10,000-word analysis | 2024 brand KOC marketing full-domain strategy

In the new year, will KOC marketing still be as popular as before? Then what should we do?

In a context of high traffic costs and declining consumer trust , how to achieve precise reach, efficient conversion, and sustainable growth has become a new issue facing many brands.

This article will start from "Why do we still need to do KOC marketing in 2024 ?" "How to keep improving ?" "How to manage a team ? " "How to expand, deepen, expand and refine across the board?" and combine " cases of different characteristics and different industries" to give you a comprehensive analysis of the winning strategy for brand KOC marketing in 2024.

1. Everyone says the bonus period is over, so why do brands still need to do KOC marketing in 2024?

1. Analysis of e-commerce industry trends in 2024

Market competition intensifies, and traffic costs continue to rise . With the continuous maturity of e-commerce platforms and the increase in the number of brands, the e-commerce market competition in 2024 will be more intense. Top traffic resources will become more scarce and expensive, and the cost of brand customer acquisition will further increase . In this case, brands need to find more accurate and efficient marketing methods, and KOC marketing will become the choice of more brands due to its wide reach and low cost .

As consumer trust decreases, the value of word-of-mouth marketing becomes more prominent. With the increasing degree of commercialization, consumers' trust in advertisements and official propaganda is declining. At the same time, with the highly developed social media today, consumers are more dependent on the word-of-mouth and sharing of real users . As a representative of real consumers, KOC's sharing and recommendations based on real experiences will have higher credibility and influence in 2024, becoming an important way for brands to build reputation and win trust.

Private domain traffic operation has become a rigid demand. As the public domain traffic dividend fades, more and more brands are aware of the importance of private domain traffic operation. KOC marketing is an important way for brands to obtain and operate private domain traffic at low cost. Through KOC's recommendation and sharing , brands can reach more target users, and through continuous interaction and operation, convert them into loyal private domain users, thus forming stable sales and repeat purchases.

2. Analysis of changes in consumer behavior in 2024

Consumers pursue personalized experiences. As consumers' personalized needs grow, brands will need to provide more customized and differentiated products and services in 2024. KOC marketing can help brands achieve this goal. By working with KOCs in different fields and styles, brands can create diversified and personalized content to meet the preferences and needs of different consumers. KOCs can also provide personalized interactions and services based on the characteristics of fans, enhance consumer participation and stickiness, and improve brand loyalty.

Consumers rely on social media. In 2024, social media will become the main platform for consumers to obtain information, share experiences, and interact . KOC marketing can help brands achieve accurate reach and efficient communication on social media. By cooperating with KOCs in vertical fields, brands can accurately deliver communication content to target consumers, improve communication efficiency and conversion rate . At the same time, KOCs can also use their own influence to spread brand information to a wider audience, expanding brand awareness and influence .

Consumers favor value-oriented brands. In 2024, more and more consumers will pay attention to the brand's value proposition and social responsibility performance . KOC marketing can help brands shape a positive and positive value image . By cooperating with influential KOCs in the fields of public welfare, environmental protection, health, etc., brands can convey their own values ​​and responsibilities, and form emotional resonance with consumers. KOC can also give brands a richer and more vivid personality through vivid and three-dimensional content creation, thereby enhancing brand recognition and reputation .

3. Reasons why KOC marketing will see a new boom in 2024

The number of self-media creators has increased dramatically, and the KOC talent pool has become richer. In 2024, as the threshold for content creation continues to decrease and the channels for monetization become increasingly abundant, more and more people will join the ranks of self-media entrepreneurs. Among them are amateurs who use content creation as a sideline, and professional experts who use it as a full-time job. The surge in the number of self-media creators has provided a richer talent pool for brand KOC marketing. Brands can carefully select experts who fit the brand's tone and have the ability to produce high-quality content from a large number of self-media creators, and cultivate them into exclusive KOCs for the brand to create more value for the brand.

The rise of long-tail KOCs has become a new opportunity to help brands penetrate market segments. In the era of super individuals, in addition to the top KOLs, long-tail KOCs will also have new opportunities to rise. Although these KOCs have relatively few fans, they often have highly vertical and loyal fan groups. In 2024, as more niche markets and niche needs are explored, long-tail KOCs will attract more like-minded users with their unique content positioning and personal charm . Through cooperation with long-tail KOCs, brands can achieve low-cost penetration and position in market segments and reach more potential target consumers.

KOC has become an important source of market insights for brands, enabling product innovation. In the era of super individuals, KOCs are not only content producers, but also market observers and insightful people . Excellent KOCs often have keen insights and forward-looking thinking in their vertical fields. In 2024, brands will pay more attention to gaining market insights from KOC content and feedback, and understanding users' real needs and experience pain points . Brands can regularly hold new product experience meetings, innovative ideas seminars and other activities with KOCs, invite KOCs to participate in the entire process of product innovation and optimization, and use KOCs' professional perspectives and user thinking to promote product updates and iterations and enhance product competitiveness .

