A brand ambassador gives your company face within a community wherein the ambassador has already established trust and or a positive relationship with other member of the community. They project the value of your brand to consumers. Importantly, brand ambassadors empower brands to educate potential customers about their products without having to result to the typical in-your-face marketing methods and this is why you should start a brand ambassador search.
Given the vital role that brand ambassadors play, companies need to recruit ideal personalities to represent their brands and create a positive buzz around the brand. However, many business owners, managers, and marketers have to differentiate between a personality willing to represent their brand fervently and someone who is just after the money of free merchandise.
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What do Brand Ambassadors Do?
Brands ambassadors are personalities who represent a product or brand after accruing positive experiences from the brand and creating an authentic bond with the products, and they want to share their experiences. In short, this is what brand ambassadors do.
There are no definitive brand ambassadors categories. Companies employ some ambassadors while others are freelancers. Other still represent the brand for free and do not get paid for representing and promoting the brand. However, in most cases, the brand ambassador gets involved with the brand out of their genuine appreciation of the products and or the company. In such cases, the brand ambassador only gets freebies and or bonuses from the brand.
In the same vein, there are no fixed qualifications that one must meet to be a brand ambassador. One can be housewife, a student, a hobbyist, a professional, or an office worker. The key consideration is for one to be in the same industry as the brand or have a demonstrated genuine interest in the industry.
From the brand perspective, ambassador marketing should entail creating a personal bond with the personality based on trust, authenticity, honesty, and inspiration. This is because ambassador marketing is a word of mouth marketing taken a notch higher via social media.
The Characteristics To Look For In Brand Ambassadors
The most important consideration to have in mind is for the ambassador to be passionate about your business. Ideally, the ambassador should be ready to speak passionately and openly about your brand. Look for a fan who not only has told their friends and family about your brand but fans who want to spread the word about your brand.
There other beneficial traits to consider. For instance, a brand ambassador who is influential in the community, whether online, offline, or both, can help push your brand. A creative brand ambassador can also help come up with original and authentic ways of spreading the word about your business.
The Benefits Of A Brand Ambassador
#1. Promoting content relating to what you do for and to their family, friends, and colleagues on their social media networks or word of mouth.
#2. You can involve them as part of a PR case study, whereby they talk to the media about the impact of your products and or services on their lives and businesses.
#3. They can provide you with genuine customer testimonial you can use on your website.
#4. Brand ambassadors increase positive engagement on your website and social media channels as they post positive reviews.
#5. Participating in online discussions on social media platforms and forums and discussing your product and services in a good light.
#6. Giving your customer advice based on their experiences. As such, they can act on your behalf as an unofficial customer service support personnel.
What Do Brand Ambassadors Typically Do?
While brand ambassadors are useful in many ways, they primarily provide and increase brand visibility, bolster market awareness of a brand, and, importantly, increase company sales to boost the bottom line. In this regard, brand ambassadors strengthen and solidify the relationship between the products and services a company provides and its customers.
To reach out to their community, brand ambassadors promote their business on various social media channels, including Facebook, Instagram, Twitter, and LinkedIn. The rise of social media has improved the effectiveness of brand ambassadorship by helping ambassadors create a buzz around the products of services.
Where To Find Brand Ambassadors
Are you looking for brand ambassadors to take your brand to the next level? These are among the best places to find them:
Popular Blogs
You can consider enlisting famous industry bloggers to be your brand ambassadors, as they will help you appeal to an existing large audience fast. Ensure you create a win-win deal for the blogger. For instance, in exchange for honest product reviews and features, you can provide free products and or payment.
Past Customers
You also reach out to your past customer and request honest feedback. Customers who are satisfied with your products and or services will gladly share their positive experience.
Social Media Followers
You can enlist brand ambassadors from your social networks. Some of the users you can consider for this role include followers that always tag you in their posts/photos and fans who always mention your products.
Contest Participants
You can run an Instagram hashtag contest to help you identify the personalities active in your industries. After the contest closes, you can shortlist any entrants who are suitable for an ambassadorship role with your company.
Key Qualities of a Brand Ambassadors
On the face of it, finding Devout, hardworking brands ambassadors from your brand’s fans is an easy task. However, not every fan of your brand will fit the criteria. To help you in your search for brand ambassadors, below is a list of characteristics to look for.
Passionate And Relevant To Your Brand
Above everything else, brand ambassadors should be passionate about your products and services. Importantly, their passion for your company should go beyond just your products. They should be interested in and passionate about your brand values and the mission of your company.
A good ambassador should have interests and hobbies that align with your target audience characters. For instance, businesses selling hiking products should consider enlisting an ambassador who can illustrate how the brand’s products improve the lives of the audience.
However, it is the job of the brand to give the ambassador something to work with. You should give your brand ambassador a reason to be passionate about your brand and ample opportunities to share your brand’s story. While you want your ambassadors to stay on message, you should make the effort of reinvigorating your brand, giving your ambassadors new products and mission-driven promotion for your customers to be excited about.
Active And Engaging On Social Media
In the social media era we live in, your brand ambassador must have an intricate knowledge of using social media and be able to represent you in good light on social media. In the example of hiking products business, the brand ambassador should be able to leverage social media by embodying the essence of a hiker by posting hiking photos. They should share their hiking experience while using the brand’s products.
To this end, consider enlisting candidates who have a medium-sized or a large-sized following already established. Such a candidate will produce immediate results when they share your content in their networks. A Nielsen study showed that over 92% of consumers trust recommendations provided by other consumers. A brand ambassador with a huge following will be in a position to recommend your products to a large audience, translating to more sales.
Consistent And Professional
Your brand ambassador will be an extension, and in many regards, the face of your brand. They must understand and appreciate the responsibility they hold to your brand. Nonetheless, ensure you vet your ambassadors to ensure that they are not problematic to your brand or represent different values on their social platforms to those of your brand.
Ensure your ambassador always positively represent your brand by providing them with campaign-specific and ambassador guidelines before you launch their involvement with your brand. You can provide your ambassadors and influencers with enough instructions without impeding on their creativity or creative freedom.
Top Tips For Recruiting Your Brand Ambassadors
- Choose personalities in your target demographic – If your brand’s products and or services are geared towards adult hikers between the ages of 25 and 45, your ambassador should be in that demographic.
- Target personalities who have an intimate understanding of your products and services and are passionate about your brand – If you are selling fitness-related products, ensure you recruit ambassadors who have experience using your products and services.
- Reach out, and vet personalities you feel are best suited for the position – Target candidates who are upbeat and positive about life in general, and your business and brand in particular. Positivity will naturally attract people, so ensure you choose a positive candidate.
- Communicate the importance of their ambassadorship – You should tell you’re your ambassadors the importance of promoting your brand and business. You can tell them about the importance of employee referrals and the percentage of business derived from such referrals. In doing this, you will help them understand how their referrals will impact your business. In turn, they will be at the forefront of advocating for your business.
- Incentivize your ambassadors – Some individuals are happy and fine to promote and advocate for your brand solely to benefit your brand. However, others might need extra incentives to support and promote your brand.
- Inform and give your ambassadors the tools they need to advocate and represent your brand effectively – As part of the ambassadorship program, train your ambassadors and give them in-depth knowledge of the products and services they will be representing. Your ambassadors will be your public face; ensure they are capable of representing and advocating for you by educating them.
Brand ambassadors are a great option for many businesses and ensuring you know how to find and also help them from within your brand will pay huge dividends for you.
