They sell out stocks worth of millions of dollars in minutes, they make newest products trendy and famous, they are the most-watched Chinese influencers and internet stars in China, they are the king and the queen of Chinese e-commerce!

E-commerce in China is booming. In 2021, it is expected to grow more than 20%, versus a 7% growth in total retail sales. For the first time in history, anywhere in the world, the proportion of a whole country’s retail sales will be more than 50% online. The mountain is huge, and who sits atop? Chinese influencers, aka KOLs (Key Opinion Leaders).

We’ve charted the top KOLs for 2020-2021 elsewhere, but here we want to introduce a special kind of Chinese KOL. The kind that has the ability to sell out entire inventories in minutes in 2022!

Livestreaming has taken over KOL marketing in China. By year 2022, popular shopping dates like Singles Day and 12.12, hundreds of millions of people log on to shopping platforms to receive the best discounts of the year. To guide them towards which products to buy, they often tune into livestreams by beauty and fashion bloggers and KOLs in each and every product category. For the top KOLs, the products they feature invariably sell out in minutes.

Below, we want to talk about Influencer Marketing in China, the top 10 KOLs in China and how influential they have been on the Chinese e-commerce market.

As the 

Taobao Live-steamer KOLs in 2022

It is worth noting that after Viya stopped live streaming, Viya’s live streaming assistants continued live streaming under the name of “Bee Joy Club”.

Bee Joy Club

At present, the live streaming room has accumulated 900,000 fans. Its popularity is still relatively strong even though its ability to sell goods through live streaming is not as strong as that in the Viya era.

Up and coming KOLs on Taobao update 2022:

This month’s top 3 KOLs – according to the Taobao native ranking platform are “Brother Hui”, “Pop Corn” and “Charlies’ Angels”. 

Looking for a partner to get your KOL Marketing in China right? Check out our Case studies: 

Top 1 Chinese Influencer & Livestream Sales KOL in 2020-2021 (off air at the moment)

Austin Li

Austin Li otherwise known as ‘The Lipstick King’ has some impressive accolades under his belt.

Q: How many followers does Austin have?

A: Austin has over 29 million followers on Weibo and over 44 million on Douyin

Disappearing from the public eye, the brand featuring in broadcasts of Li Jia Qi remains paused. While different sources provide different information of the true reason of his suspension, he did not give any official statement. 

For anyone even vaguely familiar with KOL marketing, Austin should need no introduction. For newcomers, here are the basics: Austin is a Chinese beauty blogger specialising in lipstick. Various feats of his, such as earning a Guinness World Record for the most applications of lipstick in a minute, and trying on 138 lipsticks in a 30-minute live stream, have garnered him the title ‘Lipstick King’.

While he’s able to pull in $145 million in a day in sales, like Viya, he’s also socially conscious. In 2020, he worked to promote products from Wuhan following its difficult period, and helped raise RMB 70 million on Chinese New Year’s Eve in aid of rural farmers and communities.

During the 6.18 shopping festival in 2019 , he broke his own record once again, he sold 150,000 lip glosses in one hour livestream. He also managed to sell 5,000 Shiseido Ultimunes within 3 minutes and 40,000 Sori Yanagi cast iron pans within 1 minute.

But his reach does not stop in lipsticks. Austin was featured in major campaigns of KFC, Uniqlo, Clear, Dr.Jart+, Paris fashion week sponsored by L’Oreal, Godiva and many others.

Forbes China 2019 recognized him as one of the most influential in their list of “30 Under 30”. He was also awarded various awards including “Man at his best” award, Esquire awards and many more.

Today Austin dominates the Chinese social media by having verified accounts on Weibo, Douyin, Xiaohongshu/Red and Kuaishou. Engagement of his posts on Weibo reach from 5K to 1.5 million reactions!

To be able to cooperate with Austin via livestream sales event brands shall have a store on one of the Alibaba’s platforms: Tmall or Taobao.

Top 1 Female Chinese Influencer & Taobao Livestream KOL in 2020-2022 (off air at the moment)

Viya

Viya is another fierce Chinese influencer / KOL star in China that was taken off the air. Former  No.1 Anchor on Taobao, her accounts were frozen by the platforms, following the tax evasion scandal.

Q: How many followers did Viya have?

A: Viya has over 17 million followers on Weibo, over 16 million on Douyin, over 1,5 million on Xiaohongshu, and over 12 million followers on Taobao’s Weitao.

Chinese influencers, despite stereotypes, are not vapid product-selling husks. Their rise to prominence is usually accompanied by a great deal of hard work, and often admirable achievements outside the world of selling. This is why they’re trusted by their followers.

Viya (薇娅) is was apex example of a Chinese influencer with substance and credibility. Her livestreams are a mix between variety shows, infomercials and casual chats with her viewers. In 2020 she sold $365 million in a single day, and drew more than 37 million simultaneous viewers.