KOC marketing technology is constantly upgrading to achieve more accurate and efficient delivery. With the advancement of technologies such as big data and artificial intelligence , the technical level of KOC marketing will be significantly improved in 2024. Brands can use more advanced data analysis and user portrait tools to accurately identify and target KOCs and fans. At the same time, intelligent KOC management systems and automated marketing tools will greatly improve the efficiency and ROI of KOC marketing and reduce labor costs . KOC marketing enabled by technology will create greater value for brands and attract more brands to join.

4. KOC marketing can bring stability and growth to brands in 2024

KOC marketing helps improve brand reputation and trust. Under the general trend of declining consumer trust and rising word-of-mouth influence, KOC marketing can provide brands with effective social word-of-mouth proof through authentic and credible content output and interactive communication, improve brand reputation and trust, and win more loyal users for the brand.

KOC marketing can achieve accurate and efficient user reach and conversion. As the public domain traffic dividend fades, KOC marketing can help brands achieve accurate reach and efficient conversion in private and niche areas. By cooperating with vertical KOCs, brands can accurately reach target groups with their content, improve communication efficiency and conversion rate, and achieve high-quality growth .

KOC marketing helps to enhance brand competitive advantage and reduce costs. Through deep binding and cooperation with a large number of KOCs, unique marketing assets and daily sales base can be built to enhance brand differentiation advantages. Although the influence of long-tail KOCs is relatively small, there are enough of them and they cover various segments . Brands can penetrate multiple market segments at low cost and widely, accumulate small victories into big ones, and achieve stable and sustainable sales growth.

KOC marketing can provide continuous impetus for brand innovation and optimization. KOC's creative ability and communication influence can also provide a continuous source of power for brands to innovate marketing methods and seize hot topics .

2. Are you wondering, can I do KOC marketing business?

The well-known cases in the market are some brands that started through KOC marketing. Let’s take a look at some KOC marketing-related cases that are not widely disseminated , because KOC marketing is valuable not only in the start-up stage .

1. Food gift box——Nofan

I believe everyone is familiar with Novan truffle chocolate . The peak season every year starts from Christmas and ends at the New Year Festival. It even jumped to the third place in the food industry in the most recent Douyin e-commerce New Year Festival (second only to Three Squirrels and Be & Cheery), which fully confirms the brand's strategy of focusing on the New Year scene .

Many people's perception of Novan's marketing strategy may still be that it spends tens of millions of dollars to get top influencers on Star Map to promote products. It is true that Star Map has brought in a large number of A3 people (interested people), but harvesting is the key after promotion. I once had in-depth communication with Jason, the brand promotion director of Novan.

In summary: spending big money and doing fine work are not contradictory and are even indispensable . The marketing strategy of Novan Truffle Chocolate on Douyin can be summarized as "spending big money to promote products + multiple harvests". The specific approach is as follows:

With the help of top influencers, the brand topic is ignited. During peak seasons such as Christmas and New Year's Festival, Nofan will invite top influencers to promote products with high fees. Through the huge influence of top influencers, Nofan can quickly increase the topic popularity of brands and products, attract the attention of a large number of potential consumers, and lay a good foundation for subsequent conversions.

Plan KOC trailer short videos in advance to complete the last link of conversion . In order to maximize the conversion of grass-planting traffic, in addition to live broadcasts and product cards, KOC trailer short videos are also planned in advance as an important means of harvesting. KOC trailer short videos are more down-to-earth and straightforward, and often show product features in a simple and crude way. When consumers who are attracted to the product learn more about the product through search and other methods, these KOC trailer videos can well complete the last link of the purchase decision and prompt them to complete the order .

Seize the nodes to continue to promote products and consolidate the brand's positioning as a new year's product. Nofan is very good at seizing key nodes such as Christmas and the New Year's Goods Festival, and continues to promote products through top influencers and KOCs to consolidate the brand's positioning as the first choice for new year's products in the minds of consumers. The influence of top influencers is used to ignite topics, and then rapid conversion is achieved through live broadcasts, product cards, KOC trailer videos and other forms. Finally, seize the nodes to continue to promote products and consolidate the positioning of new year's products, making full use of the unique value of KOC in the promotion and conversion links.

2. Beauty and Personal Care - Gong Fu

After launching in April 2022, Gongfu's GMV exceeded 10 million in the first month, 30 million in the third month, 50 million in the fifth month , and 100 million in the 23rd year. Gongfu's starting strategy is to create big hits . The body cream is Gongfu's first big hit and the first product launched after the brand was established. It has won the TOP 1 of Douyin's monthly personal care industry hit list many times.

The marketing strategy of Gongfu Nuyan Cream on Douyin can be summarized as " celebrity endorsement + content distribution + seeding " . The specific approach is as follows:

Celebrity recommendations drive product popularity. Gongfu attaches great importance to increasing product awareness and sales through celebrity recommendations. The brand's best-selling body cream has been recommended by many well-known actresses such as Xu Lu, Zeng Li, Chen Yanfei, Bao Wenjing, Wu Xin, Chen Zihan, and Huang Yi . These celebrities have posted related recommendations videos on platforms such as Xiaohongshu and Douyin, promoting the body cream to a large number of fans. With the help of the topicality and influence of celebrities, Gongfu's best-selling products and brands have quickly accumulated popularity and discussion heat, reaching more potential consumers, and laying a good foundation for subsequent product sales.

