Do You Need a Brand Ambassador?

Brand ambassadors are individuals who represent a brand. Through their appearance, behaviour and association with your brand, they promote the business in a way that aligns with its messaging. This marketing strategy is a different way to build loyalty and create awareness for your business, and increase its reach.

What is a Brand Ambassador?

Ambassadors promote your brand, its products or services. They have a certain degree of understanding about the products or services that enable them to advocate for their use.

Although it’s not uncommon for a brand ambassador to also be an influencer, there is a distinct difference between these two concepts. Influencers tend to be celebrities of some sort who endorse your business based on who they are, an ambassador champions it based on their ability to communicate the features of your offering.

JR Promotions conducted a survey that indicated 83% of people prefer a recommendation by a familiar face, rather than a traditional advert. This is due to people’s perception of trust, trusting a relative or friend, or even social networks. What a good ambassador does is tap into this trust while communicating the value of an offering that they are already enthusiastic about.

You might experience some difficulties in finding committed brand ambassadors, but by identifying and nurturing those who show their passion, they are sure to influence your audience’s buying decisions. Just make sure that you provide your new representatives with the necessary training and support, and remember to sweeten the deal with some exclusive perks.

Advantages and Disadvantages of Brand Ambassadors

Whether it is time to find the “face” of your business or not will also be determined by the benefits that your business might reap from the arrangement.

Pros include:

Long-term relationships: The relationship between the business and individuals is developed for long-term success.

Customer loyalty: Consistent, frequent messaging from representatives builds towards customers’ positive attitude.

Word-of-mouth: Personal anecdotes and experiences about a product is perceived to be more trustworthy than adverts.

Cost-effective: Most arrangements are barter deals that are products, perks or commission in exchange for work.

Authenticity: Ambassador’s enthusiastic and honest joy and satisfaction with a product make content more natural and authentically resonates with the audience.

Credibility and authority: The authenticity of a representative contributes to the credibility and authority that the ambassador has.

Cons include:

Slow momentum: Micro followings cause campaign momentum to be slow.

Fickle personalities: Some individuals might lose interest and stop posting altogether.

Hard to find candidates: Not every suitable candidate is interested in posting regularly, or according to the brand voice.

Requires high levels of motivation: Once an individual doesn’t reap the expected reward, they might suffer from low motivation and give up.

Difficult performance measurement: Standard metrics don’t apply to this type of marketing. That’s why a business should consider working with a media monitoring company, as well as one that can supply you with experienced brand ambassadors.

Choosing the Right Person

There are a few elements to look at when searching for your ideal brand ambassador.

Social media skills: The candidate must be able to use social media effectively to represent your brand.

Audience profile: The number of followers, as well as other demographics that are important to your brand, needs to align.

Cultural fit: When it comes to professionalism and expertise, the candidate must meet these criteria as well as represent an element of what your brand stands for.

Communication skills: Candidates must communicate excellently with audiences, ensuring that the brand message is understood, as well as explaining any questions about a product or service without sounding like a script.

Signs You Need an Ambassador

If you have been playing around with the idea of an ambassador for a while now, the following will indicate if you need to take the plunge.

Your Brand has a Large, Engaging Audience

An ideal recommendation is that a brand needs to have between five thousand and ten thousand followers on a platform, particularly Instagram, as this is the ideal place to recruit ambassadors.

You Have an Existing Rewards or Loyalty Program

If you already have a rewards or loyalty program, then you understand how an ambassador program works. As many brands do, you can upgrade existing loyal customers to the ambassador program.

You Have a Community Manager

Having a community manager is a sign that you have a dedicated person who is able to run the ambassador program. This is vital because someone will need to ensure that the individuals are holding their end of the agreement and keeping with the brand voice. Additionally, you will need to ensure that the company delivers to the person the funds, perks or products that was promised.