Why is KOL Marketing Important for Cross Border E-Commerce

Cross-border e-commerce has become the biggest shopping platform loved and used by consumers across Southeast Asia. In fact, Southeast Asia accounts for more than 40% of the total e-commerce market in Asia. Reasons, such as the unavailability of products domestically, more affordable costs, highly targeted product messaging and service offering, and improved quality of goods, are leading to the steady increase of consumer demands. Moreover, cross-border e-commerce provides more advantages for SMEs to expand their business and become multinational. The platform helps manufacturers to directly sell their products to consumers, cutting short the complex supply chain.

If you’re starting your small business and looking to reach regional consumers, e-commerce platforms like Lazada, Shopee, Tokopedia should be your marketplace. However, with the tight competition on the platform, how do you differentiate your brand and reach your potential audiences?  

The key to a marketing success 

If you are a woman living in Indonesia’s big city, you must have heard of a skincare brand called Scarlett Whitening. It is a new local brand that has received major buzz across social media recently. The success should be credited to the owner’s decision to do buzzer marketing. Not falling behind is another local Indonesian fashion brand who also stole the spotlight by placing a huge advertisement on the New York Times Square. The giant LED screen displayed a bunch of Indonesian celebrities and mega influencers posing using the brand’s product. Both brands have used KOL Marketing mixed with other types of marketing platforms such as social media marketing and OOH advertising. The results of this marketing mix have tremendously boosted their brand awareness, despite their young age in the industry. Now, people would recognize and talk about it both offline and online. 

Now this brings us to the question:

Why should you implement the same KOL Marketing strategy to your cross-border e-commerce brand?
  

Your brand is foreign

As a new brand, people don’t recognize you. So your initial strategy is to get as much exposure as you can and make your target audience remember your brand. When the need to purchase arises, people would be able to recall your brand and make a purchase. Brand awareness can be done in various ways. However, ultimately your KOL marketing strategy does not only increase your brand awareness but also creates a long-lasting positive brand perception and association. In other words, you can kill two birds with one stone with KOL marketing. 

KOL Marketing can trigger a purchase 

Research states that recommendations from people we trust like friends and established experts can trigger the chance of a purchase by up to 50x. You must have experienced it first-hand when your family and friends recommend a product for you to try. You would find their recommendation to be very impactful because you trust their reviews. This dynamic also applies to the micro and macro influencers, especially in Indonesia. The relationship between KOL and their followers can be strong to direct and influence their followers’ buying behavior and decision. KOL Marketing performs this high-impact recommendation when you sponsor their content.  

KOL Marketing has the greatest impact on buyers’ first purchase 

When entering a new market, driving buyers’ first purchase is the goal of any brand activation. Word of mouth is the primary factor behind 20-50% of all purchasing decisions. According to studies, word-of-mouth has its strongest influence on first-time customers. The new product is associated with new risks, so people are more likely to do some research before they buy. A simple product review posted by a KOL online can help satisfy this need of product knowledge and brand experience. 

Now that you know why KOL marketing is important for your brand in a foreign country, choosing the right KOL with the right strategy is not an easy task. There are a lot of KOL/influencers to choose from. It’s imperative that we also consider their reputation, their audience demographics, and their online presence. We are the leading Influencer Marketing agency in Indonesia.

Book a free consultation with us to start finding the right KOL marketing strategy for your brand.