The KOL purchased for 30 million has high conversion rate!

In recent years, driven by major MCN agencies, advertising companies and social platforms, KOL live streaming has become a standard feature of almost every brand’s advertising.

The flowers are becoming more and more dazzling. In the wave of KOL live streaming, along with the rising advertising fees, remarks criticizing KOL for faking traffic have begun to emerge in an endless stream, revealing a corner of the veil of online celebrities live streaming.

So, in today's world where traffic is getting more and more expensive and traffic water is getting more and more serious, how did I break this curse and create a brand effect of over 100 million for MINISO with less than 30 million advertising expenses a year?

Over the past few years, we have spent a lot of time studying the latest marketing methods and have developed a rigorous and skillful media delivery strategy. This set of methodology can be said to be a summary of the essence of our investment over the years. Behind every experience is the result of our battle of wits and courage with MCN agencies, advertising companies and KOLs.

What is the difference between KOL, KOC and anchor?

Before you can deeply understand KOL marketing, you must first understand several key professional terms and industry phenomena.

KOL (Key Opinion Leader)

The current mainstream definition of KOL can be divided into two types: cross-border and vertical :

The cross-border type generally belongs to the top KOL, characterized by strong IP attributes. Fans are like their believers. They will follow the influencers to buy because of trust, and have the characteristics of high coverage. These top KOLs can serve as topic leaders, helping brands break through the circle of communication, quickly increase their popularity, and trigger public relations attributes;

The vertical type usually belongs to the mid-level KOLs. They work deeper in the vertical field and have more targeted content. They can stimulate in-depth circle dissemination of content, form brand loyalty and high conversion, and are more suitable for daily delivery and combined delivery.

KOC（Key Opinion Consumer）

I have briefly analyzed the word KOC in previous articles. To make it easier for everyone to understand, I will add some more information here.

Although KOC is a newly coined word, it is an old concept. Its birth has made the discourse on social platforms more equal, and has also tilted the scales of the media that hold information monopoly and the top KOLs with cognitive surplus to the top of the discourse power, allowing "amateur opinion leaders" to have more room for self-expression.

The characteristics of KOC are that although the number of fans is not large, it wins by quantity, the content is authentic, and the fans are relatively active and sticky. It belongs to the type of spreading the net widely and spreading quantity.

Anchor

Live streaming has become popular in recent years. Its directness and immediacy have broken down physical distances, helping brands communicate with users more quickly and allowing some small and beautiful new brands to turn things around. The popularity of live streaming has also allowed top anchors such as Li Jiaqi and Viya from Taobao, Xin Youzhi from Kuaishou, and Niurou Ge from Douyin to take the center stage in e-commerce sales in their respective fields.

But I think there are essential differences between e-commerce anchors and KOLs.

KOLs are more like content creators. Their explanations of products are more from a consumer perspective. By outputting the practical content they are good at on social platforms, such as review experiences, jokes, emotional chicken soup, recommendations, fashion outfits, etc., they create an "individual evaluation" environment, allowing users to immersively experience the value of the product, thereby speeding up their next decision and making it more interesting.

The anchor is more like a buyer or salesperson, a booster before consumers make a purchase. He guides consumers to the merchant's store for consumption through introductions and recommendations. This is more purposeful and less interesting.

In short, KOLs focus more on social hot spots, fan resonance, and jokes when it comes to content output; anchors focus on product quality, unique craftsmanship, and the lowest promotional price.

But whether it is KOL, KOC or anchor, from the early TV shopping guides, blog forums, to the blowout of Weibo and WeChat, to the current short video platforms such as Douyin, Kuaishou and Taobao Live, they have also gone through a period of great trials and tribulations. But the core trend remains unchanged. Where there is traffic, there is the world. It’s just that some people sell the ability to bring goods, some sell the influence of word-of-mouth, and some sell brand endorsement. They all represent the voice of a certain circle.

The distinction between the three is more about promoting the distinction in deployment of troops. The anchor is responsible for selling products, the top KOL is responsible for endorsement, the mid-level KOL is responsible for creating topics, and the KOC sinks into the real consumer group like yeast. They are all an indispensable link in the advertising matrix and a complementary pyramid matrix camp.

