5 steps to performing KOL Mapping
Identifying and engaging with your KOLs can be a difficult task, it’s not quite as simple as finding someone influential in your industry and reaching out to them. There are a number of important steps to follow to perform your KOL mapping strategy, from conducting thorough research on your KOLs, understanding their viewpoints to creating a plan of action on how you are going to engage with them.
So how exactly do you perform KOL mapping that is effective for your business? Now that we have introduced you to the basics of KOL mapping, we wanted to take you through the steps to successfully implement KOL mapping.
Five Steps to Performing KOL Mapping
What is KOL Management?
KOL management is a phrase that refers to the entire process of KOL mapping, throughout its lifecycle you will need to manage the process from start to finish. This involves a number of key components but mainly this involves the following 5 areas:
What are the key business questions or objectives to address?
Identifying who your KOL’s are and if they are right for your business
Segmenting them by their various influence, speciality and interests
Planning activities of how to engage with your KOLs
Finally, actually engaging with your KOL
Step 1: What are the key business questions or objectives to address?
Just as you would with any other business or marketing strategy, the first step in implementing KOL mapping is to set and define your key questions and objectives. What do you want to achieve, what do you need answering and how can your KOLs help you get there.
By having clear business questions and objectives in place, you will be able to zone in on the KOLs that have influence related to your specific industry and ensure that you are getting value from them based on these key questions.
Step 2: Identifying who your KOL’s are and if they are right for your business
Once you have your key objectives in place, it’s time to start identifying the people or organisations who are relevant to your business and area of interest. You can do this through online research, focusing on some of the following:
Media publications
Conferences and events (focus on the keynote speakers)
Professional bodies
Remember to always keep in mind your main goal or question, your industry and specific interests when researching your KOLs.
Step 3: Segmenting them by their various influence, speciality and interests
Next, you will need to segment and rank the identified KOLs by influence, speciality and interests. There is no right or wrong way on how to rank your KOLs, this all depends on your objectives, questions and how the KOL can help with this.
It may be helpful to plot this out on a four box grid, so you can visually see how your KOLs rank in the different segments.
Insider tip: Don’t forget to look at those KOLs who may not agree with your product or company, as you may be able to create a dialogue that addresses these issues.
Step 4: Planning activities of how to engage with your KOLs
Before contacting your top KOLs, it’s important to have an engagement plan in place and what activities you will do to create a conversation and build rapport.
This is probably the most important step, as it takes all the information you have gathered and lets you create a plan based on their influence, interests, speciality, competition, viewpoints etc.
By creating a spreadsheet and tracking your activity, you can ensure that you are reaching your KOLs at the right time and through the right methods (e.g. interviews, events), whilst mapping this against your objectives to keep you on target.
Step 5: Finally, actually engaging with your KOL
Once you have your activities and KOLs planned, it’s time to engage with them.
As mentioned in our blog post the basics of KOL mapping, the Healthcare & Pharmaceutical industry usually adopts this methodology. Our consulting team has extensive experience in implementing KOL strategies not only for this industry but for a wide range of other sectors as well.
Measuring Success Through KOLs
Knowing how to begin and perform your KOL mapping is one thing but understanding how to measure its success is another. Like with most strategies, without collecting and analysing data, you won’t be able to keep track of what is and isn’t working for your company.
Why is it important to measure success?
Once you have implemented your KOL strategy and started to engage with your KOLs, it's important to measure the success of your activity, to see how their influence and status is working against your questions & objectives.
KOL mapping is a continuous and ongoing process which requires you to constantly track and report on your engagements, as this data allows you to analyse and adapt your KOL mapping strategy accordingly
There are a number of different ways you can measure success, from tracking the number of KOLs you have managed to engage with to monitoring the number of times a KOL mentions your business or product in the media, at conferences or lectures.
Alongside monitoring your objects against your KOL engagements, remember to keep an eye on the marketplace and trends, as this could shape your objectives and KOLs in the future.
Can you measure ROI with KOL Mapping?
Being able to track the impact your KOLs are having through status and influence is much easier to measure than the direct impact on your ROI (return on investment). By measuring influence, it is easy to see if your KOL is talking about your product in the articles, on social media or at events.
Many KOLs also have an influence on the business by sitting on their board of directors, so they can advise on business or medical developments that way.
Unlike most marketing efforts, being able to see a return on investment is something that can’t be completely explained.
Adopting KOL for your business
Key Opinion Leaders aren’t just for the healthcare and pharmaceutical industry, it can absolutely be adopted by many other sectors such as; retail, automotive or professional services. However, knowing who the right person to partner with can be tricky and if not performed correctly, your KOL mapping strategy could lead to a partnership that could be damaging to your business.
Our Rare: Consulting team can help you find the right KOL through our in-depth KOL mapping experience.
