6 Types of Brand Ambassadors (Explained!)


Types of Brand Ambassadors

We all know the value of having a brand ambassador supporting your business and use various marketing strategies to attract and retain customers towards the company. A brand ambassador is someone who, through word of mouth and social media marketing, helps grow a business. They lead campaigns, educate the community, and are an extension of your brand.

But to really appreciate the influence they have, you need to do a little digging into what brand ambassadors are and identify them by type. And this is exactly what this article will share with you. So, let’s get started.

Currently, the marketplace is highly competitive, such that brands are struggling to distinguish themselves from their competitors. Such a case means that brands are forced to use an emotional marketing strategy that targets a consumer’s experiences, personal feelings and shapes their elevation to a business.

In particular, the technique refers to ambassifying a brand by providing it with a human form so that it helps to increase customer loyalty and makes the brand credible.

6 Types of Brand Ambassadors

If you wish to adopt the technique, below are the different types of brand ambassadors you should consider.

Niche Authority Brand Ambassadors

The niche authority brand ambassador refers to experts with specialized knowledge within a specific niche of an industry. For instance, the niche authority in the following industries will include:

  • The wellness industry includes chiropractors, naturopaths, and doctors.
  • The fitness industry includes professional athletes and personal trainers.
  • The home improvement industry includes real estate agents, architects, plumbers, and interior designers.
  • The beauty industry includes cosmetologists, hairstylists, and makeup artists.
  • The food and beverage industry includes dieticians, chefs, and nutritionists.

Niche authorities are the most trusted sources of consumers when getting recommendations or advice since they have legitimate credentials to support their expert status.

For instance, it becomes challenging for consumers to differentiate between fake and legitimate products in the health and fitness industry.

Suppose you are involved in such an industry. In that case, you will be required to recruit experts to act as brand ambassadors to establish credibility within the industry, offer transparency and educate consumers regarding your products.

Why should you use niche authority ambassadors?

  • They will help in boosting your customer acquisition.
  • Advocating your brand with solid testimonials.
  • They will assist in encouraging consumers to trust the products and message of your brand over the competitors.
  • They will provide advice backed by science or data to assist in improving the quality of your products.

After hiring the niche authority ambassadors, you can offer your early access to new products, commission opportunities, and an agreed payment for their services.

 

Peer Advocate Ambassadors

Peer advocate ambassadors will include your existing customers. Such ambassadors will share what they love regarding your products with the audience of the same demographic (gender, location, and age) and those who have similar needs or interests.

When consumers make their purchase decisions, you need to know that they mostly trust word-of-mouth recommendations from their immediate peers rather than trust other sources.

Since peers share similar experiences and challenges, they are better positioned to relate to your prospective consumers. As a result, customers hold a significant amount of power in swaying the buying decisions of their family members and close friends.

Also, most of them will have the urge to contribute more to their favorite brand by helping in co-creating its service, product, content, and story. Such a case explains why the smartest brands aim to establish deeper relationships with their top-rated customers and end up turning them into their brand advocates.

The examples of peer advocates include:

  • Vegans who share recipes by using their favorite plant-based substitute for meat.
  • A person with textured hair posts about specific air conditioners and shampoo.
  • A young mother who informs other mothers why she loves a certain brand of baby diapers

 

Why should you hire peer advocate ambassadors?

  • They help to boost your brand loyalty using referral programs.
  • They will leave positive reviews on their site.
  • They help to establish user-generated content which you can repurpose on your blogs and social media channels.
  • They will provide true product feedback, which is tried and tested.
  • They will help in spreading word of mouth to their friends and family members.

You can reward the peer advocate ambassadors with commission opportunities, quarterly product samples, and welcome gifts.

 

Influencer Ambassadors

Organizations choose influencer ambassadors because of their ability to reflect on their brand’s reach to different audiences. Influencers will include Instagram models, bloggers, YouTubers, and creative directors who strive to deliver inspirational, highly engaging, and eye-catching content generated from social media.

Influencers have thousands or millions of followers on social media, assisting brands to broaden their customer reach. The ambassador will promote the brand’s product through sponsored posts or run paid ads on behalf of the company.

