How to do KOL marketing in 2019?

Core summary:

The KOL market changes very rapidly, and a reshuffle and survival of the fittest will occur in a very short period of time. However, the content marketing cycle is relatively long. If there is a lack of scientific and effective management and periodic review and evaluation, the marketing effect may be greatly reduced.

Therefore, brands need to monitor the communication effects and user feedback of KOL marketing in real time and dynamically, adjust strategies at different stages, and maximize the realization of predetermined marketing goals.

"Apply it and you will be a lady"

"Mouth that squeezes out water"

"The little wolf and dog are going to jump on you"

These are the product promotion copywriting of Li Jiaqi, the "Lipstick King". With just one sentence “Oh my god”, he can often sell out a lipstick. This is the power and charm of KOL marketing.

Basic Concepts of KOL Marketing

The so-called KOL marketing, or key opinion leader marketing, refers to a marketing method that uses opinion leaders that have developed with the development of social media as brand spokespersons, or engages in marketing cooperation with them. When consumers' demand for product functionality fades, spiritual satisfaction and emotional connection become new focuses of marketing. KOL marketing is built on this foundation.

KOLs have more opportunities to interact with users

KOLs form an equal relationship with their fans rather than a hierarchical relationship, and they are widely distributed in all walks of life. According to UserTracker, a database for Internet user behavior monitoring on iResearch, six of the top ten APP subcategories in terms of monthly independent device count on China’s mobile terminals in Q1 2019 are common habitats for KOLs, including instant messaging, news information, music, short videos, online shopping, and mobile games. This shows that there are many scenarios and opportunities for KOLs to interact with users.

In terms of the daily frequency of mobile netizens’ media activation, in Q1 2019, the number of single-machine daily usage of communication chat and social networks reached 10.7 times and 6.9 times respectively, ranking first and third in the industry respectively. Fragmented and repeated media activation behaviors allow netizens to come into contact with more KOLs.

The influence of KOL marketing model

The value of KOL marketing is unquestionable, as it combines the influence of group communication with the coverage of mass communication. On the one hand, KOLs can deeply reach members within the group behind the KOLs. On the other hand, group members can spread marketing information for the second time, further expanding the coverage of marketing activities.

So how do you find the right KOL? Do the KOL’s followers match the brand’s target audience? How to evaluate the communication capabilities of selected KOLs? It is crucial to grasp the process of KOL screening and placement scientifically and accurately.

How to choose KOL

The best KOL is the one that matches your brand tone and product attributes. iResearch's new media OneMedia focuses on the browsing behavior of brand users, accurately matches and scientifically selects KOLs. After selecting KOLs, it conducts dynamic and real-time delivery management and effect evaluation to adjust delivery plans in a timely manner and maximize the achievement of marketing goals.

Build a crowd and recommend KOLs

Crowd targeting is the most basic and important step in brand marketing. As business competition becomes increasingly fierce, expecting “everyone is my user” will often lead to “no one needs your product”. Therefore, paying attention to the behavioral preferences of the brand's potential customer groups and selecting KOLs to push accurate information at the right time has become the best path to expand brand influence and achieve sales conversion.

According to this logic, we should not only understand TA’s demographic characteristics and the brands he/she follows, but also know exactly which media platforms and KOLs TA follows. Only the KOLs recommended on this basis can be truly accepted by the brand's potential consumers.

Choose the best KOL

After obtaining the KOL's recommendation information, it is necessary to conduct a correlation analysis on the attributes of different categories of KOLs.

In terms of volume, the top KOLs have the highest traffic value, while the content diffusion value of mid- and tail KOLs cannot be ignored. In comparison, mid- and tail-end KOLs are more cost-effective.

In terms of type, celebrity KOLs play a powerful role in igniting topics, pan-entertainment KOLs are good at spreading and disseminating information, and vertical KOLs are more suitable for interpreting and popularizing in-depth content. In the digital age, everything has become fragmented and decentralized. The number of KOLs has exploded, and their levels and types have become rich and diverse. However, the key to KOL marketing is not to find those KOLs with the largest number of fans and the highest marketing enthusiasm, but to select the KOLs with the highest matching degree according to one's own marketing plan after analyzing the brand tone and product attributes.

