I have a friend who runs a clothing brand. And occasionally, I and a few other friends who are into content creation, help him in his marketing efforts. We model for him, create content, and help him drive awareness for his brand, in exchange for free products. That is the essence of ambassador marketing.
Ambassador marketing has become one of the best methods for increasing brand awareness, trust, referrals, loyalty, and more. In the vibrant landscape of digital marketing, it stands out as a revolutionary strategy that has reshaped the relationship between brands and consumers.
However, it can be difficult to understand how ambassador marketing could benefit your brand or how to get started if you don’t have a deep understanding of the topic. Because, while our efforts did indeed yield some efforts, he would have been better off hiring professional brand ambassadors, since these are people who have cultivated that trust with the public to serve as brand faces.
Key Takeaways
- Ambassador marketing as a marketing strategy has revolutionized how companies approach brand promotion.
- It will always win over paid advertising because of the authenticity of the people involved.
- A brand ambassador is anybody you choose to represent your brand, or its associated products, services, or events.
- There are different types of brand ambassador programs, like affiliate marketing, informal brand ambassadors and college ambassadors.
- Ambassador marketing is becoming more popular because brand ambassadors are more than just salespeople; they are genuine fans and advocates of the brand.
Understanding Ambassador Marketing
The concept of ambassador marketing isn’t new; it has roots in the age-old practice of word-of-mouth promotion. However, its formalization as a marketing strategy has revolutionized how companies approach brand promotion. Originally seen as simply another form of celebrity endorsement, ambassador marketing has evolved to involve individuals who resonate deeply with their audiences, forging a more genuine brand-customer connection.
Ambassador marketing (like influencer marketing) will always win over paid advertising because of the authenticity of the people involved. Nowadays, people are cynical of advertising and are far more willing to believe what they hear from people they perceive as peers. This makes ambassador marketing a win-win strategy.
Brands connect with people who, in the case of true fans, are already supporters. These people are usually happy to act as ambassadors for a brand they already love and are often eager to set up some form of relationship that recognizes their support for the brand.
By shifting away from impersonal advertising methods such as banner ads & pop-up windows, brands that adopt ambassador marketing are finding greater success in building loyal communities and driving long-term growth.
Who is a Brand Ambassador?
The term “brand ambassador” has quite a broad meaning. It includes anybody who you choose to represent your brand, or its associated products, services, or events. These may include influencers, but they are just as likely to be your employees or your customers.
Brand ambassadors market a firm’s products at the grassroots level, through “word of mouth,” face-to-face or through their personal social channels. They communicate through various means, including social media, emails, messaging, and one-to-one strategies.
There are two types of brand ambassadors:
- Influencers. Selected because they are thought leaders online in the field in which the brand operates. They have little brand buy-in, but will usually promote the brand’s product for money, the brand’s product, or services
- True fans. People who have already shown brand loyalty. They will often be either customers or employees. They don’t have the social following of real influencers, but they are likely to be powerful advocates for the brand. They are often happy to act as brand ambassadors for free, although they will appreciate free products.
We tend to look at the real fans of a brand when we refer to “ambassador marketing,” leaving the influencers to participate in “influencer marketing.”
Characteristics of a Successful Brand Ambassador
If you’re in the process of identifying potential brand ambassadors, here are six attributes to consider:
Robust Online Presence
A strong online presence is crucial. Ambassadors don’t need tens of thousands of followers but should have a genuine, engaged network across various platforms, enabling them to effectively share your message.
Understanding of Marketing Principles
While a formal marketing education isn’t necessary, brand ambassadors should have a foundational understanding of marketing principles. They should value authenticity and recognize the significance of digital marketing and social media in generating high-quality referrals.
Professionalism
Brand ambassadors represent your company. Their actions and the way they present themselves can influence public perception of your brand. High standards of professionalism are essential to maintain your brand’s reputation.
Leadership and Confidence
People naturally gravitate towards confident, positive individuals. Your brand ambassadors should embody these qualities, making others more inclined to listen to and trust their recommendations.
Relationship-building Skills
True brand ambassadors are invested in fostering long-term relationships between your brand and your customers. They should be passionate about your products or services and skilled in creating meaningful connections.
Feedback Collection and Innovation
An effective ambassador program thrives on feedback. Ambassadors are in a unique position to collect insights from customers and the market, offering valuable perspectives that can help improve your products, services, and marketing strategies.