But she also devotes her time meaningfully, becoming one of Alibaba’s 2019 Poverty Alleviation Campaign anchors, and frequently featuring products produced in poorer regions of China. She is also one of the ‘The Belt and Road Thailand Product Ambassador’.

The products she chooses to promote have been carefully selected by her. When selling any product, this Chinese influencer pays attention of the following things:

1. time limit (the offer is only valid for the time slot at the broadcast)
2. quantity limit (the amount of products available is limited, urging the viewers the make decision quick)
3. price limit (the price of the products must be the lowest when comparing to official channels of the purchase)

Wonder how much Viya charge per one livestream? Depending on the industry she charges from 40,000 to 200,000 RMB.

While doing her livestreams on Taobao, Viya, on average, creates a total transaction value of 66 million CNY / 10 million USD in one hour!

But to cooperate with Viya, brands shall be ready to go through an application and selection process and ready to provide up to 30% commission on sales she generates plus the production fees. Interested to get in touch with Viya? Email your request right now!

Where to start with the KOL marketing campaign? Check out our guide!

Fashion KOLs who Sell Products in Minutes – available KOLs in 2022

WeChat Chinese Influencer in Fashion: Becky Li

Record of selling 100 MINI cars on her WeChat official account within 4 minutes

Top fashion KOLs by Forbes China

Q: How many followers does Becky Li have?

A: She has over 7,6 million followers on Weibo, over 75 thousands on WeChat, and over 650 thousands on Douyin

When mentioning Becky, she is often described as “one of the most influential fashion bloggers” or a “shopaholic”. In fact, she was the chief reporter of the Southern Metropolis Daily, mainly reporting current affairs and movies, and was one of the best entertainment reporters in China before she managed the WeChat account “Becky’s Whimsical World” and became a fashion blogger, and of of the top Chinese influencers.

She was invited by Chanel to attend Paris Fashion Week, and has worked with Chinese A-listers such as Chen Yanxi for the promotion of the philanthropic projects organized by Louis Vuitton and UNICEF. She has cooperated twice with the Palace Museum on culture and jewelry projects, with a transaction volume exceeding 2 million RMB.

In 2017, Becky and MINI cooperated for the first time to exclusively sell the “MINI YOURS Caribbean Blue Limited Edition”. 100 custom cars sold out within 4 minutes. This achievement became a much-told story in the industry and was listed as a classic case by Harvard Business School. At the end of the same year, Becky launched her own clothing brand with the same name.

She has appeared in H&M advertisements, served as a mentor for Helena women’s entrepreneurial projects, became the first KOL partner of WeChat Pay, and acted as its overseas payment experience officer and a friend of the BALLY brand. Earlier last month, Forbes China released a list of China’s top KOLs, listing 50 Chinese key opinion leaders in five specific sectors, such as beauty, fashion, mother & baby, lifestyle, and e-sports. Becky was one of the leaders among them.

So, unlike other Chinese influencers fashion bloggers, and although Becky is a “shopping enthusiast”, people have the impression that she is real, sincere, and down to earth. Just like an everyday beautiful lady, she talks about all kinds of good things, and also builds an image of “I can also have it” from the perspective of an ordinary woman. Therefore, she draws a lot of attention from female customers.

She was “Miss Shopping Guide” in the newspaper office because she always had a good eye for unique and trendy shopping.

But, today, seven years has gone by since “Becky’s Whimsical World” was set up, a fashion WeChat Official Account that is now followed by nearly ten million women, with each of her posts generating over 100,000 views.

“A lot of people focus solely on the number of followers, but I would prefer to have 10 followers who really know an recognize me instead of 100 followers who disagree or do not engage with me.”

Is it possible to find a KOL that does not charge a crazy amount of money? YES! Here is the list of top 10 mid-tier KOLs!

WeChat Chinese Influencer in Fashion: Zola ZHANG

The WeChat Media channel “It was Zola” is undoubtedly one of the best WeChat channels that integrate KOL and WeChat e-commerce sales successfully.

Q: How many followers does Zola have

A: Zola has over 2,9 million followers on Douyin and over 200 000 on WeChat

On the other hand, Many individual products recommended in Zola’s WeChat articles come from her Taobao “Just Chilling” brands, which mainly focus on European and American niche brands. Zola and her employees use those brands, promote them and go one step forward; they determine the product’s price together with the supply chain after contacting the authorizing parties.

On the other hand, it is reported that “It was Zola” made annual sales of about 40 million RMB and monthly sales of 3 to 4 million RMB. The amount is not huge on Taobao, but for a We Media owner switching to e-commerce, it’s impressive.

However, unlike other Chinese influencers, Zola”s “It was Zola” channel does not specialize in a specific topic.