Delivery management and effect evaluation

The KOL market changes very rapidly, and a reshuffle and survival of the fittest will occur in a very short period of time. However, the content marketing cycle is relatively long. If there is a lack of scientific and effective management and periodic review and evaluation, the marketing effect may be greatly reduced. Therefore, brands need to monitor the communication effects and user feedback of KOL marketing in real time and dynamically, adjust strategies at different stages, and maximize the realization of predetermined marketing goals.

The fast-moving consumer goods industry, especially the cosmetics industry, has always been at the forefront of KOL marketing. As early as 2012, a world-renowned beauty brand E boldly hired beauty blogger Emily Schuman and let her official Instagram account be responsible for the promotion of new products. This year, it also emphasized that cooperation with Chinese celebrities and KOLs such as Yang Mi and Sun Feifei has become one of the important measures for the group to understand the Chinese market.

Next, we take Brand E as an example to analyze which KOLs it can choose to cooperate with.

Brand E KOL Marketing Case Analysis

Diverse crowd building

As mentioned above, paying attention to the browsing behavior of potential consumers of a brand is the basis for KOL recommendations and marketing.

iResearch OneMeida Zhiyun New Media not only uses iResearch's own DMP tag system to construct the population, paying attention to demographic indicators such as gender, age, and region of the population; but also scientifically recommends KOLs by analyzing the population's actual browsing behavior on media platforms and KOLs based on judging the brand preferences of the population.

On this basis, brands can not only select KOLs in a targeted manner based on indicators such as advertising value index, reach, TGI, stickiness, and number of fans; they can also compare the differences between TA's population portrait and the population portrait of designated KOLs, and scientifically estimate the actual marketing effect of specific KOLs to make choices. In this case, the brand is used to build a crowd and recommend suitable KOLs.

KOL Recommendation

Based on the browsing behavior of potential consumers of Brand E, iResearch OneMeida Zhiyun New Media recommended a total of 3,000 KOLs. In general, the higher the advertising value index, the closer the KOL fan portrait is to the brand's potential consumer portrait. Below we will analyze the top two KOLs in terms of advertising value index - Li Jiaqi Austin (TikTok), Duoyu and Maomaojie (TikTok).

In March 2019, the number of daily active devices of the two KOL accounts remained above 250,000, with the highest points reaching 3.036 million and 2.605 million respectively.

In general, the number of active devices of Li Jiaqi Austin (TikTok) is higher than that of Duoyu and Maomaojie (TikTok).

User gender and age comparison: Li Jiaqi Austin (TikTok) is better

The proportion of fans aged 18-35 of Li Jiaqi Austin (TikTok), Duoyu and Maomaojie (TikTok) are 87.6% and 85.4% respectively, which are 4.6 and 2.4 percentage points higher than that of Brand E potential customers.

In terms of gender, 81.0% of Li Jiaqi Austin’s (TikTok) fans are female, slightly higher than Brand E; while Duoyu and Maomaojie’s (TikTok) fans have a lower proportion of female fans than Brand E. In comparison, the fans of Li Jiaqi Austin (TikTok) are more in line with the brand E potential customer requirements.

Comparison of user distribution by province and city: Li Jiaqi Austin (TikTok) is better

Similar to Brand E, the top ten provinces in terms of user share of Li Jiaqi Austin (TikTok), Duoyu and Maomaojie (TikTok) are mainly concentrated in the eastern and southern regions.

In terms of cities, users in high-tier cities of Li Jiaqi Austin (TikTok), Duoyu and Maomaojie (TikTok) accounted for 53.2% and 51.6% respectively, which is roughly consistent with Brand E’s 52.7%.

