Here’s a complete guide to brand ambassador marketing. People are smarter than ever—they prefer word-of-mouth or friend advice over ads. Nielsen’s latest report reveals that 92% of people trust brand recommendations by common people. Likewise, 80% of Asian social media users have been found to make a purchase following their favorite influencer’s recommendations. 

This is the power of brand ambassador marketing. Yet, before deploying brand ambassadors for your marketing campaign, you must learn the ABC of brand ambassador marketing and the most effective strategy. Today, we are here with a complete guide to brand ambassador marketing. So, let’s dive in!

What is Brand Ambassador Marketing? 

Brand ambassador marketing is a strategic approach where a brand partners with individuals (influencers, customers, or your company employees) who are passionate about the brand and can promote it to a target audience.

Brands choose their ambassadors with authentic fans. These ambassadors create content like photos, videos, and reviews to connect with your target audience genuinely. This builds trust and boosts brand awareness.

Brand ambassadors are your own team. Unlike influencer marketing, brand ambassadors need to only partner with your brand without pairing with any of your competitors. This exclusiveness lets them create an air of your brand’s authenticity.

Let’s take a few examples of what brand ambassador marketing is:

What happens when you listen to an honest movie reviewer praising a film on the top of mountains? If you’re a movie fan, this is likely the next film you’ll love watching. But do you know, maybe the filmmakers have requested or hired that reviewer to analyze their work and tell people about it? That’s called ambassador marketing. 

The same goes when you recommend your friends the comfiest and most durable shoes, and they also tend to buy them. Here, you’re an informal brand ambassador of that shoe brand.

This is all what we call brand ambassador marketing.

Why Opt for Brand Ambassador Marketing?

Indeed, past years’ reports and stats tell us more exciting success stories of brand ambassador marketing success. But why should you choose brand ambassador marketing to promote your product? 

Does it really have such a great potential to drive conversion? 

Yes, below is a breakdown of the benefits of brand ambassador marketing:

More Targeted Reach

Traditional ads can be expensive as they target a massive audience, yet they miss the mark by reaching the wrong audience. In contrast, brand ambassador marketing lets you target people who are already interested in your brand precisely with the help of social influencers. Resultantly, this targeted approach gets you more conversions, leading to overall business success.

Better Engagement

The content shared by loyal brand fans, whether social media influencers or company employees, is more impactful. LinkedIn’s employee advocacy guide shows that company employees have 10X reach than the brand itself. It doesn’t end here. The content shared by company employees has been found to have 30% more engagement, leading to better ROI. The reason is trust that they dedicatedly build—so, can your social influencers do it?

Get Seen by More People

People trust their friends more than ads, according to a Nielsen study. Brand ambassadors act as trusted friends for their followers. By partnering with them, you tap into that existing trust and spread brand awareness organically.

Boost Your Credibility

Influencers who genuinely love your product and have the trust of their followers can convince their fans to buy it, too. Their authentic voice makes your product relatable and builds trust in your brand.

Create a Buzz and Keep Fans Engaged

Studies show that user-generated content (like photos and videos from your ambassadors) is more engaging than traditional ads! It gets more likes, comments and shares. This is because when ambassadors share their real-life experiences with your product, it builds trust, sparks conversations, and attracts potential customers. These engaged fans, when converted into loyal customers, keep spreading the word organically—the created impact is lasting.

Get Creative Content (for Free!)

Creating ads takes time and effort; also, they’re monotonous. In comparison, brand ambassadors can work as your most creative content-creation machines. They’ll create fresh and unique content for you by showcasing your product in real-life situations. This saves you resources and makes the content appear more authentic as it comes from a trusted source.

More Cost Effective

Brand ambassador marketing is cheaper than traditional advertising for a few reasons. First, you reach a wider but distinct audience by leveraging your ambassadors’ existing followers. Second, ambassadors create their own content—this saves your production costs. Finally, brand loyalty and positive word-of-mouth marketing are more sustainable than short-term ad campaigns.

So, brand ambassador marketing can be a powerful tool for growing your business. Its targeted reach, engaged audience, and cost-effectiveness make it ideal for any business.

