The Importance of Share of Voice

Share of voice is the measure of the total volume of advertising the brand owns in the market compared to its competitors. This allows the company to gauge its visibility and the level of dominance the brand has in conversations within the industry. The higher the company’s market share, the more popularity it will likely have amongst consumers and even prospective consumers. Share of voice, though typically referred to in paid advertising, can also include digital marketing elements such as social media mentions and keyword traffic. To understand the brand’s total share of voice and sentiment, the brand must monitor blogs, microblogs, message boards and forums, wikis, video and photo sharing, traditional media, and social networks. By doing this, the brand can better understand the challenges, what others are saying about them and their competitors, and the position of their consumers in the market, which will guide the brand on how to grow and captivate other potential consumers. To increase the brand’s share of voice, they can consider these three strategies:

1. Narrow Your Segment Search – If the segment or industry the brand targets is significant, they can narrow it down based on the interests of their consumer audience. This will allow the brand to see the top competitors and the portion of the market they aim to influence. With this data, the brand can decide to compete for that portion or create a message to target a slightly different audience.
2. Build Your Online Presence – Developing a clear and direct digital marketing strategy will allow the brand to foster two-way communication between themselves and the consumers. With the understanding of what consumers are talking about, the brand can then develop and share content that will encourage a meaningful contribution to the conversation.
3. Engage Your Audience – Positive conversations from happy customers are critical in increasing the brand’s share of voice. Offering information to consumers and valuing their responses and opinions fosters engagement and shows the company’s concern for the consumers and what they like. Engagement can also be used to shift negative perceptions to a more positive one buy addressing consumer grievances and satisfying them. This will allow the brand to build up a satisfied customer base and brand advocates to increase their positive share of voice.

Conversations about your brand or relating to your brand can happen on various platforms, mainly digital. This can help gather incredibly useful data on the target audience or discover new audiences the brand could be targeting. Surveys and focus groups are great tools to acquire consumer data; however, in this digital age, with the social web, monitoring share of voice is crucial. Once your brand is visible, people will talk about it. Understanding how people perceive the brand will allow the brand to understand their buying habits and will allow them to create messages to influence the buyer and their perception of the brand.