The truth about encrypted KOL marketing: Investing a lot of money just to make the surface data look better?

KOLs: If you use it well, you will have the initiative; if you don’t use it well, they will take the lead.

Author:Esty

Compiled by: Shenchao TechFlow

After working with multiple KOL, including well-known figures like @Flowslikeosmo, I have summarized some practical KOL marketing experiences for reference.

1. Choose the wrong person and the project will easily go astray

Every market cycle, there is always a project investing a lot of money in KOL, but almost every time it backfires. The misunderstandings of many project parties are:

• Think that having KOL can bring traffic;

• Think that once it spreads viral, it will be successful;

• Think of the amount of interaction as actual transformation.

However, the reality is:95% of the time, these inputs don’t actually translate into project results-they just make the data look better.

For example, your post received 200,000 views and 200 robot comments? It may seem flashy, but do these really drive your token generation events (TGE) or total locked volumes (TVL)?

Many project parties are chasing short-term boom moments. As @madladshad said, this is a marketing method for short-term hype. They often ignore user retention and optimization of key indicators, which are the key to long-term development of the project.

2. Classification of KOL and the problems behind it

KOL will show interest in your project, but this interest often only lasts until the money stops flowing in. After that, they may not even remember the name of your project.

Overall, KOL can be divided into the following categories:

• Speculative (90%): Follow any hot topic and post any content. Their goal is to extract as much profit as possible. Use tools like Socialplug to falsely add data, or form a network with other KOLs to fake the amount of interactions to deceive project parties. Such KOLs usually quickly promote and sell project tokens.

• Semi-speculative (5%): There is usually a specific area or point of interest where relevant content is mainly discussed. Most of their fans and interactions are real, and their attitude is quite sincere, but when faced with some high-value collaborations, it may be difficult to refuse the temptation.

• Sincerity (5%): These KOLs do not grow their accounts through swiping, but attract fans through professional content. They have in-depth knowledge in a certain field and rarely accept advertising cooperation. Even if they do, they will give priority to the interests of fans. This kind of KOL is the partner that can truly bring market influence and conversion rate, such as Kaito’s inner circle members.

To be clear, I don’t blame any type of KOL. In fact, these behaviors by KOL are only a reflection of the current situation of the industry. The real problem lies in the capital power behind it. The greed and speculation of big capital, venture capital companies and project teams are the root cause of this phenomenon.

3. Constants and variables: The art of controlling narrative

If you don’t grasp your narrative, the market will define it for you, and the results may not be as good as you want.

You need to realize that KOL is just an amplifier. Before considering using them, be sure to lay the foundation:

• Create products that can truly solve practical problems;

• Clarify your narrative, brand positioning and market differentiation;

• Reach agreement within the team and determine core principles;

• Clarify your distribution channels and communication methods;

• Decide how important community building is to you;

• Connect with partners of practical value.

Unfortunately, most projects lack a clear identity, clear goals, effective solutions, moral values, and long-term vision.

4. Our choices determine our future

Learn to use the profit-seeking psychology in human nature.

When you have laid the foundation, how can you turn these into practical actions?

ideally: Your product has reached the product-to-market fit point (PMF), and users and KOL spontaneously talk about it because it can bring them revenue and also create high-quality content for them and attract more attention.

But in reality, this is a question of whether the chicken comes first or the egg comes first. Many people believe that you need to have influence to achieve PMF. This view is partially true, but the key is that influence does not necessarily need to rely on KOL, such as partnerships and word-of-mouth communication.

A more realistic path: Once you have clarified your market segment and target audience, you can start looking for the right KOL. You can use tools like @_kaitoai to analyze their audience coverage and number of real fans (if any). Building a strong network is also crucial, because referrals through connections can often be twice the result with half the effort. Another method is to use @Tunnl_io and filter to find the right KOL.

Actively interact with target KOL on Twitter. Respond to their content carefully, communicate privately and provide support. You need to build relationships at a personal level, not simply business transactions. Although this method is helpful to brands, it is often more effective to start from personal accounts. Don’t expect results within a week-long-term interactions and accumulation will produce results, so start early and make it part of your core marketing strategy.

As the relationship builds, the discussion gradually focuses on the product you are developing. At this time, you can promote the product at the right time and demonstrate how it can bring practical benefits to KOL. The goal here remains to build long-term relationships and networks, rather than short-term exchanges of interests.

If your product can bring real economic benefits to KOL while at the same time being in line with their brand positioning, the possibility of them actively promoting you will be greatly increased, because your success will also bring more benefits to them. In addition, you can ask them to introduce you to other KOL so you don’t have to start cold from scratch. Relationships built through referrals are often more efficient and easier to succeed than cold starts.

Even if your product makes KOL money, they will still want extra compensation.Giving away tokens may seem like a simple solution, but in the long run, it may be bad for the project because many people will choose to sell their tokens to realize a gain (which is understandable in itself). In addition, most truly influential KOLs prefer to accept cash payments directly, such as USDC. So, how to deal with this situation?

