Why does my agent sound like everyone else?
It is Tuesday. You ask your agent for a short post about your new offer. Two seconds later you have something tidy, friendly and forgettable, the kind of text a hundred other people could have posted. You rewrite it. Next week you do the same, because the agent has no memory of what you changed.
An agent knows nothing about you unless you tell it. A brand book tells it once, in writing, and it reads that page before every job.
I call the file BRAND.md and keep it in the project folder. A thirty-page PDF gets skimmed by people. One page gets read by an agent, every single time.
What goes on the page?
- Who and what: who you help and what they want, in one sentence.
- Offer and proof: what you offer, and three things you can back up. Years, numbers, a result.
- Voice: three words, and for each word one sentence you have really written. Words you never use. How long your sentences run. Whether you say you or we.
- Colours: three to five, with hex codes and a job for each: background, text, accent, highlight.
- Fonts: one for headings, one for text.
- Image style: the light, the colours, what the pictures show and what they never show.
- Before and after: two examples where a generic sentence is rewritten into yours.
An adjective without an example does nothing. “Professional, warm, modern” means something only when a real sentence sits next to it.
How do I build mine in half an hour?
You will help me create a one-page brand book that you read first every time you write, draw or build something for me. Interview me one question at a time and wait for my answer before the next. Start with who I help and what they want. Then what I offer, what I can prove, how I sound, what I would never say, which colours and fonts I like and what my images feel like. Ask for an example whenever I am vague. After about fifteen questions, write BRAND.md with the headings: Who and what, Offer and proof, Voice, Colours, Fonts, Image style, Before and after. Five texts I am proud of: [paste] Three brands I admire and why: [name, one sentence each]
Want a head start? Play with the sketch below. It writes a first BRAND.md from your choices, and you finish the rest with the interview.
Brand sketch
Pick a few things. Watch your page take shape. Copy the draft into BRAND.md.
Forest and brass
I help sole traders get their ideas out into the world
Sounds like: “Come in, the kettle is on, and we can start wherever you are.”
Book a callForest and brassText contrast: 12.3 to 1, passes. Button: 5.1 to 1, passes.
# BRAND ## Who and what I help sole traders get their ideas out into the world. ## Offer and proof - Offer: [what you offer] - Proof: [three facts you can back up] ## Voice - Three words: warm, direct - Sounds like: "Come in, the kettle is on, and we can start wherever you are." - Never: [words and phrases you never use] - Sentences: short and plain. Address: you. ## Colours - Background: #f8f3ea - Text: #17332e - Accent: #b44f2a - Highlight: #f0c987 ## Fonts - Headings: [name] - Text: [name] ## Image style - Light and feel: soft daylight, natural colours - Shows: [what the images show] - Never shows: [what they never show] ## Before and after - Before: [a generic sentence] - After: [the same sentence in your voice]
How do I choose colours that work?
Let the agent read your logo and propose four colours. Then ask it to check the contrast between your text colour and your background. The accessibility guidelines (WCAG) ask for at least 4.5 to 1 for normal text. The sketch above shows the ratio live.
Read my logo [file]. Propose a palette of four colours with hex codes and a job for each: background, text, accent and highlight. Check that the text colour on the background has a contrast ratio of at least 4.5 to 1 and tell me the ratio you got.
How do I know it works?
Write a LinkedIn post about [topic] twice. First without BRAND.md, then with it. Show both and explain how the tone differs.
If the two posts read the same, your voice section needs more real sentences and a longer list of words you never use. Go back, add them, run the test again. When the second post sounds like something you would say out loud, you are done.
How do I keep it alive?
Every time you correct the agent, say: “Add that to BRAND.md.” After a month the page is yours, and you never wrote a long text to get there.
What becomes possible when the page is in place?
Anything your agent makes can now carry your voice, your colours and your taste. That changes what is worth making.
- A welcome pack for new clients: an email, a page and a card to print, all in one voice.
- Presentations, handouts and client letters that look like one house made them.
- A small tool people can use, such as a calculator that shows what a problem costs, with your name on it.
- A campaign where the images, the text and the page belong together from day one.
Using BRAND.md, suggest five things I could make from my brand that I have not thought of: a product, a service, something to hand out, a campaign and a tool. For each, say who would be glad to get it and why.
Questions people ask
Does the file have to be called BRAND.md?
No, but a fixed name lets you say “read BRAND.md first” in every task. The file sits in your project, so the agent finds it.
Do I need a logo and colours before I start?
It helps, but the interview can help you find them. Start with what you have and fill in the rest.
Can I use the same page for my website, images and posts?
Yes, that is the point. The voice, colour, font and image sections all live on one page.
Sources
Who is writing this
I am Nathaniel, a commercial operator. For twenty years, across four continents and more than fifteen ventures, I have taken research and young companies from idea to customer. Two KTH spin-offs reached joint development agreements with Fortune 500 partners. An indoor farm sold its full production within about ninety days and ended in a joint venture exit. This year I am a commercial expert for the European Innovation Council's Tech to Market programme. Now I build agents, because the hard part of new technology is rarely the technology. It is getting people to want it and use it.
Want to do this together?
In two hours I can build this with you: Brand book.