How to become a brand ambassador
Types of Brand Ambassador Programs
The most common types of brand ambassador programs are:
Informal Brand Ambassadors
As the name suggests, informal brand ambassadors often promote a product simply because of their love for it. They don’t sign any formal contracts with the brand and often don’t receive any payment for their work. They love the product, so they choose to spread the word to their friends and family.
Affiliate Marketers
There is a formal partnership between a brand and its “affiliates,” who are usually bloggers or influencers. They promote a brand in return for a commission on sales made as a result of somebody buying the product because of their promotion.
Amazon was the first to set up an affiliate program. Their affiliates put special links on their websites, and if somebody buys something through the link, Amazon pays between 1% and 10% of the money spent on the affiliate, depending on the product.
College Ambassadors
This is a specialist ambassador marketing scheme, where brands partner with students. A student promotes a product they like to their network of fellow students. College ambassadors sometimes operate in person, handing out product samples, putting up posters, and other more innovative techniques to promote the company’s product on campus.
Requirements-driven Ambassadors
These brand ambassadors usually have to complete specific actions on behalf of a brand in a set time. The brand will often give free products to people who meet their requirements. It may be as simple as receiving a free download of a software product in return for making a tweet. At the other extreme, influencers who agree to make a certain number of posts on behalf of a brand are also an example of requirements-driven ambassadors.
Types of Ambassador Marketing Campaigns
Online campaigns are very popular for all types of companies, but especially for eCommerce brands as all or many of their sales take place online. Building a successful ambassador campaign is an excellent way to create brand awareness, raise engagement rates, and drive sales as your audience interacts with ambassador content.
Online campaigns also help you build a library of user-generated content that you can recycle in the future. They can include:
- Social media posts like
- Photos
- Videos
- Giveaways
- Collaborations with other ambassadors
- Reviews
- Q&As
- Collaborations with other brands and their ambassadors
Offline campaigns are phenomenal for creating in-person buzz. They also tend to leak into the online world so they can achieve the same benefits as online campaigns. Some ideas for offline campaigns are:
- Handing out freebies or samples in a public place such as having ambassadors give out small freebies from your brand on their college campus
- Live, in-person games and contests like a scavenger hunt hosted by select ambassadors
- Exclusive parties that your ambassadors can host for friends
- Public stunts, like when leisurewear company Onepiece sent their ambassadors to a major department store asking them to stock the brand
Steps In An Ambassador Marketing Strategy
Identify Suitable Brand Ambassadors
Once you have decided to set up a brand ambassador program of a particular type and set goals for your campaign, then you need to begin the process of finding brand ambassadors. This will, of course, depend on the kind of brand ambassador program you use. Amazon, for instance, does not need to look for affiliates nowadays. People apply to them to enter their program, and Amazon can select the affiliates of their choice.
Informal brand ambassadors will usually select themselves, whether the business wants them or not.
If you want a more formal band ambassador program (other than affiliate marketing), the brand will have to identify potential brand ambassadors. This is particularly so if they wish to work with their best customers.
You could begin by looking at social media. Who has positively engaged most with your recent posts? Who posts regularly about your brand, using your branded hashtags or keywords? You might want to take a look at product review sites, taking notice of those who have written positive reviews about your brand. You can also look at forums and groups, such as Facebook Groups and SubReddits.
You will want to review each potential brand ambassador to ensure that they would be suitable for the role. This is particularly important if you wish them to create content. Do they write coherently and/or share quality photographs in their other social posts?
You want to work with people who can come across as authentic. It is probably worth checking that you aren’t going to work with people who will happily promote anyone, including your opposition’s products.
Reach Out To Potential Ambassadors
Once you’ve made a list of potential influencers, you need to contact them with a proposal. If you are using specialist ambassador software, you might have templates that simplify this part of the process.
You could send personalized emails to your potential ambassadors, outlining your proposal. Alternatively, you could connect with them on their preferred social network site.
Motivate And Empower Your Ambassadors
If you have selected your potential brand ambassadors well, they will be happy to act as a brand ambassador. However, you will need to make their life easier.
If you want them to produce social posts, you could give them some samples they can use. Even if you prefer them to act more naturally, creating their posts themselves, you should provide them with suitable high-quality images they can use. Create clear briefings of what you desire, and make your requirements clear. Give them access to a FAQ or brand guidelines, and ensure that they have a secure channel to make contact if they have any questions to ask.
