How To Recruit and Train Brand Ambassadors

In today’s online world, authenticity and sincerity can be hard to project. That’s where brand ambassadors come in, helping introduce the brand and its products to a wider audience and providing the word-of-mouth advertising consumers trust. Ambassadors’ enthusiasm and authenticity come across both online and in person, making them indispensable marketing assets.

But for many growing or new brands, the idea of running a brand ambassador program sounds like a drain on resources. It doesn’t have to be. Here’s how to build an ambassador program that best serves your brand.

Recruiting Brand Ambassadors

Preparation

Before you begin looking for brand ambassadors, step back and consider your brand’s values, the audience you’re trying to reach, and your brand’s goals for the program. From there, consider what types of ambassadors might be a good fit.

Values

Articulate your brand’s values. To project authenticity, the ambassador’s behaviors, beliefs, and public persona need to closely align with the brand’s values. “The ambassadors serve as your brand’s human face,” says a web.com blog post. “They personify your brand’s identity through their interactions, content, and endorsements. When there’s a strong alignment, it reinforces your brand’s message.”

Audience

Know your target audience — the customers you are trying to reach. This will help you find a brand ambassador who resonates with that demographic. Customer personas can be helpful as a way of refining and organizing data about your existing customers to help you connect with them. Once you’ve established who you’re targeting, says a recent Forbes article, “Identify the types of ambassadors who match your target audiences’ goals.”

Goals

Define your goals. What do you want your brand ambassador to achieve? Are you looking for social media promotion, event appearances, or customer interaction? Knowing your goals will help you target the right kind of candidate. Create an overall strategy and plan for how you’ll use ambassadors throughout your organization in departments such as marketing for public relations, digital for product demonstrations and branded videos, sales for tradeshows and retail partners programs, etc. Set clear goals about how you will deploy ambassadors, and make sure all stakeholders are on the same page about success metrics.

Other Qualities to Look for

Beyond alignment with your brand and its values, great ambassadors need a few other characteristics to be a good fit for the role. For example, ambassadors should genuinely love your brand and use its products/services. Authentic passion will shine through in their work but is difficult to fake.

Strong communication skills are essential. Brand ambassadors need to be able to connect with people and communicate your brand’s messages, and they need to be good at communicating with your brand, your team, and your other partners. Along with that, ambassadors need to be both dependable and professional — responsible, reliable people who meet deadlines and stay on message.

If social media content creation and promotion is a large part of the ambassador’s role (and it typically is), your brand needs ambassadors with a strong, appealing online presence and the ability to produce engaging content.

Does experience matter? It can be valuable, but the right personality, professionalism, and fit with your brand may be more important.

By carefully considering these factors, you can increase your chances of finding a brand ambassador who will effectively represent your brand and help you achieve your marketing goals.

Compensation

A successful brand ambassador program can make a huge difference in awareness, sales, and customer loyalty. To reward ambassadors for their hard work and the impact to your brand, as well as to keep them engaged, “you need to create a thoughtful incentive plan,” says socialladderapp.com. “Mastering the spectrum of reward strategies for brand ambassadors is crucial; it’s the make-or-break of your influencer marketing program.”

Be prepared to discuss incentives with ambassadors early in the hiring process. Incentives can consist of both tangible and intangible elements, depending on the ambassador’s preferences but also their relationship to your brand. These may include the following:

• Money, in the form of sales commissions
• Perks and discounts
• Free products/services
• Gift cards
• Tickets to events, shows, or experiences
• Early access to launches or new/exclusive products
• Public acknowledgment that builds their personal brand within your industry
• Behind-the-scenes access, such as a tour of your facilities or attendance at an internal event

Socialladder advises brands to create incentive programs for ambassadors thoughtfully: “Remember that it’s not just about the incentives themselves, but the message that they convey — that you value the time, effort, and passion of those who have chosen to champion your brand.”

How (and Where) to Find Brand Ambassadors

Now that you’ve assessed what your brand needs from its ambassador program, start looking for individuals to fill the role. You might already know the best ambassadors for your brand — and they probably already know your brand.