She provides a comprehensive guide to the fashion life circle from all aspects of life rather than being merely a beauty or fashion blogger. Now the number of her followers has reached 7 million on various social media, including 1.5 million for her WeChat official account, and 2.82 million for her Weibo. She has signed and incubated more than 40 bloggers, and the number of her network’s followers across 15 platforms has reached 75 million.

“On WeChat, we are one of the first of several WeChat advertising test accounts. In the WeChat Alternative Advertising case in cooperation with BiOil, we completed 417% of the KPI, reaching 62,700 ad exposures and 177,000 views. On Taobao, we have cooperated with EVE LOM, a niche skincare brand prices 50 – 100, in the CPS advertisement of Guang.taobao.com, in which we sold out 200 fortune bags in 19 seconds.”

Top Fast Sale Chinese KOLs in Kuaishou

Xin Youzhi

Q: How many followers does Xin Youzhi have?

A: Xin Youzhi has over 1,3 million followers on Weibo and over 3,5 million followers on Douyin,and over 70 million on Kuaishou.

Xin Youzhi (辛有志辛巴), is a livestreaming entrepreneur, with over 70 million followers in Kuaishou. He streams less frequently than others, because he maintains a team of livestreamers that do so on his behalf. Still, when he does, he can generate more than $50million of sales in a single day. Unlike many other Chinese influencers, he does not specialise in one product category, but rather sells across many.

Sanda Brother

Q: How many followers does Sanda have?

A: Sanda has 2 million followers on Weibo and 50 million followers on Kuaishou.

With 50 million followers on Kuaishou, Sanda Brother (散打哥) is also known as ‘Fast Sale King’ in China. He’s garnered several awards for his livestreams, and broken records here, there and everywhere, proving the might of KOL marketing. In a single day in 2018, his sales totalled RMB 160 million.

Yu Childe

Q: How many followers does Yu Childe have?

A: He has over 57 thousands followers on Weibo and over 23 million on Kuaishou.

Anchor of Kuaishou’s beauty products platform, Yu Childe (瑜大公子) is considered a pre-eminent beauty KOL and celebrity in his own right. On January 5 2021, he joined several other celebrities to livestream the ‘Stars Giving Back’ event, which was watched by more than 10.2 million people. As part of the broadcast, he set a record by selling RMB 368 million in a single broadcast, putting him in the top ranks of Chinese KOLs.

More KOLs from China who Sell Products Fast

Cherie

Q: How many followers does Cherie have?

A: Cherie has over 12 million followers on Weibo, also she has about 1 million followers on Douyin and on Xiaohongshu.

After opening a Taobao store in 2011, Cherie (雪梨Cherie) has grown a following of more than 200 million fans for her livestreams, making her one of the most popular KOLs in China. Featuring more than 30 brands, in 2020, Cherie set a record for the highest number of transactions in a single live broadcast; in five hours, her sales exceeded RMB 300 million.

Dandan Kid

Q: How many followers does Dandan Kid have?

A: She has over 3 million followers on Douyin

A relatively new kid on the block, Dandan Kid is making waves on KOL platforms. In 2019, 30 livestreams generated a sales volume of RMB118 million. In 2021, she racked up RMB 120 million of sales in one hour, with one broadcast exceeding RMB 330 million in sales.

Kiki

Q: How many followers does Kiki have?

A: Kiki has over 5,8 million followers on Weibo and over 3.5 million on Douyin

Chinese influencer Kiki (陈洁) once sold RMB 177 million in three days. She made a name for herself in a cooperation with actor Lei Jiayin to promote Borward Auto. In two and a half hours, the duo pulled in more than 220 million orders, helping Borgward become the car manufacturer with the most live broadcast bookings in 2019.

LieEr Baby

Q: How many followers does LiEr Baby have?

A: She has over 4,5 million followers on Weibo and over 3 million on Douyin.

Another record-breaking Chinese influencer, on Singles Day 2017, LieEr Baby (烈儿宝贝) had sales of RMB 10 million in just five minutes. Her live broadcasts, even back then, before China’s KOL hayday, garnered view counts of millions. In the following year, 2018, her annual sales exceeded one billion RMB. Fast-forward to 2021, in January she won the 13^th spot on the list of ‘Hot People of the Year’ according to Sina Weibo.

Hasi Food

Q: How many followers does Hasi Food have?

A: She has over 5 million followers on Douyin

A Chinese food and beauty blogger, Hasi Food (哈西美食) did a whopping 303 live broadcasts in November 2021 alone, achieving sales of RMB 418 million. Her content is generally aimed at demonstrating recipes, but she accompanies this with selling beauty and body products.

In conclusion, according to most brands, KOL marketing is one of the most effective ways to promote in China. Here at HI-COM we understand the Chinese market. If you want to learn more about Chinese KOL marketing or need help with your Chinese marketing? Drop us a line!