Only 10% to 20% of KOLs do not inflate their traffic

First of all, I would like to give the brand a heads-up.

According to an industry insider who was interviewed by Ran Finance, only 10%-20% of the KOLs of his MCN company do not buy traffic, and it has long been an unspoken rule in the industry for MCN agencies to increase traffic for bloggers.

In February 2019, CCTV News exposed the industrial chain behind increasing traffic by brushing false data.

On social media platforms, the content posted by some users can easily receive millions, tens of millions, or even hundreds of millions of views or likes. In fact, this is supported by a series of water armies and false data.

Why? Because the price of KOLs with real traffic is too high.

Generally speaking, high-quality KOLs/anchors such as Dingxiang Doctor, Shenyefawu, Li Jiaqi, and Wei Ya have a lot of advertisements and are also very picky about the strength of the brand. You need to queue up to post an advertisement, and in order to ensure the "style", there is often a strict review of the advertising content or the products promoted, which also places demands on the brand's promotion capabilities.

On the other hand, building one’s own advertising and marketing system, connecting the supply and demand sides, and extracting commissions from transactions has almost become standard among major Internet platforms today. In other words, KOLs now need to pay a "toll" when they post content with brand implants on the platform, otherwise the content will be restricted.

Taking Xiaohongshu as an example, KOLs can only accept advertisements on Xiaohongshu after being reviewed by the Xiaohongshu platform and becoming “brand partners”. There is also Weibo. In addition to the fixed fee of purchasing "Fans Headlines", sometimes you also need to buy paid products such as "Fans Pass" so that the advertising content released by KOLs will have traffic. Otherwise, no matter how good the content is, fans will not be able to see it.

The imbalance in supply and demand has resulted in the KOL quotation from KOL - MCN agency - advertising company - brand, and finally the KOL quotation received by the brand is likely to be the result of several rounds of price increases.

MCN agencies and advertising companies need to make money, KOLs need to eat, bosses need to look at data, and clients want cost-effective KOLs and KPIs. In this way, "brushing" naturally forms a stable gray industrial chain.

The most important point is that in the current market, the cost of fraudulent clicks and top posts is too low. Brands invest tens of thousands or hundreds of thousands of dollars in advertising, but a water account only needs less than 1,000 yuan to "originally" create a post with more than 100,000 clicks, and the brand can arrange the forwarding, likes, and comments for you clearly.

5 key steps to do a good job of KOL placement

Regarding KOL placement, I have summarized 5 key steps:

Source: "Breaking Word of Mouth" P227-KOL Methodology Delivery Model

The first step is to choose the right KOL: To achieve effective coordination between people, goods and places, it is necessary to clarify what kind of products are suitable for KOL to promote? What is the purpose of demand? Is the KOL’s personality consistent with the brand tone and product DNA? What is the overlap among target consumers?

The second step is to optimize the marketing strategy: continuously optimize the marketing method, constantly try and error, and find your own path to growth.

The third step is to make good use of KOLs: advertising is not just about throwing the demand to KOLs. Brands and KOLs need to co-create content.

The fourth step is to ensure good traffic reception: selling goods and increasing followers, one of them must be on the way.

Step 5: Data review: After implementation, it is necessary to collect data and consumer feedback, and revise previous assessments based on the results to further improve the next KOL delivery strategy.

The first step is to choose the right KOL

Each placement is a long-term media investment for the brand. Before we start communicating, we must be clear about our purpose. Is it to gain brand exposure and increase awareness, to build word of mouth, or simply for sales conversion?

Different purposes will lead to different KOL types being preferred by brands. Brands need to select KOLs in a targeted manner at different stages of the campaign. Common combinations can be divided into two categories:

Category 1: Look at KOL attributes

Source: "Breaking Word of Mouth" P229-KOL attributes on different platforms

Vertical KOLs are responsible for conversions. This type of KOL has a stronger ability to bring products. Taking beauty KOLs as an example, they have professional personalities and can output professional reviews to build product reputation.