Focus on content seeding and conversion effects. Gongfu has high requirements for content quality and conversion effects. Massive and high-quality KOC seeding content can increase users' interest and trust in products, bringing higher conversion rates and repurchase rates. Through professional content production, it provides users with more diverse and refined seeding content . In addition, Gongfu also attaches great importance to the emotional connection with users, and will refine details such as designing exclusive emoticons for users, and promote user conversion through refined content operations.

" Iron Bucket Plan " channel strategy. Gong Fu's channel strategy compares Douyin to a continuous "faucet", while other e-commerce platforms are like " iron buckets " . As long as the bucket is made solid , it can well receive the "water flow" diverted from Douyin and achieve efficient conversion. In addition to paid delivery, most of the natural flow of "water flow" is KOC marketing content. At present, Gong Fu has opened 2 official flagship stores and more than 10 specialty stores on Douyin, and has also deployed official flagship stores on mainstream e-commerce platforms such as Taobao, JD.com, Pinduoduo, and Dewu, and built a full-domain sales network to maximize the acceptance and conversion of traffic from Douyin.

3. Oral beauty - five female doctors

The success of the five female PhDs in content marketing on Douyin is obvious to all and comprehensive. Here are some super dry goods about KOC marketing, which come from the brand content manager and my understanding. The key point: let the right people see the right content .

Focus on basic exposure while taking into account the incremental growth of explosive videos. Put the main energy on increasing the scale of basic exposure , and stabilize the basic exposure level by increasing the number of effective videos . The basic exposure determines the overall level of GMV . Although explosive videos can bring a certain increase, they account for a limited proportion of the total exposure. Don't pin all your hopes on explosive videos . Use explosive videos as a supplement to add icing on the cake , not the foundation of your business . It is recommended to stabilize the basic exposure first, and then try to strive for the incremental growth of explosive videos after reaching a certain level. But you should regard explosive videos as additional benefits, not a necessity.

Build a diverse KOC resource pool. Build a KOC account matrix through various means, including brand self-incubation, institutional cooperation, wild talent mining, celebrity trumpets, official trumpets , etc. Different types of KOC accounts can reach different circles and groups, achieve full coverage, and maximize the influence of brands and products. In the current situation of rising traffic costs and downgraded user consumption, a diversified account matrix can help to continuously bring high-quality exposure to brands and maintain product popularity .

Targeted delivery to create a conversion path. The KOC account incubated by the brand should produce two types of content: personal general content should create a distinctive personality and show real life; product-related videos should focus on product selling points and highlight usage scenarios and effects . Targeted delivery of the two types of content, with the homepage as personality content to attract fans and product videos for conversion, so that each can take what it needs and perform its duties . Create a short video content structure of " general traffic opening + product selling point introduction + traffic diversion live broadcast room " , and realize a complete conversion path from attracting fans to planting grass to closing transactions in one video. Let the content play the greatest leverage role .

4. Digital appliances - Baseus

As an independent brand focusing on the field of safe charging, Baseus was not very well-known on the Douyin platform at first. By shortening the user order link , opening up content seeding and product card shelves , it achieved explosive sales of single products. The best-selling single product contributed more than 13 million GMV, and the number of user orders for 5 single products reached more than 100,000.

Shorten the user behavior chain. The eight core touchpoints of the consumer behavior chain can be summarized as: " see, search, enter, compare, purchase, connect, and expand " . The unit price of digital accessories is relatively low, so they are not suitable for hard sales in the live broadcast room. Baseus decisively decided to shorten the chain and focus on the " see-buy " link from grass-planting content to purchase conversion. By seamlessly connecting the product grass-planting in the KOC video with the product card shelf , interested users can directly reach the purchase page , simplifying the decision-making path and improving conversion efficiency.

Select KOCs in a targeted manner. Baseus not only selects KOCs in the field of digital technology , but also KOCs in the fields of fashion, life , etc., especially those who are good at giving user reviews and product recommendations . These KOCs are more likely to resonate with and gain trust from target users, thus expanding the brand's reach. Focusing on selling points such as product performance, innovative functions, safety and reliability, videos of real experiences and usage experience are shot.

By making good use of the endorsement rights of top-tier endorsers , Baseus keenly captured the two popular elements of the Spring Festival and the first year of AI , and cleverly combined them. Taking advantage of the fan base of the top-tier endorsers , it launched the #BaseusAI GrabBuffChallenge topic challenge. On the one hand, the high user activity during the Spring Festival provided natural traffic for the spread of the challenge. On the other hand, the first year of AI was just in time, which aroused widespread attention and discussion, and combined with it, it could quickly attract attention. Baseus created a good public opinion field for KOC marketing by creating topics through hot spots . In the end, the topic attracted 52,000 users to participate during the holiday, and the number of views reached nearly 20 million . Under the topic, 84.76% of the works came from potential experts with less than 100,000 fans , and more than half of them were life experts.

3. How to do KOC business? Essentially, it tests the team's ability to continuously iterate

Based on practical experience and communication with multiple KOC business teams, KOC business can be roughly divided into four stages.

