3 KOL delivery models, Xiaohongshu marketing strategy!

Double Eleven 2021 has just come to an end, and more and more brands are beginning to pay attention to things beyond the sales of 540.3 billion yuan. By analyzing the data of popular brands’ promotion on Xiaohongshu during Double 11, we verified three relatively feasible promotional strategies on Xiaohongshu and summarized three KOL delivery models.

01 Three KOL placement models, the era of content seeding

The core of KOL marketing is high-quality user-generated content, and the most basic thing is the KOL itself.

Picture｜Qiangua

Xiaohongshu’s brand marketing is composed of a KOL matrix. In the long-term practice of brand promotion, three KOL delivery models with good market recognition have evolved, namely pyramid, olive and five-pointed star. Through the following three brand cases, we will reveal the relationship and assistance between the KOL matrix and the content strategies at different stages of brand promotion.

02 A boy’s perfect diary? Small pyramid delivery model-content testing

There is a blue ocean outside of Xiaohongshu’s female market, and that is the “he economy”. Data from July 2021 shows that male users of Xiaohongshu account for 30%. But compared to women's understanding of the beauty and cosmetics field, most men generally have this problem: they don't know where to start with so many different products?

One-stop solution has become the key bargaining chip to impress male users. The second wave of TOP3 brands in Tmall’s Double Eleven pre-sale in 2021, “Dear Boyfriend”, is a brand that focuses on one-stop professional grooming for emerging men.

Figure｜Qiangua-Brand Analysis-Note Trend Analysis

Qiangua shows that the brand Dear Boyfriend had a maximum of 21 notes per day from September 1 to November 11. Compared with Estee Lauder's hundreds or even thousands of related notes every day, Dear Boyfriend is still in the early stages of its launch on Xiaohongshu.

Figure｜Qiangua-Brand Analysis-Note Analysis

Compared with the previous period, the number of notes related to the brand "Dear Boyfriend" from September 1 to November 11 increased by 245.24%, and the total number of shares increased by 55.96%. "Dear Boyfriend" started to post business notes on Xiaohongshu in April this year, and concentrated on posting business notes from late October to early November. The emergence of Business Notes is a clear signal that Dear Boyfriend is planning to develop the Xiaohongshu platform.

Figure｜Qiangua-Brand Analysis-Note Type Distribution

From September 1st to November 11th, there were 145 notes related to Dear Boyfriend. Among them, the number of note types in the two major vertical fields of personal care and perfume accounted for 84.5% in total, and the other 12 note types accounted for about 15%. Personal care and perfume notes accounted for 59.58% of the interactions. Xiaohongshu's male market is still in the blue ocean stage, and users lack mental education and need to further unlock their minds.

In terms of content deployment, Dear Boyfriend mainly uses highly related content. This strategy is suitable for most brands that have just started to invest in Xiaohongshu. On the one hand, by promoting vertical fields, we can build cognitive awareness among Xiaohongshu users. When users mention topics related to men's grooming, they will naturally think of Dear Boyfriend's products. On the other hand, for newly launched brands, vertical field promotion is more conducive to reaching precise target groups and can also obtain relatively stable interactive ROI.

This is also the typical strategy of Xiaohongshu in its 1.0 stage of planting grass, "strongly related content and refined audience."

The cooperation threshold for this type of content is relatively low, but the strongly related content and the users reached are very precise, and the effect is relatively stable. It is very suitable for early stage brand promotion.

Picture｜Thousand Pictures| Thousand Melons

In the early stage of the 1.0 phase of the seeding campaign, the main purpose of Dear Boyfriend is content testing. The main influencers are amateurs, followed by junior influencers (only relevant notes posted by influencers with more than 1,000 fans are counted). Business notes are also mostly for junior experts and belong to the small pyramid distribution model. Following the top-down communication principle, it forms a communication model where mid-level and beginner experts recommend something and a large number of amateurs follow suit and share the idea.

Figure｜Qiangua-Note Analysis-Data Overview

At the same time, my dear boyfriend is very familiar with the new ways to play Xiaohongshu. The brand account has published 17 notes in the past 30 days, equivalent to one note every two days. With the convergence of public domain traffic, the content of the brand account will become an important factor influencing whether marketing promotion can lead to conversion. This is also the key to BC direct connection in the era of Xiaohongshu and store integration. The content accumulation of the brand account lays the foundation for subsequent traffic diversion and conversion.