For non-vertical KOL exposure, you can choose mainly drama-based KOLs and KOLs with large playback volumes but low conversion rates. These KOLs are relatively weak in bringing goods, but their advantage is that the CPM (cost per thousand) is low and can be used for large-scale exposure and promotion.

The second category: look at channel attributes

Different platforms have different characteristics, so brands must choose the most suitable delivery method on different channels.

Weibo: It has many users, a loud voice, and many celebrity KOL resources, making it more suitable for creating topics and gaining exposure to attract public attention. Miniso mainly relies on topic activity announcements and KOL trial sharing to build word-of-mouth on Weibo. For entertainment marketing such as Lu Han’s Sports Girl and TFboys, we chose Weibo as a voice and a platform to create momentum.

WeChat official accounts: suitable for in-depth information dissemination. For example, MINISO’s advertising on official accounts mainly focuses on analysis of online and offline activities (H5) and brand growth (business model, financial article analysis).

Tik Tok and Kuaishou: They are scenario-based, with rich video content and strong fun, and are mainly used for the dissemination of creative videos.

Xiaohongshu: A deep-dive product recommendation platform. For example, for products with strong cosmetics and skincare, Pink Panther, and Marvel IP attributes, we will choose Xiaohongshu as the main battlefield to build product reputation.

Taobao Live: The human-shaped Juhuasuan is the latest evolution of online channels and is suitable for driving sales conversions.

Bilibili: A concentration of two-dimensional people, with strong KOL personality attributes. For young people who are tired of traditional embedded advertising, Bilibili's barrage interaction can create a guiding atmosphere, which is suitable for the dissemination of creative content. In the "Battle to Clear Out MINISO" (Case Study in Chapter 6), we put a ghost video on Bilibili and achieved very good communication effect.

Where do high-quality KOLs come from?

Cooperate with MCN agencies/advertising companies/third-party media platforms, or build your own resource library.

Third-party media platform cooperation

Many brands prefer to cooperate with large advertising companies, and then package their marketing and promotion projects to the advertising companies, where the advertising companies provide a complete set of solutions including creativity and media procurement.

MINISO is not.

In most cases, we prefer to cooperate with some small advertising companies. These advertising companies are not large in scale, and many of their founders came from 4A advertising companies to establish their own studios, so their execution and cost-effectiveness will be very high.

At the same time, we will not package the entire project and hand it over to the advertising company. Instead, we will split the entire project and have the advertising company output the creative plan, while the KOL placement will be purchased from a third-party media platform.

There are two reasons for doing this: one is to save costs, and the other is to integrate the best resources.

For many advertising companies, their advantage lies mainly in creativity, while KOLs either quote very high prices (there is an extra middleman) or have relatively few resources. As for third-party media platforms, their KOL resources are more abundant and the costs are relatively low.

Similarly, when it comes to choosing a media platform, I won’t put all my eggs in one basket. Instead, I will look for several more companies to compete with and select at least two or three. I will then integrate the best resources in their KOL database (such as the best price-performance ratio and higher quality KOLs) and use them together for the advertising.

After choosing to cooperate with a media platform, we also need to do one thing: when issuing a demand brief, we must make the specific promotion needs clear.

Don’t underestimate this action. A clear and concise demand will allow advertising companies/media platforms to make more accurate matches when screening KOLs for you, which can save a lot of subsequent communication costs and even unnecessary friction.

Source: "Breaking Word of Mouth" P231-Demand Brief

The above picture is the order demand template I used when I was promoting a project at MINISO. It includes demand background, project goals, KOL attributes (vertical proportion, non-vertical proportion), content output and submission time, etc.

Based on promotion needs and budget, the advertising company/media platform will provide resources and quotations.

A common mistake made by many brands is to decide on advertising based solely on the data provided by the media platform. But one thing you need to understand is that the quotes from most media platforms are ranked based on the number of fans of KOLs. The larger the fan base, the more expensive the advertising costs.

However, choosing KOLs for advertising from this perspective alone cannot guarantee the effectiveness of the advertising. Regarding media platform and KOL evaluation, our approach is to manually verify the real data of KOL.

Manually verifying KOL data is hard work, and the time cost, labor cost, and communication cost are very high, but it is something we must do.