The penchant in China for KOLs continued unabated in 2020, and into 2021. Hardly a marketing meeting goes by when the acronym doesn’t pop up once or twice. Having ascended marketing geek buzzword-territory into a generally understood concept, the question on the lips of brands operating anywhere in China is no longer if KOL marketing is a good idea, but how best to do it.

The truth is that KOLs with millions of followers command eye-watering price tags. For most companies, it is simply not feasible to get in on the action with someone like Austin Li or Vija Huang. There are, however, a cadre of mid-tier KOLs that wield significant-enough influence to generate sales, or get a brand name out there. Below are a few of our favourites.

Food & Beverage MId-Tier KOLs

miss蜗牛(miss Woniu）

Miss Snail is a Shanghai-based photographer and stylist who has built a substantial around her photos of food, beverage and lifestyle. Her unique sense of aesthetic sees her create highly stylized snaps of food that is usually considered low-brow, such as KFC, Pizza Hut, and Heineken. She accompanies her shots with a whole ‘Snail’ brand, including the Snail Institute, where people may come and learn from her how to take better food pictures. To be associated with miss Snail is to be associated with the ideals she embodies – capturing beauty in everyday objects, and passing on lessons about how to do so to her 330,000 followers on Weibo and 150,000 followers on RED.

悦食epicure (Yueshi Epicure)

Yueshi is all about digging into the details. His stated aim is to rekindled the relationship between people and food, in an authentic way. Sharing facts about the history of food, documenting it in pictures, and showing the beauty of ingredients, Yueshi tells stories. It is his authentic and honest love for food that has gained him almost a million followers on Weibo.

Cosmetics Mid-Tier KOLs

罐罐子_ (Guanguanzi)

Hangzhou-based Guanguanzi creates looks. Her looks are bold. In a country where wearing heavy makeup is only just beginning to become fashionable, Guanguanzi goes in. By pairing her makeup styling with bold fashion choices, and showing her audience exactly which products she’s used, her 350,000 Weibo followers get useful info, while brands benefit from the exposure.

Ya咸咸 (Ya Xianxian)

Based in Sichuan, Ya Xianxian is a prolific model for fashion and cosmetics. She sports a new look a couple of times per week, and, like Guanguanzi, often gives details about what products she’s used and why. Her uniqueness comes from showing off transnational trends, blending styles from around the globe, united by their position in the aesthetic of Generation Z. Expect her 265,000 Weibo and 100,000 RED followers to be young and willing to be adventurous in the pursuit of style.

Fashion

 季未燃 （JiweiJW）

Jiwei takes a very personal approach to his social media accounts. He posts pictures of his projects – ranging from fashion shootings, to drawing, and even paper art – but he also posts frequent vlogs, documenting his life-long passion for fashion. Recently he was treated to some new threads, and special seats at Shanghai Fashion Week, by Burberry. In return, Burberry got some very favourable coverage directed towards his almost one-million Weibo fans. Collabs have also been made with Dior and Guerlain.

小象王国 (Elephant Kingdom)

Elephant Kingdom, AKA XiangChong shares news and pictures about all the latest fashion goings-on in China. Xiang Chong is a favourite not only for meticulously compiling pictures from the very latest releases by big-name brands but also for informing the audience about the designers behind them. The sheer velocity and consistent quality of the posts have earned the account over six million followers.

Don’t know where to start your first KOL campaign? Check our KOL Marketing guide!

Hospitality

Cestmoii

Cestmoii is famed for posting beautiful 9-picture collages of travel locations from around the world. They pay particular attention to colour and theme, making sure that each of the nine are aligned by a central concept, such as ‘love’, ‘sunset’, or ‘change’, for example, but that their colours are virtually identical. The effect is to evoke an almost nostalgic, sentimental feeling towards the destinations, whether or not the viewer, one of their 300,000 followers for instance, has ever been there.

时尚西凉花（Fashion Xilianghua）

Xilanghua is what you might call a multi-disciplinary KOL. She combines fashion, lifestyle, travel and design into one big personal brand. It is the life of Xilianghua that people are interested in, not any one particular theme. Like Cestmoii, she pays close attention to the colours of the photos she shares, making her pages immediately pleasing to look at. When her 100,000 Weibo followers, and 55,000 RED followers delve into the content, it is exactly the variety that keeps things interesting. One post might be a collab with Dior, the next a bar, and the next a bakery.

Entertainment

疯狂特效师 (Crazy Special Effects Artist)

Let’s call Crazy Special Effects Artist CSEA for short. His account is exactly what you’d expect, as he is, indeed, a pretty crazy special effects artist. CSEA’s posts are usually of projects and props that he’s working on for different film projects, and show a lighter side of graphical production. His 250,000 fans love the fact that his videos always have unexpected twists, or huge film set-pieces, alongside the dynamic character that is CSEA in the first place.

