If you have worked in marketing for any length of time, it is likely that you have heard the term "share of voice." However, you may only have a hazy understanding of what it means. You may even know that a PR metric called share of voice exists.

We will discuss share of voice in detail in this article, including what exactly it is (hint: it is not just a PR task), how to calculate it, how to increase it, and how to use a toolkit to make your life easier as you work to increase your own share of voice. 

What is a share of voice? 

A marketing metric or calculation known as "share of voice" shows businesses how much (in percentage terms) of the market they control in comparison to their rivals. 

Now, "own" in this calculation can mean a number of different things. Some people think that share of voice describes how much paid advertising a business has compared to its rivals. Other industry experts broaden the definition to include things like social media shares, organic keyword traffic, and more. Others may incorporate a share of voice into their KPIs and Surround Sound SEO strategy. Hence, it completely depends on your preferences. 

How to Calculate Share of Voice

Simply put, determining the share of voice for your company will look like this: 

Your estimated total traffic is multiplied by 100 after being divided by the estimated total traffic for brands in your sector. 

In other words: your share of voice is equal to 100 times the ratio of organic search traffic to all other search traffic.

So, say you want to monitor your market share for the term "women's running shoes." You would use the following formula: 

Your monthly search volume for that term is 50,000; the industry average monthly search volume is 200,000, multiplied by 100; and the result is 25%. 

Your website would boast 25% of the market share of voice for that term, which is the answer. 

For each business, calculating the share of voice metrics will take a different form. In fact, you might want to keep tabs on a number of different data points that fall under the "share of voice" category. 

Here are a few voice metrics to take into account: 

• Traffic from organic keywords 
• Pay-per-click ads 
• Mentions 
• Total income 
• Hashtags
• Unique impressions from websites   

While the initial calculation itself is not too bad, you are probably beginning to get the impression that tracking even just one metric can require some serious math. Should you monitor two or more metrics? Consequently, maintaining control over this crucial key performance indicator (KPI) becomes even more challenging. Additionally, there is no one share of voice definition at this time. 

Consider the scenario where you want to know the amount of "coverage" your brand has or the number of Google pages that contain your brand's name or are owned by it. In this situation, you would need to search the internet for brand mentions in addition to keeping track of particular pages from your website that show up in these results. That’s a lot of digital footwork.

What steps can you take to increase your voice?

Repeating it again: determining the share of voice is a highly individualized task. In light of this, we will present a few illustrations that you can use to create your own definitions. 

1. Increase website traffic and brand awareness

2. Increase the area you cover

3. Increase the number of mentions 

1. Increase website traffic and brand awareness

Brand visibility is a term used to describe how visible your brand is in pertinent searches, falling somewhere between SEO and reputation management. Website traffic is typically regarded as a search engine optimization (SEO) metric, but it can also serve as an indicator of your industry's share of voice. The estimated volume of website interactions that a particular set of keywords brings in for your company is known as estimated web traffic. 

Consider that you own a shoe company and are promoting women's running shoes. You conduct some keyword research and discover that "women's running shoes" is a popular search term, as well as other popular keywords in this market that you would like to target. 

The fact is that not all keywords have the same potential for boosting visibility and traffic. It is possible that a page that ranks for a keyword that receives a lot of monthly searches does not have a high visibility score. That is, it might appear on search engine results pages (SERPs), but it might do so at position 19, where it is unlikely that most users will see it. Although a mention on that page is good, it is unlikely to significantly increase your practical share of voice or traffic to your website.

Although a search term like "lightweight women's running shoes" may not have as much monthly traffic as "women's running shoes," it may still have high visibility in the SERPs (ranking near the top of Google's results pages). This is something you might discover during your keyword research. This would be a fantastic page to try to get mentioned on.

In other words, visibility is weighted coverage. You can prioritize your outreach by using this sweet spot that takes keyword volume and visibility into account. In Surround Sound, it is sometimes referred to as "potential": 

How then do you boost your anticipated traffic? Finding keyword groups that are mentioned on pages with moderate or high keyword visibility and targeting keywords with moderate or high monthly search volumes is the first step in the keyword research process. Naturally, if your brand is new, you can also start small by looking at keywords with a lower monthly search volume.

To find out what keywords and content your rivals are using to entice new customers, use a keyword research tool or delve deeply into the SERPs. 

The alternative is to use a tool that performs the calculations for you. We will discuss that in a moment. 

2. Increase the area you cover

A broader definition of "coverage" exists. Coverage, as opposed to "visibility," treats every mention of your brand equally. Coverage, as its name suggests, examines how widely your message has been shared online. This could imply that someone links to your web content from their website, that your content appears directly in the Google SERPs from your web property, or that someone simply mentions your brand without linking to your website. 

You can take a number of actions to broaden your coverage: 

By requesting to be published on their websites or in reviews, roundups, and list articles from publishers in your industry, you can begin constructing backlinks to your content. With various other tools, like Semrush's Surround Sound, you can quickly identify profitable opportunities.

Increase the amount of audience-relevant, keyword-focused content you publish on your website. This increases the possibility that not only will other websites mention you without linking to you, but also that your content will rank.

Make sure Google has the most recent version of your local pack information. Most customers will first interact with this business listing. It will reassure them that they can trust your company, as well as anyone who might mention it (for instance, as part of a blog post titled "12 Best Shoe Companies"). To manage the local pack, we suggest you use a listing management tool.

3. Increase the number of mentions 

Compared to other share of voice metrics, mentions are a little bit more complicated. Mentions can include things like mentions on social media or mentions online. However, you will almost certainly want to increase the number of mentions with a positive brand sentiment, not a negative one, regardless of the type of mentions you are looking to track and improve. To accomplish this, make sure that you are responding promptly to both positive and negative customer reviews. 

Additionally, you should respond quickly to inquiries sent to you via email and any contact forms you include on your website. 

In other words, you want to take every opportunity to provide customers with the best brand experience possible. 

Additionally, you can entice returning clients to post laudatory comments on Google and Yelp. This is a reasonably simple and affordable method to increase the number of positive online mentions of you. Do not forget to observe what your rivals are providing for their clients as well! 

Ask publishers who have contributed to reviews, roundups, and lists if they would be willing to mention you. The best publishers to approach are frequently those who have already mentioned your rivals in the article but have not yet mentioned you.

Wrapping up 

So, our blog on a complete guide to boosting your presence using the share of voice finally ends here. We hope that you have now gained enough information about what a share of voice is. Additionally, if you have any doubts related to it, you are free to specify them in the comments section as well. We would love to know your thoughts. Additionally, all your queries will be answered with an appropriate response. 

Please do not hesitate to contact Kito Infocom if you require any help with these or any other digital marketing services. We are the best digital marketing agency in Delhi. At Kito Infocom, we provide a range of services to clients worldwide, including website design and development, content writing, search engine optimization, and more. Contact us now to avail of our services and earn great discounts.