A Complete Guide to Brand Ambassador Marketing

You can start with brand ambassador marketing by building a team of brand ambassadors and managing them! 

Here’s a step-by-step roadmap to guide you:

Step 1: Know your Core Business Values

The secret to creating a winning brand ambassador program lies in picking the right people. Why? MBLM Study shows that 60% of people connect with brands they believe in. So, if you’re vegan, find vegan brand ambassadors! You can do it by reflecting on:

• What are your business values and mission?
• Who are you trying to reach? 
• What makes your product special and worth recommending?

Finally, select people who share similar beliefs with you.

Step 2: Identify your Ideal Ambassador that Aligns with your Values

The perfect ambassador isn’t just one with a massive following, but it can be any micro or nano influencers who:

• Share values and interest in your brand;
• Have an organic fan base on their social media or local community;
• Have genuine followers who engage with their content creator most (their comment sections can give a hint); 
• Love your brand;
• Have some content creation skills like photography or videography.

The key to finding your ideal brand ambassador is careful research of their reputation, followers’ behavior, and content quality.

Step 3: Build Your Team of Brand Ambassadors

After finding the right brand ambassadors, the next step is to recruit them to build a team. For this purpose:

• Use open application forms;
• Target social media followers of your brand who have a good fanbase;
• Use customer loyalty programs to hire your existing loyal customers. 

Step 4: Build a Strong Program Through Training and Setting Clear Goals

Once you’ve found your ambassadors, it’s time to educate them about your brand so that they can resonate with your business. You need to build a strong foundation for your program. To onboard them:

• Give them a warm welcome!
• Teach them all about your brand: what you do and what you aim to achieve.
• Let them know what you expect from them.
• Give them what they need: product info, brand guidelines, and examples of what kind of content you want (photos, videos, etc.).
• Explain how you’ll measure success (likes, mentions, website visits).
• Train them on your products and create great content.

This will set them up for success and make sure everyone’s working together.

Step 5: Empower Your Ambassadors for Success 

Now, when everything is at the execution stage, ensure that your brand ambassadors promote your brand with motivation. Here’s how you can keep your team motivated:

• Talk openly: Train them on new stuff and listen to their ideas. This makes them feel like part of the team.
• Give them the tools: logos, pictures, tutorials – anything to aid in the easy creation of excellent content.
• Reward them: Offer discounts so they can try your products and promote them with confidence.

The happier your ambassadors, the better your campaign does!

Step 6: Measure and Track Results

Finally, track the results to assess the effectiveness of your program and improve it! For this purpose, track: 

• How many people talk about your brand on social media?
• How many people like or comment on your ambassador’s posts?
• And how much website traffic comes from those posts?

You can use tools to analyze your brand ambassador campaign performance on social media and other marketing platforms. Some tools also allow you to guide and manage your brand ambassadors. By checking this data, you can improve your plan and get the most out of it.

A Complete Guide to Brand Ambassador Marketing: The Final Verdict

Brand ambassador marketing, more than an ordinary “marketing” strategy, is the actual way to have a precise reach, build trust, and drive conversions, which translates into your business’s overall and long-term success. 

Following the strategy we shared in this guide, you can start with brand ambassador marketing. 

Do you want to save time on manual training, communication, and tracking KPIs? Get started today with our Brand Ambassador APP! 

According to Nielsen’s 2023 Consumer Survey Report, 53% of consumers choose to buy something when their trusted influencer recommends it. That’s why you see different types of brand ambassadors our there.

This is what brand ambassadors do for your business. To promote your business, they utilize the power of trust they’ve established among friends and followers. For this reason, brand ambassador marketing is going to be one of the most effective marketing strategies for businesses.

However, the key is to find the right brand ambassadors to promote their products. Thankfully, this article will show you exactly:

• Who are the brand ambassadors? 
• What are their types?
• What are your characteristics; and what role can they play for your brand? 

Besides this, we’ll also guide you on how to find and manage the perfect brand ambassadors for your business.

Let’s know….

Who is a Brand Ambassador?