1.1.0 stage - channel is king - quick layout to seize the first opportunity

Main ability requirements of the team: Business

Considering the long-tail nature and dispersion of KOC resources, most KOCs do not have MCNs or brokerage companies, and brands need to communicate and cooperate directly with many scattered KOC individuals. Therefore, it is particularly important to quickly deploy and seize the opportunity .

Information collection and screening. Faced with a vast amount of KOC resources, the team must be able to use various channels and tools to quickly collect and summarize KOC information, and identify high-quality KOC resources that match the brand tone and have marketing value . This requires the team to be familiar with the ways and methods of KOC information collection and have keen business judgment .

Batch and standardized business docking. When conducting business communications with a large number of dispersed KOCs, the team must be able to establish standardized processes and scripts to achieve batch and efficient business docking . This requires the team to develop clear cooperation plans and docking strategies, and improve business efficiency through systematic process management.

Diversified resource integration. In order to achieve comprehensive coverage of the brand's track, the team needs to integrate KOC resources in various fields and at various levels to build a diversified resource matrix. This requires the team to have a holistic view and systematic thinking, and be good at obtaining resources from different channels and integrating them organically .

User thinking and empathy . When conducting business negotiations with KOCs, the team must think from the perspective of KOCs , fully understand their demands and concerns , and provide considerate and thoughtful services. This requires team members to have the ability to think from the perspective of others , always uphold user thinking , and manage KOC relationships with a sincere attitude.

2. Phase 2.0 - Efficiency First - Building a Strong Management and Sales Team

Main team ability requirements: Business + Sales

The core demand of this stage is efficiency first , that is, while ensuring the breadth of coverage, more attention should be paid to improving conversion efficiency and input-output ratio . Therefore, on the basis of the original business capabilities, the team also needs to strengthen sales conversion capabilities and build a highly efficient management and sales team .

Refined sales conversion. At this stage, the team needs to shift from extensive resource development to refined sales conversion. This requires the team to conduct in-depth research on the characteristics and influence of KOCs, design conversion paths and sales tactics in a targeted manner, and improve the conversion rate and ROI of KOC marketing. The team must be good at capturing sales opportunities, optimizing conversion processes , and achieving accurate and efficient sales conversion.

Data-driven management decisions. Faced with an increasingly complex KOC marketing system, the team must establish a data-driven management decision-making mechanism. By monitoring and analyzing various marketing data, the team can gain real-time insights into marketing effects, optimize resource allocation , and provide a basis for subsequent decision-making. This requires the team to strengthen data analysis and application capabilities , use data to guide management practices, and continuously improve marketing effectiveness.

Standardized and process-based operation management. In order to achieve large-scale and efficient KOC operation, the team needs to establish a standardized operation process and quality control system . By formulating unified operating specifications and performance evaluation standards , the team can minimize human errors and improve operational efficiency and output quality. This requires the team to sort out and optimize the workflow of each link and cultivate the process awareness and quality awareness of team members.

Strong team collaboration and execution. KOC marketing is a systematic project involving multiple links such as business, sales, operations, and creativity , which places high demands on the team's collaborative ability. Team members must strengthen communication and cooperation, form a joint force, and efficiently execute various marketing tasks. At the same time, the team must also establish an agile and efficient working mechanism to quickly respond to market changes and flexibly adjust strategies.

3. Stage 3.0 - Content-driven - Hot-selling products drive global growth

Main team ability requirements: Business + Sales + Editing and Directing

As users ’ requirements for content become higher and higher , KOC marketing has entered a new stage of development. The core demand of this stage is that content is king , that is, to achieve content-driven brand growth by creating high-quality and highly disseminated marketing content. Therefore, on the basis of the original business and sales capabilities, the team also needs to strengthen content planning and creative capabilities to truly realize the transformation from channel thinking to content thinking .

Insight into user needs. High-quality content begins with a deep insight into user needs. The team must conduct in-depth research into the target users’ interests, preferences, consumption habits, pain points, and other needs , and transform these insights into targeted content strategies. This requires the team to keep a close eye on user trends, be good at capturing user pain points, and use empathy to design marketing content that is close to users and resonates with them .

Professional content planning. In order to create high-quality marketing content, the team needs to establish a professional content planning and creative system . The team must master the methods and techniques of content planning, and know how to design creative content plans that fit the characteristics of KOCs based on brand tone and marketing goals . This requires team members to have a solid foundation in content and to continuously improve their content planning and creative capabilities.

Content production and execution. Excellent content creativity requires strong execution capabilities to support it. The team must set up a professional content production team to ensure high quality and high efficiency of content output. At the same time, the team must maintain close cooperation with KOCs and provide necessary content support and guidance to better stimulate KOCs' creativity and bring high-quality content output.

Capturing hot topics and creating topics. In an era where content is king, hot topics are often important triggers for content dissemination. The team must be highly sensitive to market trends and public opinion hotspots, quickly capture hot events and topic opportunities, and actively create topics to guide public opinion and create favorable conditions for the dissemination of brand content.