If you want them to continue to amplify your brand, motivate them with free products or other forms of bonus gifts.
Set Up Your Campaign
Many firms use ambassador marketing campaigns to increase sales of a particular product. You do have to realize that it is a long-term game, though. It isn’t something that you would use once for a short-term campaign. You need to invest time and money into ambassador marketing and eventually receive some form of return for your efforts.
When you set up each campaign, you need a specific goal, and you need to decide on appropriate metrics to measure your campaign’s success. Suitable metrics could include:
- Content reach
- Engagement
- Traffic
- Sales
- Lifetime value of a customer
Once you have set your goals, designed your campaign, found your brand ambassadors, and decided on essential and relevant metrics, you are ready to run your campaign.
How To Build An Ambassador Marketing Program
It’s easy to get started with a brand ambassador marketing strategy. First, you need to meet people who can help you with your marketing plan. Typically, this entails seeking out advocates who not only share the brand’s values and beliefs but also have the expertise and media influence to help you improve your marketing strategy.
Building an ambassador marketing program
Benefits Of Ambassador Marketing
There are many direct and indirect benefits to building an ambassador community. Any strategy that grows a brand’s community and improves the relationship between the brand and customers ultimately leads to a stronger company.
Increases Brand Trust
People trust other people for brand recommendations more than traditional advertising. And by traditional advertising, I mean paid media, TV commercials, billboards, etc. This is a fact. Also, those people recommending products don’t even have to be experts. The value of their opinion comes from their honesty.
These are the steps a consumer takes to recommend a product.
The consumer starts being impartial towards a brand. Then, he/she tries a product, likes it consistently, and tells someone else about it who might benefit from it. It can be a friend, family member, or his/her online network. That is called word of mouth.
Their opinions come from experience, so when a person gets recommended a product, he/she will trust the brand.
For someone to make a purchase, he/she first needs to trust the solution. If chosen correctly, brand ambassadors are people who through experience loved a product and then were invited to be ambassadors. This makes their branded content genuine.
Increases Brand Awareness
One of the main goals of ambassador marketing is brand awareness. This is achieved mainly through social media content. However, your strategy can include in-person activities that also increase awareness, like hosting classes or events.
A misconception about brand awareness and ambassador marketing is that more followers equals better results. After all, your brand wants to reach as many potential customers as possible.
But that is not always the case.
While you can invite big celebrity influencers to be ambassadors, a strategy that involves people with relatively small followings works the best. This is because smaller influencers are perceived to be more authentic and have better engagement rates.
This means that the traffic and referrals they get have a better chance of converting. Sure, they have a smaller reach, but they convert better. That is why companies have programs with thousands of ambassadors.
Additionally, if your ambassadors are part of your target market (they should), their network will most likely be part of it as well.
Ambassador Marketing Gets Sales
We have established that the awareness a brand gets from ambassadors is of higher quality. We have also established that people trust products others recommend. Therefore, this means that when you have many people talking about your brand, and they trust your products, you get sales.
They help cut through the noise of traditional marketing channels, reaching potential customers on a more personal level.
Ambassadors can also participate in getting sales directly. Your ambassador marketing strategy can involve giving your ambassadors a unique code they can share with their family, friends, colleagues, and followers. When these people purchase a product using that code, the ambassador gets a commission or reward.
This way, ambassadors are encouraged to refer as much as possible. More sales mean more commissions.
Why Ambassador Marketing Is Gaining Popularity
Brand ambassadors are more than just salespeople; they are genuine fans and advocates of the brand. Their connection to the brand adds credibility and relatability to their messaging. These connections aren’t based on transactions but on shared passions and experiences, creating a more profound impact on consumer behavior.
The two unbeatable factors that Ambassador Marketing will bring you are:
- Authenticity and Trust: In a world oversaturated with advertisements, consumers seek authentic experiences and trustworthy recommendations. Ambassador programs embody this trend, allowing real people to share genuine stories and experiences tied to a brand. This authenticity effectively penetrates markets by fostering trust and making each message feel personal and credible.
- Community Building: Brands leveraging ambassador marketing create ecosystems of like-minded individuals who share common interests and values associated with the brand. This sense of belonging strengthens customer loyalty and increases the likelihood of repeat purchases and organic advocacy.
Also, ambassador marketing can overlap with other types of marketing, like influencer marketing, referral marketing, advocacy marketing, and affiliate marketing. However, it all depends on the strategy you have for your brand ambassadors.
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