A brand ambassador is an influential person who partners with a company or business to represent their brand positively among their followers. Brand ambassadors help brands increase their brand awareness and build trust with consumers, leading to more conversions. To achieve this, they create engaging content, share their genuine experiences with the brand, and embody the brand’s values and ethics.

 5 Key Types of Brand Ambassadors Ranked 

Brand ambassador marketing is centuries old. However, with the rise of social media over the past decades, it has emerged as one of the most effective marketing strategies. This shift has led to the emergence of various types of brand ambassadors to cater to different marketing goals. Below is a breakdown of the most common types of brand ambassadors.

1. Influencer Ambassadors 

87% of marketers already using influencers to increase their reach are going to choose influencer ambassadors in the coming years as well. At the same time, 59% of them also look forward to increasing their marketing budget. 

Why? 

The success—81% of people listen to influencers, according to a matter communication study.

So, who are these influencer ambassadors?

Influencer ambassadors are social media stars with a big fan club. These experts use their specific niche knowledge to convince their followers about brands in an authentic way. Instead of just promoting products, they create engaging and unique content like blog posts, videos, or social media updates to share their positive experiences with your brand. This positive influence helps the brand reach a wider audience and ultimately boost sales by scoring up to $6.5 ROI for each dollar spent. 

Example: A fitness influencer reviewing a new protein powder brand. 

Advantages

• Influencers provide more targeted reach by connecting with fans who are already interested in what the brand sells.
• Their promotions feel real due to their genuine enthusiasm.
• It costs less for brands to partner with influencers for longer, keeping campaigns going without breaking the bank.

Disadvantages

• Your brand may be less noticed due to so many influencer marketers now.
• Some influencers might have fake followers who don’t care about the brand at all.

2. Micro-Influencer Ambassadors

Falling among influencer ambassadors, micro-influencers have smaller but more dedicated fan clubs (between 1,000 and 100,000)—they engage 40.5% of social media users. Their expertise in micro niches allows brands to utilize the power of their most precisely crafted content that seems most genuine and achieves ROI. However, coordinating with multiple micro-influencers can be time-consuming and require a well-organized system. (Although it’s not difficult in an era of automation—several apps and platforms can assist you).

Example: A vegan influencer with a vegan fan base recommends a new veggie burger.

Advantages

• Their audience finds their promotions more relatable because of their niche expertise. This results in higher engagement.
• They outdo celebrity price tags with their stronger and more effective marketing.

Disadvantages

• Micro-influencers targeting smaller audiences might not be helpful for businesses seeking extensive reach.
• Coordinating and managing multiple micro-influencers might be challenging.

3. Celebrity Ambassadors

Celebrity ambassadors are highly recognized public figures with huge followers (millions or billions). They include actors, athletes, or even social media stars. The brands, sharing identical values with these celebrities, partner with them to spread the word about their products or services at a gigantic scale–thanks to their immense fame. 

Example: Ryan Reynolds for Mint Mobile (phone carrier)

Advantages

• Instant brand awareness by making everyone hear about it in one go
• Wider audience reach due to their wide-spread fame

Disadvantages

• It requires high costs to hire celebrities–only companies with big budgets can afford them.
• The promotion can seem unreal if celebrities don’t care about the product they’re advertising.

4. Customer Ambassadors

Customer ambassadors are your loyal and happy customers who love to share their good experiences regarding your brand with others. You need not hire them formally—just keep producing excellent quality, and they’ll sing for you. Plus, proactively creating a customer ambassador program can further amplify these positive experiences. 

Advantages

• People trust their recommendations the most. 
• Their word-of-mouth promotion is natural and free.
• They are more affordable than any of the above-mentioned ambassadors.

Disadvantages

• Reach isn’t as big as that of celebrities or influencers.

5. Employee Ambassadors

Employee ambassadors, who are regular employees passionate about your company, can be 10X more effective marketers on social media. Their positive advocacy is reflected in their high social media post engagement rates.

Advantages

• Promotions by employees seem real and lead to sales, when they share real experiences with others. 
• Companies don’t need to pay extra for their positive word-of-mouth.

Disadvantages

• Limited Reach: They have less social media following compared to celebrities or influencers (macro or micro).