4. 4.0 stage - digital intelligence empowerment - comprehensive support of AI technology

Main team ability requirements: Business + Sales + Editing + Digitalization

With the rapid development of digital technologies such as big data and artificial intelligence , KOC marketing is accelerating its evolution towards data intelligence . At this stage, how to use advanced technologies to fully empower KOC marketing and improve marketing efficiency and accuracy will become the core demand of the team, realizing the transformation from experience-driven to data-driven .

Data collection and processing. Massive amounts of user behavior data and KOC content data are the basis for digital marketing. The team must establish a complete data collection and processing mechanism, collect data through multiple channels and multiple dimensions, and use ETL, data cleaning and other technologies to process data , laying the foundation for subsequent analysis and application. This requires team members to have certain data engineering capabilities and work closely with the IT department.

Data analysis and insights. To extract valuable insights from massive amounts of data, the team needs to have professional data analysis capabilities. The team must use various data analysis tools and algorithm models to deeply explore key information such as user portraits, content features, and communication paths , and discover valuable rules and trends to provide support for marketing decisions. This requires team members to have a solid foundation in data analysis and be good at discovering "stories" from data.

Intelligent operation and optimization. Based on the data analysis results, the team needs to further use artificial intelligence technology to achieve intelligent operation and optimization of KOC marketing. For example, use machine learning algorithms to achieve intelligent recommendation and matching of KOCs, use natural language processing technology to achieve intelligent generation and distribution of content, and use knowledge graph technology to achieve intelligent construction of user portraits. Through intelligent means, the team can greatly improve marketing efficiency and accuracy.

4. How to manage the KOC marketing team?

Currently, the KOC business of most brands is stuck in the 2.0 stage, so we will focus on the management of the KOC commercial marketing ( combining business and sales attributes ) team.

1. How to build a KOC marketing team

Phase 1 (1-10 people):

• Establish a standardized recruitment process , clarify recruitment standards, attract talents by posting job information on major recruitment platforms, internal employee recommendations, etc., conduct preliminary telephone screening and on-site interviews with candidates, and screen out suitable candidates layer by layer
• Establish a standardized training system , design systematic training courses on product knowledge, sales skills, work processes, etc. for new BDs, adopt a combination of theory and practice to help newcomers get started quickly, clarify the responsibilities of team leaders , select outstanding BDs with strong business capabilities and good management awareness to serve as team leaders, and authorize them to carry out daily management work within the team, such as setting team goals, supervising implementation progress, and solving problems in a timely manner, so that team leaders can fully play the role of "passing on knowledge, helping others, and guiding others".

Second stage (10-50 people):

• Cultivate middle-level supervisors , select potential ones from excellent team leaders, and provide them with systematic management training, so that they can gradually assume higher-level management responsibilities. A mentor system can be adopted, where experienced managers can teach new supervisors.
• Empower middle-level supervisors to manage their rights , establish a team structure with supervisors as the core, clearly divide the business scope and task objectives of each team, fully authorize supervisors to carry out work within their jurisdiction, and allow superiors to delegate power appropriately and play a more guiding and supervisory role
• Improve the performance evaluation system for supervisors , establish a set of scientific performance evaluation standards for supervisors, comprehensively consider indicators such as the performance achievement and team development of their teams, link the evaluation results with promotions, salary increases, bonuses, etc., and mobilize the enthusiasm of supervisors in their work.

Phase 3 (50+ people):

• Optimize the organizational structure , divide different business units and management levels according to business modules, regional markets and other dimensions, and clarify their respective responsibilities and powers. Formulate standardized internal processes, covering budget approval, marketing plan formulation, resource allocation, etc., to improve the operating efficiency of the entire organization
• Strengthen the construction of corporate culture , design various team-building activities around the company's mission, vision, and values, such as development training, theme sharing sessions, outstanding employee commendation conferences, etc., to create a positive team atmosphere
• Improve the talent development channel and build vertical development paths for employees at different levels. Each level must have clear qualifications, salary ranges and assessment standards. At the same time, open up professional sequence development channels to provide promotion space for employees who are not good at management but have strong professional capabilities.
• Clarify the responsibilities of managers , clarify the job duties of managers at all levels, establish a regular performance report mechanism, urge managers to effectively perform their functions such as team management, business guidance, and talent training, and make timely adjustments to incompetent managers
• Build an information sharing platform , use digital tools such as OA systems and CRM systems to break through the information barriers of various business lines, achieve seamless collaboration among sales, operations, products and other departments, and enhance organizational adaptability. In short, the establishment of the KOC team needs to be gradual . According to different development stages, focus on talent selection, training and retention, sorting out organizational structure processes, optimizing assessment incentives, strengthening coordination mechanisms, etc., continuously optimize and improve, and build a business iron army with strong combat effectiveness and cohesion .

2. How to recruit KOC marketing team

Clarify recruitment criteria:

Basic traits : Look for people with ambition, intelligence, and diligence . Ambition means having a strong desire for achievement and a desire to become a sales champion . Intelligence means being able to quickly learn and replicate successful experiences. Diligence means being willing to work hard to achieve goals.

