If you’re trying to identify the top 5 KOLs in Lung Cancer, and you don’t care where in the world they are, it’s not actually that hard to do. You can google “Lung Cancer” and “ASCO presenter,” and the top few names that pop up are likely to be a good starting point. But what if you need to go deeper? For decades, many of the companies who do KOL identification have treated it, by and large, as a one-size-fits-all proposition. In this 3-part series, I’m going to share what we’ve learned about going deeper to meet your specific needs. I’m going to talk about how to find the hidden KOLs. This week, we’ll zoom in on how to find the hidden KOLs and online influencers whose influence pertains to the specific geographies that matter to you.
Find the Hidden KOLs and Online Influencers in Any Geography
Finding global KOLs isn’t really that tricky (although I encourage you to ask your KOL identification partners how they know the KOLs on your list truly have global influence!). But what if you want to find the person who’s quantitatively most influential to their peers in France? Or Arizona? Or in zip codes 33133, 33134, 33145 and 33146 in south Florida?
Three Key Questions for KOL/Online Influencer Research Design
At HealthQuant, we design every HCP influence study around 3 key questions:
- Subject Matter Expertise: What are they influential about? Is it a Therapeutic Area? A procedure or class of treatment? An aspect of care delivery or policy? A financial or economic aspect of care?
- Functional Expertise: By what means is their influence exhibited? Is it that they’re always pushing the boundaries of the science? Successful at enrolling lots of patients into clinical trials? Their leadership in writing treatment guidelines? Their media or social media presence?
- Audience Relevance: Who are they actually influencing? Is it their peers? Policy makers? Treating/community physicians? Patients? The media?
It’s this 3rd question that I want to focus on today. Part of understanding the audience we’re trying to reach is in understanding where that audience is. That “where” could be big (e.g., The US or the European Union). If could be tiny (like the Zip Code example above). The point is that we need to be able to assess not where the KOL herself sits, but where her audience is. One of our first clients back in 2018 needed to understand how to grow the profile of their product from their 5 current Centers of Excellence in Italy into Germany, France, Spain, Denmark and the Netherlands. It’s a perfect case study for discovering the geographical influence of KOLs.
Influence Doesn’t Happen in a Vacuum
Another guiding principle of ours at HealthQuant is that “Influence doesn’t happen in a vacuum.” That’s why we don’t look only at individual influencers, but at clusters of influence and the ecosystems of influence that those clusters are a part of. So when we’re assessing a KOL’s geographic influence, we’re not just looking at what they do, but also who they’re doing it with. To map geographic influence is an exercise in mapping physicians’ connections. Who are they publishing with and where are they located? Who’s doing clinical research with them? Who’s referring patients to them (and to whom are they referring)? Who are they connected to and engaging actively online?
Finding the Right KOLs/Influencers to Reach the Right (Geographic) Audience
No matter how big or small your geographic target audience may be for a given business need, we can help you find the right influencers to reach exactly the right audience.
Finding the Right KOLs and Influencers for You
By going deeper, we can help to find not just the right global KOLs, but the KOLs who can help you to reach EXACTLY the right geography – whether huge or tiny. And we’ll visualize all of it. For more information on HealthQuant’s approach to geographic network mapping, check out this presentation, https://bit.ly/HQGeoInfl, contact us via https://healthquant.com/contact/, or email us at info@healthquant.com.
Check out Part Two in the “Finding the Hidden KOLs” series: Multi-Layered, Segmented Influencer Lists
And Part Three of the series, Finding the Hidden KOLs – Future KOLs
Stay turned for more in the “Finding the Hidden KOLs” series: Part Four (Health Equity and DEI Influencers)
Leave a Reply