The role of KOL marketing in brand operation and promotion!

What is a KOL?

KOL: Key Opinion Leader (KOL for short), this is a concept in marketing. KOL marketing is a relatively new marketing method and is commonly seen on major well-known social platforms.

Hereinafter, they are collectively referred to as KOLs.

As an excellent operations and promotion personnel, understanding how KOLs can play an active role in brand operations and promotion is a new requirement put forward by the development of operations work.

A single shout from a KOL is worth your painstakingly written marketing plan. This is no longer an exaggeration. After all, it is a fact that a man named Li Jiaqi sold 14,000 lipsticks in one minute through a live streaming platform. This shows how powerful KOL is.

Therefore, when the trend tends to favor more KOLs to establish connections and build relationships, KOLs really become popular, until a new rule of Xiaohongshu was introduced on May 10: the entry threshold for brand partners was raised to the number of fans ≥ 5,000 and the exposure of notes in the past month ≥ 10,000. This is undoubtedly a one-size-fits-all approach for KOLs: those with more fans will become more popular, while those with fewer fans will become less popular.

We will not analyze the reasons for Xiaohongshu's move. This article wants to talk about how to better let KOLs endorse brands under limited resources and conditions (KOLs are also divided into different levels of ability)?

KOLs are generally believed to have more and more accurate product information, are accepted or trusted by relevant groups, and have a greater influence on the purchasing behavior of this group.

From the perspective of communication, opinion leaders are people who are active in interpersonal communication networks, often provide information, opinions and advice to others, and exert personal influence on others.

In short, they are what we commonly call experts, authoritative figures in a certain industry or field. They are easily recognized, can be quickly identified, and form a clustering effect. From big names like Wang Sicong (“Principal Wang”) of IG and Lei Jun of Xiaomi to small ones like the moderator of Tieba and the leader of a reading group, all of them can be called KOLs.

In addition, public opinion leaders, such as think tanks like Wu Xiaobo and Luo Pangzi; expert users of products, such as advanced medical equipment, and positive opinions expressed by famous doctors after using the products; policy makers, such as government officials and expert opinions listened to when the government makes decisions, etc., can also be called opinion leaders.

The KOL that this article focuses on today has more internet attributes, which is the often-mentioned "Internet celebrity", but it does not entirely refer to this type of people, so the article also uses the word KOL to express the text.

Of course, KOLs are not the same as the highest type of soul users in user operations. Soul users are often like spiritual leaders of a platform. Their temperament fits the platform and they are unique. KOL is not necessarily a core user, and core users are often not KOLs. Although the operating methods of soul users and KOLs are similar, the operating costs of soul users are often several times that of KOLs. I will not explain them in detail here.

Personally, I think KOLs have existed since ancient times, like Sima Yi and his successors in the Three Kingdoms period, the real power controllers of the Wei Kingdom, who were strategic and versatile; like the literati in the Tang and Song dynasties who were full of poetry and songs, and full of vitality, who wrote poems and sang songs, describing all kinds of life and cleansing the past and present; like the six gentlemen of the Wuxu Reform, the pioneers of reform in the late Qing Dynasty, whose heads were cut off, shocked China and the world, and were praised by everyone, influencing the later generations.

It’s just that the social attributes and the themes of the times are different. The characteristics of KOLs are that they have a large number of fans, are charismatic, and can influence fan behavior.

By utilizing this characteristic and applying KOL to brand promotion, the effect is remarkable. This will be the direction of the next article.

As a part of user operation, KOL operation is mainly based on improving traffic indicators, that is, obtaining traffic through KOL and converting customers. Statistics show that KOL operation and promotion is the most effective method among many user operation methods. Therefore, if KOL operations are done well, it will have a multiplier effect on improving brand reputation and popularity.

In November 2018, Wang Sicong initiated a Weibo lottery after IG won the e-sports championship, which ignited a Weibo topic with more than 20 million reposts and comments. The number of IG fans doubled from 16.1 million to 34.39 million, and multiple secondary communication centers were formed. The number of fans of the big Vs in each level of communication center is over one million, forming a veritable mid-level KOL and generating secondary or even multiple communications.

This is also the result of the nepotism of top KOLs and mid-level KOLs working together to create a massive effect on the event, which is enough to bring huge traffic to the brand's communication.

So, how to introduce KOL into the overall user operation process? This is something worth pondering after the incident.

In general, the process of introducing KOLs is a process from shallow to deep.