I will ask the team to go to the homepage of each KOL we intend to target and do a good job of KOL data analysis.

1. Fan portrait matching degree. This is the prerequisite for screening KOLs, including age, gender, region and spending power, and it must be in line with the brand's tone.

2. Activity. Through basic data such as likes, comments, shares, favorites, etc.; especially comments, which we internally call the "deep interaction value" criterion. It is one of the important criteria for judging consumers' real feedback on products and content quality, and has great guiding value for KOL screening.

3. Content quality. At this time, you can evaluate the content that the KOL has written for other brands in the past to see whether it can combine the characteristics of the brand and the KOL itself to make personalized expressions, whether it can fully present professional content such as product efficacy and core selling points, and convey it to fans in an easy-to-understand and interesting way.

In addition to manually identifying the authenticity of KOL data, you can also use tools to make good assessments. Currently, many platforms have monitoring functions, such as Xinbang, Xigua Data, etc.

Before launching the campaign, you can first conduct minute-by-minute monitoring of the KOLs you intend to cooperate with. Taking the public account delivery as an example, our experience is to first find the KOL’s advertising tweets of the day, look at the data a few hours after the release, and then monitor the data fluctuations between 1:00 and 5:00 in the evening. If the data continues to increase during this period, then it is undoubtedly water.

For the high-quality KOLs that have been tested, we will sign a framework agreement with the media platform for long-term cooperation. On the one hand, this can allow our own brand to be deeply bound with the KOL, and directly turn the KOL's fans into brand fans; on the other hand, everyone's tacit cooperation can reduce communication costs, and there is also a price advantage, so there will be more room for discounts.

Establish a KOL resource library

This method is to find some KOLs in niche circles by yourself, such as bloggers in the notebook, BL, cosplay and other circles... Use gift exchanges or fees to maintain long-term cooperative relationships with these KOLs and build your own resource library.

For example, MINISO has established its own KOL resource library. Our editors will, based on the characteristics of our products, go to Weibo, Xiaohongshu, and Douyin to explore and connect with some niche bloggers that match the tone of MINISO, such as food bloggers, makeup and skin care bloggers, notebook bloggers, anime bloggers, etc.

Source: "Breaking Word of Mouth" P233-KOL Resource Management Table

The discovered KOLs need to be classified and managed (as shown above) so that corresponding products can be recommended to them in a targeted manner. We will classify the KOL into ABCD levels based on the number of fans and interaction rate. For AB level, we will consider cooperating with the KOL by paying some advertising fees, and for CD level, we will cooperate with the KOL by exchanging products.

Here is a little trick. We tend to search for vertical keywords on social platforms, such as #MINISOEyeshadow#, #MINISOSnacks#, #MINISOPinkPanther#, etc., and use content tags to discover KOLs who have pushed MINISO products.

Because the blogger has spontaneously recommended our products, it means that she recognizes MINISO. At this time, if we give the blogger some benefits that can impress her, such as providing products for lucky draws, we can achieve the effect of resource exchange with a very small budget.

After long-term cooperation, we are still greatly surprised by the data feedback from these small KOLs. Their reposts, comments and likes are not inferior to those of the big Vs with millions of fans. They are even of higher quality and without any adulteration. They can be said to be treasure KOLs.

Here is another case that I think is also very instructive.

This case is the light meal replacement brand Pastoralism that I mentioned in the first chapter.

Tianyuanzhuyi’s monthly revenue currently exceeds 20 million. As a new light meal replacement brand, it has achieved such a result. In addition to its strong product power, it is also inseparable from the support of KOLs.

How does it do that?

In the early days of its brand establishment, Tianyuanzhuyi formed a team of about 10 experts who were specifically responsible for deeply exploring KOLs on social platforms such as Weibo, Douyin, and Xiaohongshu, and negotiating cooperation with them.

At present, Tianyuanzhuyi has deeply cooperated with more than 3,000 KOLs, mainly on Douyin (at that time, the Douyin platform also supported third-party product links), supplemented by Weibo and Xiaohongshu. These bloggers did not go through third-party platforms, but were communicated and negotiated by their team one by one.

