Brand ambassadors can be extremely beneficial when promoting a brand and its products. Regardless of your business size, a brand ambassador can be vital to your marketing strategy. With the internet reach in our day and age, it’s important to involve social media reach to better engage with your audience and increase engagement.
If you aren’t aware of what a brand ambassador is or want to know more about what they do and how they can help your business, this article is for you.
We’ll talk more about:
What Is A Brand Ambassador On Instagram?
Why Do Brand Ambassadors Matter?
What Can a Brand Ambassador Do For You?
Which Employees Could Be Brand Ambassadors?
Where Can You Find Your Brand Ambassadors?
Starting a Brand Ambassador Program
How To Develop A Brand Ambassador Program?
How Can I Ensure That My Brand Ambassador Will Be Successful?
What Is A Brand Ambassador?
Brand ambassadors promote brands and products. In the past, brand ambassadors were only celebrities or people associated with big companies. In this case, the celebrity would get paid to promote the brand. However, although celebrities and well-known people are still brand ambassadors, things have changed drastically.
Anyone can be a brand ambassador and help a company reach a wider audience and increase awareness. However, it is often done by brands marketing and selling directly to consumers. When it comes to businesses that sell to other companies, a brand ambassador is usually an employee working in the organization.
Founders and executives initially took the role of promoting their brands. Still, recently we’ve seen more employees become brand ambassadors that aren’t as high up in the company.
Why? The answer’s simple; employees know the company.
They have powerful insight, know the brand’s mission statement, and know the company better than a stranger.
Of course, employees aren’t the only people who can be brand ambassadors, and looking outside the company for an Instagram influencer is also a common tactic in promotion.
Why Do Brand Ambassadors Matter?
So, why would you employ a brand ambassador for your company? People talk about their job and the company they work for at some point, whether their bosses know it or not. In our day and age, nearly everyone has social media or some reach with the internet.
That means, whether you’re aware of it or not, employees are talking about your company, and people are already forming an opinion about your brand. The internet is vast, and brands have several ways to reach people. Employees and long-time brand supporters have developed a trustworthiness that potential customers can connect to.
It’s no secret that the more trust and influence you have with someone, the more likely they’ll give you their business. Brand ambassadors can give you the leverage to turn your social media relationships into lifetime customers and clients.
What Can a Brand Ambassador Do for You?
A brand ambassador can do various things for your company based on your marketing strategy. Generally, they can:
Widen your reach – Brand ambassadors in your niche serve a large audience already interested in your industry. By working with them, you can reach more people who’ve not yet heard of your brand.
Humanize your brand – A faceless brand, even one with a great site and logo, doesn’t connect as well to people as another person can. People can relate more to another person, and it helps your brand look more human and authentic. Brand ambassadors can help create meaningful connections between your business and your social media audience.
Boost your presence online – Promoting 24/7 around the globe is impossible, so having people releasing content on your behalf is invaluable. Ambassadors can increase your reach in different time zones, languages, and markets. They’re a great way to ensure you have an active social media marketing presence across platforms.
Word-of-mouth advertising– One of the most successful Instagram marketing posts is social proof and user-generated content. A consumer is more likely to trust a genuine ambassador than a paid advertisement. When an ambassador reaches enough people, you can see better engagement and increased sales.
Promote a specific brand aspect – If you’re looking to push more content about your brand’s values, certain products, or a promotion, influencer marketing on Instagram can help promote that sentiment, tips, or links. It can help boost awareness about you and what you offer.
Instagram can be a challenging social network to master, but if that’s where your audience is, you need to promote there. Brand ambassadors can help you leverage much more momentum as you work toward Instagram success.
You can create this exposure for free as well. Paid content for brand ambassadors isn’t necessary. Instead of money, content creators may also work with other incentives, such as free products or a discount code. You can use this promotion to increase sales with a significant ROI.
Which Employees Could Be Brand Ambassadors?
Now that you know what a brand ambassador is and the importance of one, you’re probably wondering whom you can hire within and outside of your company to be a brand ambassador. Any employee has the potential to be a brand ambassador, depending on your unique goals and plan.
Generally, anyone who communicates daily with people outside the company can be a good brand ambassador, such as those in Sales, HR, and Marketing. These employees usually have outlets and connections outside the company.
They’ll be able to provide your brand with the best results thanks to the relationships they’ve established, particularly if they’re active on social media. When finding a brand ambassador on Instagram from your audience or industry, check out the tips below.
Where Can You Find Your Brand Ambassadors?
The first step is to know how to create the right brand ambassador program for your business. You can find influencers all over social media, but how do you select the right person and account for your company’s unique goals? How do you find a brand ambassador in your niche? Here are some tactics that can help:
Popular blogs – Popular industry bloggers in your niche can help you appeal to a large audience quickly. You’ll want to structure a “win-win” agreement between you and the blog. Exchanging reviews of product features for free products or payments is a great arrangement.
Past customers – Contact previous customers for honest feedback about your products, services, and company. If your customers are satisfied with their experience, usually they’re more than happy to provide that information. Even if your customer isn’t an influencer, a positive, honest review can be great for your brand and help to improve your brand’s trustworthiness.
