This post is the final post in a four-part series on KOL marketing, based on a fascinating webinar with Elijah Whaley, former chief marketing officer of influencer marketing platform PARKLU and one of the world’s foremost experts on KOL marketing. 

In our previous post, we got right into the nitty-gritty: what to expect to pay for KOLs, how to control your messaging and when to run campaigns. In this post, we’ll provide some advice on the best ways to use KOLs, and look to the future of KOL marketing.

Is it better to develop a relationship with one KOL, or diversify and work with several KOLs?

“If you can, I would do both". There can be significant gains from developing a long-term partnership with a KOL who is a great fit for your brand. “Again, this is not about adrenaline shots of social media attention,” says Whaley. 

Of course, this can also be limiting. Your customers likely have a diverse range of interests, and if you want to interact with them the way they want to be interacted with, then this means engaging them where they are. If, for example, you sell sneakers, you may find your customers are also interested in gaming, movies, EDM (electronic dance music) – and you may need to work with KOLs in all these niche areas in order to engage with them effectively.

Is it better to work with more niche-focused micro-KOLs, or KOLs with greater reach?

There’s a lot that’s been said about the type of authenticity and engagement you can get from working with highly niche micro-KOLs, and this is “100 per cent valid”, says Whaley. That being said, you can reap much more value from these relationships using what Whaley calls “trickle-down KOL economics”.

By also engaging a top-tier KOL, the validation that comes from using someone with a high profile “trickles down” to the micro-KOLs, in turn convincing those micro-KOLs – and their followers – that your brand is trustworthy and your product/service is one worth promoting or purchasing.

What does the future of KOL marketing have in store?

The benefits of KOLs – that they have highly engaged audiences with whom they have built affinity and trust over time, making them highly robust marketing channels – may very well be turned against the brands KOLs once depended on.

“I think the most disruptive and scary thing that is going to happen – and I think I see the hammer coming down – is KOLs self-branding,” says Whaley. “You have fed the beast that will consume you and that beast is going to be KOL brands.”

This is another reason why brands need to become well versed in KOL marketing – after all, it won’t be long before they’re directly competing with the KOLs themselves.