The most effective place to start looking, says Forbes, is your brand’s current most loyal and repeat customers. Look at not only purchase patterns but also communication with your brand and positive online reviews. Reach out to these people individually. “They’re likely already advocating for your brand and would love to formalize the relationship.”

Using your existing social media channels as well as your website, put out a call for applications. Let your community know what you’re looking for by outlining requirements, compensation, duties, and the application process. Once you’ve identified specific individuals based on their contact with your brand, learn more about their social media presence — what kind of content do they post? Is the tone and subject matter a good fit?

Forbes recommends starting with a small group of individuals, then expanding the program based on lessons learned: “Start with just a few ambassadors, work out the kinks and go from there.”

Another approach: online platforms that connect would-be influencers and ambassadors with brands. These platforms allow filtering by demographics, follower count, and market/interest niche. While there’s no guarantee individuals you find through these platforms will have prior experience with your brand, they may be receptive to learning more and motivated to learn it well.

What about enlisting employees for ambassador roles? Forbes says it can be a great option. “Your best ambassadors are those who live and breathe what you do or what you sell, day in and day out,” says a recent article. “Employee brand ambassadors are genuine, credible sources of information.” Brands who take this route successfully are careful to clearly delineate the ambassador role as it differs from the employees’ regular duties, and to treat the employee-ambassadors much as they would external ambassadors in terms of compensation. Good ambassadorship requires creativity, time, and hard work.

Training and Managing

Even the most qualified ambassadors require thorough training and onboarding to be successful, says Socialladder. “Educating your ambassadors on your brand’s story, purpose, products, and values establishes the foundation for consistent, on-point promotion.”

That training might include the following elements, depending on the ambassador’s scope of work:

• Ambassador kits that include products and, if appropriate, a note welcoming them to the program.
• Brand immersion, or in-depth training on your brand story, values, products, and key messaging.
• Product training to build a thorough understanding of your product features, benefits, and unique selling points.
• Clear, project-specific expectations that outline duties such as day-to-day, ongoing content generation or network cultivation as well as pre- and post-event content generation and attendance at events like activations and pop-up shops.
• Social media training, if social media promotion is a key part of the program, to include creating content that engages your audience, using relevant hashtags, and tagging your brand handle.
• Guidelines on content creation and communication style, including in-house language and style preferences, messages to emphasize, etc.
• Event-related  specifics, such as training ambassadors on the activation or pop-up shop layout, promotional offers, and any special instructions for interacting with customers.

Contracts

In addition to the recommendations above for recruitment and training, Forbes advises creating specific contracts for each ambassador, including budget and content commitments defined by time period (month, quarter, and/or year. “The contracts should also include content goals including the type of content — blogs, videos, photography and events — and the number of times they should post,” as well as ownership or reuse rights for content on your social media, website, product packaging, etc.

Internal Ownership/Management

Forbes also recommends having a single team member who “owns” the ambassador program. This might be your brand or social media manager or another team member, but regardless of the person’s other role, make sure everyone shares the same understanding of the ambassador program’s goals and success metrics.

Launching the Ambassador Program

The launch of an ambassador program is an event in the life of your brand — so publicize it via social media, on your website, within the company, and by issuing a press release celebrating the new partnership.

Foster a sense of community among ambassadors and between ambassadors and your team by organizing regular meetings or group chats to encourage interaction and idea sharing. Establish a calendar of touchpoints with ambassadors throughout the year to stay connected.

Track and measure the results of your ambassadors’ efforts — metrics like social media engagement, brand mentions, and sales numbers. Share this information freely with ambassadors and your team so they can determine what works and what doesn’t, and adjust their efforts accordingly.

Remember that ambassadors need to feel appreciated and looped-in with your brand’s culture and developments. ”The more included they feel, the better their output will be,” says Forbes.

By following these steps, you can find and train a team of passionate brand ambassadors who will effectively represent your brand and contribute to its success.

Promobile Marketing is a dynamic experiential marketing agency based in New York City. For over a decade, Promobile Marketing has collaborated with a range of brands—from budding startups to major CPG brands—on immersive marketing campaigns. Get in touch to discuss your next project.