KOLs and Micro-Influencers
As long as I can remember, technology-based companies have been relying on expert endorsements and testimonials from influential customers to drive product adoption and brand recognition and loyalty. This was already a tried and true practice in the mid 1980s when I was involved in launching some of the first DNA testing services at Collaborative Research, and again in the 1990s as we drove adoption of PCR technology at Perkin-Elmer and Applied Biosystems. It continued to apply in all of my businesses since then, although over time technology and preferred communication methods for targeting audiences have evolved. Forty years ago there was a strong reliance on in person presentations and printed advertisements in scientific journals, which over time evolved to include more audio and then video media sources, and is now mostly digital in format. Even the use of web based applications accessed by personal computers, tablets and smart phones have evolved from simple email to websites to social media. Nonetheless, the same principles continue to apply.
In the worlds of life science research tools, molecular diagnostics, medical devices and biopharmaceutical drug development, relationships with KOLs or micro-influencers can range from advisory in nature, to speaker boards with participation in company sponsored events, to early access programs (EAPs) where KOLs use products or services in research studies and then publish the results and/or discuss them at major academic conferences. Such programs can greatly accelerate both market adoption as well as securing approval or coverage decisions for those products or services subject to regulatory oversight or which depend on reimbursement for widespread use.
The latest embodiment of this same general approach involves targeting social media micro-influencers, and it offers at least one important advance over prior approaches. As in the past, the approach still involves leveraging relationships with generally accepted experts who tend to be early adopters of new products/technologies in a targeted field of interest (key opinion leaders, KOLs, and now influencers, or micro-influencers). Use of a product or service by a KOL, evidenced by presentations at conferences or peer reviewed publications – or Tweets or posts on Facebook, Instagram, Reddit or Quora – all help create a “buzz” that is picked up by those who follow the latest developments in a given market niche, and/or the work of these influencers. The resultant “word of mouth” communications among those in the niche provide a level of validation and comfort that help drive adoption and build brand recognition and loyalty.
What’s different with micro-influencers is the ease and cost-efficiency with which audiences of interest can now be targeted. In addition, it’s now possible to find more and more micro-influencers who can be leveraged to drive brand recognition and product adoption in a larger number of smaller sub-niches (consider application areas, geographies, etc.). My sense is that the use of microinfluencers is going to become a critical marketing tool for successful technology based ventures in the years to come.
For more information see these recent articles on the topic of micro-influencers and marketing: Endpoints , Forbes and ANA