KOL, Influencers, or Not at All. Which One is Better for Business?

Digital marketing has been the talk for these past few years both in business owners and customers’ circles. The ease it offers makes people always come to digital marketing. Sell products? Offering services? Building a brand? No worries, digital marketing to the rescue! Everything has been digitized including marketing. People use social media to do branding and marketing products and services. The result? Amazing. Collaborating with influencers is one of digitized marketing strategies these days.

Influencers, KOL, or Not at All?

Lately in this industry, we have been talking about influencers a lot. Those who we see everyday popping up on our social media timeline, promoting endorsed products and telling their followers to buy them. Yes, that’s an influencer. Then, how about KOL? Is it just the same thing with different names? Let’s break down about that, shall we?

Influencers

Influencers, just like their name, work to influence people called their followers to do some actions toward many things. Beauty influencer for instance. Those influencers usually do a video or post their review of beauty products from a certain brand. Some give honest reviews, some just do their job greatly until people can not differentiate whether they lie or not. 

Key Opinion Leader (KOL)

While KOL or Key Opinion Leader is more about someone who is being trusted by such amount of people for their opinion about something. The credibility of their opinions come from their knowledge and ability in related areas. Let’s say we have someone who is a psychologist make contents about psychology. People will trust them easily because of the credibility of their opinion. Their title as a psychologist is what makes people believe them. That’s how KOL works.

Effective Strategy, Is it?

In this digital era, all businesses are more competitive by seeking innovative ways to boost their brand. Either it is about getting their sales up or just boosting their brand awareness. By saying they are seeking innovative ways, it means they are also collaborating with KOL or influencers. Collaboration with people who have lots of followers will benefit a brand in many ways. However, is it really such an effective strategy or is it just because everyone is doing so?

Let’s see those three points; collabing with KOL, influencers, or not at all, from its pros and cons.

KOL’s Pros and Cons

They have credibility and people trust them for that reason. So, collaborating with them if your brand is aligned will benefit you a lot. Those followers will easily get influenced by the KOL’s credibility. It is such a benefit for a brand because they can give you leads and conversions, as well as to up your brand’s awareness and recognition. Not only that, KOL that is aligned with your brand means they also share the same target audience with you. With that, you can tap into new and broader audiences which are also your target audiences.

However, those benefits come from high costs. KOL usually cost pretty high due to their credibility and people’s trust. To add, the effectiveness will vary and there is no guarantee that your brand will get lots of exposure from them as social media algorithms are ever-changing. That is why it is crucial to choose wisely who your brand will be collaborated with.

Influencers’ Pros and Cons

Same goes with KOL, influencers can also give you lots of benefits. The difference is that their target audience usually varies a bit and is not too specific. This can benefit you with more brand awareness and recognition. Collaborating with them allows you to reach different target audiences who are eager to follow their influencers’ opinion. So, the greater the influencer creates the story and gives your brand a review, the higher the potential for their followers to be your customers. 

Again, they cost pretty high due to the number of impressions their posts usually get. Many people indeed engage with their posts regularly but there is still no guarantee that the posts about your brand will get the same attention. Additionally, influencers do have credibility but not as high as KOL. Hence, people sometimes doubt influencers’ reviews about something because it seems fake or insincere. That will be a problem if people think the influencer you collaborated with just lies about your brand because they are getting paid. You already lose money and will probably lose some credibility as well. 

Not Using Any of Them, Is It Better?

If you decide to not use KOL or influencer at all as your innovative marketing ways, your brand’s recognition might be stuck there. It does indeed save you from high cost. You also get a hundred percent control over your brand’s image. Without relying on external parties, you can build your own image as you want.

The Cons of Not Using KOL or Influencers at All

Now that we enter the cons of not using any of the options, we face this problem called lack of social proof. People do, or really, care about reviews and proofs. This digital age often makes them lose brand trust easily. By not collaborating with KOL or influencers, you need to prove it by yourself, which is not as strong as having a collaboration with them. The exposure you get will also not be as high as they give you. Your brand will also lose the chance to tap into new and broader audiences.

When it comes to innovative ways in this digital age, there is no right and wrong. Everything comes with its own pros and cons. For some brands, collaborating with KOL or influencers is such an effective strategy and will be an investment for the brand’s future. However, it does not mean that other brands also need the same treatment in order to boost their sales and brand awareness. 

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