Because it focuses on light meals, health, and weight loss, Tianyuanzhui’s selection criteria for KOLs are mainly vertical KOLs. Most of them are hosts of weight loss, weight loss chicken soup, and sports and fitness. The number of fans ranges from 100,000 to 1 million, and their ability to bring goods is very strong.

In terms of cooperation with these KOLs, Tianyuanism adopts a pure commission form, that is, products are sent to KOLs, and then KOLs recommend the products to fans through live broadcasts, directing traffic to Tianyuanism’s Tmall flagship store. Tianyuanism will return a commission to the blogger based on the sales generated.

There are two reasons why these bloggers are willing to cooperate with Pastoralism:

One is the whole wheat bread promoted by Pastoralism. Unlike the fake whole wheat bread on the market that is mixed with wheat flour, Pastoralism is 100% real whole wheat bread. And because of its special craftsmanship, it tastes better than ordinary whole wheat bread, and its price-performance ratio is higher than many brands.

Another thing is that during the e-commerce promotion month, Tianyuanzhuyi will give great discounts to KOL's live broadcast rooms, and will not restrict the anchors' recommendation language for products, allowing them to express themselves freely.

During this year, Pastoralism worked with TikTok anchors on a large scale to attract traffic, achieved high sales in the big promotion month through a short-term rush, and ultimately the total traffic of the Tmall store climbed rapidly.

The anchors on the Douyin platform alone can bring 30% of the orders for Pastoralism, and the effect is obvious.

Step 2: Optimize delivery strategy

Promotion is a combination of strategies. If you only promote through a certain channel, you will inevitably end up wasting money and having no effect. In addition to choosing the right KOL, brands must also learn to use resources rationally and optimize KOL promotion strategies.

The platform launches from point to surface

The original traffic was single, but now the traffic is three-dimensional. We must find a focal point to match other traffic with the point, rather than moving forward at the same pace, which will result in nothing being done in the end.

How to do it?

Step 1: Find the platform circle that best matches your product

Step 2: Copy to similar circles

Step 3: Spread to other channels

Let’s take a look at the KOL investment strategies of two new domestic brands, Perfect Diary and Zhong Xue Gao.

Perfect Diary’s target audience is young women aged 18-28. These new generations born after 1995 and 2000 have more diversified channels of access, so Perfect Diary has invested heavily in all platforms where young people gather: Xiaohongshu, Douyin, Bilibili...

In the early days of the brand, Perfect Diary mainly used Xiaohongshu as its main battlefield for deep penetration. After exploring experience on one platform, it copied the same method to another platform and began to lay out on other platforms such as Douyin and Bilibili.

In the first year of its establishment, the internet-famous ice cream brand Zhong Xue Gao, like Perfect Diary, mainly launched Xiaohongshu and concentrated its efforts on penetrating Xiaohongshu.

Zhong Xuegao found a large number of mid-level and bottom-level KOLs and conducted food tasting, interaction and dissemination. A lot of work has been done on Xiaohongshu to promote products, and then a large number of users go to Tmall to buy products. After buying products, they have a good impression of the products and return to Xiaohongshu to continue promoting products.

After increasing brand awareness on Xiaohongshu, Zhong Xue Gao extended its external promotion to other social platforms.

Pyramid Model Strategy

I have elaborated on the pyramid model in detail in the product marketing section of Chapter 3. It mainly uses an efficient layered traffic diversion strategy, that is, top stars and KOLs rely on their own endorsement capabilities to create topics and attract attention for the brand; mid-level influencers dispel consumers' purchasing doubts through scene-based content display and other methods; and the KOLs and KOCs at the tail end swipe the screen to cover more potential consumers, creating an atmosphere of everyone promoting the products.

In addition to MINISO, many new internet-famous domestic brands such as Perfect Diary, Wang Baobao Cereal, and Zhong Xuegao are also adopting this "pyramid" matrix delivery strategy.

According to Growth Black Box data, the ratios of the number of people that Perfect Diary targeted on Xiaohongshu for celebrities (Luo Yunxi), top KOLs (such as Li Jiaqi), top influencers, mid-level influencers, and junior influencers are 1:1:3:46:100:150 respectively.