If the candidate also has a strong sense of identity and planning ability , he/she will have more development potential. People with a strong sense of identity are more receptive to the company culture and are willing to grow with the company; people with planning ability can think systematically and have a clear plan for their business and development.

For the elimination items , we must resolutely say no to three types of people: first, those who have previous experience in media placement, they often find it difficult to adapt to the new way of working; second, those who have never been a sales champion and do not aspire to be a sales champion, they find it difficult to persist in the hard struggle ; third, those who require a high basic salary, excellent sales will not only focus on the basic salary to expand recruitment channels:

• Campus recruitment , by holding campus presentations at key universities across the country and participating in large-scale campus job fairs, etc., we target outstanding recent graduates and provide fresh blood for the team.
• Social recruitment , using mainstream recruitment platforms, posting positions in a targeted manner to attract talents with sales experience.
• Internal recommendation : encourage existing employees to recommend outstanding candidates, establish a "Bo Le Award" system, give a certain cash reward to the recommender who successfully joins the company, and mobilize employees' enthusiasm for participating in recruitment.
• Recruit talents within the industry , benchmark against outstanding companies in the industry, actively solicit and invite their outstanding talents, appropriately recruit high-end talents , inject new vitality into the team, and conduct strict interviews and inspections.
• During the initial screening by phone , HR will conduct a simple background check and initial communication with the candidates to quickly screen out obviously unsuitable candidates. During the on-site interview , a multi-round interview method of "sales manager interview + senior management/HR re-interview" will be adopted to examine the candidates from multiple dimensions such as ability, experience, learning ability, and value fit .
• Scenario simulation , setting situational questions to examine candidates' adaptability, communication skills and sales thinking , such as "How will you convince a high-quality expert to cooperate with us?"
• Case analysis sets a practical sales task for candidates, requiring them to analyze and develop sales plans, comprehensively assessing their business understanding and operational capabilities to optimize the recruitment process.

Develop a standardized interview scoring sheet , unify the interviewers' evaluation criteria, and improve the objectivity and accuracy of the assessment.

Establish a candidate talent pool , keep track of talents who are not suitable for the time being but have development potential, and conduct secondary promotions when appropriate. Provide professional and respectful feedback to candidates who fail the interview to maintain the company's employer brand image.

For new sales personnel, we arrange mentors to be responsible for their induction training and business guidance to help them adapt to the position as quickly as possible.

3. How to train the KOC marketing team

Build a comprehensive training system: New employee induction training, providing a 1-2 week systematic induction training for new sales employees, covering company culture, business introduction, product knowledge, sales skills, work processes , etc., to help new employees quickly understand the company and adapt to their positions. On-the-job skills improvement training, according to the ability development needs of sales at different levels, regularly conduct special skills training such as sales skills, negotiation communication, customer management, etc. , invite external experts or internal senior employees to give lectures, and continuously improve the professional capabilities of BD. Management ability training, for excellent senior sales and new managers, provide systematic management skills training , such as team management, goal setting, performance appraisal , etc., to help them adapt to management positions as soon as possible and be competent for management work.

Adopt diversified training methods: theoretical learning + practical exercises: The training courses take into account both theoretical knowledge explanation and practical skills exercises , and enhance trainees' knowledge absorption and practical application capabilities through interactive teaching such as case analysis and role-playing. Online learning + offline teaching , relying on the internal learning platform, provide employees with a wealth of online micro-courses, so that employees can arrange their learning progress independently. At the same time, face-to-face training is carried out in a timely manner, and training management is strengthened to ensure learning results. Internal sharing + external learning , encourage excellent BDs and managers to hold experience sharing sessions to help other employees learn from them. Organize employees to go out to participate in industry forums, sales competitions, etc. in a timely manner to broaden their horizons and acquire new knowledge.

Strengthen training assessment and feedback: Organize assessments in a timely manner after training, and comprehensively examine the trainees' knowledge mastery and skill application through written tests, scenario simulations, on-site demonstrations, etc., and provide key guidance to trainees who fail. Establish a training effect evaluation mechanism to judge the effectiveness of training projects from dimensions such as trainee feedback and work performance improvement, and optimize and iterate training with poor results in a timely manner. Focus on the application of training results , encourage trainees to summarize their training experiences, write learning logs, and apply what they have learned in actual work, and practice rapid iteration .

Focus on creating a training atmosphere: Create a learning organizational atmosphere, advocate a culture of continuous learning, stimulate employees' self-motivation , and cultivate a healthy sense of competition in the team. Establish a mentor system , assign an excellent senior salesperson as a mentor to each new employee, who is responsible for their business guidance and ability training, and form a good situation of mentoring. Combine training and learning with performance appraisal and career development , and give appropriate performance bonus points and promotion acceleration incentives to employees who perform well in training and can effectively use what they have learned to improve their performance.