When negotiating cooperation with KOL, priority should be given to long-term cooperation rather than just releasing promotional content once. Why? A single release is difficult to reach major groups of KOL audiences, while multiple releases can significantly expand coverage.

When a KOL continues to publish content related to you, the audience’s view of the project will gradually change from pure paid promotion to true trust. The audience’s perception will affect their realistic judgment of the project.

At the same time, other KOL may notice your cooperation with a KOL and proactively contact you, which will give you more advantages in future negotiations.

In addition, you don’t have to just focus on the big KOL. Working with MicroKOL is often more valuable because their audience is usually more authentic and the interaction is more sticky.

5. There are no gods or kings, only effective marketing funnels

The effects of viral transmission are often short-lived, andA well-designed marketing funnel can have long-term cumulative effects.The most successful brands in the crypto space do not rely on hype cycles, but create true user loyalty by building paths for user engagement.

Assuming your product is powerful, has a great user interface (UI/UX) and a smooth user guidance process, here is an example of an effective marketing funnel:

1. Create a clear home page on Twitter (now called X) with attractive avatars and banners. Users need to understand the main content of the page within 3 seconds. In addition, a concise profile should include links to landing pages and distribution channels such as Telegram or Discord.

2. The design style of the landing page should be consistent with the X page, be concise and easy to understand, and provide a clear call to action (CTA) to guide users to visit the main product.

3. Stimulate user interest through continuous X posts, AMA activities, team member posts, partner promotion, private message interactions and responding to comments.

4. Users click on your home page, see a clear introduction, and further visit the landing page.

5. Users enter the main dApp (decentralized application) and complete the user guidance process of the product.

6. Satisfied users join the Telegram or Discord community to interact with other users.

7. In the community, users are warmly welcomed by the team and other members, while finding reasons to continue to focus on the project.

8. Users gradually become members of the community and spontaneously promote projects based on trust and beliefs.

In this way, users are not only successfully transformed into loyal users of the product, but may also become your brand communicators. Compared to short-term viral transmission, this approach can continue to bring value to the project.

How does sincere KOL work?

KOL can greatly improve your communication reach and distribution capabilities, which is closely related to what we mentioned earlier (see point 3). Remember when I mentioned that you need to prioritize long-term cooperation and screen out suitable candidates? The following is the process of forming a complete closed loop:

• KOL continues to publish content related to your project for several months, gradually reaching most of their audience;

• Interested audiences click on your homepage and are guided to your product because of your solid foundation work;

• Your excellent UI/UX and product experience, coupled with the team’s enthusiastic service, successfully transformed these users into loyal users;

• Satisfied users will spontaneously recommend your project to others;

• The network of sincere KOL who cooperated in the early days noticed your project and became interested in it;

• More KOLs (including the more influential KOLs) actively contact you for cooperation;

• In negotiations, you have more initiative.

6. Millions of doors, one of which leads to real value

Let me share one of my own stories. I am writing this article because I made some mistakes while starting a business that led to me being deceived and wasting a large amount of my marketing budget.

At that time, I was attracted by the so-called Vanity Metrics and gulped some speculators. These people try to create a false impression of reality by promoting each other’s content. The result was that although my X data improved within a week after the post was posted, the actual effect was negligible. I felt very regretful about this, so I started looking for a better way.

In the process, I met a KOL who I admired very much. In my opinion, he is one of the most authentic KOLs in the industry. Why? Because he really cares about his audience, he will not accept cooperation proposals casually, and his selection of cooperation partners is extremely strict. Moreover, his growth relies entirely on real efforts and has never used a robot to scan data.

I established contact with him through a person at the time (network = assets). We started chatting and gradually became familiar with each other, and finally met at the Token2049 event. We talked a lot about life, goals, visions, the crypto industry and marketing. Over time, we became very close friends.

Now, our relationship has developed to a point where I can naturally ask him to introduce other like-minded KOLs because I believe the people he recommends have gone through strict screening, or ask him for advice and exclusive information (Alpha) about other KOLs to make smarter decisions. If I am working on a project that suits his audience, I can also propose a cooperation plan that is beneficial to both parties.

I know this is not common, but in an industry full of fraud, special times require special measures. Not only did I make a trustworthy friend, I also found a lifelong business partner.

summary

Is your marketing campaign to build a real brand, or is it just a brief round of hype?

• First polish your story, brand positioning and product core;

• It is not advisable to place advertisements blindly and hope for luck-it will only waste your budget;

• Establish a long-term and valuable relationship with KOL, not just a one-time transaction collaboration;

• Priority should be given to the quality of cooperation rather than quantity, and long-term cooperation is more important than short-term promotion;

• MicroKOL also has its unique value, so don’t ignore them;

• The number of fans is not the only criterion for choosing KOL. Compared with the number of fans, we should pay more attention to the quality of fans, the niche areas in which KOL is located, audience sentiment and the overall quality of content;

• Start targeting early because building a successful brand takes a long time and sustained effort.

Most projects are short-lived because they leave nothing to remember. If you don’t provide your audience with content they can trust and believe in, they will eventually forget you.

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