The Growth Lever You Can't Neglect: Excess Share of Voice (SOV)
Date: April 12, 2023
Time Reading: 5 min.
By The BlueOcean Team
Share of Voice tends to be one of the most common metrics that marketers seek to understand for their brand. It refers broadly to the visibility of your brand when compared to your competitors and can serve as a barometer for your brand’s presence in the conversations about your category.
Share of Voice has become increasingly important as marketers look to find ways to drive growth and increase market share, especially during tough economic times.
How does an excess in Share of Voice (SOV) lead to market share?
There is a theory called the “Share of Voice Rule”, which says: “Brands that set their Share of Voice (SOV) above their share of market (SOM) tend to grow (all other factors being equal), and those that set SOV below SOM tend to shrink. In fact, for every 10 points of excess SOV, brands can grow market share an extra 0.5%….and for brand leaders, it’s an extra 1.5% (Binet & Field).
Excess SOV leads to market share growth because it is an important contributor to your brand’s mental availability with your target buyer. In his book, How Brands Grow, Byron Sharp defines mental availability as “the probability that a buyer will notice, recognize and/or think of a brand in buying situations.” It’s estimated that 95% of your target buyers are not ready to purchase at a given point in time – and that number could be closer to 99% given the current economy (B2B Institute @ LinkedIn). However, eventually, they will enter the buying process, and the brands with high mental availability will be the ones that are most top of mind.
What are ways that brands can increase Share of Voice?
There are a number of levers available to brands to increase share of voice:
- Increase paid advertising or shift existing spend to relevant channels: Investing in paid media is a sure-fire way to increase your share of voice. But you also want to make sure you are in the right channels – so understanding where your audiences are — as well as your competitors – is important. You may choose to focus on SOV in a specific channel vs. all-up, depending on your available budget.
- Elevate social media in your marketing mix: Social media can be effective at increasing share of voice, but it’s not just about the volume of posting. When you build messaging and content that resonates with your audience, they will be more likely to engage and amplify your content, increasing your brand’s visibility and reach.
- Focus on non-branded search: When your brand shows up during a customer’s search, you not only increase awareness, but you demonstrate that you are relevant to what your customers care about.
- Connect with your audience priorities: Regardless of the channel or piece of content, when you demonstrate an understanding of your customer’s needs and wants, you will make a more impactful impression. And that impression is likely to multiply due to engagement and sharing on social, improved ranking in search engines, or increased conversion on ad media.
With marketers facing so much ambiguity when it comes to proving ROI and showing impact to their organizations, having a straightforward rule and key steps to take feels like a deep breath of fresh air. Now all you need are some tools to measure and grow your SOV.
BlueOcean can help you accelerate your Share of Voice and grow market share in 3 ways
(1) Make a case for SOV investments: With BlueOcean, you can see how your SOV stacks up against the competition and where and how much you need to invest to catch up… or even take the lead.
(2) Plan your media spend for the greatest impact: BlueOcean can help you identify which channels you should invest in, and what creative might perform best so you can make sure your voice is heard.
(3) Create engaging content: With BlueOcean, you get insights into which topics your audience cares about most, and how well your brand and competitors are landing those topics, so you can build stand-out content that fuels SOV across social media, search, and paid media.
How Juniper Networks used BlueOcean to increase SOV investments
The brand team at Juniper Networks has been partnering with BlueOcean since 2020 to embed brand intelligence across their organization and improve the efficiency of investment decisions. BlueOcean’s holistic view of Juniper Network’s brand performance (relative to their top competitors) enabled the brand team to identify a SOV opportunity and justify an increase in investment focused on brand awareness initiatives.
With competitive intelligence at its fingertips, Juniper Networks was able to increase its awareness marketing budget by 3X. Within 6 months of driving focused awareness efforts into market, Juniper saw a 28% increase in Share of Voice relative to their top competitors which paralleled a 19% growth in company revenue YOY.
