With all the different ways to advertise a business these days online, partnering with brand ambassadors may be something you have either put on the back burner or forgotten totally about. The position of brand ambassador has been around for years, but through that time it’s managed to evolve and find a way to continue positively influencing the business’s bottom line.
Brand ambassadors are real people within your business’s community who appreciate your product or business and are willing to communicate their feelings to others in their community. Brand ambassadors will be able to speak to the quality of your product and business, as they have been actively using it.
Another attractive feature of brand ambassadorship is that your brand ambassadors don’t have to be celebrities or social media stars. Learning how to become a brand ambassador isn’t difficult for an individual who is already passionate about your business and is a natural part of your target market. Brand ambassadors can be any passionate customer of your business who is willing to share their enthusiasm for your brand.
For a small business with a budget, brand ambassadors can be as influential, if not more so than working with celebrity influencers because the cost between the two options varies so drastically.
Even micro-influencer, who are influencers with 1000-25000 followers can charge anywhere between $1000 to $10,000 for an ambassador deal. Brand ambassadors typically are free or low-cost advertisers, who have a deep personal knowledge of your product or business as well as an appreciation of it. With that, here are five more reasons why your business would be partnering with brand ambassadors.
Brand Ambassadors Help Humanize Your Brand
Humanizing a brand can be difficult. People are smart. They’re well-aware that behind whatever product or service your business is offering there needs to be a profit to remain in business. That’s why the implementation of a brand ambassador program can actually help humanize your brand more than any other marketing strategy you come up with.
Brand ambassadors are loyal customers who have developed their feelings towards your product or service due to repeat, positive interactions. They understand what your business offers. They can speak to your customer service. they can offer insights to potential customers about the longevity of your products or services.
According to data from AdWeek, 76% of people would rather buy a product or service posted by a “normal” person, than through an advertisement. People trust people, and your brand ambassadors can help you gain that trust faster than many other options.
Encourages Brand Loyalty
Frequent patrons of businesses or users of products typically don’t mind being recognized for their loyalty. In fact, in most cases, they’ll welcome and encourage it. That’s a huge reason why brand ambassadors programs have been and remain so popular. By including a brand ambassador program, you’ll encourage brand loyalty as you’ll be rewarding positive business behaviors such as repeat purchases, influencing purchases, encouraging social media growth, etc.
Gives You Numerous Voices In The Community
Brand ambassadors offer your business a direct line of communication to the community they live in. You should encourage your brand ambassadors to share their feelings about your business or products as much as they can during their day-to-day life.
For example, if you’re a small boutique clothing shop ask your brand ambassadors to share posts on social media and tag your brand when they’re wearing items from your shop. Instagram even allows you to tag and link items you’re wearing, so you can incorporate a link that allows you to track referrals. You could then offer an incentive, such as if you receive 10 new clients from your brand ambassador’s post, they get 25% off their next purchase. The options are endless and up to how you want to execute your program.
Encourages Community Interaction
Brand ambassadors are encouraged and typically expected to share their feelings about your business or product with the world. This constant flow of positive content shared with your brand ambassadors’ personal community will help increase your business community engagement. If your brand ambassadors share your social profiles, or brick and mortar address, soon enough you’ll have more followers and customers intrigued to get the same experience their friend was telling them about.
Brand Ambassadors Are Experts In Your Business or Product
You want whoever is representing your brand to be a die-hard fan of it. Someone who has the experience and knows the ins and outs of your business, who can provide feedback when you implement changes. Brand ambassadors should have all these qualities. They should be an expert in your business or product, having experience and knowledge they can share with their communities to help positively influence your brand.
Think about sending your brand ambassadors emails containing your seasonal updates, or including them in a monthly round-up email where you can get feedback about what they’d like to see at your store or from your business.