With advertising gene advantages (the team once worked for first-tier brands), Dear Boyfriend has a keen insight into marketing strategies and content.

Dear Boyfriend, which is positioned in the men's beauty and personal care market, has begun to target Xiaohongshu after achieving good results across the entire network. This is obviously not an idle move. Xiaohongshu's male track may already have the soil to nurture new cutting-edge brands.

03 Promote hot products, penetrate a scene, and use the big pyramid delivery model to complete the communication chain

When it comes to oral care brands, you may think of traditional brands such as Colgate, Black, Yunnan Baiyao, etc., but when it comes to mouthwash, you will definitely not ignore Canban. Founded in 2018, Canban took the top spot in the mouthwash category on Tmall on Double 11 in 2021 with its unique strategy for selling explosive products.

Figure｜Qiangua-Note Trend Analysis

Qiangua shows: 723 notes related to September 1st - November 11th. The number of notes from October 20th to October 30th was much higher than the average daily delivery during the daily grass-planting stage. There were frequent peaks in interaction volume (likes, comments, and favorites) on September 12, September 24, and October 12-November 4.

Figure｜Data source-Qiangua

Canban quickly captured the minds of Xiaohongshu users by creating popular products such as probiotic mouthwash. Qiangua shows that from September 1st to November 11th, the notes with the keyword combination "Sanban Mouthwash" and "Sanban Explosive Beads" basically accounted for half each. The overall campaign is centered around the two sub-products of mouthwash and popping beads.

Figure｜Qiangua-Note type distribution

Brand analysis shows that among the notes related to Sanban, personal care type notes account for 81.37%, and health care product type notes account for 4.3% (actually the “Sanban Probiotic Lozenges”). However, the interaction rate of personal care type notes is 57.97%, which is far from the proportion of the number of notes. In addition, the interaction volume of notes such as health products, food, and collections accounts for a relatively high proportion.

This may mean that the effectiveness of Canban in vertical fields is weakening.

This is a common problem encountered in the 2.0 stage of brand promotion on Xiaohongshu: the traffic growth brought by strongly related content promotion has slowed down. On the one hand, the precise population that can be reached is close to saturation in the short term. On the other hand, as more category brands enter the market, content becomes homogenized, which to some extent distracts the attention of targeted groups of people.

At this time, brands need to leverage the blogger’s personality advantages and reach potential target groups more widely through scenario-based marketing.

For example, oral cleaning after lunch, oral cleaning when traveling, etc. Make product functions specific to actual application scenarios to promote them.

Figure｜Qiangua-Content Keyword Analysis

In addition, product recognition can be enhanced through special images or symbols. For example, red waist, little brown bottle, big eye essence, etc. The top 3 keywords of grass-planting content are: "Sanban Shenxian Mouthwash" has 232 notes, and nearly one-third of the notes mention it. It is one of the key marketing directions of Canban since September.

Figure｜Data source-Qiangua

For Canban, products are its brand, and it needs to focus on promoting its main products. The proportion of junior and above influencers has increased significantly, and there are also a small number of top influencers and well-known KOLs. The Canban Daren delivery model is close to the standard pyramid KOL delivery model. This is the main delivery model for Xiaohongshu’s brand promotion 2.0 phase. A complete communication chain is formed in which top influencers and well-known KOLs drive the topic, mid-level and junior influencers strongly promote the topic, and ordinary people follow suit.

The success of the "Sanban Hot Product" strategy proves to a certain extent that the charm of grass-roots marketing lies in the ability to add countless zeros after 1 (product) and enhance brand awareness by creating hot products.

Emerging brands can find a competitive product of their own, penetrate the segmented track, and thus occupy the brand mind recognition in that track.

04 Give full play to the blogger's personality advantage, olive-shaped delivery model-high ROI strategy

On Double 11, three Tmall beauty brands had sales exceeding 2 billion, namely L'Oréal, Estee Lauder, and Lancôme. Estee Lauder is a "heavy user" of Xiaohongshu and has consistently appeared at the top of the commercial investment list.

