What is Kols marketing? How to choose the most suitable KOL

In the era of explosive technology, it is easier and faster to access information than ever before, especially from famous people in the fields we follow. They are influential and can convey messages to the public quickly. That is why KOL Marketing was born and developed as strongly as it is today and of course in the future it will grow even more. So what is kols marketing and how effective is it? Let's find out together!

Who is KOL?

What is Kols marketing? KOL stands for Key Opinion Leader, meaning those who are influential in a certain field, their opinions have a certain impact on a large number of interested people.

Actually KOL has been around for a long time, but now KOL has become very popular, especially on Internet platforms. KOLs can be professionals, singers, actors or influencer bloggers or video writers.

Simply put, KOL's opinion is similar to when you go to a restaurant to have dinner, and you are super satisfied with the delicious food and service of the store, then you let your friends and relatives comment, they will “soon” believe that based on your experience, go to the restaurant to enjoy broken rice. With KOL, the target audience of this "friend" is hundreds, even millions of people.

For example: In the culinary field, KOL will be famous chefs, experts in culinary studies. In the field of health KOL will be doctors, nutritionists... In the field of law KOL will be lawyers, police. Or famous artists like Son Tung, Hoai Linh, Tran Thanh... are also a KOL in the field of art.

As you can easily see, each KOL specializes in a specific area and is often invited in areas related to his or her industry. For example, no one invites a doctor to come to legal counsel programs and vice versa. So the choice of KOL will affect the marketing results quite a lot.

So what are Marketing KOLs?

What is Kols marketing? KOL Marketing is a form of marketing through KOLs. That means businesses will take advantage of the influence of these KOLs, inviting them to promote their products and services. To build trust with customers, making it easier for them to convert.

In the traditional environment, KOL Marketing can be applied through television programs, advertisements on television or newspapers... When moving to the online environment, KOL Marketing is widely applied on social networking channels, websites. knowledge sharing or video sharing channels…

To better understand what KOL is in Marketing, you should look at the following example:

Example: Chef Pham Tuan Hai is a Vietnamese KOL related to the culinary field. Anlene brand chose him to advertise Anlene coffee milk product because they realized that he was a potential KOL who could have a good impact on customers. As a chef, his expertise in healthy food is quite believable. At the same time, this KOL's age is also quite suitable for the brand's customers, so this is a reasonable choice.

Classification of KOL

KOLs are divided into 3 main groups: Celebrity, Influencer, Mass Seeder.

Celebrity (commonly known as Celeb): Are celebrities, A-list singers and actors who have a large fan base and have a great influence on the community such as Beyoncé, the Kardashian-Jenner family, Taylor Swift, Cristiano Ronaldo...

Influencer: An influential person on social networks, which can come from different fields and industries. Not only entrepreneurs, singers, bloggers, comedians... but any online user can become an influencer.

Mass seeders: Those who have influence in small customer groups. Mass seeders are often the ones who share content from celebs/influencers – to advertise brands to these small groups of customers.

Distinguish what is Kols marketing and INFLUENCER

Coverage

Influencers are people who create influence on social networks such as YouTube, Facebook, Instagram, TikTok. As a result, any online user can become an influencer for a certain audience or market. Depending on the field in which they operate, or the purpose of using social networks, there will be different levels of influence.

KOLs can be as powerful as social media influencers. However, there are also KOLs who are not active on social networks as much as actors, singers, etc. But they still have a large number of supporters.

Interactive abillity

Influencers are people who directly interact with customers, directly using the products and services that they advertise. Create a feeling of authenticity, sympathy and closer to the fans. Any questions related to life, professional knowledge are answered by them, so they have a loyal following. Leads to hugely successful marketing campaigns.

KOLs may have more followers, but when advertising they can't interact well with fans. Mostly thanks to the team or assistant entrusted to do this work. KOL is more suitable as a brand ambassador than promoting products and services.

Number of followers

Nano influencers: 0 – 10,000 followers

Micro influencers: 10,000 – 100,000 followers

Macro influencers: 100,000 – 1,000,000 followers

Mega influencer: more than 1,000,000 followers

Most influencers are macro influencers, but nano and micro influencers are gradually becoming more popular

Coverage

One notable difference between KOLs and Influencers is the breadth of their influence. KOL's reputation and recognition may be limited to a particular region. Be it a small town, a city, a state or even a country. For example, if you are a KOL working in the music industry in Vietnam, only local people or overseas Vietnamese know you, foreigners don't know who you are at all. doing what.

When you are an Influencer, your fans will spread all over the world because the Internet has no limits. If you create interest in your audience, you will be known by many people. Why influencers can spread so widely because the internet is everywhere, social networks like Facebook, Youtube, Instagram are present in almost every country, so when you are an Influencer, the coverage of you will be global.

Time budget and working style

What is Kols marketing? Certainly, both the KOL and the Influencer must have expert knowledge of a topic. But one of the differences between them is the way they work.

Influencers spend most of their time on social networks, they will invest in videos and images. To convey messages to fans and through social networks to communicate with fans. KOLs, on the other hand, spend most of their time in their area of expertise. They only spend time on social networks in their spare time. They can't spend all day creating content. Interact with your fans like Influencers are.

Because of the two opposing working styles, Influencers are considered "masters" in communication. Their fans will always see them by their side. Interlacing into people's daily lives leads to such a difference in the interaction rate between KOLs and Influencers.

KOLs and Influencers are both professionals, but they have their own strengths. So, depending on the goal of the campaign, the brand needs to choose the right KOL or Influencer. If the brand wants to launch a new product or want to increase sales, the brand should choose Influencer. On the contrary, if you want to cover your brand and increase awareness, then KOL is the perfect choice.

How to choose the best KOL for your business

Alignment and conformity take precedence

When considering the selection of potential KOLs for the KOL marketing campaign for your company or business, you need to consider many different aspects to choose the KOLs that, if partnered with, will bring you similar value. equivalent to the amount of money you spend and have the desired campaign results.

The points we can consider can be mentioned as whether this KOL is a Celeb or not? (What is Celeb we mentioned above) how is the number of followers of this KOL, whether these followers are really a potential customer and are likely to buy from you, the words of KOLs Can this potential really be trusted and can convince people to buy from you? In addition, we can consider whether the price you spend is worth hiring them to do KOL for you or not. We can see that choosing a suitable one is not easy at all.

KOL's expertise and passion

What is Kols marketing? Does that KOL have enough knowledge and expertise to be able to recommend, review, and recommend your products to everyone? Remember, people with enough knowledge will help viewers realize the benefits, good things so they can spend money to buy your product. On the contrary, your KOL does not have professional knowledge and speaks carelessly about your products, besides affecting the KOL's reputation, this also makes customers have a worse view of the product. yours, at the same time.

Reliability and experience

In addition to the above, we also need to consider where the potential KOL has worked or what kind of KOL experience. Will they do well? Are those companies happy, satisfied with their work process and can we trust enough to deliver customer images to them? From there we can consider to choose them as KOL

What is Kols marketing? Communication skills

This is absolutely essential for KOLs. If they lack communication skills, they won't be able to interact with your customer base and deliver the reputational benefits or convince them to buy your product. Sometimes they also cannot increase the trust of the Followers in your product so think carefully about this issue.

Key word: