Do you think your brand could benefit from a strong and collaborative brand ambassador strategy? Well, we at AGAIN Interactive know exactly how to help you implement this from start to finish. Our expertise and insights will guide you through creating a successful and meaningful program you and your ambassadors can be proud of! 

What Defines a Brand Ambassador?

First, you may be asking yourself what the difference is between a brand ambassador and an influencer and when one is more appropriate than the other. Here’s a brief overview: 

How Do I Find My Advocates? 

Let’s start with a vision. Here are some questions to help you decide what you’re looking for: 

• What are your end goals? Brand loyalty, brand awareness, increased engagement? 
• Who are you trying to reach? New customers, business partners, prospective employees? 
• What message do you want to put out there? Do you have messaging pillars to guide your content strategy? 

When finding ambassadors for clients, AGAIN Interactive has had great success with a more grassroots approach. We find super fans or customers who are already active on social media and advocating for the brand organically and take the time to vet them to see who they are and gather information that may be important to our clients. Here’s a list of example criteria to look for in a brand ambassador candidate: 

• What content do they typically post? 
• How much engagement do they earn (likes, comments, etc.)? 
• How authentic and unique is their perspective and experience with the brand? 
• How many followers do they have? 
• What social channels are they on? Are they connected?
• What motivates them to use your product/service? 
• How personable and engaging are they (for video/on camera content)? 
• Do they portray adequate photography/aesthetic skills? 
• What storytelling angles can they tap into? 

Prep Your Resources

Next, you’ll want to be prepared for what your outreach approach looks like. For example, this can be an outreach letter or DM communication that is sent or emailed to your potential advocate to gauge their interest in being part of your program. From there, you may schedule a phone or video interview to learn more about each other and ask questions. Or perhaps the next step is even providing them with a written, photo, or video prompt to understand their skills and how they’d best fit into the overall holistic vision of the program.  

Lastly, you’ll want some sort of contract or memorandum of understanding in place between the company and the ambassador, as well as briefing materials you’ll want to provide them with. This can range from messaging tips, do’s and don’ts when speaking about the brand, FTC guidelines, photography or video tips and tricks for sharing content on social, or it could even be a toolkit of posts they can download and share immediately on their own social channels.  

Executing Your Strategy

Once you’ve secured a contract with your new brand ambassador, the fun can really begin! Your creative team can now take the wheel and start by providing your ambassador with prompts to guide their planning in the direction you have in mind. We find the most successful partnerships are collaborations between our team and the ambassador to ensure our client’s brand story is authentic and true to the ambassador and their audience. 

Whether you plan by the week, month, or quarter, you will want to ensure that your ambassador’s content will fit into your planner and satisfy the content goals you have in mind. So, what can you ask of your brand ambassador? Below we’ve broken down three types of content that your ambassador should get comfortable with and when to use each. 

Video Content

With the growing popularity of TikTok and Reels, video is a great way for ambassadors to engage their audiences. Ask them to talk about something they are passionate or knowledgeable about and allow them to get creative with sounds, effects, and visuals. You can repost to your page for extra exposure.

It’s also possible to let your ambassador’s content inform your strategy. Hopefully you’ve chosen someone that you trust creatively, so giving them room to come up with their own topics could be a good exercise. You’ll be surprised what kind of unique perspectives you will gain from this! 

Keeping Them Engaged

It’s great to get the benefits of using a brand ambassador to promote your brand, but they should feel like they are also benefiting. Offering incentives is a great way to keep your ambassadors excited to keep working with you. At AGAIN, one of our client’s brand ambassadors are surprised each quarter with swag boxes filled with clothing and branded items so they can show off their spirit! Not only does this show them they are appreciated, but opening these boxes is often a shareable event that their followers love to see. 

What Results Can I Expect?

The expected results are all dependent on the goals of your specific program and the asks of the ambassadors, but some KPIs to measure include:

As an agency, we have seen the impact of a successful brand ambassador program. Since 2018, we have run a program for a higher education client. Here’s a look at the outcomes from the campaign we ran in 2021 for them: 

Let’s Create Together

Looking to get these kinds of results from a brand ambassador program? You’ll need a team of experts to take charge. Luckily, that’s what we do! Drop us a line at info@againinteractive.com.