4. How to manage the KOC marketing team

（1）Management by objectives:

• Goal setting adopts a top-down approach. According to the company's overall business goals, the phased performance goals of KOC teams at all levels are broken down and formulated. Then, based on the individual's past performance and ability level, personal goals are formulated to ensure that the goals are clear, quantifiable and assessable.
• Break down the goals into monthly, weekly, and daily quantitative task indicators , and formulate action plans. At the same time, take into account process goals (such as the number of KOC connections), result goals (such as sales performance), and human efficiency goals (such as per capita revenue), etc., to achieve all-round management
• Tracking goals , establishing a standardized sales data reporting mechanism, using CRM and other systems to achieve real-time monitoring of sales funnels, quantitative assessment of goal completion progress, and timely warning and correction of deviations from goals . Process management:
• Standardize the process and build a standardized work process, including key links such as clue acquisition, business negotiation, cooperation confirmation, and follow-up maintenance . Clarify the work standards and outputs of each link to minimize the control of invalid labor process. The supervisor understands the progress of his work through regular one-on-one communication with his subordinates, and provides timely guidance and support for existing problems. At the same time, through regular sales team meetings, share experiences and cases in the sales process and strengthen experience replication . Pay attention to process incentives , and provide timely process incentives for key behaviors in the sales process, including performance bonus points, public praise, etc., to positively strengthen excellent behaviors .

(2) Performance management:

• Performance assessment , establish a multi-dimensional performance evaluation mechanism of daily clearance, weekly settlement, monthly examination and quarterly evaluation . Combined with the completion of performance indicators, work behavior performance, etc., objective and fair assessment and score , and link the evaluation results with promotion, salary adjustment, bonus, etc.
• Performance feedback , hold regular performance interviews, and the supervisor communicates with subordinates to their performance, affirms the advantages, and clarify the direction of improvement. Those with excellent performance will be commended and rewarded, and those with poor performance will be formulated to improve, and those with poor performance will be provided to provide assistance and improvement.
• Survival of the fittest and establish a dynamic personnel optimization mechanism . For those who continue to fail to meet the standards, those who fail to meet the standards will be resolutely eliminated and maintain the vitality of the team. For excellent sales with outstanding performance and great management potential, there will be opportunities for promotion to build a team:
• Create culture , carry out various thematic team building activities around the core values ​​of the team, and strengthen team cohesion.
• Empower growth , establish an internal sales certification system, provide personalized empowerment training for employees at different levels, and continuously improve the overall capabilities and qualities of the team . Encourage excellent sales to enter management positions and achieve personal career development.
• Enrich incentives and establish a pyramid-like team incentive system, including material rewards (cash awards, gift awards, etc.) and spiritual rewards (honorary titles, public commendations, etc.), to mobilize the enthusiasm of the team.
• Regular sales PK competitions are held , including newcomer PK, personal PK, team PK , etc., to show off competitive level, exchange sales experience, use competitions to promote learning, and use learning to promote battle.
• Review mechanism , periodic review mechanism, establish a five-level review mechanism at the daily, weekly, monthly, quarterly and yearly level, organize sales teams to conduct review meetings regularly, summarize the gains and losses of phased work , analyze the root causes of problems, and formulate optimization plans. Review method, use classic management tools such as PDCA and 5WHY to conduct in-depth review of key issues in the sales process, and refine replicable and referenceable experience and practices . Implement and improve, establish a review problem tracking mechanism , clarify responsible persons and resolution time limits , and conduct closed-loop management of review improvement measures to ensure continuous optimization.

5. What are the overall strategies for brand KOC marketing in 2024?

1. Do it broadly and deeply

(1) Private domain operation KOC

Brands have established private domain traffic pools on platforms such as WeChat, Weibo, Douyin, etc., such as WeChat groups, Weibo super talks, Douyin enterprise accounts, etc., to gather core brand users and discover KOCs from them. The operation team continuously activates private domain KOCs by holding online events, providing product experience, regular interactions, etc., to enhance their loyalty and recognition to the brand. With the help of private domain traffic, brands can obtain KOC's feedback on products in real time and optimize product design. At the same time, they can mobilize KOCs to participate in marketing activities such as the first launch of new products, limited pre-sale of pre-sales of limited products, and achieve accurate reach and conversion .

(2) Incubate your own KOC

By organizing long-term projects such as campus partners and brand ambassadors, the brand recruits and cultivates young users to become brand owned KOCs, creating original content for the brand and spreading brand culture . By building an exclusive growth system , it provides systematic training for its own KOCs (such as content creation guidance, live streaming skills, etc.), empowering it to grow into a brand spokesperson and industry opinion leader. Design an exclusive rights system (such as customized gifts, exclusive coupons, offline event invitations, etc.) to satisfy the emotional belonging and honor of its own KOCs, and encourage it to continue to produce high-quality content.

(3) KOL clone KOC

The core idea of ​​KOL's clone KOC is that the brand uses the influence of the top KOLs to batch incubate a batch of small quotations to achieve a combination of KOL influence + KOC scale .

The brand has reached strategic cooperation with the top KOLs , authorize the IP image, and plan the positioning tone, content style, communication strategy of the clone KOC . By recruiting KOL fans or brand self-operation, a group of clone KOCs are incubated, that is, small entries with the same name as the KOL (such as @X Gongzi's Little Brother No. 1) or similar style (such as @X Little Li Zi's Daily Vlog).