Sport

 姜大湿 (Master Jiang)

Master Jiang posts daily motivation videos and images, alongside guides and meal plans for fitness fans. The account is well-balanced, with the drier, more detailed posts cushioned with humorous photos. Master Jiang is a big fan of cats, and, has gained traction recently for a recent foray into ballet. He is specially highlighted by Weibo as being a notable sports blogger, and has 1.5 million followers.

These examples are just a sample of what’s out there in terms of mid-tier KOLs. For more, or some that are more specific to a particular campaign, don’t hesitate to get in touch.

Looking for top KOLs in China? Here is a list of 30 top KOLs in China

Need help with your first KOL campaign? Drop us a line! 

About HI-COM:

WeChat marketing is becoming more and more complicated in 2020. With the constant shifts in trends it is becoming more and more difficult for marketers to develop long term plans. Finding new customers and creating interest, not to mention generating sales is a new challenge. And when it comes to closed ecosystem such as WeChat marketing, e-commerce takes a whole new turn.

As advertising becomes more and more expensive, brands are starting to rely on KOL marketing. But KOL services also have costs too and are mostly focused on generating brand awareness.

So how do brands stay in business with WeChat marketing, stores and mini programs? And what is the secret of all these successful stores?

What is WeChat? How is this application revolutionising digital marketing?

Chinese APP WeChat is first and foremost an instant messaging application used by more than a billion people and mostly used in China.

The application then evolved into a social media platform with the “Moments” tab where users can share their thoughts, pictures and videos and only their friends can see them, making sharing these “Moments” credible and authentic. Finally, brands and influencers have also taken hold of the application which has led to the creation of “Mini-Programs” and online stores to allow brands and KOL to sell directly on the WeChat platform without necessarily leaving the APP to access the website or another application.

Therefore, brands can create their own official page and share their exclusive information, articles and other information as well as the online store. The latest new feature being tested on WeChat are the influencers’ live stream where as soon as they talk about a product, viewers can directly buy it without even leaving the live stream.

This all-in-one application allows you to see the evolution of the consumer now known as “Consumer 2.0”.

Most companies have realized that they will need China’s growth to power their own in the near future. But to take possession of their own and future power, they must understand how the new consumer 2.0 works today, how China’s ecommerce is evolving, and what the new spending patterns are.

Understanding consumer 2.0

It’s not enough to carry out market research once a year to really know what your consumer is looking for. Today, brands need to concentrate on weekly follow ups to see where the trends and needs of consumers are going. The two-way conversation is becoming a must for brands and companies that want to succeed on the Chinese market.

For this, leveraging personalized WeChat marketing groups might just be what you need. Tagging your key customers by location or other criteria can help you to update them on relevant news and deals. Making those groups “invitation only” or bringing a certain VIP feeling will ease the task of growing these communities.

In fact, the main difference between a successful local brand and a international brand is simply collection of real-life data.

New ways of brand community management

The way brands manage these communities is also progressing. A systematic approach focusing on communication has become a must in community management. As consumers become more educated, never before has it been more about the connection between a brand and the consumer.

Creating a habit of checking on a brand, or seeing “what’s new in the group” can help brands to create a deeper connection.

For example, hosting limited time WeChat marketing pop-ups could be one way to keep your community members on their toes.

Same goes with sharing important and useful content, which could help your consumers in their daily lives.

Updating the community on certain days of the week unifies people by providing interesting topics to share. The feedback on these activities could provide valid data and deepen the understanding of customers. For example, a brand of healthy snacks could engage by providing video of breakfasts that include products of the brand.

KOL/Influencer Marketing – new approaches

When it comes to KOL marketing, there are a few variables that need to be accounted for.

Firstly, the size of the KOL audience and the content focus. A few smaller KOLs might be great to put your brand on the social media and e-commerce map. Whereas one large KOL might help you to move that new stock and kick-start your brand’s sales season.

But what brands still do not realize is how to best benefit when approaching major KOLs in China.  Chinese influencers are very careful when it comes to picking products. Look at Viya, who has a dedicated team that sorts out the product applications and performs quality tests. KOLs are the experts of what the consumer wants and they try their very best to meet expectations. So working with a brand that will not be interesting  will reflect badly on both the KOL and the performance. In some cases, the discussion with large KOLs can last for a few seasons until the KOL  figures out a way to bring the product around with the right angle.

Secondly, seasonality.

When doing e-commerce in China, brands shall switch from the national calendars to the e-commerce calendars and plan their work and vacation time accordingly. It is safe to say that the double 11 festival will represent ½ or in some cases nearly all of your annual sales, especially if you do it right. Then comes Double 12^th(December 12), 618 (June 18^th), and so on. Most of the traffic hits the e-commerce channels exactly on those e-holidays, as most brands present very good deals to their customers.

Thirdly, cooperation models.

