Hong Kong brands: How to find KOLs/influencers to promote your products?

More and more platforms and channels for social interaction are emerging and it is changing how consumers discover and interact with brands. With the emergence of these platforms, public celebrities are sharing their monopoly on commercial endorsement with key opinion leaders (KOL), also known as influencers. KOLs interact with their audience in many more ways than simply holding up a product or saying the promotional slogan- They give in-depth product reviews, answer product questions from followers, and many more. The rise of KOL is slowly developing into a new marketing area with its own name- Influencer marketing.

Influencer marketing can be an extremely effective channel in generating awareness. Through mediums such as Instagram Stories and blog posts, not only can KOLs reach their large fan base, they can communicate a much more interesting narrative which is great in getting audience engagement. Stronger engagement is more effective in communicating a brand’s message and increases the fans’ trust and affection for the brand. So how do you find KOLs and collaborate with them? Here’s our quick take.

Where to find KOLs to work with?

Searching directly on social media platforms (e.g. Youtube, Instagram, Facebook, Tiktok, Snapchat, etc.)

First, identify the social media platforms where your target audience spends the most time on. If you are not sure, ask 5–10 of your existing customers. Once you have identified the platforms, try searching for keywords related to your service. Alternatively, if you know one or two KOLs in your industry, start with them and find the hashtags they use on their posts. The hashtag is widely used on platforms such as Instagram. They allow users to easily search for related posts. Make a note of the hashtags and find other KOLs by searching the hashtags.

Go through the top users that appear on the search result. Evaluate their fit by looking at 10–20 of their recent posts. The following questions could help with your evaluation:

• Are they trying to appeal to a certain group of audience? Is it the same group of audience that you are trying to target?
• What is their main message? Does it align with the values and image of your brand?
• How much engagement (i.e. likes, comments) are they getting per post?

Bear in mind that while the number of fans largely reflects the size of a KOL’s influence, the level of engagement also matters. An engaged fan base that are commenting and liking each KOL’s post means they are paying more attention and more likely to take interest when the KOL posts about your product.

Influencer/KOL finders

It is a time-consuming task to search through the social platforms and hand-pick influencers and KOLs one by one. Fortunately, there are online finders that will help you identify KOLs. Most of the finders have a database of millions of influencers and they allow you to search for relevant influencers using a variety of methods including specific keywords, social media platforms, community sizes, engagement rates, languages, countries, precise geolocations, and audience demographics.

Some of the popular finders include:

• Upfluencer (https://www.upfluence.com/influencer-search)
• Socialbakers (https://www.socialbakers.com/free-social-tools/find-influencers)
• Heepsy (https://www.heepsy.com/)
• Scrunch (https://www.scrunch.com/)

Marketing agency

A number of agencies provide end-to-end KOL services from identifying, contacting to collaborating with KOLs. While this may be an easy way to get KOLs to promote your products, be mindful of the KOLs sourced. Agencies tend to use the same group of KOLs over and over again to reduce the cost of identifying and contracting new KOLs. These KOLs may not be popular amongst your target audience. To ensure that agencies are contracting the relevant KOLs who can drive sales and awareness of your products, agree on conversion targets before you sign up to an agency. Some of the conversion targets you can use include the number of likes and number of clicks.

Ways to collaborate with KOLs

Now you have identified the KOLs you want to work with. How should you collaborate with them and what offer should you make? We have identified some of the most popular approaches used by brands in Hong Kong.

Pay-by-post

This is the most common collaboration approach and is accepted by most KOLs/influencers. You pay for each post that the KOL write or mention your product or brand. To make sure that the post achieves your objectives and aligns with your brand image, share your brand guidelines and communicate your objectives with the KOL upfront. Let the KOL know what metrics (e.g. number of likes, comments, clicks, etc.) you will monitor to evaluate whether you will pay for more posts.
Fees will vary depending on your content requirements and the size of the KOL followers. For example, many KOLs would ask for a higher fee for a request to include a link to your website. You can use the below as a starting point in your negotiation.

• Instagram Influencers: US$1,000 per 100,000 followers
• Snapchat Influencers: US$500 per 24 hours campaign
• YouTube Influencers: US$2,000 per 100,000 followers

Advertisement post

Advertisement post is an alternative to the pay-by-post approach. In this approach, you would prepare the post, including the copy, image, and/or video before the KOL shares it using his or her account. Most KOLs would make it explicit that the post is an advertisement by adding the word “advertising” or “special reprint” to the post. While this is generally cheaper than pay-by-post, the effectiveness is often lower as the audience tends to be less interested in an advertisement compared to organic posts.

Pay-by-post plus commission

One of the downsides of the pay-by-post approach is the lack of after-post engagement of the KOL. To motivate the collaborating KOL, offer a commission for each sale that is driven by the KOL’s post by giving the KOL a trackable link or coupon code.