The content creation of the clone KOC is highly synchronized with the parent KOL , and timely follow up on the popular KOL content, and conduct secondary creations based on the characteristics of the platform, mass-producing the same style of grass-based notes, unboxing evaluation, life strategies , etc. Thanks to the popularity of the parent KOL , the clone KOC is easier to obtain platform traffic support and user attention , and these small accounts have natural trust and endorsement for the brand, which is conducive to efficient conversion.

The content of the clone KOC is more down-to-earth and pays more attention to effectiveness , forming a differentiated positioning with the content of the parent KOL, avoiding content homogeneity, and reducing the impact on the content quality of KOL large accounts . Through the live broadcast of the parent KOL on the clone KOC , etc., we guide KOL fans to pay attention to the small accounts and achieve traffic fission . At the same time, the clone KOC can also reversely guide traffic, enhancing the popularity of the parent KOL large accounts among the brand population.

Through the organic cooperation between the parent KOL large and the clone KOC small trumpet , the brand can reach a wider audience and achieve both high and broad marketing coverage. At the same time, the differentiated content positioning of the small KOC is conducive to reducing the impact on the quality of KOL large content and realizing the ladder utilization of KOL resources.

Of course, in actual operations, brands need to coordinate the topic planning, content production, traffic support , etc. of KOL clone KOC to ensure the consistency of the content of the small account with the parent KOL and brand tone. At the same time, it is also necessary to prevent the risk of excessive proliferation of clone KOCs and becoming zombie accounts , optimize and iterate in a timely manner, and maintain benign interaction.

(4) AIGC efficiency improvement KOC

Faced with a large number of KOCs, brands can use AIGC (artificial intelligence content generation) technology to realize automated screening, portrait labeling, intelligent recommendation , etc. of KOC resources to improve KOC management efficiency. Brands can customize AI creation assistants for KOC, lower the threshold for KOC content creation , and improve content production efficiency and dissemination rate, such as intelligent copywriting generation, intelligent short video editing , etc. In the long run, AIGC is expected to be deeply integrated with KOC, derive a content innovation form that combines virtual KOC and virtual reality, injecting new vitality into marketing.

2. Make it more refined and bigger

(1) KOC material test model

In addition to continuously expanding the KOC pool itself, the brand can cooperate with multiple organizations to select a batch of high-quality KOCs on short videos, live broadcasts and other platforms, and form an exclusive content creation team . Through big data analysis, it can explore the selling points of brand products and user pain points, and combine platform hot spots, seasonality, etc. to provide topic selection directions for the KOC team. The KOC team creates a series of original short videos and graphic content such as product evaluation, usage strategies, and life scene displays around topic selection. Through A/B testing, iterative optimization , it creates phenomenon-level hot materials.

(2) KOC material is sent to the whole area

Integrate all-domain traffic resources such as Douyin, Kuaishou, Xiaohongshu, and Video Account, and customize the KOC material distribution strategy based on the algorithm characteristics and user preferences of different platforms. For hot materials with strong interaction and high conversion , increase the resource inclination, expand the dissemination through official account forwarding, mutual push linkage and other forms to achieve content fission . Use the whole-domain data monitoring tool to track the material dissemination effect in real time , and combine sales conversion, search trends and other data to dynamically optimize the delivery strategy to maximize content ROI .

(3) KOC material card search

The brand sorts out product keywords, creates KOC materials with search intentions such as product keywords + usage scenarios/efficacy descriptions , etc., to improve the search ranking and click-through rate of content. A large number of marketing activities (such as artists, top KOL cooperation, etc.) ultimately directs the KOC materials to increase search weight, and at the same time encourages KOCs to mount product links in the materials to form a closed loop of SEO . Through title optimization, long-tail word layout and other means, optimizes the search friendliness of KOC materials and improves the exposure of content. For KOC materials with excellent performance, you can consider conducting search advertising and positioning keywords.

(4) KOC material investment fee

Formulate a paid promotion plan for KOC materials, further optimize high-quality materials into brand advertising, and continuously improve content reach rate . According to product attributes and marketing demands, select multiple paid promotion forms such as information flow advertising, search advertising, and effect advertising to achieve a closed-loop link of " content planting - search to attract new products - sales conversion " . For low-cost and high-converted KOC materials, seed users can be quickly accumulated through paid promotion to maximize ROI. For content with strong interaction and high brand value , the life cycle will be extended through payment and brand influence will be deepened.

With the rise of content creators and the increase in personalized needs of consumers , KOC marketing has become a key part of the breakthrough in brand marketing in 2024. Whether it is a startup brand or a mature brand , whether it is a contestant who has just entered the market or a player who has been deeply engaged in it for many years, accurately grasp the development trend of KOC marketing , continuously polish the content planting and conversion capabilities , and incorporate KOC marketing into the overall marketing strategy , so as to stand out in the increasingly fierce competition and achieve eternal growth in the foundation.

Standing at the crossroads of change, brands need to embrace change, actively explore, ride the wind and waves in the wave of embracing the super individual economy , and create a new marketing situation .

Author: Brand Old White

Source: WeChat public account "BrandLaoBai (ID: BrandLaoBai)"