The ratio of KOLs at all levels of the popular snack flavor back fish skin is roughly 1:1:2:5:20:100;

Of course, the pyramid model strategy can be used as a reference for brands with sufficient budgets, but it is not a necessary and sufficient approach.

For example, in the case of the MINISO small refill lipstick that I mentioned in the second chapter, no top KOLs were used. Only mid-level and tail KOLs were selected for promotion, which could also trigger an explosion within a certain range.

So, how do you determine whether head traffic endorsement is needed? Varies by product.

For users, products with high decision-making costs require top traffic for professional endorsement to enhance brand power, such as black technology products and nutritional supplements.

For products with low decision-making costs, such as food and daily necessities, the demand for using top traffic to endorse and promote products is not that strong. For example, whether a snack is delicious or not can be proven by creating buzz through a large number of KOCs.

Therefore, the brand’s investment should be benchmarked against traffic costs rather than the value of professional endorsement to evaluate whether the expense is worth it.

Clarify the rhythm of communication

During the promotion period of a new product or an event, the choice of media mix and user communication touchpoints is the guarantee for brand traffic. But how to convert traffic more efficiently depends on brand content direction planning and media delivery rhythm.

Source: "Breaking Word of Mouth" P237-Promotion Rhythm Chart

The picture above is the promotion and communication plan of MINISO Hydrating Miracle Mask. From the early stage of promotion to the later stage of maintenance and operation, it took about one and a half months in total.

Warm-up period: Use hot topics to officially announce new products, preview activities, and create hype;

Momentum-building period: Bring conversions to the store through online and offline activities, and lay the foundation for subsequent large-scale online word-of-mouth building.

Continued popularity period: Focus on product promotion, evaluation and product recommendations on Xiaohongshu, Bilibili, Weibo and Douyin, use screen swiping to capture audience memory points, seize audience minds, maintain brand popularity, etc.

Step 3: Make good use of KOL

The cooperation between brands and KOLs should be seen as a win-win brand collaboration, rather than simply a matter of brands spending money on advertising. If brands want to achieve results, they must put more effort into delivering content.

One thing to remember is that promotion is not just about handing it over to KOLs. Brands need to work together with KOLs to co-create content.

Focus on spreading core information points

Then the brand side needs to determine the core needs of the promotion, and organize the core highlights that need to be presented as detailed as possible using a demand form and send it to the KOL, so that the KOL can customize the content according to his or her fan base.

One thing that needs to be noted is that the content should focus on 1-2 core "pain points" or "itch points", whether it is cost-effectiveness, ease of use, quality, or safety, etc. In order to clearly understand the core message to be communicated, all media combinations should communicate the same message point, and resources should be concentrated in a short period of time to launch a round of campaigns, so that different KOLs can repeatedly endorse the message to form a superimposed cumulative cognition.

The picture above shows the content direction requirements I gave to KOLs in the MINISO facial mask promotion project mentioned in Chapter 3.

Source: "Breaking Word of Mouth" P238-Content Requirements Table

We will sort out the professional knowledge behind the main products, such as suppliers, R&D stories, product formulas, efficacy principles, etc., and extract 1-2 core promotion points according to the scenario and give them to different bloggers, such as high cost performance, alternative to big brands, etc.

Then we will formulate a general promotion direction for KOLs on different platforms. For example, Xiaohongshu and Weibo mainly focus on evaluation and recommendation of good products, while Douyin mainly focuses on plots and challenges. There are no restrictions on content creation, and bloggers are free to express themselves. We only need to control whether the core selling points can be deeply reflected in the content, including the connection between the content and the product, the length of implantation, etc.

Create scenario-based content

Some fans are more resistant to advertisements, so KOLs in the beauty field can share makeup tutorials and other practical information, and naturally introduce promotional content. Users are unlikely to buy into content that is too direct.

The promotional content should start from the needs of users and enter into multi-dimensional topic scenarios, avoiding being monotonous.

