlassian's design foundations, which cover color, typography, iconography, illustration, logos and accessibility. HubSpot's list of brand style guides also includes Slack, Asana, Dropbox and ClickUp.
Should brand guidelines be a PDF or a web page?
A shared, searchable page or document that you can update is easier to keep current than a designed PDF. Keep the source in Google Docs, Word, Notion or your intranet, link every asset from it, and export a PDF only for agencies or partners who need a fixed copy.
How often should brand guidelines be updated?
Review them once a year, and whenever your positioning, product names or visual identity change. Put a version number, an update date and a named owner on the first page, so people know whether they are reading the current copy.
