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B2B KOLs and influencers are the subject of almost every conversation these days.
Our friend Lee Oden at TopRank Marketing did a early survey 2021 on using B2B influencer marketing and found these startling stats, among many more.
- 74% of marketers agree that influencer marketing improves customers and potential customers' experience with brands
- 63% of marketers agree that marketing will get better results if it includes a B2B influencer marketing program
In our view, we do not see that trend slowing down any time soon.
Influencers vs. KOL
Some might say it's merely semantics but the word 'influencer' refers to a YouTube or TikTok celebrity smiling to encourage them to use the latest tooth whitener and the term " key opinion leaders” (KOL) is emerging as a fancy term for B2B partnerships.
Opinion leaders are what the B2B community is looking for, right? These partnerships are not the same as “buy now!” and more about learning something new from a trusted source or having a brand experience where sales are the ultimate indicator of partnership success.
At Convince & Convert, we have conceived, recruited, created and managed dozens of KOL programs for clients over the years. Almost every project revolves around helping the audience get insights or perspectives from KOLs in their area of expertise, not about direct selling.
This was the case during our most recent work with Cisco to source and create a short video series and blog post for their partner marketing platform. Throughout the program, we have built relationships with our KOLs, and the partner audience at Cisco has also built relationships and trust in the knowledge they bring each month.
Not a week has passed, but we Jay Baer are not approached to be KOLs for various brands and contribute their thought leadership, marketing prowess and digital personality to the campaign or brand platform. Other C&C . group members including Zontee Hou, Mary Nice, Daniel Lemin and Jenny Magic were also asked to contribute content as a KOL around digital marketing strategy and customer experience.
Working on both sides of the KOL program has given us unique insights into how to make a program a success and what matters when negotiating prices.
How to Approach Option KOL
The TopRank survey shows that “ 39% of marketers say their top challenge with influencer marketing is that the process is too manual” and we couldn't agree more! Our clients look to us to do that manual work for them and deliver KOL results with as little work as possible.
Having a perspective on what content creation and campaigns need from both a brand and a KOL perspective has given us a unique angle when working with KOLs.
Sourcing B2B KOLs for your brand:
We use a network of contacts and subscriptions to several software platforms that assist us in discovering and testing potential KOLs.
The software platforms we currently use include:
Opponent IQ – Social media marketing analytics with advanced competitive analysis, SEO, social reporting, and content marketing tools
Meltwater – Help PR and marketing teams track media coverage in both news and social media and strengthen brand management
Sparktoro – Collect tens of millions of ial and web profiles to find what (and who) your audience reads, listens to, watches, follows, shares, and talks to.
Onalytica – Provides influencer marketing software and supports professional services to help brands scale their influencer programs
Once we have an initial list, we create a KOL profile that outlines each potential KOL, reach, content type, profile audience, and other interesting information about the individual. Profiles bring KOLs to life, similar to how characters would in a marketing plan. It allows our clients to see and relate to potential KOLs rather than a text spreadsheet.
This does the job the software does to show potential KOLs and overlays actual manual research and reviews from one of our team members. (We visit each KOLs page, view multiple pieces of content across all channels, review other brands they might work with, assess the quality and style of the content produced and endorse number of audiences reached from the software).
We like to research 2-3x the final number of KOLs our clients target so we have a solid view of the opportunity and competition (or not) in a category. From the portfolio, we narrowed down our top individuals to pursue.
Choosing B2B KOLs:
Now to the educated guesswork of this piece.
Each KOLs will have different compensation rates, priority channels to activate and link with our customers. Before we receive an email or phone call to reach a KOL, we thoroughly research the following sections of our profile:
- What type of content (webinars, blog posts, social media posts, etc.) will not only be relevant to our client campaign, but will also align with the KOLs style and audience?
We have repeatedly found that when we approach partner KOLs with a specific request or offer, they are increasingly able to agree or negotiate contracts faster. Giving them something thoughtful to react to goes a long way in the negotiation process.
- How large is this audience of KOLs reaching? (followers, average engagement, etc.) How important is their audience in setting our goals?
Quantity versus quality exercise if you like: Depending on your goals for the campaign, one or the other can affect how much bargaining you're willing to engage in. Although leaning towards B2C, this recent Intellifluence survey There are some starting points based on price-per-post expectations and direct channeling from influencers, which is a must-read.
- What other brands does this KOL work with or represent? How do those brands affect or overlap with our client's brand?
Normally, we work with 6 – 10 KOLs at one time and are creating a TV series for our clients. Explaining the overall campaign and the creative direction of which the KOL is a part also provides the context and the company, increasing the knowledge of the outcome for the KOL will help build trust, especially with new relationship.
From there, we work on a range of payments that we believe are fair based on job requirements and experience.
Checkout KOL: Wild West
Some of you may know I worked with Jay during the early 2000's at an advertising agency in Phoenix. In those early days, I would put the media online for our clients. One such campaign was for a customer who created and sold koozies. Their koozies have suction cups on them, so the gel polish on your boat won't spoil as you enjoy an ice cold beverage whale circling the lake.
Since banner advertising and media toolkits are generally few and far between, we'll actually search the web for sites we think are relevant and call (on a landline!) the owner. owner or main contact of the site. (see: Webmaster title) We'll start with an offer of one hundred dollars and see how it lands to see if we've completely offended them or just does a great job, looking for a list of potential banner placements.
And even in 2021, B2B KOL negotiations feel very similar but certainly a few hundred dollars more.
We sent this question to our friends at Onalytica , the largest B2B influencer database. With a platform like theirs, it's easier to negotiate and process payments for KOLs, but it still requires conversation and a fair bit of guesswork. Each individual and set of content pieces come with their own talks. Valuing the relationship and giving fair and equitable rates goes much further in a B2B KOL partnership than saving a budget.
Onalytica Platform
Good news for finding B2B KOLs
Luckily for all of us, rankings and reports in the region are growing, at least as a clue or a starting point for custom negotiations with interested KOL's.
Even for Persuasion & Conversion, we worked on a common price tag in the form of our vehicle kit for the types of content we regularly create for our clients. Consideration should be given to the expertise our collective team brings to any KOL engagement. Since we work on behalf of our clients to strategize and plan their interactions with KOLs, we use our price tag as a yardstick to evaluate initial offers and negotiate ratings with affiliates. Selected KOLs.
ONE Intellifluence's recent report included over 1200 influencers asking them about their payback expectations for key pieces of content. And while the influencers included are likely to work with more B2C brands than B2B, we found these areas to be broadly applicable:
- Cash priority. “Almost 70% of those surveyed said they prefer to be paid with cash and products. For B2B marketers – especially MarTech brands, think about how you can sweeten your offer or strengthen your relationship with a KOL by offering a license, upgrade, or similarity. out of direct payment.
- Particularly for C&C customers, video is a common type of content in our KOL programs. In the Intellifluence survey, influencers want brands to realize how hard it is to create a quality video.
For B2B marketers, when you're working with KOLs, acknowledge that the hard work lies in video prep and polishing. While th Output can be as little as a few minutes of complete content, a worthy KOL takes the time to plan, script, and use quality equipment to shoot video.
One area we tend to do for our clients is we do post-production work – ask a KOL to send us clear video and we add any captions, logos and any padding to the final cut. This works well since most of our interactions with KOLs are part of multi-episode shows.
Working with B2B KOLs is a work in progress
Someday we will have the “ultimate pricing guide for interacting with B2B KOLs” but until that is created, we will break it down to build relationships with your KOLs. Key and fair compensation and clear distribution go a long way in a long term partnership.
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