From chasing KOL marketing dividends to "traffic involution", Xiaohongshu brand merchants have been exploring new strategies and methods, striving to seize the blue ocean of users' minds. In response to this demand, the emergence of KOS and expert KOLs has provided brands with opportunities to overtake others.

01 KOS directly hits users, guiding them to buy products → directly removing products

KOS - "Key Opinion Sales", key opinion sales, specifically refers to strong content creators with professional sales capabilities and vertical industry and brand knowledge reserves; another interpretation is Key Opinion Spreader.

The top influencer @李佳琪 and the well-known beauty blogger @洛王宇 are representatives who have emerged from this trend. The biggest difference between KOS, KOL and KOC is that they create content with the clear purpose of sales, understand brands, customers, and sales.

According to Qiangua data expert analysis, @罗王宇 has his own accounts on Xiaohongshu, Douyin, and Weibo, with a cumulative fan base of over 15 million. He used to be a TF makeup artist and counter BA. With his solid professional knowledge, true and direct personality, and beautiful appearance, he has won the trust and love of many fans.

Figure｜Qiangua Data-Expert Analysis

He had been at the top of the Douyin Star Map recommendation list for four consecutive weeks, with sales of 13 million yuan in a single video; he led the "acid flushing" trend on the entire network, first explaining the concept to build awareness, and then promoting the product. The sales of the acid flushing product "Fuqing Key Salicylic Acid" he recommended were very impressive.

Although the number of Luo Wangyu's fans on Douyin and Xiaohongshu is quite different, based on the high fan stickiness and platform decision-making power of Xiaohongshu users, Luo Wangyu's team still maintains the daily operation and maintenance of the Xiaohongshu account. In the word cloud of related notes and comments of Qiangua Data Expert, words such as "Auntie", "Luo Wangyu", "Acid Brush", and "Sunscreen" are clearly visible, demonstrating Luo Wangyu's ability in promoting products.

Figure｜Qiangua Data-Expert Analysis

By selecting KOS who are professional, friendly and trustworthy, the brand's final sales conversion can be greatly increased, completing the path from planting grass to pulling grass on Xiaohongshu.

02 Expert KOLs empower brands and provide brand trust endorsement

In recent years, the group of ingredient lovers has gradually grown. Skin care ingredients such as "niacinamide", "squalane" and "amino acid" have appeared in the eyes of consumers. There are more than 3.15 million notes when searching for ingredients on Xiaohongshu.

In order to cater to consumer demand, the beauty product industry chain has changed accordingly. Expert marketing is no longer limited to celebrities and internet celebrities. Expert KOLs have gradually become a key group that makes decisions and influences young consumers' purchases.

Figure｜Qiangua Data

Expert KOLs, who are either doctors or have a background in research and development, are a group of professional and authoritative KOLs. They provide effective skin care solutions to ingredient lovers and consumers by checking literature, interpreting ingredients, and digging into products and efficacy. The content they recommend is highly trustworthy, their fans are more accurate, they are more likely to "plant grass" among young people, and they also have considerable sales power.

The domestic skincare brand Winona focuses on the research and development of products for sensitive skin and has a professional medical background and botanical resources. In the past, ordinary consumers rarely had the opportunity to access such professional content, and the rigorous and boring academic language also hindered the communication between brands and consumers.

Picture｜Xiaohongshu

Today, Winona has found a way to break out of its circle through expert KOLs and achieved new growth. During the 618 period this year, its sales ranked among the top 10 Tmall beauty brands, and it retained its position as the number one domestic beauty brand.

Dr. Aier, a domestic skincare brand founded in 2018, is a subsidiary of Shandong Freda Bioengineering Co., Ltd. It has many years of professional R&D background. Its GMV exceeded 100 million within one year of its establishment. In the first 6 hours of the 618 period this year, Dr. Aier's omni-channel sales exceeded the sales of the same period last year.

Figure｜Qiangua Data- Distribution of Dr. Aier’s Product Recommenders

According to Wang He, the e-commerce operator of Dr. Aier, Dr. Aier currently cooperates deeply with KOLs online to form a relatively stable triangular content exposure structure:

1. Amateur bloggers write about their true feelings to obtain tail traffic

2. Professional bloggers make rational analysis, shape product value and empower the brand

3. Fashion bloggers talk about scenes to expand brand and product awareness

From the perspective of consumers, only by selecting market segments and ensuring product quality, controlling the influencer matrix and rhythmically promoting content can a relatively good ROI be created.

03 Professional accounts create a new ecosystem, Xiaohongshu account system changes

Whether it is KOS or expert KOL, we can find that consumers are shifting from chasing popular trends to following professionals. By choosing real "insiders" as opinion leaders, they have obtained a better consumption experience.

On August 2, Xiaohongshu officially launched the new "account and store integration" regulations, and the first thing it did was to adjust the platform account system. Under the new account system, in the future there will only be two identity authentication systems on Xiaohongshu: professional and non-professional accounts.

Brand users can authenticate the identities of various industry organizations such as beauty, fashion, food, and trends, while expert KOLs can choose to be authenticated as science bloggers or industry-related personal bloggers.

Picture｜Xiaohongshu

For detailed introduction of professional accounts and the identities that can be applied for at present, you can go to the official website of Xiaohongshu to check: https://school.xiaohongshu.com/helper/detail/1025 (copy and open in browser)

After successfully applying for a professional account, the account can also obtain various professional commercial capabilities including operational guidance, fan interaction, opening stores and selling goods, brand cooperation, marketing promotion, etc., to meet the business demands of brands and individual merchants on Xiaohongshu.