Social media followers – Look for brand ambassadors on your other social media platforms, such as Twitter or Facebook. Users consistently tagging you in their photos or mentioning your product in their posts and videos will make fantastic ambassadors. A good brand ambassador program involves people who care about your brand and product. People who are already loyal fans are a great place to start. Using active social media followers can help you find a passionate ambassador to become a part of your brand marketing team.
Contest participants – Using an Instagram hashtag contest, you’ll acquire a solid list of active consumers in your industry. Once you’ve run a hashtag contest, you can look through your list of entrants and see who would be suitable to join you as a brand ambassador on Instagram and beyond.
Starting a Brand Ambassador Program
Once you’ve put together an extensive list of Instagram users, you can contact them to join your brand ambassador program, and you’ll need to figure out what you’ll provide as compensation for those ambassadors. Usually, brands offer free products or subscriptions in exchange for reviews, or they might provide features, affiliate commissions, or straight-up cash.
You’ll base compensation on the influencer you use and the audience your ambassador can serve. The more social influence they offer, the more valuable they are to you, and the more you should offer them. When you start, it’s crucial to strike a balance that benefits both you and the ambassador so that you create that “win-win” scenario and don’t turn off someone who’s supposed to love your brand.
The correct ambassadors, ones who genuinely care about your business and industry, are the types of people who’ll be predisposed to enjoying the exchange of free products or services. These are the ambassadors you should seek – the ones with audiences that tune in regularly to get their opinions on upcoming products and brands within your industry. When you have access to those audiences, better quality exposure results.
You’ll also want to consider micro-influencers, who’ve become increasingly popular for brand promotion. These influencers are unlike major influencers and will probably have more time to connect with brands, promote their products, and connect with their audience. A single quick influencer post won’t do the trick. Still, influencers who consistently post and talk about your company passionately can skyrocket brand engagement. Micro-influencers can also typically offer a more personal experience to their fans and communities.
So you’ve found your perfect brand ambassador. What do you do next? You’ll want to come up with specific collaboration conditions in a contract, either verbally or written.
You should include the following:
How to develop a brand ambassador program?
Your goals
You’ll want to detail what the brand ambassador will be doing and what it means to be a brand ambassador for your company. You can list out any liabilities of the brand advocate, including channels they should use for brand promotion, how often they should post, which events they must attend or host, etc.
Your message and values
Clearly lay out the details of your brand philosophy and express how your brand ambassador will transmit on Instagram. You can include which formats work best for your brand, including posts, stories, branded hashtags, live events, online workshops, etc.
Motivation system
Detail what you’ll offer your brand ambassadors. It can include money, free products, discounts on premium products, wholesaler options, permanent promotion or street team placement, or anything else that might be a suitable form of compensation.
You’ll also need to determine what the ambassador expects from the collaboration.
Only some people will be interested in money. You’ll likely find some people that see it as a chance for professional or personal growth. Or, they may be looking to grow their own social channels or belong to something significant that helps people.
It’s important to consider the motivation system. So, talk to your brand ambassador and figure out what they want and how you can best go about delivering on it. You’ll also want to regularly check in on these areas and be sure neither one of you feels like they are going down or changing for the worse.
Set KPIs
Even though it’s unlikely you’ll forget, keep in mind that your overall goal is always to sell your products or services. Brand awareness, impressive website traffic, and gaining a ton of Instagram followers are nice. Still, it doesn’t actually mean anything if you can’t get the sales you expect from them.
Of course, your brand ambassador can’t guarantee huge sales, nor can your marketers or social media managers. That’s just reality. However, that doesn’t mean they don’t need to take their job seriously and uphold their responsibilities.
Set KPIs such as monthly sales, how many leads you’d like to get from a specific ambassador’s campaign, and so on. You’ll also want to be sure to set a tracking parameter (UTM, exclusive promo code, and like) so that you can see where the traffic comes from and what they do.
You’ll also want to monitor the performance of the ambassador’s content. You’ll want them to provide you with the statistics/insights of each promotional post, including things like reach, engagement rate, and engagement rate by reach. These details will help you to determine which posts are the most successful and whether you’re, in fact, benefiting from your arrangement with the ambassador.
Content guidelines
Whether your brand ambassador is an influencer, a successful Instagram creator, or a celebrity, they’ll know their audience better than you. As you start with them, it will be crucial to define some guidelines on how to promote your brand. You won’t want to give them a script but a general outline of the style, tone, and personality you’re trying to depict and connect with your brand.
How Can I Ensure My Brand Ambassador Is Successful?
Unfortunately, there’s no recipe or secret code to being successful on Instagram, or anything for that matter. However, there are a few simple ways your brand ambassadors can connect with your audience and improve the likelihood of good results.
Your brand ambassador can build relationships by communicating with your audience across several social media platforms, email newsletters, and direct messaging. A set plan is the most critical part of driving results with your brand ambassador.
As with any aspect of a business, defining your goals and mission will be your doorway to success. Ensure that you have a well-thought-out content and collaboration plan for your brand ambassador and follow up to ensure they’re sticking to it.
You’ll also want someone behind the scenes managing the collaboration and monitoring its success. Put someone in charge of closely monitoring your brand ambassador program to guarantee that everything goes as smoothly as possible. If you can, try to have that person be separate from you. It’s a lot of effort to manage the program, and you don’t want to spread yourself too thin.
There you have it. Use these tips and tricks to run a brand ambassador program on Instagram, and you’ll be closer to successful brand promotion.
