What is a Brand Ambassador & How Do You Become One?

Welcome to the new age of influencer marketing! Behind us are the days of traditional advertising with its endless TV commercials we flipped through, direct mail we threw away, and telemarketing we hung up on. 

Being a brand ambassador is a much more effective form of marketing because it is targetable, prompts immediate results, and is easy to measure. In this article, we will tell you what a brand ambassador is and how you can become one.

What Is A Brand Ambassador?

A brand ambassador is a spokesperson who is paid to endorse or promote a company’s product/or service. He or she embodies the company’s corporate identity through words and actions. This brand representative can talk about the brand online and offline, which helps spread brand awareness. 

What does a brand ambassador do? A brand ambassador creates and facilitates the relationship between what the company is selling and the customer. He or she does this online by producing content that promotes the brand.

Branded content is spread through social media platforms like Facebook, Instagram, LinkedIn, and Twitter. Content can also be created on blogs or personal websites. Offline, the brand ambassador can promote the brand at events, on campuses, and at VIP parties.

This can be a natural, organic way to represent local brands in your area. However, big brands do a lot of offline promotional events as well. Besides offline and online distinctions, there are several types of brand ambassadors. Here are some ways to work as a brand ambassador: 

• Peer advocate: These ambassadors are already existing customers who love a product or service so much they want to share it with other people who have the same demographic, interests, or needs. Knowledge of the brand then spreads through word-of-mouth marketing. These are some of the most powerful brand advocates out there. 
• Student ambassador: Similar to peer advocates, these kinds of brand ambassadors are typically college students who are from 18 to 25 years old and can communicate with other students on campus. This is perfect for companies who want to reach a young audience. Students get creative with fun guerrilla marketing tactics like handing out samples and swag, wearing branded outfits, or hosting events. 
• Niche authority: These ambassadors have proven as experts in their niche either due to acquired professional expertise or have worked their way up as social media influencers with a large following in a particular niche. An example of a niche authority ambassador would be a fitness expert who has a health and fitness podcast on Youtube and promotes Nike shoes. 
• Experiential or event ambassador: These ambassadors represent a brand at events and often use guerilla marketing tactics. A well-known example of this is the college-age students driving around Red Bull mini-coopers handing out free Red Bulls. 
• Formal ambassador: Someone who has formally signed a contract (or made a verbal agreement) with a brand to represent them. The formal ambassador gets insider info about the brand and what it wants to achieve and must act under the agreed-upon standards of the brand. Tasks could include posting about the brand, attending promotional events, or brand advocacy at other promotional activities. 
• Informal ambassador: The great thing about being an informal ambassador is, that pretty much anyone can be one! Similar to an affiliate program, you simply get a code or link that you can then share with your followers. When someone uses your code or link to make a purchase, you then earn a reward. These reward incentives could be things like in-store purchases or discount coupons.

How To Become A Brand Ambassador

Now that you have an idea of what a brand ambassador is, how do you become one? We’ve come up with some general tips to get you on your way to an ambassadorship. 

Authentic Online Personality

The most important part of becoming a brand ambassador is first creating your brand–which is you. You have to look inside yourself deeply and ask yourself what is unique about you. What qualities do you have that a brand would want to work with?

Then make sure to capture that aspect of yourself in your social media presence. Once you’ve identified your brand persona, you must then remain authentic to your values and beliefs. Along with a positive attitude and passion for your niche, authenticity is what will attract your followers to you. 

Focus on authentically creating and maintaining the following: 

• An informative bio that draws attention: Your bio will determine the first impression your followers and interested brands will make of you. Make it count! Express your true essence in a creative way to get all eyes on you. And don’t forget to include where to find you: your name/brand name, job title, contact information, and location. 
• High-quality content: The best way to gain followers and possible brand ambassadorships is to provide content that people want to see. Then do it on a regular, consistent basis. You could produce anything from videos, Instagram photos, infographics, social media posts, tutorials, and memes. Just make it compelling! Create content that is original, informative, or cinematic. People will not be able to resist liking and sharing your content if it is full of value. 
• Find the right keywords: What keywords do you want to be associated with? If you are a fitness coach, you should make sure associated keywords like “diet”, “exercise”, and “health” are regularly mentioned in your content. This will make you more easily searchable on Google and social networks. To find keywords to use in your content, use tools like Google Trends and Google Suggest for inspiration. 
• A personalized hashtag: Make it easy for brands to see all your posts in one place by creating a personalized hashtag. Simply think of a catchy phrase that describes you and your brand, then uses the hashtag in all of your posts.