Picture｜Xiaohongshu

The adjustment of Xiaohongshu’s account system shows the platform’s insight into the influence of professionals on brand users.

Applying for a professional account to form an identity label, sincerely sharing the content of notes, and then opening a store on Xiaohongshu to form a closed business loop is the first step for the platform to create a high-quality content ecosystem and win consumers.

Regardless of whether it is a brand or a blogger, any individual organization that wants to gain benefits on Xiaohongshu will need to upgrade their professional accounts in the future and obtain tickets for commercial monetization in order to gain more possibilities.

04 Three replicable methods to build brand professional barriers

Xiaohongshu has always encouraged creators to share sincerely. So, given consumers’ perception and demand for “insiders”, how can they create content that is both sincere and professional?

To retain users, first of all you need to know how to penetrate their behavior and psychology. Data distribution is the surface, and customer behavior is the inside. Based on the most essential transaction scenarios, the consumer behavior model follows the AIDMA rule, which is to attract attention - generate interest - awaken desire - leave memory - take action to buy.

Figure | AIDMA rule

1. The topic is popular and the copy is concise and easy to understand

The content should not be too deep or too shallow. Try to choose topics that everyone likes to attract attention and use simple language to explain complex principles.

Qiangua Data - Hot Topic List shows that in July, Xiaohongshu users had high discussion on topics such as "acid removal", "military training survival guide", and "morning C and evening A", so brand bloggers can choose topics from them and obtain higher user traffic.

Figure｜Qiangua Data-Hot Topics

In copywriting, it is necessary to use an easy-to-understand discourse system to conduct secondary creation and dissemination of the product's efficacy principles based on real product experience, so as to truly make users understand and awaken consumers' desires.

For example, the acid peeling product notes by Xiaohongshu skincare blogger @Yaritza in collaboration with the brand LEAF SIMPLE are all practical and informative, with pictures and texts clearly explaining how to use the products, the correct steps for acid peeling, how to build tolerance and precautions.

Picture｜Xiaohongshu

Qiangua Data - Note dissemination effect shows that the number of likes, collections, comments and shares of this note by Xiaohongshu influencer @Yaritza far exceeds the average level of influencers, shaping the professional impression of the brand blogger while bringing huge exposure.

Figure｜Qiangua Data-Note Analysis

2. Scenario communication affects consumer decisions

Create a unified style to create memorable points, penetrate the minds, and make consumers remember.

In terms of brand tone, some are very artistic, while others are full of girlishness; in terms of blogger personality, some are sharp and direct, while others are serious yet humorous; in terms of picture layout, they are good at using props, scenery, costumes, etc. to enhance the impression, and they can also highlight highlights through editing to enhance users' memory of the brand.

Picture｜Xiaohongshu

Zhong Xue Gao, which is targeting the mid-to-high-end ice cream market, defines its product as a healthy ice cream with low sugar and fat content. Its tile-like image and biodegradable ice cream sticks made of straw are its distinctive labels. The product perfectly fits the user portrait and shopping preferences of Xiaohongshu.

In the operation of the brand account, it has won the love of many consumers by virtue of its high appearance and novel and interesting creative activities. Qiangua Data-Brand Analysis shows that in the word cloud of related notes and comments on Zhong Xue Gao in the past 30 days, words such as "Zhong Xue Gao", "want", "like", and "want to eat" appear most frequently, achieving deep user promotion.

Figure｜Qiangua Data-Comment Word Cloud

According to relevant statistics, during the 618 period in 2021, Xue Gao exceeded the full-day sales of the previous year within just 3 minutes of the opening, and sold 600,000 ice creams that day.

3. Data tools can efficiently select professionals

Not all professionals are suitable for brand promotion. When brands select influencers and conduct data analysis on them, there are a large number of data dimensions that need to be decomposed, such as fan portraits and influencer data stability, which are the basic guarantees for communication power.

Basic information such as the number of fans is not enough to reflect the spread of information, and purely manual analysis can hardly meet the fast-paced promotion renewal. For example, when a brand wants to search for "doctor" on Xiaohongshu, the page will only actively recommend two well-known accounts. It is not possible to directly check which related accounts have matching names. It is necessary to manually go to "Comprehensive" to look through the notes to find the corresponding expert.

Picture｜Xiaohongshu

Qiangua Data - Expert Search can solve this problem. Enter the keyword "doctor" and there are 2,847 relevant Xiaohongshu experts. Select the skin care industry and the results show the account information of 86 relevant experts. Brand users can export the expert data with one click for specific analysis.

Figure｜Qiangua Data-Expert Search

Through Xiaohongshu influencer analysis, you can view the influencer's note data changes, fan portraits, promoted brands and other multi-dimensional data, providing the most direct reference for brand placement.

Figure｜Qiangua Data-Expert Analysis

05 Conclusion

KOS and expert KOLs have become the first choice for many brands. With the adjustment of Xiaohongshu's account system, brand users urgently need to adjust their old ideas, skillfully use the expert matrix combination, and build brand professional barriers to maximize exposure and conversion.

Choose hot topics to attract users' attention, simplify professional language and extract key points to awaken consumers' desires.

From product thinking to brand thinking, we create a unified style to create memory points, form unique brand scenes, and penetrate into the minds of users.

Use Xiaohongshu’s data tool - Qiangua Data to efficiently select professional Xiaohongshu influencers to help with brand marketing.