Here I would like to share with you a content co-creation case of MINI PONI cosmetics:

For vertical cosmetics KOLs, we pay more attention to user experience, interaction and sharing of practical information in terms of content. The content output mainly revolves around the following three points:

Professional evaluation

On Xiaohongshu, we mainly use real people to try on colors, and conduct professional evaluations of MINISO cosmetics through KOL makeup application, which is close to the usage scenarios, outlines the usage effects, accurately covers the user circles, and endorses the products.

Creative Makeup Tutorial

On TikTok and Bilibili, KOLs use a variety of creative makeup content such as 2D imitation makeup, celebrity imitation makeup, autumn and winter makeup tutorials, and makeup transformation videos to attract a large number of fans and promote MINI PONI makeup products.

Beauty Red and Black List

On Weibo, KOLs compare cosmetics with similar products from other brands. This approach has minimal advertising traces and is more credible.

For non-vertical KOLs, we will pay more attention to interesting and personalized content, covering more diverse user circles.

Creative plot soft implantation

For example, on Bilibili, based on the interests of fans, the video content of "makeup change" is interesting and funny, allowing the audience to intuitively feel the makeup attitude of MINI PONI, which allows people to change as they like and become more beautiful with confidence.

Different KOLs perform their respective duties in different scenarios, forming synergy and ultimately achieving the goal.

What’s important is that consumers love to watch this kind of content, and the platform is willing to help distribute it and provide better traffic.

Comment area control guidance

Nowadays, after fans read the content of KOL, the spontaneous messages left by users will greatly influence their purchasing decisions. Therefore, KOL placement cannot be regarded as just a one-time placement. Post-placement public opinion guidance and comment optimization also need to be taken seriously.

The control of comments here does not mean asking KOLs or brands to spend money to hire internet trolls to increase the number of comments, but refers to the implantation of comments in the comment area. One is the implantation of the brand, and the other is to arrange internal personnel to act as readers and write comments under the content.

In the actual process, we often prepare high-quality content messages ourselves, so that we can gain the advantage of public opinion in the comment area.

Step 4: Prepare for traffic flow

Many brands focus on bringing in traffic during their campaigns, but ignore the construction of traffic reception inside and outside the site, resulting in the traffic being wasted in vain.

What is traffic handling? One is sales conversion, and the other is private domain traffic to attract people.

Sales conversion is not a matter for one department

A very sad and helpless phenomenon is that in most companies, marketing is only the responsibility of a few people, rather than the job of the entire company. The communication between departments is fragmented, and the internal organizational structure is too "clearly defined."

In fact, for a product or activity to be successfully launched into the market, develop consumer value, provide consumer satisfaction, and establish lasting brand relationships, all require the joint efforts of all functional departments.

No brand department can build a complete brand promotion work independently. An integrated project means a collection of push and pull methods, rather than piecemeal efforts by the brand department alone.

Just like all the MINISO cases just mentioned, cross-departmental collaboration is indispensable behind them.

How do we do it? For every event, I will call a meeting of all the departments involved to make clear the division of labor and prepare for the event.

The brand center is responsible for overall coordination, controlling creativity and promotion; the product center ensures that product inventory meets demand and time to market; the operations center does a good job of displaying the store's main products, provides adequate training for store employees, and the e-commerce department does a good job of driving traffic to online stores... From external voice, channel drainage, to online communication and drainage, and offline store conversion, each link will be undertaken by a relevant department with a unified caliber.

This is also one of the important factors that enables each of our brand promotion projects to be implemented quickly and achieve immediate conversion effects.

Therefore, if "brand and effect integration" is a fighter jet, then the brand is the engine, the products are the two wings, and the operations center is the landing gear. Only when the three are integrated and coordinated, with brand content driving, products escorting, and operations center taking over, can we ensure that the brand and effect fuselage has a smooth navigation and strong firepower output!

Private domain traffic feeds back public domain traffic

Private domain traffic feeds back to public domain traffic, which means that after the public domain traffic from KOL comes, what will the brand use to take over this wave of traffic? Currently, personal WeChat accounts are commonly used, and communities or public accounts will deposit the diverted traffic into brand user assets.

As for how to activate this wave of traffic, personal accounts should carry out refined operations, not sell goods on a daily basis, but only share content, increase the proportion of silent orders, and then use big moves at designated times or during big promotions to launch a large wave of activities to stimulate transactions.

