Voice
Atlan’s voice comes from its brand personality. These are the principles that guide every piece of writing, so no matter who’s writing or where Atlan shows up, it sounds like Atlan.
Visionary
Visionary means original framing, earned by credibility. We are bold, creative, and unflinching about our vision for the world, while leading with curiosity. We’re confident and sharp, without being loud.
We should be
- Curious
- Confident
- Clear, sharp
- Credible
- Declarative
- Electric, energizing
- Unflinching
We shouldn't be
- Borrowed
- Hedged
- Impressive
- Vague
- Safe
- Arrogant
- Self-congratulatory
Tactics
Lead with the original framing
If a sentence sounds like something the industry already says, start over. Name what’s actually happening: the insight the reader already half-knew but couldn’t articulate. Borrowed framing signals the writing isn’t thinking hard enough.
Precision beats intensity
Skip superlatives, intensifiers, and exclamation points; they signal the underlying claim isn’t strong enough. The specific, accurate version of a claim does more work than the emphatic one. When something is genuinely accurate, it persuades on its own.
Best Friend
Best Friend means talking to the reader with ease: directly, simply, like you would with someone you know well. We never speak like we’re above the reader, and we tell the hard truth when it’s useful, the way a friend would, not the way a vendor would.
We should be
- Kind, warm
- Supportive, comforting
- Genuine, real, human
- Empathetic
- Direct
We shouldn't be
- Corporate
- Condescending
- Distant
- Preachy
- Transactional
Tactics
Know the specific person, not the persona
Know what they’re trying to do, what’s blocking them, and what a good day at work looks like for them. Copy written for one real person with real context has texture and weight. Copy written for a segment is readable by anyone and felt by no one.
Celebrate the customer
Always put the customer first and make them the hero of the copy. Make them feel understood, heard, and celebrated.
Optimist
Optimist means the copy itself should feel energizing, not just informative. We write from a bias for action and a belief that the world gets better because we build it, so the reader should come away excited, not just informed. That positivity isn’t naive: when we name a problem, we also point at how to fix it.
We should be
- Hopeful, ambitious
- Lively, energizing
- Rallying
- Action-biased
We shouldn't be
- Cynical
- Negative
- Passive
- Naive
Tactics
Energize, don’t just inform
Atlan copy should leave the reader feeling something is possible, not just knowing a fact. Aim for the outcome that gets people excited, not the neutral description of what happened.
Give the reader a next step
A bias for action means copy should leave the reader with something to do, not just something to think about.
Optimistic, not naive
Acknowledge the hard thing directly, then say why it’s worth doing anyway.
Tone
Our voice is always the same, but our tone is how we convey our in-the-moment attitude and shift how we talk in different situations.
Ads
Stop the scroll and land a claim sharp enough to remember, fast. No room to build up to it.
Why this mix · An ad has one shot to make a claim worth acting on right now. That’s Visionary’s original framing and Optimist’s forward pull doing the work together.
Virtual events
Make someone want to register before they’ve seen a single slide. This is about the event’s name, landing page, and invite copy, not the in-room content itself.
Why this mix · Same top-of-funnel job as an ad: a category-defining reason to show up (Visionary), plus a reason to feel good about attending (Optimist). Best Friend gets a little more room than in an ad since an invite still reads as personal.
Thought leadership blogs
Say the original thing about where the category is going, backed up enough that a skeptical practitioner takes it seriously.
Why this mix · This is where Atlan earns the “we created the category” claim, so original framing has to dominate. Best Friend keeps it readable instead of academic. Optimist stays light so the piece doesn’t read like a pitch.
Partner blogs
Read like two teams who actually work together wrote it, not a co-branded ad. Credit the partner’s expertise as much as our own.
Why this mix · Partner content is about a shared vision of what’s possible together, which is Optimist’s territory, delivered with the warmth of an actual working relationship. Visionary steps back because the point isn’t Atlan’s solo point of view, it’s the joint one.
Conferences
Stand out when surrounded by noise.
Why this mix · Conferences are filled with noise and you need to earn attention, so Visionary leads with spiky messaging that stands out at the booth or in sessions.
Social
Sound like a person, not a company account. Earn attention in a feed where nobody owes you their time.
Why this mix · Feeds reward sounding like a person, not a brand account, so Best Friend leads. Optimist keeps it energizing. Visionary still shows up, but as a sharp point of view, not a lecture.
Press releases
State the news plainly and back it with proof: numbers, quotes, named customers. Credibility over excitement, even though the news itself should feel like real momentum.
Why this mix · Press and analysts are evaluating credibility. Visionary carries the claim and Optimist frames why it matters.
Email marketing
Feel like it’s written to one person, not blasted to a list. Get to the point fast; most people are skimming an inbox.
Why this mix · An email lands from a person, to a person. Best Friend leads because it needs to feel individually written. Optimist gives a reason to act. Visionary stays lighter since a big category claim doesn’t belong in someone’s inbox.
Education
Education isn’t a fixed surface, it’s a mode that can show up inside any of the above (a how-to blog post, an educational webinar).
Teach something clearly enough that the reader can actually use it, without turning the lesson into a pitch.
Why this mix · Whenever content is primarily teaching something, shift the mix toward Best Friend and Optimist and away from Visionary. Teaching someone something works best coming from a friend who wants you to succeed and believes you can.
Website: Homepage
Make the category claim and make a visitor feel like something big is happening, within seconds of landing.
Why this mix · A homepage visitor has already chosen to stay, unlike someone scrolling past an ad, so there’s room to feel spoken to directly, not just pitched to. Visionary still leads with the category claim, but Best Friend gets real space instead of an ad’s bare minimum.
Website: Product pages
Convince a practitioner the thing actually works, and make them feel understood in their day-to-day.
Why this mix · A product page is closer to a conversation with a skeptical buyer than a pitch. Visionary’s credibility and Best Friend’s specific-person empathy both carry more weight here than Optimist’s energy.
Customer stories
Let the customer’s win carry the piece. Atlan’s role is supporting, not central.
Why this mix · The customer is the hero, and their relationship with Atlan is fundamentally a Best Friend story: genuine, warm, real. Optimist (the outcome they achieved) and Visionary (the credibility of what was built) both show up, but equally and lightly, so neither crowds out the customer’s own voice.
Boilerplate
The canonical company description, in two lengths. Copy it as-is wherever Atlan needs introducing; don’t rewrite it.
Concise
Atlan is the context layer for AI: the infrastructure between business systems and AI agents where organizational context gets mined, built, governed, and delivered.
Comprehensive
Atlan is the context layer for AI: the infrastructure between business systems and AI agents where organizational context gets mined, built, governed, and delivered. We believe contextual intelligence, not raw intelligence, is the next frontier for AI: a model is only as good as the organizational knowledge, expertise, and norms it has access to, and an AI agent without that context is guessing, not reasoning. Enterprises representing more than $10T in market cap, including Mastercard, Workday, General Motors, Dropbox, and Fox, use Atlan to build AI agents that are accurate, trustworthy, and scalable.