How does Key Opinion Leader help to Increase the Popularity of Your Brand in China?

The modernization of our era created a shift in marketing, which led to new ways of digital advertisement that are adapted to our digital age.

One of the main purposes to have emerged is the use of KOL – Influencers, or Key Opinion Leaders. With the importance of social media in our society, the KOL is a perfect way to connect your brand quickly to a large audience. This technique is particularly efficient in China because they will be more likely to trust someone they admire rather than advertising.

Collaborating with KOL

Collaborating with KOLs who regularly communicate with their followers helps brands reach their target audience more quickly and easily.

According to the 2019 Digital Commerce Trends Report, 82% of brands interviewed in China indicated that they would continue to focus on social media marketing, while 73% revealed they would enhance their collaboration with influencers in terms of product or brand promotion because they believe in the ROI (Return on Investment) of influencer marketing.

Marketing aspect: Who are KOLs – Chinese Influencers, Bloggers

Companies that are looking to establish their brands in China should consider using Key Opinion Leaders (KOLs) when putting together a marketing strategy. KOLs are the equivalent of influencers in China.

Contrary to Western influencers, who are comprised mostly of bloggers and vloggers on Instagram or YouTube, Chinese KOLs are socialites, columnists, and short video creators who have numerous channels through which they engage with their followers.

Read our KOLs Guide for China

For your information, almost all western social media platforms are banned in the country, which means that there’s no Facebook, Twitter, or YouTube. Rather, China has a distinct media ecosystem, which might be more developed than that of the west.

KOLs in China engage with their followers on local giants like WeChat, Weibo, Xiaohongshu, and Douyin (also known as TikTok). Almost all Chinese users use WeChat and Weibo, on average a few hours daily. Staying active on these tremendous social media platforms, therefore, allows Chinese bloggers to easily gather plenty of fans and followers.

Some KOLs are super popular, like Yang Mi which makes USD 32 Million per year. (source)

How do KOLs work?

One fundamental cause of Chinese bloggers’ successes is the prevalent usage of mobile devices among the Chinese population. There is no age barrier for mobile penetration in China, enabling brands to maximize the potential e-commerce market value. Brands can reach everyone from 8 to 80 years old as potential followers and buyers, even though the young generation still remains to be the main purchasing power.
Influencers can provide the youths with sharp fashion tips and brand-integrated experiences through live streaming, encouraging their purchase decision.

This way, the influencer profits through both the direct cash-in reward system provided by the live-streaming platform and the advertising fee from the brand. KOLs also take money from brands by uploading their text-content articles or images and lead followers to the e-commerce site to finish the purchase process by distributing links on Weibo.

What is KOL’s secret to influencing so many Chinese consumers to purchase the product?

Chinese customers have very deep trust in KOLs, and this psychological bond can partially be explained by not believing in fake products, created by social media in their previous experience.
In other words, social media make you feel like influencers are friends, who you know and who you can trust, who they are in real life, thanks to the details of their daily lives shared through Weibo, WeChat, and live streaming apps.

Chinese followers usually believe that bloggers’ recommendations are trustworthy because they assume that KOL has put his or her reputation in line with that product. It somehow makes Chinese customers feel at ease and are willing to at least give the product a try.

“KOL is the next big thing in China” source

Our mission of promoting your brand with KOLs

When you’ll start looking for an influencer, you’ll quickly understand that it can be costly. Of course, for with every product or service, you will find different prices, audience demographics, engagement, and marketing experiences. But choosing an influencer and the social media platform that is right for your product/service will be very important for both your campaign and marketing budget estimation.

In the market, there are a lot of opportunities how to promote your brand in the best way. The problem is, that finding the right influencer for your brand is not as easy as it seems to be.

To find the right KOL for you, take your time and money and results doest have to be beneficial for you. What we can do, is find a perfect Kol, matching your brand aimed to the audience that you need to hit.

How do we do it: Step by step

1. First, we do research and liaison – we will identify the Chinese KOLs best suited to your brand and budget and liaise with them to arrange cooperative partnerships.
2. Then we set up a campaign – We will create the campaigns in cooperation with chosen KOLs.
3. The last step is collecting the KPI, which means; we will take care of statistics on key performance indicators and send detailed reports about them to you at regular intervals.

You need to find a KOL that shares the same values as your brand. You also need to pay attention to its community. Is it the kind of consumers that you want to target? Be careful, because sometimes, an influencer with the biggest amount of followers isn’t always the wisest choice.

We are the top and most visible Web & Marketing Agency in China you will find on the web. Our Services: E-Commerce, Search Engine Optimization, Advertising, Weibo, WeChat, WeChat Store & PR. For more information, get in touch with us today.

See our agency website marketingtochina.com