In today’s increasingly evolving e-commerce landscape, online companies need more than excellent product lines to stand out.
Authenticity and meaningful experiences have become top priorities for modern consumers when considering a brand. To get their attention, brands must establish a deeper connection with their target audience to convert them successfully.
One of the many effective ways online brands can address this increasing need for connection is by partnering with marketing entities like brand ambassadors. Brand ambassadors are reliable third parties that help elevate a company’s credibility, engagement, and conversion.
I’d like you to please read below to learn more about these individuals and how your brand can benefit from them. Plus, we’ll provide tips on finding the exemplary brand ambassador for your business.
Understanding Brand Ambassadors
Generally, brand ambassadors represent or promote a company and support its products and services. They embody the values and image that the brand wants to convey, and they leverage their credibility and popularity to endorse and create awareness about the brand among their followers or target audience.
These parties are often found on social media, niche websites, and brand events. Typically, they have online accounts and pages where they communicate with their followers to promote a partner brand through different content forms, including blogs, static images, videos, and podcasts.
Today, brands can partner with multiple types of brand ambassadors. These are the following.
Influencers
Influencers have a significant following on various social media platforms because of their relevance in a specific field. Usually, we see these entities on highly visual channels like Instagram and TikTok, but there are no limitations on the type of accounts that influencers can run or own. You might also see them on X (formerly Twitter) or LinkedIn.
Because of their increasing popularity and visibility, influencers are becoming the easy choice when selecting brand ambassadors. The tricky part is choosing the right influencers to be partners.
Today, there are many types of influencers available. At first glance, they may only vary in size, but each helps brands achieve different goals. There are nano (below 1,000 followers), macro (100,000 to one million), and mega influencers (above one million). Then, there are micro-influencers (1,000 – 10,000 followers). Many consider them among the best options when choosing the perfect brand ambassadors.
Micro-influencers may have a small following compared to macro and mega-influencers. Still, many brands consider partnering with them more because they have a more intimate connection with their target audience, leading to better engagement and trust. Plus, their following is still significant compared to nano influencers, which helps expand a brand’s reach.
Experts
Expert brand ambassadors are chosen for their specialized knowledge, skills, or credibility in a particular industry. Companies recognize these individuals as thought leaders because of their extensive knowledge and background in a specific field instead of follower count. Many of them also have a significant presence in various online platforms. Often, they create their content or are featured on other channels.
These ambassadors are perfect for brands looking to elevate their credibility through insightful and valuable content from industry experts. As mentioned, there are many ways for experts to advocate for a brand. For starters, they can produce relevant articles or blog posts, host workshops on behalf of the company, or appear as guests in video or podcast interviews.
In some cases, brands allow experts to take over their social media pages for a live broadcast, allowing them to interact with their target audience and provide more helpful information about the industry.
Affiliates
Before influencers took the digital marketing landscape by storm, affiliates were the top choice for brands to convert potential customers through a third party. While some might easily dismiss affiliates as an option, many still consider them excellent brand ambassadors today.
Affiliates work with a company to promote and sell its offerings in exchange for a commission. Unlike influencers, affiliates are not bound by long-term contractual obligations. You don’t have to compensate them at a fixed price either. Instead, they earn every time their audience purchases through an affiliate link.
The best thing about affiliates is that they have a more proactive selling approach than influencers or experts because of the commission-based model. That means brands can expect better returns from these ambassadors if they perform well on their platforms.
Plus, it’s worth noting that most of these individuals have a significant following in various online channels, allowing brands to expand their reach and convert more people.
Finally, affiliate conversions are also easy to track. Since affiliates have unique links or codes to provide to their audience, brands can monitor all conversions generated from an affiliate’s efforts.
Customers
Aside from paid partners and experts, brands can leverage their customers as effective brand ambassadors. They can do this through a fast-rising and powerful concept called user-generated content (UGC).
Generally, UGCs are any content generated and published by online users about a brand, product, or service, primarily to convey their experiences with them. This type of content comes in many forms, including written copy, images, videos, or any online material where users can express their opinions.
UGCs are becoming increasingly valuable because they provide an authentic view of a company. Incorporating them, especially positive ones, allows brands to boost engagement, build trust, and offer better social proof that helps convert their target audience.
Leveraging UGCs inadvertently makes customers brand ambassadors. The big difference is that they’re not in any contract with the brand. However, brands can reward them in exchange for acquiring their content.
Reasons You Need an Online Brand Ambassador
Based on the different types of brand ambassadors, we can assume that partnering with one benefits companies in many ways. If you still need to sell on the idea, we’d like you to know that we have listed below the best reasons your online business needs an ambassador.
1. Humanizes a brand
The human element has become increasingly vital in today’s highly competitive e-commerce landscape. With the rise of many fraudulent websites, online users have become understandably vigilant in choosing the right place to buy from. Humanizing your company is an excellent way to reduce such doubts and increase trust from potential customers.
Partnering with a credible brand ambassador helps you achieve that by having someone represent your business. That means instead of looking like a faceless corporate entity, you can showcase that you have actual people working behind the company.
Brand ambassadors can also share authentic stories, expert advice, and product recommendations that help boost a brand’s credibility by providing realistic and relevant information in the field. At the same time, they can engage with a brand’s target audience when promoting their products and services, making the company feel more natural and approachable.
2. Provides cost-effective marketing
Partnering with a brand ambassador costs little money. For instance, industry experts don’t require talent fees, meaning you will likely compensate them with other valuable rewards like giveaways or discounts. The same goes for leveraging customers as brand ambassadors. As mentioned, brands often provide special items or offerings in exchange for their content.
