The Ultimate Guide to Brand Ambassador Program Success
For ecommerce brands that are looking to start authentic relationships with customers, having a brand ambassador program is the first step. Your customers want recommendations from people that they already know and can trust and a brand ambassador program makes that possible.
Here is how to create a successful brand ambassador program for your ecommerce brand.
What Is a Brand Ambassador Program?
A brand ambassador or brand advocate is simply a person who will speak positively about your ecommerce brand. They can shout-out about your business, show off their latest purchases from your company, and even recommend you to their followers.
Your ambassadors are your biggest fans. They understand and support your brand and are always the first to “Like” new posts and comment on them.
Who Are Brand Ambassadors?
Brand ambassadors aren’t only influencers. They can also be:
Customers: Customers who aren’t affiliated with your company who genuinely support your company and have the ability to influence future customers.
Employees: Employee brand advocates know the inside and outside of your business. They have a relatable nature which can also make them a powerful tool in advocacy.
Business Partners: Organizations that are affiliated with your ecommerce companies or charities can also help to influence your customers’ purchase decisions.
What Is a Brand Ambassador Program?
A brand ambassador program is an initiative that takes place across the brand to help find the people who meet the characteristics of a brand ambassador and encourage them to promote your ecommerce brand.
A program like this will generate relationships and partnerships that you can leverage when you need the support of people who genuinely like your content, company, and product or services.
When you use brand ambassadors as a part of your ecommerce marketing strategy, you’ll be able to tap into a source of positive messages about your company and build brand awareness over time.
Brand Ambassador Program Types
After you’ve established the goals and audience for an ecommerce brand ambassador program, you need to determine the type of program:
- Customers – This is when real customers are incentivized to interact with the brand.
- Employees – This happens when employees are encouraged and rewarded for sharing positive news about the ecommerce brand.
- Students – College students can become brand ambassadors for your ecommerce brand by spreading the word on campus. This works especially well for ecommerce companies that want to target the college-aged demographic.
- Affiliates – Affiliates promote your ecommerce brand on their own sites with a reward in the form of an affiliate commission for every purchase made by a customer.
How to Launch a Successful Brand Ambassador Program
Here is how to launch a successful brand ambassador program in 5 steps:
1. Establish Your Goals
Here are few questions to ask:
What are our key performance indicators for the campaign?
What is the overall goal for the campaign (e.g. build brand awareness, improve brand image, sales, retain customers)?
2. Define Your Ideal Brand Ambassador
Finding potential brand ambassadors is an important part of setting up your brand ambassador program. You want people to have the same values and qualities that are on-brand for your ecommerce company.
Ambassadors have large networks of your target customers and can help increase your ecommerce sales and brand awareness by spreading the word about your brand.
Typically, you should start with your employees and customers.
3. Give an Incentive
For your employee brand ambassadors offer employee recognition opportunities and other prizes that will encourage engagement.
For customer brand ambassadors offer discounts, free trials, get them involved in product testing, or offer free swag. You can get authentic engagement from them; however, your customers will be delighted if you offer incentives along the way as well.
Be clear about what you are going to give and what you expect from your brand ambassadors in response.
4. Offer Training and Support
The best brand ambassadors are the ones who are the most effective at promoting your ecommerce brands. You might want to consider giving them products or content assets that you’d like them to promote. You can also help them to improve their skills at promoting your brand by signing them up for workshops and courses that can enhance their success.
5. Track Performance
Finally, you need to know how your brand ambassadors are doing.
Track their social media to see how often they post and how much engagement each post receives. Compare their progress to your own marketing goals over time to see if they were able to exceed them.
You should make sure to request frequent updates so that your brand ambassadors always have the information that they need regarding company updates. By keeping them in the loop at all times, you’ll be able to maximize their success.
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