What a Brand Ambassador Programme Can Do For You

Based on a Nielsen report, 92% of consumers find recommendations from family and friends to be more credible, than direct marketing from the brand itself. Thus, in order for your business to build on brand awareness, it is important for you to start looking into brand ambassador programmes.

In this article, we’ll show you:

• What is a brand ambassador programme?
• Who can be your brand ambassador?

1. Customers
2. Influencers/Content creators
3. Employees
4. Business partners

• 5 Steps to build a brand ambassador programme

1. Define the goal
2. Define your ideal brand ambassador
3. Plan out the benefits to incentivise your ambassadors
4. Find and recruit the ambassador
5. Track the progress and results of your ambassador programme

What is a brand ambassador programme?

A brand ambassador programme refers to the long-term relationship between your brand and brand ambassadors – people that love your products and/or services. These people amplify your brand awareness by speaking positively about your company, sharing about it on social media, and recommending you to their followers.

Who can be your brand ambassador?

(1) Customers

As customers are not affiliated with your brand, it makes their support for you more credible and genuine, thereby more influential to potential customers. With this group of people having aligned values with your brand, it strengthens their loyalty – thus being an apt representation for your company!

(2) Influencers/Content creators

Similarly, these are also people who genuinely enjoy your brand. Additionally, with their significant amount of followers and influential power, social media influencers and content creators can help expand your audience and reach your target audience better.

Jcnana, a Taiwanese Key Opinion Leader (KOL), for example, is a brand ambassador of Petite Studio.

(3) Employees

By working for your brand, your employees are already well-informed about your products and/or service, they know what differentiates your brand from competitors, and are also committed to your organisational values. This makes it more authentic and accurate when your brand is being promoted by them!

(4) Business partners

Other organisations and companies that are affiliated with your brand will influence the purchasing decisions of your audience. Just like the aforementioned categories of brand ambassadors, business partners also share the same values as you, thereby they would advocate for your brand as well.

5 Steps to build a brand ambassador programme

Starting a brand ambassador program may seem daunting, but it doesn’t have to be. Here are the 5 steps to get started!

(1) Define the goal

A brand ambassador programme requires a lot of time and energy, so it should be something you embark on consciously, and not just to hop on to the next marketing strategy trend. Look into what your objectives are, and what you expect out of it along with realistic expectations of what can be achieved. Doing so will aid in setting clear expectations and requirements from your brand ambassadors, and it would be easier to discern whether the programme is successful or not.

Some common goals that companies have for their own brand ambassador programmes include:

• Amplify reach & brand awareness
• Build customer loyalty
• Increase sales

(2) Define your ideal brand ambassador

Not anyone and everyone should be part of your program.

Here are some questions to consider when defining the ambassadors you’d want your brand to be represented by.

• What is their personal brand, and does it align with your brand’s?
• How many followers must they have?
• How much have they engaged with your brand?
• What is the performance of their engagement rate on social media?
• What marketing channels are they using?
• What other brands have they worked with previously?

Charles & Keith, for instance, requires the applicants to have more than 1,000 followers on social media platforms in order to be qualified to be a brand ambassador.

Once you have defined your ideal brand ambassador, it creates structure for your programme. This assures potential that you appreciate their work and are keen to build a mutually beneficial long-term relationship. Also with different types of brand ambassadors, you may have different plans for how each group can promote your brand. Plan accordingly to how they can best help your brand gain more awareness within their strengths be it in insider knowledge, or follower count! You’d also have to decide and come into agreement with said ambassadors on your expectations and/or guidelines. Below are some guidelines for you to consider when reaching out to potential ambassadors:

• What content do/will they create?
• How do they promote your brand – both online and offline?
• Are there keywords for them to use or avoid according to your brand guide?
• How often should they post about your brand?

(3) Plan out the benefits to incentivise your ambassadors

Keep in mind that the relationship between you and your brand ambassadors has to go both ways, so this has to benefit and align with them as well – not just for your business.

There may be ambassadors that are okay to promote your brand for free, providing them with perks and rewards are a great way to show that you value their contributions! By ensuring that your ambassadors are valued, this will strengthen the relationship you share with them, and keep them motivated and committed to promoting your brand. Be it free products and/or services or financial compensation etc., it should be made clear to your brand ambassadors on what is in it for them in relation to working with you.

Other than showering them with perks and rewards, there are other ways to recognise their contributions! These are more ways to show your appreciation:

• A shoutout on your social media platforms or website about their experience with your brand
• A personal thank you note
• A “The Ambassador of the Month” series on your social media platforms

(4) Find and recruit the ambassador

Turn your customers into ambassadors! Instead of browsing through profile after profile manually on multiple platforms, you can save hours of manual effort with StarNgage Pro – an ambassador & influencer marketing platform – to recruit and manage your ambassadors.

Just by uploading your business’ list of customers and influencers you are currently working with, StarNgage is able to allow you access to a larger database of creators to expand your community of ambassadors with creators who best represent your brand’s image. Once you have an ambassador programme landing page set up, you can invite the selected customers and/or influencers that align best with your programme’s goals to join you!

(5) Track the progress and results of your ambassador programme

Through StarNgage Pro, you would get to liaise with your ambassadors, and track the content published by them and how their content has performed. This system will help you manage your creators and ambassadors better in seeing who best aligns with your brand, who you work best with, or what type of content amplifies your brand awareness better. With this knowledge, you would be able to improve your brand ambassador programme even better, and drive revenue!

If you’re keen to try out StarNgage Pro to kickstart your brand ambassador programme, just drop us a message to request for a demo. Find out how we can power up your brand ambassador programme now!