Other Types of Brand Ambassadors

Besides the 5 main types of brand ambassadors, as discussed previously, several other types of brand ambassadors may bring unique value to your marketing strategy. These ambassadors may also be influencers on social media. 

Some of these types of ambassadors are:

Industry Expert Ambassadors

Industry experts are well-known professionals like doctors, engineers, and chefs. Everyone trusts them for their expertise in their field. These experts can help your company sell more by using genuine and incredibly engaging endorsements, often in the form of reviews.

Advantages

• People trust these experts.
• They create free high-quality content for your brand, like articles and talks.

Disadvantages

• Hiring famous experts costs a lot.
• Some experts only talk to a small group, so the reach can be limited.
• It can be hard to find time to work with them.

Affiliate Ambassadors

These people promote your brand and earn commission on sales they generate. They can be anyone online with an audience. Amazon associates are an example of it.

Advantages

• You only pay for results.
• Reach is targeted.
• You can easily expand your reach.

Disadvantages

• Less control over messaging
• Requires effort to manage affiliates and ensure accurate promotion.

Experiential Ambassadors

These outgoing people create fun, interactive experiences to get people excited about your brand. Think pop-up events or live demos!

Advantages

• Creates memorable experiences
• Allows direct customer interaction
• Generates buzz

Disadvantages

• Events can be expensive.
• Reach is only targeted at the people invited to the event.
• Results are hard to measure.

What are the Key Characteristics of Successful Brand Ambassadors? 

Great brand ambassadors are like a brand’s cheerleaders. They share their love for the brand with everyone and make people excited about it. 

Here’s what makes an ideal brand ambassador:

True Believers

The best ambassadors truly love the brand they’re promoting. This passion makes their endorsements feel real. People can tell when someone just says nice things for money.

Clear Communicators

Brand ambassadors, especially celebrities or influencers can explain to people why a brand is better, thanks to their amazing marketing skills and content.

Social Media Masters

These ambassadors know their way around social media platforms where their target audience hangs out. They can create engaging content, like photos, videos, or posts, that grab people’s attention and make them want to learn more about the brand.

Friend-Making Champs

The best ambassadors can build relationships with people. They listen to what people are interested in and find ways to connect the brand to their needs.

Bendy and Strong

Things don’t always go perfectly. Great ambassadors can adapt to unexpected situations and keep promoting the brand even when things get tough. Additionally, they might also be great problem-solvers to find solutions to any challenges that come up during the marketing campaign.

Outstanding Creative skills

On top of all this, some superstar ambassadors are also wonderfully creative. So they can come up with unique ways to promote the brand. 

How Should You Choose the Right Brand Ambassador?

When it comes to opting for brand ambassador marketing to promote your business, choosing the exemplary brand ambassador who fits your brand personality is a crucial step, and the Influencer Marketing Hub report endorses it too!.

Here’s what are areas you should check to find the perfect fit:

Popularity & Connection:

• Are they well-known by the people you want to reach (your target audience)?
• Do they seem down-to-earth and relatable on social media?
• Does their relationship with their audience matter the most when selecting the right brand ambassador?

Brand Believer:

• Do their values match your brand’s values?
• Do they seem like they genuinely like your products or services?

Engagement Skills:

• Do they talk to their followers on social media?
• Have they consistently connected with their audience over time, as engagement and clicks are the benchmark of their success?

The right brand ambassador acts like a bridge—they connect your brand to real people in an credible way. You just need to find, train and manage your influencers or ambassadors. Yet, it’s not that difficult today when marketers are using AI for their brand ambassador marketing campaigns. In this regard, softwares like Brand Ambassador App can help you.

Types of Brand Ambassadors: The Final Verdict

Finding the right brand ambassador can be a game-changer for your marketing strategy. With the variety of options available, you can target the perfect audience and amplify your brand message in a genuine way.

But, managing multiple ambassadors and their campaigns can be time-consuming. That’s where technology can help!

Brand Ambassador App leverages automation to streamline your brand ambassador marketing. Find the perfect brand fit, manage campaigns effortlessly, and measure results – all in one place.