Build a Following

Once you’ve created the ultimate social media persona that embodies you, it is time to consistently post content and build your following. Small companies oftentimes like to work with micro-influencers (follower count between 10,000 and 100,000 people).

This is because they are easier to work with, and a little easier on their budgets. To build a following, first, you have to know your target audience and post things that are relevant to them. These are real people who could be potential customers, so you want to make sure the brands you choose are the right fit for your audience. 

Just make sure working with a certain brand does not compromise your content’s integrity (which drew your followers to you in the first place!). 

Build Engagement

Keep in mind that follower count isn’t everything. If you don’t have high engagement with your audience, brands may overlook you even if you have a large following. To raise engagement, you must connect with your audience.

Ask questions, reply to comments, and invite them to comment and ask questions. Encourage them to like, share, and subscribe to your content. Host events, livestreams, and in-person meetups with your followers. 

Brands want to know that your followers trust you and genuinely enjoy you. This is because trust is hugely responsible for conversions and new customers of the brand. A good brand ambassador will have a high engagement rate, which indicates a level of trust between them and their followers. 

Get To Know Smaller Brands

Once you’ve built a following with high engagement, you will probably be contacted by small businesses and start-ups in your niche. They want someone to represent their product or service most genuinely. If you are interested in working with a smaller brand, make sure to first research the company well.

Reach out to the brand manager and find out about the company’s offering and what brand image they want to exude. Do you match up with the brand image? If so, then ask yourself if you truly use, believe in, and enjoy their product or service.

If you have a true passion for it, that company could be a good way to start monetizing your content. Not only will starting with smaller businesses allow you to build your portfolio, it often entails much fewer hoops to jump through than with bigger brands. 

Sign Up On a Brand Network

Once you’ve built up a following and high engagement rates, you can start to market yourself on a brand network, or influencer network. You can create an influencer profile with all your contact information and social media links.

The brand network will facilitate the whole process once you get a brand deal. Here are a few brand networks to consider: 

• Grin
• Creator.co
• #paid
• Klear
• Upfluence
• Neoreach
• Collectively Inc
• Linqia
• NoxInfluencer
• ACTIVATE
• The Room
• Find Your Influence
• BrandSnob
• Insense

Find Compatible Brands That Interest You

You are likely to be contacted by brands that you do not mesh with. It may be tempting to accept the offer to get a fat paycheck. But just remember that this will be a part of your overall body of work. Being a brand representative of something you don’t fully stand behind can kill your passion.

And that will be evident in your content, which will appear flat and uninteresting to your followers. This is a surefire way to lose your following. Instead, find companies that sell things that you really like! If there is already something that you use daily, that has positively changed your life in some way, then these are the ideal brands to work with.

You can even try new products or services, and record your genuine assessment. The more you truly like that thing, the more genuine it comes off. When you talk about the brand in a positive light, this will influence your followers to buy it. 

If you’re struggling to come up with brands that inspire you, just take a look at your everyday lifestyle. Examine the product or services your use for your hobbies and interests. What stands out to you?

Create a Showcase of Your Expertise

Like a resume at a job interview, you will want to have a way to prove to brands that you can get good results. You will want to showcase your abilities by creating a page that acts as a type of portfolio. It can be a part of your website and explain who you are currently working with and what kind of brands you are open to working with.

Also, include your contact information and links to social media accounts. Provide some general statistics about marketing campaigns you’ve been a part of, sales numbers, reach and impressions data, follower demographics, and what you can offer brands.

If possible, include some testimonials. Make sure to include the successes you’ve had to build your authority as an eligible and successful brand ambassador. 

Apply To Be a Brand Ambassador

If you haven’t been contacted by the brand you’ve got sights on, reach out to them. Send a short message to their Facebook, Instagram, or Twitter account and ask them about becoming a brand ambassador. If you seem like a good candidate for them, they will provide you with the details on how to get started. 

Many brands already have brand ambassador programs in place. Companies like Canon, Lululemon, and Timberland currently have programs that are searching for influencers like you!

Get Paid by the Brands You Love

Brand ambassadorship is a marketing strategy that allows brands a more targetable reach for their advertising. Brand ambassadors get paid to create content in line with the brand’s image. The best part is, when done right, the “advertising” is all an authentic reflection of that influencer’s values and beliefs. 

Do you want to be a part of the new era of advertising? You can become a brand ambassador by producing quality content that truly represents your social media persona, engaging with your followers, and reaching out to brands that interest and inspire you. Then, just sit back and get paid with Tappie!