Maximizing the Potential of an Ambassador Program

Many factors contribute to the longevity and effectiveness of a brand’s product ambassador program. From the relationship you have with your ambassadors to the content they create for your brand. An ambassador program consists of many components that need to be maintained and improved to ensure that the program reaches its maximum marketing potential.

Not just anyone can run a successful ambassador program. It takes planning and thought to help your ambassador program be successful and for you to reap all the benefits.

Take a few minutes to read on and learn more about the components that make up a successful brand ambassador program.

Metrics and Goals

Before starting your program be sure to first establish some metrics and goals. What does the perfect ambassador look like? How much content do you want ambassadors to create? How will both your brand and your ambassadors benefit from this relationship?

Have the brand’s goals and expectations laid out and share it with the ambassadors before they join. Make sure the community is on the same page as the brand and shows an understanding of what is expected of them as brand ambassadors.

Communication

Communication is one of the most important elements to maximize the potential of your program. Welcome feedback and keep communication valuable and personable. Ambassadors should feel like they are apart of your brand’s journey. Some other tips for communication include.

• Segmenting groups to help engage specific ambassadors.
• Providing email updates 2-4 times per month (product releases, newsletters, etc).
• Share ambassador’s stories and content with the rest of your community.
• Utilize different communication tools (Facebook, Slack, Whatsapp, etc).

Activities

Another foundational piece to maximize your ambassador’s potential is promotional activities. Be sure to have activities ready for brand ambassadors to do immediately when they join. Keep track of the activities they complete and monitor the engagement that their content receives. If activities are not being finished, use specific rewards to drive engagement for the activities you want to be completed the most. A couple more ideas for activities include.

• Weekly recurring activities help keep ambassadors busy.
• Social media platform specific (Instagram, Facebook, Twitter, etc).
• New challenges every quarter or month.
• Special occasion activities such as holidays, company news, or product release dates.
• Monthly project. Write 1 blog, complete a multistep challenge, make 5 referral sales, etc.

Engagement

Engaging ambassadors should also be on the to-do list every month. If ambassador communities are not engaged then the quality of content being created for the brand can suffer. Disengaged communities don’t offer the brand anything. A few things to remember when driving engagement amongst ambassadors.

• Reach out to ensure ambassadors are focused on helping the brand achieve its goals.
• Offer rewards and discounts to ambassadors for the content they create.
• Make sure ambassadors are being reciprocated fairly for the time they put forth.
• Ambassadors that create three to five pieces of content should receive something in return.

Referral Links /Discount Codes

Another piece that many programs lack is providing ambassadors the ability to earn money and make a commission from the people they refer to your brand. A couple of ambassador marketing strategies that could help your program with this process include.

• Issue referral links to ambassadors to allow them to make a commission.
• Have ambassadors include discount codes within content to help drive engagement amongst potential customers.
• Have ambassadors share referral links with their friends, family members, and followers.

Relationship

The relationship you have with your ambassador community also contributes to the potential of your program. Managing a community with hundreds to thousands of ambassadors can be difficult but try your best to keep a personal relationship. Here are a couple more tips.

• Be friendly, check in frequently, and educate.
• Ask ambassadors for their opinions.
• Gain insights into their feelings about the brand’s products.
• Gather suggestions, concerns, and thoughts and share them with your team.

Research

Research, Research, Research! Research is crucial when you start and manage an ambassador program. To find brand ambassadors, figure out first who your brand’s most avid customers are. Who purchases frequently, places large orders, or has already established communication with the brand? What does your target audience look like and what type of ambassador can help you reach them? Look at the old conversations you’ve had with people, negative or positive. Negative conversations provide the opportunity for your brand to seek out the customers opinion, fix his/her problem, and convert a brand critic into a brand ambassador! Some other ambassador programs that are currently leading the charge include.

• Maker’s Mark
• Lululemon
• Fiskars

Recruiting

After you design and set up your program it’s now time to find and recruit ambassadors! Offer surveys for your customers to complete. Target customers that show the most love for your brand. And remember, that by filling out a survey, customers are at least showing they care. You want people who are excited about earning product discounts, free swag, promotions, and special access to new products. Again, seek out:

• Avid customers
• Fans
• Employees
• Micro-Influencers

Publicity

Let potential customers and site visitors know that your brand has an ambassador program. Provide people with the opportunity to join and layout program details and benefits beforehand. Call out your ambassadors awesome work and share it with others. Use their content on the company’s social media to show potential customers how the brand views customer relationships. Things to remember.

• Allow anyone to apply on your website.
• Share ambassador’s content on the company’s social media platforms.
• Make your brand’s ambassador program visible.
• Explain the purpose of your ambassador program to both ambassadors and applicants.

Growth

You want your ambassador community to grow over time. Start with onboarding your most avid customers and fans that show loyalty to your brand. With a larger ambassador community, your company will benefit from an increase in user generated content, referral sales, word of mouth, and brand reach. When experiencing growth be sure to.

• Choose ambassadors wisely.
• Have a mix of employees, micro-influencers, customers, and fans.
• Track ambassador activities to monitor inactive and active members.

Conclusion

By covering just ten components any ambassador program can be pushed to its maximum potential. Find some avid customers, reward them for the content they create, sit back, and watch them share your brand’s vision with others. Brand Ambassadors are great for all businesses and can be implemented into a marketing strategy at any stage of a brand’s lifecycle.

If you currently have an ambassador program or have considered starting one then feel free to sign up for a personalized BrandChamp demo to see how our app helps with the 10 components listed above.