Figure｜Qiangua-Commercial Advertising List

In October, Estee Lauder once again topped the commercial investment list. The total number of business note interactions was 488,300, with 561 relevant partners. There is no doubt that internationally renowned brands such as Estee Lauder attach great importance to Xiaohongshu. As a brand that has reached a mature stage on Xiaohongshu, what is there worth learning from Estee Lauder?

Figure｜Qiangua-Note Analysis

Qiangua shows that from September 1 to November 11, the number of Estee Lauder-related articles increased by 69.10% year-on-year, the total number of interactions increased by 49.20% year-on-year, and the total number of shares increased by 136.07%. Maintain high-frequency daily marketing and increase the density of delivery at major marketing nodes.

Figure｜Qiangua-Note type distribution

The number of note categories is also concentrated in vertical fields such as skin care, makeup and beauty collections. However, the proportion of interaction volume is basically the same as the proportion of number of articles; in fact, the interaction volume of cosmetics is higher than the proportion of number of articles.

For brands in the 3.0 stage of grass-planting, in addition to vertical and scenario-based grass-planting, it is more important to find influencers who match the brand’s tone to carry out grass-planting.

The brand’s tone, connotation and emotional value are conveyed through the blogger’s personality, fully demonstrating the brand’s characteristics.

Picture｜Qiangua-Notes related comments

This Estee Lauder business note gives the product more emotional value through a short dramatic performance of workplace disappointments and a heartwarming plot at the end. Estee Lauder Pomegranate Cleansing Oil removes not only the entire face of makeup, but also the negative emotions of the day.

Just as the note says: "Life is difficult, but your appearance is enough to light up my whole world. In front of you, I can finally take off all my disguises." At the same time, it is also a microcosm of people in love supporting each other on the road of life, full of ritual sense.

In addition to mentioning the blogger's "three golds", the top 10 hot words in the comments also included approving comments such as "realistic", "made me cry", and "so cute".

For brands that are deeply promoted on Xiaohongshu, such as Estee Lauder, in addition to strongly related content and weakly related content, they also need content that can highlight the brand tone and emotional value, so as to create differentiated selling points and enhance product value.

Figure｜Data source-Qiangua

The distribution of Estee Lauder Business Notes influencers from September 1st to November 1st shows that mid-level influencers account for 81.17%, and the overall distribution is close to the olive-shaped delivery model. As the group of influencers who benefit the most from Xiaohongshu's decentralized system, mid-level influencers can better obtain higher interactive ROI under the platform's traffic mechanism. This is the level of influencers that top brands on Xiaohongshu prefer to target.

Compared with the pyramid delivery model, the olive-shaped delivery model is more suitable for brands that already have a certain level of brand awareness on Xiaohongshu. That is, for brands in the 3.0 stage of grass-planting, when the grass-planting of strongly related content and weakly related content is relatively saturated, they focus on conveying the brand tone and enhancing the emotional value of the product through the blogger’s personality.

In this regard, the advantages of waist experts are more obvious. They know how to showcase their personal advantages and shape their brand image better; and the ROI of interaction with mid-level influencers is higher.

Picture｜Qiangua

The five-pointed star delivery model is a product of brand target delivery. We do not overly pursue a certain classic delivery model, but rather follow the principle of applicability, that is, all high-quality bloggers who meet the brand's needs can be placed. Therefore, there is no obvious focus on the level of talents, and everything is centered around people. It is commonly seen in the launch of emerging niche categories.

Of course, all delivery models are summarized through brand delivery data. Brands can refer to the basic delivery model and then make fine adjustments based on their own brand’s stage, specific track and products, which will be more practical.

05 Conclusion

After reviewing the Double 11 marketing campaign, a new round of marketing campaign is ready to go. Xiaohongshu’s content marketing strategy and KOL delivery model should pay attention to the following points:

The three stages of Xiaohongshu's marketing content strategy: strongly related content accurately reaches the target audience, weakly related content widely reaches potential audiences, and generally related content conveys brand tone and shapes brand image.

The KOL delivery matrix of Xiaohongshu: pyramid delivery model (in line with the principles of communication), olive-shaped delivery model (in line with the characteristics of the platform), and five-pointed star delivery model (in line with goal orientation).

By combining different content strategies and KOL delivery matrices at different stages, the role of Xiaohongshu platform and bloggers as consumer decision-making leaders can be fully utilized.