5 Proven Ways to Improve Your Brand Ambassador Program

Are you looking to take your ambassador program to the next level?

Whether you’re aiming to boost brand visibility, foster community engagement, or drive sales, a well-crafted brand ambassador program can be a game-changer.

Below, we’re outlining five proven strategies to improve your ambassador program, ensuring it not only meets but exceeds your expectations. Let’s dive in and unlock the full potential of your brand ambassadors!

#1. Always Communicate with Your Community

Communication is key to a successful brand ambassador program.

Did you know that 92% of consumers trust brand ambassadors over traditional advertisements when making purchasing decisions?

When someone joins an ambassador program, they are typically looking to work closely with a few brands and join a community of like-minded people. They will look to you (the program manager) for guidance and positive feedback in the program. The more you can invest in your community, the more lifelong, happy customer advocates you will have.

If you aren’t engaging with the community or giving them the chance to speak directly with you or your team, you could be at risk of disappointing your community and leading them directly to the competitor’s program. Here are some ideas to strengthen your communication and engagement with your community:

• Create community engagement prompts in the Community Post section of BrandChamp
• Engage with ambassador posts on social media
• Send regular emails to ambassadors with program updates and news about the program or the company
• Host a monthly or quarterly virtual happy hour with ambassadors and let them ask questions, connect, and play a fun game
• Follow ambassadors on socials and engage with the content they create for the program

Pro Tip: Brand ambassadors join the program to work with you, but they also want to network and meet new people! Make sure you are fostering a sense of community and helping ambassadors build relationships with other ambassadors. 

#2. Consistently Review Pending Items

Whenever you log into BrandChamp, you will see an “Awaiting Review” section that shows items your team needs to review.

Image of the BrandChamp main dashboard. The dashboard highlights items that are awaiting review from the program manager.

Leaving things unattended in BrandChamp is a slippery slope. We strongly discourage leaving rewards pending, content pending, or commissions unpaid for longer than one month. Just to be clear, that is the maximum amount of time.

Ideally, we want to create a quick feedback loop with ambassadors. This means issuing rewards, approving content, and issuing payments monthly.

We also need to be cognizant of the ambassador experience. If they are constantly waiting a long time to be accepted into the program, have their activities approved, or have rewards issued, they will likely grow tired of the program and potentially find a new program to join.

For example: If an ambassador submits a piece of content that isn’t quite up to your standards, we want to leave a comment and reject the submission within a few days of being submitted. This way, the ambassador can review your feedback, make changes to their content, and resubmit.

Here’s a list of items you will want to review consistently:

• Activities – approve or reject content
• Rewards – fulfill pending rewards
• Referrals – approve/reject referrals
• Applicants – approve/reject applicants
• Profiles – when an ambassador updates their profile
• Commissions – this will depend on each brand, but we recommend paying ambassador commissions once per month

You would be surprised at the number of ambassadors that reach out asking when their rewards will be issued or when their content will be approved. This leads to mistrust and frustration from the ambassadors.

If you struggle to know which items are awaiting approval, you can set up email reminders in BrandChamp! To get regular notifications about items awaiting approval, hit the drop-down menu next to your profile icon in the top right-hand corner, select “Notification Preferences” and find the “Awaiting review” section.

In BrandChamp, under the notification preferences section, you can customize the frequency and types of reminders you would like to receive in your email.

Image of the different notification preferences you can customize in BrandChamp

One thing to consider. Put yourself in their shoes; would you feel like a valued part of the team if your work went unnoticed for more than 30 days? Likely no, and then you would look for another program to join.

#3. Provide Quality Feedback to Help Ambassadors Grow

As the brand, it is your responsibility to guide ambassadors in creating the best content for your program. While it might be tempting to approve all content submitted, it is crucial to provide constructive feedback to help brand ambassadors grow and establish a clear benchmark for content standards.

Approving all ambassador submissions, regardless of quality, can lead to several issues, such as low-quality content, damaging your brand’s reputation, and reducing overall audience engagement.

Not every ambassador will be an amazing content creator initially, but setting clear benchmarks for acceptable content is essential.

Providing feedback on ambassador submissions encourages them to improve their skills. If all their activities are approved without scrutiny, ambassadors will never get the necessary feedback needed to align their content with your brand.

This benefits your brand by ensuring high-quality content but also empowers the ambassadors to grow and succeed in their roles. With your guidance, an ambassador can transform from a novice with no content-creating skills into a great content creator. By offering consistent support, constructive criticism, and clear examples of high-quality content, you can help ambassadors develop their skills over time.

Some ways to ensure you receive top-level content:

• Create a content and product guide for brand ambassadors using the Knowledge Base in BrandChamp
• Link example content to the activity to give ambassadors insight/inspiration for creating their posts
• Reject low-quality content, give ambassadors feedback as to why it’s rejected, and ask them to resubmit the content based on your feedback
• Providing coaching, guidance, and resources on creating high-performing content to help ambassadors improve their posts.

#4. Have the Right People Managing the Program

Most ambassador program managers have other responsibilities, and the brand ambassador program isn’t their only priority, but it’s important to have enough time each week to focus on the program and the community.

Brand ambassador programs take dedication to be successful. You can expect a program manager to spend between 5-10 hours a week for a small program (up to 500 members) and full-time for a program manager to run a large program (1,000+ members).

Many factors go into running a brand ambassador program, from sourcing new ambassadors, creating activities, engaging with the community, issuing payments and rewards, and approving content. So make sure you find the right person (or people if your program is big enough!) committed to doing all that.

Lastly, we recommend documenting your program to make sure all internal team members are on the same page. Creating comprehensive SOPs and documentation will make it easier to achieve consistent results and hand the program off to team members to help run it.

This way, you can ensure everyone is on the same page and striving towards achieving the same goals for the program!  

#5. Create an Ambassador Program that Is Fun and Engaging

Finally, if you’re not trying to create a fun and rewarding program, what’s the point? A brand ambassador program that lacks excitement and engagement is unlikely to keep ambassadors motivated and invested.

Consider running monthly or quarterly content challenges to keep things fresh and competitive. Use the leaderboard to gamify the program, encouraging ambassadors to strive for the top spot. Highlight your favorite ambassador submissions in the featured content feed to showcase their hard work and creativity.

Additionally, you need to invest in your community and make sure they feel like they are part of a thriving community! We recommend sending regular updates to your ambassador. Consider sending monthly check-in and program update emails to ambassadors and alert them when you add new activities, or rewards, or launch a new contest/challenge.

By incorporating these elements, you ensure that your program is not just another task for ambassadors but an enjoyable and rewarding experience. The program should be something they look forward to participating in, offering opportunities for recognition, competition, and connection with the community.

Our best piece of advice for anyone running an ambassador program is this: If you were an ambassador and were part of this program, would you be excited to show up each week and participate?

If the answer is ever no, we need to reevaluate our strategy and focus on rebuilding a program that gets you to say yes.

Ready to Take Your Ambassador Program to the Next Level?

At BrandChamp, we provide the platform you need to optimize your ambassador program and foster a loyal, motivated ambassador community.

Whether you’re just starting out or looking to enhance your current efforts, our platform can help you achieve your goals. Get started today and see the difference a well-managed brand ambassador program can make for your brand!