Identifying and mapping the right Key Opinion Leaders (KOLs) is the foundational tactic that lays the groundwork for your peer-to-peer strategies that follow, whether conducting advisory boards or building a speaker’s bureau. KOLs are critical to educating healthcare practitioners (HCPs) who will ultimately deliver your product to the patients who need it. With the right KOLs, you will be able to glean the best insights to help shape your market and position your brand for success.
But what do the right KOLs look like? How do you know if you’ve found the best possible fit for your brand? Is the right KOL simply the most prominent and influential person in their therapeutic field or are there other nuances to consider when seeking the ideal match?
Many of today’s KOL identification platforms tout integration of artificial intelligence and natural language processing to identify and follow influential KOLs conversing on social platforms. But do you really need the bells and whistles that these complex digital solutions offer – along with the extensive onboarding and high expense required to use them? Is this ancillary information important in meeting your primary objective or does it cloud the picture by burying the insights under superfluous data? We’re all familiar with the old adage “sometimes less is more,” and many of our BioPharma clients have benefited from a back-to-basics KOL identification (ID) and mapping approach that yields faster, more cost-effective, and useful data that’s easier to digest and helps guide decisions.
Here are five scenarios in which a BioPharma company may benefit from a more basic KOL ID and mapping approach:
1. Exploring or Entering a New Market
When investigating a new market, companies often lack a deep network of influential experts and therefore need to identify KOLs who have experience within the therapeutic area or with a similar product. The temptation might be to purchase the most comprehensive KOL dataset and virtual engagement platform. However, the simplicity of a scaled-down approach is typically all you need upfront. Remember, treading new waters can carry the risk of drowning in information overload. And if you’re working with a trusted and experienced med comm partner, they’ll be able to readily navigate the data to uncover the best KOLs in this space.
2. Nearing NDA Submission
If your product is in late Phase II or early Phase III clinical trials, you’re likely preparing your NDA for submission to the FDA and priming the market. This pre-launch stage is a critical time to start finding the right KOLs and developing those relationships. A back-to-basics approach is more flexible and easily scalable. For example, a phased research plan could yield a broad pool of KOLs in a desired region, which then can be further honed to match specific criteria and attribute scores. Once the initial group is narrowed, in-depth profiling can follow to determine which KOLs are most qualified, experienced, and potentially receptive. Your agency should be able to identify these candidates and help to foster those relationships by connecting the “best with the brightest.”
3. Gaining Niche Advisors
Once your product is commercially available, you may need expert insights to create a more compelling or unique scientific story around clinical data. This is where a small, select group of KOLs can provide highly specific input to determine the angle you’re seeking. In this scenario, you don’t need a broad base of KOLs, but rather relationships with a select few. The speed and efficiency of a simplified KOL ID and mapping approach provides a major advantage, as your med comm partner can quickly filter through the targets and pinpoint your desired KOLs. Once identified, you can readily gather them in an advisory board setting to capture their insights as guidance in adjusting or refining your brand’s messaging.
4. Ensuring Compliance
Building a speaker’s bureau from the ground up is an example where it makes sense to start your KOL ID and mapping exercise by casting a wide net. But how many in this long list of names will meet the compliance requirements of your organization? You can sift through all the influence, social and engagement scoring metrics, and parse through their social channels, but in the end if these KOLs don’t fit within your compliance standards, it’s all wasted time and effort. The clarity of the data in a simpler solution will easily allow your team to quickly weed out KOLs who don’t align with your compliance criteria.
5. Increasing or Decreasing the Size of Your Speaker’s Bureau
Once your product is on the market and you have an established speaker’s bureau in place, it may be time to right-size. That means you’ll need a quick and efficient method of verifying which KOLs and speakers remain compliant and properly credentialed – and those who are not. Periodically vetting and validating their credentials can be accomplished using a basic methodology to support this right-sizing exercise. Taking this step is crucial not only for compliance reasons, but for conducting advisory boards and speaker programs with the most impact.
Whatever your scenario, it’s important to partner with a med comm agency you can trust to listen to your needs and offer the right service to meet those needs – not necessarily the most complex or expensive solution on the market. A KOL ID and mapping strategy appropriately scaled to your requirements will save time and money and, most importantly, connect you with the right influencers to help lead and drive your brand forward.
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