A brand ambassador is someone that is selected to represent a company. They will essentially be the face of the company, and personally promote and vouch for the brand’s products. Word of mouth is a fantastic, organic way for business to increase their leads, traffic and sales. And that’s exactly what a brand ambassador does – they spread the word about the brand.
With that being said, not every brand ambassador will have a positive influence on the brand. Poor ambassador work occurs when the advocate isn’t a genuine fan of the brand and the products, is uninformed on the company’s policies, and their values do not align with the brand.
It’s important when selecting who will be the face of your brand to do your research into the type of brand ambassador you want, and how you want them to interact on behalf of your business. Polite Promotions have put together a list of the key characteristics of a great brand ambassador to help you hit the nail on the head when making your selections.
A Genuine Love for The Brand
The best ambassadors are already organically promoting your brand and products. It’s ideal if they are existing customers, that way they already know a little bit about the company, and how they can use the products. However, a non-existing customer can be converted!
Basically, it’s just important for the ambassador to actually enjoy the product and brand, even if you have to send them some samples to allow them to get to know the brand. A Great ambassador will naturally be passionate and enthusiastic about the products, and that’s what will essentially lead to more customers and sales.
Basic Marketing Understanding
Your brand ambassador doesn’t need a marketing and communications degree; however, they should be able to understand the basics of your marketing campaigns. Even if they lack in marketing lingo and understanding, they should at least be enthusiastic to learn more about modern marketing and their position within it.
Social Media Platform
In order for the ambassador to reach audiences you wouldn’t normally have access to, they need to have a fairly established online presence. They don’t have to have 5 million Youtube subscribers and 700,000 instagram followers, but they should have a decent position within your brand’s niche. An authoritative figure within the niche would be ideal, however, this may be difficult depending on your niche and the size of your business. Look for a brand ambassador that advocates and uses their platform for healthy promotion and advertisements that fall in your sector.
Communication Skills
It’s crucial for there to be a healthy business partnership between your brand and your brand ambassador. Regular communication is a given, considering the work will be consistent and ongoing. The ambassador should be able to communicate with your business clearly and with ease. There’s no use building a marketing campaign around someone who will ignore your emails and instructions.
Professionalism
While a brand ambassador won’t necessarily be employed by your business, they will be representing it. Look for an ambassador that has high standards and will be professional. After all, they will be consistently talking about your products, promoting your brand, and recommending others to check it out. If professionalism is something your business values highly, ensure that aligns with the person you choose to advocate for it.
Can Both Give & Receive Feedback
A brand ambassadors’ main job is to promote your brand. They are promoting the products directly to potential customers; therefore, they are on the forefront of the sales. They are in direct contact with your customers and target audience and will receive constant good and bad feedback from them. Find an ambassador that has no problem with passing this valuable feedback on, back to the business. This is where changes can be implemented based on what people are asking for.
Your brand ambassador should be able to receive constructive feedback from your business too. They should be mature and professional enough to undertake necessary changes to ensure needs are being met on both ends of the relationship.
Natural Leadership & Community qualities
Choose a brand ambassador that will foster and create relationships around your brand with potential customers. A great ambassador will build a loyal community that will be based around your brand and your customers. They will have a passion for building and growing relationships, engaging with customers, and spreading positive brand awareness.
In the end, the community that they build around your brand will be your customers that keep coming back and organically advocate for the company too.