From smaller KOLs and product seeding (distributing free samples for hundreds of KOLs in the hope of creating a social buzz) to bigger KOLs with massive marketing budgets or even brand representation, the company’s size and marketing plan will determine what model is right at a specific moment.

In 2019 most brands have started to collect their own KOL pools on several social media channels. Such databases of KOLs is and will be extremely useful for brands when working with KOLs on weekly/monthly bases, doing product seeding, offline events etc.

And that’s not a surprise. Today, in order to stand out, brands need to be involved with at least a hundred of small size KOLs on different platforms, which will provide a broad evaluation of the product presented. This will create a pretty good “word of mouth” base for your brand and a base for cooperation with medium and large size KOLs.

Further reading:

Discover what KOL (influencer) seeding is and how it can benefit your brand!

Staying on top of the Chinese e-commerce ecosystem in 2020

Brands that operate in China need to be well informed on the changes within the Chinese digital ecosystem. Traffic coming from marketing efforts will translate into sales only if the customer journey is well planned.

But with platforms always changing their strategic partners, this might not be so simple.

Chinese e-commerce and social media changes. What to look out for in 2020

We are still waiting to see if Douyin will continue its cooperation with Taobao in 2020, as the popular platform signed only a 1 year contract with the e-commerce giant, and the possibility that Douyin will launch its own e-commerce platform has not yet been ruled out.

It will be interesting to see how JD.com will fight the competition in the coming year, after a rather tough 2019..

The new social media platform by Weibo “Luzhou” was launched very recently, and could potentially be a competitor of Xiaohongshu.

Brands shall also keep in mind that video content and live streaming could be the most important trend for e-commerce sales in 2020.

Another trend to keep in mind is emerging entertainment platforms such as BiliBili that can be an excellent source of traffic for e-commerce channels, such as WeChat Store or Tmall, as the fan base of these platforms is extremely loyal to brands and KOLs.

CRM is another crucial tool to leverage in 2020. More and more brands are growing their consumer base though the existing consumer base by keeping track and close contact with consumers. CRM systems integrated to the WeChat marketing platform (such as WeChat Work) is the key to keep up with the changes and a convenient tool to update your customers on any news and notifications.

These new types of consumer are becoming more discerning. They do their own research so as to avoid being tricked, and they take into consideration emotional elements which can strongly affect their buying decisions.

But before implementing new strategic actions for your company you must ask yourself how important the Chinese market is for your company?If it’s really important, first of all it is essential to have a presence all the APPs Chinese consumers use on a daily basis, especially WeChat.

The challenge will not be whether or not you can enter the Chinese market, it will be: Can you maintain a leading position in China in the long term?

Solution

Want to drive traffic to your WeChat store and create a strong brand awareness within Chinese consumers? Ask us how!  

READ ALSO:

HI-COM’s marketing director Kate Chernavina has been featured alongside other industry leaders in business magazine, BW confidential, commenting on influencer marketing trends on Tmall, and differences in KOL cooperation. She spoke about the role of Micro KOL in Chinese digital ecosystem, product review marketing, and more. 

HI-COM’s marketing director Kate Chernavina has been featured alongside other industry leaders in business magazine, BW confidential, commenting on influencer marketing trends on Tmall, and differences in KOL cooperation. She spoke about the role of Micro KOL in Chinese digital ecosystem, product review marketing, and more. Check out more of Kate’s thoughts here (P78, P80)!

Cost of engagement in China: more and more international brands are becoming concerned with the existence of a true social media engagement when working with Chinese KOL and Influencers.  Many communication agencies and marketing experts suggest choosing a more reliable KPI for their client’s campaigns, such as sales. But what do you do when you aim to make your brand more recognisable? Can you trust the influencers’ profiles? How much should a normal social media campaign cost in China? How do you pick out the real accounts from the fake ones and how much should you pay for one engaged person?

More and more international brands are becoming concerned with the existence of a true social media engagement when working with Chinese KOL and Influencers.  Many communication agencies and marketing experts suggest choosing a more reliable KPI for their client’s campaigns, such as sales. But what do you do when you aim at recognisability and not conversion? Can you really trust the influencers’ profiles? How do you pick out the real accounts from the fake ones and how much should you pay for one engaged person?

TABLE OF CONTENTS :
I – The growing trend of ‘Zombie fans’ will start to die out
II – Social media engagement cost analysis
1. Does more followers equal higher price per social media engagement?
2. Is it normal when a KOL’s follower base doubles in 1/2/3 months?
3. How long does the fame of an influencer last?
4. Zombie fans – do KOLs buy them every day?
5. Cost of social media engagement in China

KOL Marketing China: introduction to social media engagement analysis

Influencer marketing has become one of the most popular ways to engage with audiences, and is now a hot key word worldwide, and here’s why: a true influencer is a content creator, copywriter, designer and a consumer behaviour expert – all in one!  But how do you find one in a market full of fraud and fakery?