First of all, don’t follow the trend and don’t be impatient, and pay attention to controlling the rhythm of introducing KOLs. As a user operator, you need to control the pace of introduction based on brand needs. Specifically, based on timing, brand attributes, and user group attributes, introduce KOLs that are suitable for the brand role.

If too many KOLs are introduced in the early stage of operation, the number of fans will be divided, and KOLs will lose motivation due to insufficient number of fans, resulting in loss. If the amount introduced in the early stage is too small, on the one hand, some potential users will be lost due to excessive specialization, and on the other hand, it will also cause certain obstacles to the subsequent KOL maintenance.

If the brand is targeting young groups or needs to cultivate a young market, it needs to cater to their preferences when introducing KOLs. This is similar to the fact that more and more brands are using popular celebrities for advertising.

Secondly, the choice of KOL type is very important! It is similar to the impression of being well-matched, but it is also a deeper match of three values. KOLs are highly active and can quickly get along with fans, bringing in additional users to the brand. Therefore, it is particularly important for them to have correct values. If a KOL gets along well with everyone in the early stages, but later disagrees with the brand for other reasons, and then uses his or her influence and power to interfere with fans, the impact on the brand will be disastrous.

For example, the artists whose personal images collapsed in 2017 and 2018, no matter they were big names or young stars, each collapse of their personal images brought irreparable economic losses to the brands they represented, and completely disrupted the brand promotion paths originally laid out by the brand marketing planners. At this time, brand promotion may be more about brand public relations. Therefore, there is even a joke that senior operations managers of major brands now follow a few paparazzi celebrities in order to make plans in advance to reduce the impact on the brand.

Finally, a reminder here is that the KOL’s temperament needs to be consistent with the brand’s temperament.

For Weibo, the purpose is entertainment, and KOLs must be interesting and fun.

For Zhihu, the purpose is to share knowledge, and KOLs must have content.

What Jumei needs more is beauty experts rather than muscular men.

For KEEP, you always have to find a handsome man or a beautiful woman with a good figure.

How to introduce KOL?

There is a long tail theory in marketing, which says that our culture and economy are undergoing a rapid transformation, and the economic center of gravity is shifting from a relatively small number of mainstream products and markets to a huge number of niche products and markets.

This means that marketing is targeted to the market space occupied by a small group of customers with similar interests or needs within a larger market segment. Most successful brands don’t start out in large markets, but instead grow their businesses by identifying emerging or undiscovered niches within larger markets.

Therefore, introducing KOLs and following the long-tail theory may help to attract more people.

Let’s talk briefly about attracting new customers and cultivating them.

Attracting new customers is the most basic means and the most stable way. There are many specific methods to attract new customers, but one principle is to persist and find the KOL that best suits the brand temperament and is in line with the brand positioning, and then deeply integrate with the brand attributes, and use the logic of seeing the big from the small to push the brand or product to the market and to users. Remember here not to gain short-term brand exposure through excessive promotion and marketing.

The training focuses on the positioning relationship between KOL and brand owners. Simply put, KOL is not your employee, and you are not the KOL's commander. Instead, during the brand publicity and promotion process, you should express suggestions in a timely manner, modify promotion methods, and participate in the entire process of brand operation and promotion together with KOL. This is not only an affirmation of the KOL personally, but also a way to establish a relationship with the brand based on emotional needs. Only if the KOL truly likes and is sincere can he or she ensure that the KOL interacts with fans wholeheartedly.

So, after having stable KOL and fan interaction activities, from what other aspects can we tap the potential of KOL marketing?

Here, KOL’s active forwarding should be one of the directions. KOL’s active forwarding is crucial to brand promotion, because KOL can make brand information spread beyond the circle. With KOL’s active forwarding, brand exposure will increase exponentially.

KOL’s brand operation and promotion is a channel and method to directly communicate with the market and users. Therefore, recognizing the value of KOLs, identifying suitable KOLs in actual work, and operating and maintaining KOLs through effective methods are very helpful in improving operational efficiency.

Related reading:

1. What are the techniques for KOL operation and promotion?

2. In-depth analysis of short video KOL celebrities in 2019!

3. KOL Marketing: 4 Steps to Become a KOL

4. In-depth analysis from 0 to 1: What is KOL operation?

5.2019 China KOL Marketing Strategy White Paper!

6. How to carry out KOL operation and promotion?

Source: Internet