KOLs Product Seeding: For any business looking to put together a KOL & influencer engagement strategy in Thailand, some may wonder what is the benefit of curating a target list focused predominantly on micro or nano KOLs. After all, would it not be better to focus on one really strong premium KOL with a huge following? Surely that would give the campaign way more punch?
The main reason is cost. Using the services of a famous influencer to do product seeding can be very expensive (not to be misunderstood as bad value; in many cases it can deliver cut-through to target audiences quickly and in the most cost-effective way possible – it depends on the KOL and the overall campaign budget). Nano KOLs typically have followings of 1000 to 5000 people, while Micro KOLs have audiences of 5000 to 20,000 people. The exact numbers depend on the type of campaign, niche effect of the comms, its relevance to the types of products or subjects they are posting on, etc. – but these are just ballpark figures used by many, many agencies.
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Micro vs Nano KOLs for product seeding
It doesn’t matter in operational terms how you define one type of KOL or another, just that your metrics remain consistent, as this will give you comparable data to use ongoing and give you a true perspective.
You don’t need to worry about the exact audience numbers, then, and your product seeding program should instead take into account the level of true engagement (and overall “support” enjoyed by the influencer among that following).
How much does it cost to use a Nano KOL?
This is the main reason this route can be very effective – product seeding can be done for very low cost, and sometimes even for free. In exchange for posting to their small but highly engaged fan base and following, the Nano KOL may be entirely happy to:
a) receive free product relating to a field of interest to them, b) enjoy the chance/recognition associated with being contacted by a manufacturer and/or service provider in their area of interest, and c) relish the chance also to begin what could become an ongoing successful company X KOL
collaboration for the long term.
KOL targeting is most important for micro and nano influencers
If you’re planning to attempt to achieve widespread audience connection via leveraging the interest of 50 to 100 micro or nano KOLs, it’s really important to consider each choice on that list. Whilst it can be achieved by manually using Instagram (for example) on a phone and doing the search by physically punching in hashtags, it is much more helpful to use one of the two following approaches. This will give you much better accuracy, and also saves a lot of time.
One approach to do product seeding is to use sophisticated data tools and machine learning to do the curation (this is what we do here at Gemini so we know our data is beautifully up to date and accurate). Your PR agency will usually categorise by i) sector and ii) platform – that is, the top choices for Instagram, Facebook and TikTok for example in each category and by each case use type.
The other approach, which is the fastest and cheapest (but leaves you on your own for the phases which follows it) is to simply buy a target list for your business sector.
Please visit the Gemini e-store to purchase these today… they’re ready to go for you right now, and they offer a selection of small, medium and large target curations (by platform).
How to send products to influencers for review?
For an agency like Gemini, we charge a small fee for each KOL who is added to the target curation list for product seeding, and we will do all of the liaison on your behalf so you don’t need to. This will give you insights on who the KOL is, their response to the initial enquiry, their appetite for partnership, and their delivery address; you would arrange for the product to be sent to them directly, although we of course can advise on putting awesome gift packs together for your new friends.
When purchasing a bespoke curation (not a store-bought list) of, for example, 50 nano KOLs in your business area and geographical area, we will deliver on the full 50. This means that we would typically reach out to 120-150 of them, as not all of them reply, and some will reply that they would need a cash fee to proceed. Many though in the Nano category will be thrilled to receive product from you and post for you without cash payment.
What happens if I get a negative review from a KOL?
It’s great, and nothing to worry about. This is because people follow influencers as their views are seen as authentic. People are naturally concerned when they go online and see only well-reviewed positive placement, because it looks sponsored (and is annoying).
So don’t worry. One of the massive advantages of using a nano outreach strategy apart from it being cheap is that you will get valuable and direct product or service feedback, and this is always very helpful to receive. You would never contact a KOL ‘post review’ to complain about a review as it is usually a waste of time, and also sets you up for a further post ridiculing your lack of confidence in their honest review.
Most of the time though, influencers who are just embarking on the difficult and long task of growing their followings will be absolutely over the moon that you have contacted them and want to send them gifts or review items.
It hinges particularly on niche relevance, too. If you are a guitar player, for example, and you follow in wonder other players with 500k followings and you have only 2000, how would you feel to be contacted by a good gear manufacturer offering to send you cool stuff in exchange for a post?
Particularly for those bloggers and streamers who have never been contacted in this way, they will see product seeding offering as recognition of their efforts to grow their pages. They will also be customers of your brand for life, and will never forget the effort you put into contacting them (we will do this for you, and discuss expectations with them).