Whether it’s down to practicality, lack of patience, or just pure greed, Influencers are often lured into the world of fake followers, despite it being considered cheating to monetise a fake follower base.

Over the past three years, HI-COM has searched, studied and followed trustworthy and reliable KOL profiles. We were tracking Influencers whose names were mentioned in social media awards, profiles who do not accept cash payments and do not monetise their popularity, as well as very dedicated influencers who have been cooperating with big names for several years, as these types of KOL profiles have logical follower base growth and logical engagement volumes.

We also followed studied a few suspicious accounts that have obvious or even very smart but commercial growth of the follower base and engagement. And finally we interviewed influencers in China, both real and ‘wanna-be-real’.

The growing trend of ‘Zombie fans’ will start to die out 

Not so long ago, the trend of ‘zombie’ fans – or buying fake followers – was at its highest. But influencers who have genuinely been in the business for a long time quickly came to understand that the credibility of your account goes down, reliability decreases, and companies like Weibo or Alibaba would have their fake history on a record and would think twice about handing these influencers awards.

via GIPHY

Although the zombie era has peaked and now seems to be coming to an end, there are still a few influence markets that have not reached the expected maturity.

Mature influencer markets in China include cosmetics, fashion, travel, and sport. Relatively new and under developed influence markets are finance, technology, and b2b.

By using specially developed software we were able to collect account growth, engagement, and other data from the social media platforms of our chosen influencers. We tested our collected database and compared the data from influencers in different industries, and different follower behaviours. We also compared various prices per post and more, in hope of learning more about the relationship between cost and social media engagement of a real follower.

In this experiment we considered engagement volume the amount of all likes, shares and comments for a given period of time.

Average engagement volume: a sum of engagement (likes, shares and comments) divided by X number of posts in a given time (in the last month, 3 months, year).

Average engagement rate: average engagement volume divided by number of fans. One of the possible indicators that can show us that an account is fake is if its engagement rate is 0.0001 or less (whether it’s because the account is buying fake fans, or is just losing popularity, the engagement is too low to invest into the account).

Cost per engagement: price of writing post divided by average engagement volume.

Once all necessary data have been collected/computed, all data from different industries are combined into an integral and standardised database.

Social media engagement cost analysis:

By comparing the data from three different industries, we can measure the Engagement Rates Distribution Density within the influencer profiles in those industries. In our example below, we ran the profiles in the cosmetics, gaming and travel industries.

Takeaway: distribution of engagement rate varies between industries in terms of standard deviation.

1. Does more followers equal higher price per social media engagement?

2. Is it normal when a KOL’s follower base doubles in 1/2/3 months?

Takeaway: A healthy growth of a KOL account should show a gradual increase in followers along with a similar increase in likes and shares.

3. How long does the fame of an influencer last?

This diagram shows the behavior of a KOL’s follower base in a given time frame. The influencer was changing his editorial style at the end of 2017, after noticing a lower engagement a little past his peak of fame.  In order to stay more relevant, the influencer started to post a new type of content (video), which brought some interest back. But the general trend of the fame of influencer is downward.

5. Cost of social media engagement in China

Big and small brands alike continue to work with influencers to increase brand awareness, consumer loyalty, and brand reputation.  But what are the first steps to take in order to launch a successful KOL campaign, and how to choose an achievable goal, and what influencer marketing budget shall you allocate?  Ask yourself these 3 questions before partnering with Chinese micro influencers!

How to work with Chinese micro influencers and why

Big and small brands alike continue to work with influencers to increase brand awareness, consumer loyalty, and brand reputation.  But what are the first steps to take in order to launch a successful KOL campaign, and how to choose an achievable goal, and what influencer marketing budget shall you allocate?  Ask yourself these 3 questions before partnering with Chinese micro influencers!

It’s not too late to cash in on influencer marketing―Here’s why! 

Plus 3 questions to ask yourself before partnering with a micro-influencer

Working with Chinese influencers is nothing new. Big brands and small brands alike continue to work with influencers to increase brand awareness, consumer loyalty, and brand reputation.

It’s no surprise as multiple studies have confirmed the value of working with influencers.

For example, one study found that influencers recommend products and/or brands up to 22.2 more times during the week compared to everyday consumers.

For businesses, this means getting their brand and products in front of more consumers and being recommended more often.

Notably, 82 % of consumers surveyed for the same study were highly likely to listen to the advice and recommendations of influencers.

While some people believe marketing through influencer partnerships is a fading trend, the exponential growth of China’s middle class is a strong case for businesses to continue using influencer marketing.

Cash in on China’s growing middle class with influencer marketing

The explosive growth of China’s middle class has brought about a rapid social and economic transformation over the last decade. What’s truly amazing is that according to research “more than 75% of China’s urban consumers will earn 60,000 to 229,000 RMB ($9,000 to $34,000) a year by 2022.”