From the perspective of geographical distribution, the fan profile of Li Jiaqi Austin (TikTok) is more similar to that of Brand E.

In general, potential consumers of Brand E are mainly urban fashionable women aged 18-35, and they gather in the eastern and southern regions . The fan portraits of the two top KOLs and the potential consumer portraits of Brand E are highly overlapped.

By comparing the two KOLs, we can also find that the fans of Li Jiaqi Austin (TikTok) are more in line with the requirements of potential consumers of Brand E, which also verifies the scientific nature of the advertising value index ranking.

However, do all recommended KOLs need to cooperate? Or, what should you do if the selected KOL cannot cooperate due to schedule reasons?

In this case, we can use OneMedia Zhiyun New Media to find similar KOLs. Through OneMeida Zhiyun New Media’s de-reach analysis, it was found that the overlapping users of Duoyuhe Maomaojie (TikTok) and Li Jiaqi Austin (TikTok) are as high as 40.3%. Therefore, if you choose both of them at the same time when the budget is relatively insufficient, it may lead to a huge waste of advertising resources.

Looking at Mahua Keke (TikTok), she and Li Jiaqi Austin (TikTok) have only 12.2% overlapping users. If the two are combined as a marketing matrix, they can cover a more diverse group of people by leveraging the strong fan base and appeal of both parties.

Next, let’s see whether the fans of Mahua Keke (TikTok) meet the potential customer requirements of Brand E.

User gender and age comparison: Mahua Keke (Tik Tok) is better

The proportion of users aged 18-35 of Mahua Keke (Tik Tok) is 88.5%, which is 0.9 and 3.3 percentage points higher than that of Li Jiaqi Austin (Tik Tok) and Brand E respectively. In terms of gender, female fans of Mahua Keke (Tik Tok) account for as high as 87.2%, which is 6.2 and 7.9 percentage points higher than that of Li Jiaqi Austin (Tik Tok) and Brand E respectively.

In terms of age and gender, Mahua Keke (Tik Tok) is more consistent with Brand E’s potential consumer profile.

Comparison of user distribution by province and city: Mahua Keke (Tik Tok) performs better in first-tier cities

The top 10 provinces with the largest proportion of Mahua Keke (Tik Tok) users are mainly concentrated in the east and south, with only one province being different from Brand E. In terms of cities, the proportion of users of Mahua Keke (Tik Tok) in high-tier cities is 52.7%, which is consistent with Brand E.

It is worth noting that the proportion of first-tier city users of Mahua Keke (Douyin) is 11.6%, which is 0.7 and 0.6 percentage points higher than that of Li Jiaqi Austin (Douyin) and Brand E respectively. Users in first-tier cities account for a higher proportion, which can also bring greater voice to brand communication.

In general, although Mahua Keke (TikTok) does not have as many fans as Li Jiaqi Austin (TikTok), its fan portrait is more in line with the potential consumers of Brand E. Therefore, when the KOL you want to cooperate with is unable to cooperate due to schedule or other reasons, or the marketing budget is relatively insufficient, choosing KOLs with lower KOL audience overlap and incorporating them into the marketing matrix can not only save the company more cost budget, but also cover a wider and more diverse user group, achieving a more ideal marketing effect.

Delivery management and performance evaluation

After selecting the KOL, it is necessary to monitor the KOL in real time and adjust the promotion strategy in time to maximize the marketing effect.

OneMeida Zhiyun New Media can perform deduplication analysis on the "estimated number of devices reached" for uploaded KOL combinations, and can define KOL groups according to its own needs and manage the KOL matrix under different delivery needs.

In terms of effect evaluation, OneMeida Zhiyun New Media can evaluate the effectiveness of KOL advertising based on the advertising effectiveness index. On this basis, periodic review and evaluation are carried out to provide reference for the adjustment of investment strategy.

How to carry out delivery management and effect evaluation? Apply for an account now to try it out!

Finally, here is Brand E’s March KOL recommendation list.

Brand E KOL Recommendation List in March 2019

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: iResearch