The same goes for community operations. Only groups that output useful information, expert answer groups, check-in groups, product experience officer groups, etc. As for welfare groups, activity groups, and sales groups, they are too utilitarian. You can set up a "flash sale group" before the big promotion, which is limited to a few days, and the group will be disbanded when the activity ends.

User operations for private domain traffic will be discussed in detail in Chapter 7 and will not be elaborated here.

Step 5: Review and feedback

Investment is not a decision made on a whim. Data speaks for itself. Only by constantly summarizing, reviewing, and iterating, as well as optimizing marketing strategies and content formats, can you avoid more pitfalls and find your own path to growth.

Data collection, effect evaluation

Many brands understand that promoting products and bringing goods means increasing sales. However, the conversion paths of most users follow the AISAS (cognition-interest-search-purchase-sharing/repurchase) funnel model. Except for the top KOLs, most KOLs below the mid-level can rarely bring effects to the brand or even increase sales with just one promotion.

This is a gradual process, and the purpose of the campaign is to continuously accumulate volume to achieve a sales explosion in the later stage.

For example, a brand may hire a KOL to promote its products. Although this does not directly lead to significant sales, it may find that indicators such as the volume of discussions about the product or brand on social platforms, search indexes on e-commerce platforms and Baidu, store visits, collections, and the number of fans on the official social platform have all increased. This is also a form of promoting products and brands, and measures the combined cumulative effect of multiple indicators.

Therefore, we will use a formula to evaluate the value of KOL marketing:

KOL value = user value × reach value × social value x cost dimension

Source: "Breaking Word of Mouth" P243-KOL Value Model

User value, that is, the overlap between KOL fans and the brand’s target audience;

Reach value, i.e. advertising interaction rate and conversion rate;

Social value, i.e. brand or product word-of-mouth feedback;

The cost dimension refers to the cost-effectiveness after comprehensive evaluation of KOL.

Taking Xiaohongshu as an example, in addition to looking at the number of comments, likes, and collections of the blogger, the content quality of the KOL and the real comments and feedback from fans are comprehensive indicators that we care about.

Source: "Breaking Word of Mouth" P244-KOL Data Feedback Form

We will classify the KOLs we have worked with based on the overall data. For example, some KOLs are suitable for brand exposure, some KOLs are suitable for selling products, and some KOLs are suitable for a certain category. What are their advantages and disadvantages? All of them are recorded and summarized in a table, which will also serve as a reference for the next promotion cooperation.

Once you have your own KOL pool (KOL fan portraits, delivery records, conversion effects, price and other data changes), it will be less likely to make mistakes in your next delivery.

Good case packaging

Many brands’ project promotions have no follow-up after they are completed, but for every major project promotion of MINISO, I will ask the team to prepare a closing report and package it as a case.

The purpose of doing this is mainly to:

1. Spread on vertical brand marketing platforms

By using vertical self-media platforms to package projects as cases and approach them from the perspective of professional reviews, we can comprehensively improve the brand's image in the industry.

For example, the MINISO x Lu Han Sports Season was included in the Golden Flag Award's 2017 Most Influential Public Relations Case Collection.

2. Application for awards

For outstanding projects, we will also submit applications for relevant awards in the marketing field at the end of each year.

Among them, the MINISO x Lu Han Sports Season project won the Golden Flag Award for Entertainment Marketing and the Golden Artisan Award for Best Entertainment Marketing among 818 participating cases and 69 similar cases.

The fifth anniversary of MINISO x TFboys won the Silver Award of the Goldsmith Award for "B2C Best Entertainment Marketing Award" and the Silver Award of the Goldsmith Award for "B2C Best Social Media Communication Award";

The Pink Panther IP Promotion Project won the Sina Weibo (Guangdong) Annual Top Ten Innovative Marketing Award, etc.

On the one hand, this is one way to test how valuable our team has when it operates this project and compares it with other brands in the same industry. It is also to expose the brand more; on the other hand, it is also the greatest affirmation of the efforts our team has put into the entire project process, so that we will have greater confidence in doing every project well.

Author: Sister Mulan

Source: Mulan Sister