How to Create a Successful Brand Ambassador Program

Anyone who uses social media is no stranger to casually scrolling through their news feed or timeline and coming across someone talking about a product they love. More than likely that content is sponsored or in partnership with a brand. Brand ambassadors have become increasingly popular among brands over the past several years with no end in sight. According to the Digital Marketing Institute, 82% of people trust social networks to guide purchasing decisions making ambassador programs a worthwhile investment for companies to reach new audiences.

What Makes a Good Brand Ambassador?

Brand ambassadors essentially act as partners with a brand and leverage their own personal social media network to promote a brand’s products, create buzz around the company and convey a positive brand image to the community. Before hopping onto Instagram to find your ambassadors, it’s important to know what you’re looking for in a partner.

Knowledge: A good ambassador not only needs to have knowledge about the brand they’re representing but also about social media marketing. Providing a marketing toolkit for ambassadors is a great way to educate them on the brand while relying on their own personal knowledge in curating engaging social media content.
Professional: This person needs to be someone that the team can rely on to do their job to the best of their ability and in a timely fashion. As creative and fun as this job can be, there is still a high level of professionalism that comes with it, like any job. At the end of the day this is a partnership, so having open communication between everyone is key.
Authenticity: You don’t have to have tens of thousands of followers to be a brand ambassador. According to SocialLadder, 76% of people say that they’re more likely to trust content shared by “normal” people than by brands. Having an authentic relationship with your audience is what really stands out and is what brands are looking for.
Flexibility: As anyone in the industry knows, platforms are constantly changing and new trends are always emerging. While it’s important to have a plan in place, it’s equally important to be able to react to the latest Twitter trend or new TikTok sound showing you have a pulse on the industry.

How To Find Brand Ambassadors

Finding a brand ambassador is actually much more simple than you think. The best place to start is finding people who are already organically advocating for your brand on social media. In order to broaden your reach, post on your company’s social media channels about the opportunity so that people can begin to reach out and followers can share the information.

Another idea is to utilize your email marketing contact list. If your list is well managed you can segment your contacts by the people who seem to interact with your company the most by opening emails, clicking on links, etc. If these people are already interested in your company, they could be the best people to promote it.

While word of mouth is “old school” it still remains one of the most effective tactics. Nielsen found that 92% of consumers trust word-of-mouth recommendations over any other form of advertising. It is not only the most cost-effective tool but it is also so powerful. By getting the word out, whether it’s at an event or your employees sharing among their personal network, this transitional route should be a part of your outreach toolbox.

Measuring Brand Ambassadors’ Success

The first step any brand should take when building a brand ambassador program is setting clear actionable goals. Are you trying to generate leads? Increase engagement on Instagram? Once the brand has defined goals for the organization, you can then share them with the brand ambassadors who can then create content to support those goals.

It’s the brand ambassadors’ responsibility to track their personal metrics and relay them to the brand. Whether you’re tracking them weekly, monthly, or quarterly it’s important to have a reporting method in place to ensure full transparency of what’s working, what’s not, and how to improve. Here at Slice, we find weekly and quarterly reporting the most effective and already have a guide in place for any organization to adopt.

Is Your Company Looking for Advocate Attention?

Executing a brand ambassador program can be a big lift for some businesses, but it can also yield great success for your social media strategy. Contact our team of experts and see how Slice can leverage your advocate’s attention to grow your business.