Ambassador marketing has become one of the best ways to increase brand awareness, trust, referrals and loyalty. In today's creative economy, one-time payments and big-name talent partnerships are a thing of the past. While this approach may be beneficial for some brands, it's clear that the biggest opportunity lies in building deeper relationships with influencers.
This is the meaning of the ambassador's plan. The goal of the ambassador or influencer program is to avoid a lot of marketing communications, to develop real relationships with influencers and make them align with your brand and become a real part of your marketing strategy.
While this program may seem more demanding and difficult to develop, a good place to start is by finding influencers who speak positively about your company, either by shouting about your business or updating their followers with a purchase offer.
Brand ambassadors can drive sales, promote brand awareness, and help your business build community by increasing your social media presence and connecting with your community of followers. A good brand ambassador is someone who fits with your brand and has a strong relationship with your target audience.
Of course, all of your ambassadors should agree with the idea of providing a consistent, positive brand experience. But employees, customers, stakeholders, or business partners who don't believe in your organization's mission or don't share your values may not be strong ambassadors.
Social awareness is the key.
Your first use of social media will be the most effective because your customers are already there. With 74% of consumers relying on social media to make purchasing decisions, having your brand ambassador to promote your brand or new products across multiple social platforms can be very beneficial for your business.
Ultimately, these types of programs are designed with sustainable potential to deliver measurable brand growth. This means that these are not light switch campaigns, they are always ongoing and generally sustainable.
Our relationship with content creators goes beyond just talking to them, it involves providing something that might be useful. Examples of value propositions could include: providing great experiences, opportunities to participate in content production, participation in new product launches, and special invitations to corporate or personal events.
It is the brand's responsibility to understand what incentives are important to help content creators better serve businesses.
Despite these obvious benefits, only 31% of B2B marketing leaders say they have a strong brand ambassador program, according to a Forrester Brand & Communications survey. Direct-to-consumer brands and businesses hungry for scalable growth are starting to adopt this strategy. Other members of the organization are missing out on the best opportunity to influence credible innovators who can speak for themselves.
Model Ambassador Program
Viral Nation helped launch and define the strategy for the Victoria's Secret Rose Ambassador Program. This program was created for students to represent a brand that embodies the energy and excitement of campus life.
After becoming an ambassador, Creative works with other students to run events, organize marketing campaigns, and collaborate with local rose shops. All of this aims to increase brand awareness among the brand's younger audience. In return, ambassadors receive exclusive products and discounts, as well as the opportunity to network with other Pink Ambassadors to influence future product launches.
Here are a few things you need to know to get started with your brand ambassador program.
- Explore broader business goals and how ambassadors can play a role in yours.
- Identify the right content creators who can talk to your audience.
- Identify and build a meaningful incentive model that fits your creator.
- Create teams and asset plans to build and manage relationships with your content creators.
And don't forget to monitor the progress of your creatives to understand which campaigns are working and which could be more powerful. This will be useful in the long run. And of course maintain relationships with your ambassadors so that they become loyal customers and represent your brand well.
