Analysis of 2019 Overseas Social Media KOL Marketing Trend Report

Overseas social media KOL marketing has attracted widespread attention from the cross-border business market in recent years, and more and more companies are pouring into the social media marketing market. Before overseas social media KOL marketing became popular, the commonly used models for overseas marketing promotion included search advertising, social media advertising, third-party advertising, traditional advertising, etc., such as Google, Facebook, YouTube's information flow advertising and other marketing methods.

With the shift from traditional e-commerce marketing methods to social e-commerce media marketing in the past two years, the abundance of social tools has driven the rapid growth of social e-commerce. A large number of celebrity bloggers have been born and grown rapidly in this trend. As a result, KOL celebrity marketing has become popular and gradually penetrated into the cross-border e-commerce field.

Hootsuite data shows that the number of social media users worldwide has exceeded 3 billion. Among them, Facebook ranks first with the largest number, and Youtube has become the fastest growing self-media platform based on video format, and is deeply loved by young users; Instagram and Twitter are also the main channels for overseas influencer marketing.

The world's most popular social networks, ranked by number of active users as of September 2019

(Unit: Millions)

The survey shows that 88% of consumers choose to buy because of the promotion of KOL celebrities. Most consumers will focus on celebrity bloggers on social media platforms, among which YouTube and Instagram are the most popular platforms.

The marketing landscape has undergone a major transformation over the past few years, thanks in part to the rise of social media and video, graphic and text content marketing. The shift in marketing paradigms also means that brands are ready to leverage integrated marketing strategies, including influencer marketing. Most importantly, we see the real value of influencers’ influence on consumer behavior.

“Buyer review videos and unboxing videos have a significant influence on user purchasing decisions.”

Recently, the marketing service department of wotokol conducted a survey on 2,000 cross-border sellers and analyzed the forms of product marketing. Among them, buyer evaluation videos (Haul Video) and unboxing videos (Unbox Video) have become the highlights of this year's product marketing, and are very likely to continue their hot momentum in the next few years.

Note: Haul Video refers to buyers discussing their recently purchased products in the form of videos posted on the Internet. The video will introduce the process of purchasing the product, the product's functions, experience, etc.

The rise of graphic content, video marketing and live streaming

Graphics and text marketing still works in 2019 and can still engage readers as long as they are attractive and formatted properly for easy reading on all devices.

However, with the popularity of videos and live broadcasts, content marketing is far from being limited to the transmission of pictures and texts. The development of short videos and the rise of video marketing, from the rise of YouTube to the launch of IGTV, social media platforms have been interested in expanding the influence of video content. Facebook even tweaked their algorithm to ensure video posts appear more often in people’s feeds. Video marketing is becoming more and more attractive, both for brands and users who pay attention to highlight content.

Compared with straightforward hard advertising, video marketing starts from the blogger's perspective, objectively evaluates the performance and quality of the product, explains the details of the product, and experiences the functions of the product, etc., which can be more convincing to the audience and can correctly guide the audience to purchase products, interact, leave comments, etc.

To sum up, video content marketing can better meet the merchants' needs for buyer evaluation videos (Haul Video) and unboxing videos (Unbox Video), thus saving the cost of separate unboxing videos and evaluations/reviews.

“The Current Situation and Changes of Overseas Marketing for Merchants Going Global”

Many well-known companies have started to expand their brands overseas and joined the social media KOL marketing camp. Currently, overseas influencers can really help companies achieve three main aspects:

① For gaming products, the current restrictions on game licenses in China have led to large-scale game merchants seeking to expand overseas. We all know that the later stages of game promotion can be promoted through volume purchases, but in the early stages of releasing new games, we need to find some well-known game bloggers to promote the game to increase influence. The efficiency indicators are very high, far greater than the advertising of companies on platforms such as Facebook.

② The launch of new products, especially some new functional products, such as the magic charger, electronic stand, face-slimming device, and e-cigarettes that are very popular on Douyin, are also very popular in the overseas KOL marketing market, and play a big role in promoting the sales of new products.

③ Product inventory. Currently, many domestic e-commerce sellers have inventory backlogs. Enterprises hope to quickly expand overseas to clear inventory. KOL celebrities must be one of the necessary means. Since celebrities have a large number of fans and the cost of obtaining traffic is low, by cooperating with celebrities to do some interesting experiences and promotional marketing, they can quickly help merchants clear inventory.

As advertising budgets continue to increase and advertising competition on Google and Facebook becomes increasingly saturated, should we try new marketing methods?

Judging from the current situation, overseas social media KOL marketing is in a stage of rapid growth. Although it has not reached a blowout state, it is also forming a trend of transformation from traditional marketing to social media marketing. The continuous development of KOL marketing also means that social media marketing is moving towards a stage that pays more attention to ROI, new technologies and trust between brands and consumers.

Conclusion:

Overseas social media is a major trend in marketing and promotion for overseas businesses. With the prevalence of video content marketing, and YouTube being the world's largest gathering place for original videos and internet celebrities and bloggers, we should try this marketing method amid the huge competition for traffic. Understand your product, understand your audience, and clarify your current goals, and make influencer marketing a normalized mechanism. Whether it is a big brand or a small brand, continuous output is needed to retain customers.

Author: Overseas Marketing Service Center

Source: Overseas Marketing Service Center