On the other hand, because affiliates are commission-based, you won’t have to pay them a significant one-time fee. Since influencers vary in size, you can partner with one that fits your budget.
It’s also worth noting that brand ambassadors run their platforms. That means you won’t have to pay for more costs to invest in additional distribution channels. Because of that, brands can save more money they can use for more effective and powerful marketing solutions.
3. Expands market reach
Brand ambassadors have an established network and following, both online and offline. Their connections likely share the same interests and preferences, meaning partnering with them allows brands to extend their reach and establish relationships with potential customers.
Aside from that, these individuals can also help companies connect with suppliers and partners. Through these connections, brands can grow their network and solidify their business further by accessing better resources.
Brand ambassadors can also help expand their partner’s market reach in specific geographical areas. That means you can tap into new regions and engage with particular communities, depending on your chosen brand ambassador. When that happens, you boost your brand awareness and strengthen your customer base, which is helpful if you want to offer overseas products and services.
4. Problem mitigation
Partnering with a credible brand ambassador is an excellent way to mitigate negative attention. They do this by proactively advocating your brand values and other outstanding qualities that make customers trust them in the first place.
Moreover, brand ambassadors can help represent companies and openly address concerns. Doing so will help increase transparency, showcasing that brands are open to feedback and are willing to make the necessary improvements.
5. Excellent customer support
Potential customers often have questions before trying out new products or services. Through brand ambassadors, companies can directly address frequently asked questions and other common inquiries previous customers have had. Brand ambassadors provide excellent customer service that helps boost a person’s buying journey with a company.
Choosing the Right Brand Ambassador
The key to getting the benefits listed above is to choose an exemplary brand ambassador to partner with. Here are some of the most effective ways to select your ideal ambassador.
Industry relevance
Brand ambassadors are thought leaders or relevant personalities in a specific field. For instance, web developers expect to learn about something other than data migration and Magento upgrade services from fashion bloggers. So, if your company offers an innovative tech tool, your ideal partner would be a tech influencer who understands your industry well enough to advocate for your company.
Industry relevance is also vital to boost your credibility. For one, when relevant personalities support your company, you get votes of confidence that elevate your image and help potential customers see you as an authority figure in your field. When that happens, you increase your trust and credibility.
Excellent online reach
Regardless of the brand ambassador type you want to partner with, online following is crucial when looking for your ideal partner. A significant following helps ensure better brand awareness, engagement, and conversion.
This principle also works with customer brand ambassadors. To incorporate user-generated content, you must look into a customer’s online followers and see how big they are. Reposting UGC from an online user with a huge following increases your campaign’s chances of being shared by more people.
Alignment with values
If relevant parties share your values, you solidify your credibility by having someone credible back what your brand believes in. Partnering with someone with different views risks aligning your company to negative beliefs or points that could tarnish your brand image, harming your relationship with existing and potential customers.
Content quality
Content is a decisive factor that helps convert potential customers. Since ambassadors are responsible for creating content for their platforms and existing audiences, you must ensure that your desired partner offers quality content that represents your brand effectively.
Ideally, the perfect brand ambassador must provide well-made and insightful content that resonates well with the target audience. It could bear any humorous or professional tone as long as potential customers find it valuable. Aside from that, their content must be original, and don’t try to bank on more successful brand ambassadors by copying their work.
Connection with the audience
Aside from being industry experts, the ideal brand ambassadors must have a knack for connecting with the target audience. They must know how to engage with other people naturally and have an excellent command of any platform they’re on. If brand ambassadors possess such a quality, they can represent your company to potential customers more seamlessly and consistently.
Boost Your Presence with a Brand Ambassador
Brand ambassadors are excellent additions to a company’s marketing arsenal. They help boost a brand’s image by providing a trustworthy face, engaging with potential customers, and increasing the chances of conversion. Regardless of your size, if you’re running an online business, you must consider partnering with a brand ambassador to gain a meaningful competitive advantage.
FAQs about 5 Reasons Your E-Commerce Brand Needs an Ambassador
Where can I find exemplary brand ambassadors?
There are many ways to find your ideal brand ambassador. For instance, you can turn to a creator marketplace and similar platforms to look for the right influencers or affiliates you can partner with. You can also use relevant hashtags to identify them through industry-related posts.
Meanwhile, some companies skip all that process by launching job posts for potential brand ambassadors.
How do we compensate brand ambassadors?
Aside from monetary rewards, you can compensate brand ambassadors with free products, store credit, monthly packages, and discounts. You can combine all these reward types to boost your partnership with your chosen brand ambassador.
Are brand ambassadors for online companies only?
Generally, there are two types of brand ambassadors: online and in-person. An in-person brand ambassador may attend large industry gatherings like conferences or events. Some tasks in-person brand ambassadors do include doing product demonstrations, conducting presentations, or handing out promotional materials.
What’s the difference between brand ambassadors and a spokesperson?
Brand ambassadors are representatives who embody a company’s values and engage with the target audience on behalf of their partner. A spokesperson is often a public figure hired by a company to deliver a specific message or represent a brand in official matters.
What are employee ambassadors?
Employee ambassadors are individuals within a company who actively promote or represent the brand in their channels, both inside and outside the workplace. These parties often advocate for the company’s values, culture, and products or services.
However, instead of converting more potential customers, employee ambassadors help create a positive workplace environment for other employees.