What’s more, recent studies show that China’s “post-90s generation” are more likely to research a product or service before making a purchase compared to generations before them. This generation is also more likely to research niche brands and maintain loyalty to brands they trust.

For businesses aiming to target the growing, middle-class population, working with influencers is still a worthwhile option to achieve your marketing goals.

Whether it’s working with celebrity influencers or micro-influencers (non-celebrities with the impact to reach a large audience), it’s important to understand as to whether creating a partnership with influencers is right for your brand and business.

Micro-influencers tend to attract followers within niche areas of interest. Unlike celebrity influencers, micro-influencers often voice their opinions and recommendations out of passion for a specific interest instead of money.

If you haven’t already tried influencer marketing, there are good opportunities to find the right influencer to help enhance your brand. To get started, ask yourself the three questions below!

Question #1: Does my brand have unique attributes that a popular micro-influencer can incorporate in their day-to-day interaction with their fans?

Many micro-influencers will be eager to test a product and provide recommendations if it’s something that relates to what they already talk about and promote to fans.

As digital-savvy consumers continue to use social media as a platform to find products and recommendations, brands must be able to personalize their products that consumers are looking for. Marketing in heavily saturated industries is a challenge that can be overcome by personalizing content and relating to consumers’ everyday lives.

This is where micro-influencers can be leveraged. The right micro-influencers have unique perspectives on brands and can appeal to their followers more easily.

For example, if your business is related to health and fitness, you should consider seeking out a micro-influencer who is highly passionate about leading an active lifestyle. Rather than choosing the most popular micro-influencer, it’s better to focus on find the right influencer who is familiar with your industry and similar products.

Question #2: Are you willing to work with smaller influencers who may be lesser known?

While a celebrity endorsement is powerful, marketing campaigns typically take more than just one statement or mention. Consider incorporating micro-influencers into your multichannel marketing approach. This will allow you to stretch your budget further while still being able to promote your brand across various channels.

You might also consider working with Chinese micro influencers if you are also up-and-coming in your industry; partnering with a newer influencer could help both of you grow. Early collaborations provide opportunities for you to work with someone at a reasonable rate as well as give the influencer a chance to grow. It’s a win-win.

Just be sure your keep in mind micro-influencers may be less experience working with businesses and therefore, might be less professional.

Question #3: What does a successful partnership mean to you and your business?

Before enlisting Chinese micro influencers there are a few things to think about. One of the very first things to do is clearly outline your marketing goals. Your goals should be data-driven, not overly fluffed statements such as “increase awareness”.

The best goals are defined with metrics. For example, “increase sales by 10% each month” or “expose our product to more than 5,000 new consumers”.

Simpler metrics can be also be determined such as website views, forms filled out, referrals, etc.

Refer to the traditional S.M.A.R.T acronym – Specific, Measurable, Attainable, Realistic and Time-based, to ensure you’re on track.

In addition to defining your data-driven goals, researching micro-influencers related to your industry is critical. Not only should your influencer’s brand be aligned with yours, it’s important to partner with an influencer who keeps their audiences’ preferences in mind.

Wechat and Meipai are two good places to start looking for someone to partner with. If you take your time to find the right influencer, you can avoid embarrassing mistakes that could hurt your brand.

Once you have defined your goals and find a micro-influencer to work with, it’s time begin your campaign!

Your Micro Influencer marketing budget

When you start digging in to influencer marketing in China, you quickly understand – it is costly. Of cause, every profile you might find will have different price, audience demographic, engagement and marketing experience. Choosing an influencer as well as the social media platform that is right for your product/service is crucially important for the campaign and your influencer marketing budget estimation!

Same influencer on 2 different platforms can charge a different fee. Duration and type of content plays an important role in budget as well. Video content will be more expensive that a written post with a photo.

When it comes to math, in general, working with a Micro Influencer (50K – 200K real followers depending on platform) will cost 1000-3000 USD per post. To reach even a tiny sector of a market, brand shall work with a series of KOLs and create series of campaigns.

For example, a market of 20 million people (size of Shanghai city), brands shall involve 20 – 30 micro influencers of 200K fans, which puts the influencer marketing budget to 60K – 90K USD, not including the platform fees that might be as high as . Keeping in mind that “reaching a market” means creating impression, not engagement.

Of cause, the relationship with brand or marketing agency and cooperation benefits for the influencer are important too and might cut some slack here and there.

If you are not ready to start your campaign just yet, try out some other ways to reach Chinese audience!

With these questions in mind, you can determine whether working with a Chinese micro-influencer will enhance your brand and overall marketing strategy.

If you’re still unsure if influencer marketing is right for your business, there are a variety of companies that can help determine your niche market and narrow down a potential list of influencers.

Want to start your Micro Influencer Marketing? Ask us how!