When brands work with influencer ambassadors, they can gain several benefits which transcend social media posts. In particular, the influencer ambassador can also help in the following aspects:

  • Increase your affiliate sales.
  • Enhance your authenticity in paid media.
  • Boost your social media management by managing the account of your brand.
  • Incentivize consumers to engage in major brand events within your brand, including product launches and new store opening offers.
  • Establishing engaging content that you can repurpose through your brand’s marketing channels by offering the ultimate social proof.

The influencers will earn money, additional social media exposure due to their efforts, and receive discounted or free products from the brand.

 

Student Brand Ambassadors

The student ambassador program targets youths. Therefore, a brand will mostly use students to reach other students. In this case, the students might in high school, college, and even children in elementary school.

However, the advocacy will only suit specific companies that provide products or services targeting youths. Depending on the products you provide, you will be required to customize them to align with your target audience. After that, you can look for students who will champion your brand within their campus or school premises.

One of the brands’ approaches is sponsoring a sports team and using student advocates to distribute product samples during a sports event. For instance, Red Bull is one of the best brands that run a student ambassador program.

The Red Bull program is known as Wings Team, where the brand recruits youths to advocate for their drink by offering free samples.

However, suppose you want to use this program. In that case, you should know that some colleges and universities might have strict policies regarding on-campus promotional activities, and varying college demographics might result in a smaller audience.

 

Informal Ambassador

The informal ambassador refers to programs where almost every person can join to promote a particular brand. The program resembles the affiliate or referral program.

Provided you with an enthusiastic customer and wish to share the brand, you would have met the requirements to become an informal brand ambassador. Research indicates that informal ambassadors are profitable, and they are more loyal than other customers.

Some of the top review business sites which use informal ambassadors include TripAdvisor, Yelp, Amazon, and Google Reviews. Also, Instagram and Facebook have check-in features that enable patrons to have an inside look at a customer’s experiences by using reviews and photos in social media posts.

Informal brand ambassadors can use online referral marketing to provide their friends and family members with customized advertisements, referral codes, and links using their messages, blogs, and e-mails. After that, the brand rewards the ambassador when a customer buys a product using their links.

The rewards can include:

  • A flat store credit reward.
  • A discount coupon.
  • A commission is based on the percentage of your referral from the brand.

 

Employee Brand Ambassador

Research indicates that most brands do not consider using their employees to promote their products and services. However, they might end up losing a considerable amount of revenue since employees have a deeper understanding of the company’s products.

For instance, if you provide a product or service, the employee ambassador will inform you about the process involved and demonstrate to you if your product is better than your competitors.

Although the employees might not speak from the customer’s point of view, if you offer them an opportunity, they can demonstrate the superiority of your products.

When you want to recruit employees to ambassadorial roles, you should not compel them to join the program. Instead, you need to select the ambassador driven by the passion of the interested group.

 

How To Identify Profitable Ambassadors

Choose a relevant ambassador

Relevancy will play a critical role in your business rather than having a large following. Therefore, if you are a niche brand, you should aim to get a brand ambassador with a following which closely matches your target audience.

For instance, an organic food firm cannot achieve its objective by recruiting the best brand ambassador who blogs regarding travel even if they have more than 500,000 followers. In this case, the company can achieve better results by choosing a food blogger with approximately 50,000 followers but regularly writes posts regarding healthy foods.

 

Credibility

As advocates, they should have established a favorable impression. The ambassadors will represent your brand, and you will want to hire one whom the people believe and trust.

 

Budget

Developing a brand ambassador program is equivalent to a normal business negotiation, and you should treat it like that. Therefore, you should search for a brand ambassador within your price range with the ability and willingness to work according to your instructions.

 

Conclusion: Types of Brand Ambassadors

The 6 types of brand ambassadors discussed in the article include Niche Authority Brand Ambassadors, Peer Advocate Ambassadors, Influencer Ambassadors, Student Brand Ambassadors, Informal Ambassadors, and Employee Brand Ambassadors.

If you appropriately conduct a brand ambassador program, you can easily manage your reputation, boost your revenue and increase your target customer base. Therefore, you should consider the above types of brand ambassadors to determine the one that suits your business needs and desires.

These types of brand ambassadors are essential to creating a long-term sustainable relationship with your customers that will lead to increased brand loyalty and help extend your marketing reach and influence.

Now that you’ve reached the end of this guide, we’re hoping that you found it useful and have a clearer picture of different types of brand ambassadors and their roles.

Thank you for reading the article. Have a great day 🙂

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