The term brand ambassador (or advocate) means different things to different businesses, but all tend to agree on a handful of key points; successful brand ambassadors exhibit the corporate identity and act to humanise the brands they champion.
Some define their brand ambassadors as an ‘internal buy-in’; members of staff who are passionate about their role for the organisation and who are positive about their work and the company they do it for. Others define them as ‘external buy-ins’; individuals not affiliated with the company in any formal capacity that exhibit real passion for the brand and are able to extend the business’ reach. Both are correct and effective, but focusing on just one or the other can limit the potential a mix of internal and external brand ambassadors can offer.
Jon Marlow is Business Unit Director for retail execution at Cosine (www.cosineuk.com), an award winning field marketing agency based in Haddenham, Buckinghamshire. Follow Cosine on Twitter or Linkedin.
It is one thing to decide to employ external brand ambassadors, locate individuals within your company that fit the criteria or develop a program for nurturing open and positive dialogue between the company and both internal and external ambassadors, getting the ideas off the page and into motion is a whole new headache.
The following should demystify the process and help businesses of any size identify and build their brand ambassadors.
1. Plan.
There is no point identifying potential brand ambassadors if you have no plan in place for ways to entice them to get more involved with the company and increase the reach of the business.
Think about what you could offer the individuals you identify as potential customers; exclusive access to member-only website content, free gifts, annual awards for the most engaged advocate, for example. Don’t stop there either; tier the access and rewards to give your ambassador something to aspire to.
It is also worth agreeing a manageable number of brand ambassadors; you do not want all of your customers to be brand advocates, the role should be available to an exclusive few.
2. Research.
There is no way around it, to identify potential brand advocates and ambassadors you will need to conduct in-depth research. You may have an idea of what attributes your ideal (external or internal) brand ambassador will possess, but the reality may not fit perfectly into that vision. Monitoring any engagement staff have with customers and recording the details of any customers that go out of their way to contact the company, either positively or negatively is a great place to start; sometimes the best external brand ambassadors are customers who have had a bad experience rectified and resolved quickly and competently.
Are there individuals within the company who have risen through the ranks from entry-level to executive or managerial positions? Loyal employees tend to be passionate about what they do; locate them and harness that passion.
3. Look around.
Many companies are harnessing the power of brand advocates. With a carefully worded search online, it is possible to locate and read case studies covering successful ambassador programs. See what ideas you can embrace from these tried and tested programs, if you notices anything that multiple businesses are doing, work out whether it would work for your company and add it to your own plans
4. Utilise social media.
If you are already using social networks for customer service, extend that usage to promote your brand ambassador scheme. Individuals who have made the choice to ‘follow’ your Twitter account or ‘like’ your Facebook page are already engaging with your brand, it will only take some well thought-out and carefully worded updates to catch their eye.
5. Encourage interaction.
If you employ a number of brand ambassadors, encourage them to speak to each other and build relationships. A great way to do this is to provide a members-only section of your website with a discussion board and reward the most active advocates.
If your ambassadors tend to run their own websites, design a linkable badge and make it available to to them so they can proudly display their affiliation with your brand to everyone who visits them.
An even simpler tactic to get your advocates talking to each other is to devise and implement a simple yet memorable Twitter hashtag and encourage your brand ambassadors to include it in tweets they share that mention your company, brand or product. Be aware that hashtags can take on lives of their own, so make sure the phrase or word you choose is not already in circulation on the site or is something that could easily be ‘hijacked’ by non-affiliated users.
6. Create links between business and advocates.
If your brand ambassadors are out there finding you more potential advocates and spreading the good word about your business, it pays to provide them with strong contacts within the company. Ambassadors to your brand won’t stay positive if they can never contact anyone in the company. Dialogue with brand ambassadors does not have to be a top priority, but making them aware that there are people in the company that are accessible to them will help make your advocates feel welcome and needed.
7. Realise you will have to hand it over at some point.
Of course, before your brand ambassadors are comfortable in their roles and have an established understanding of how your ambassadorial program works , they will need some guidance from someone within the company, possibly an internal brand advocate. But as they do get to grips with what is asked of them, you will need to hand over control to them.
You don’t want your company to dominate your brand ambassador programs and campaigns; allow your most passionate customers to lead. After all, peer reviews can be an extremely powerful tool, harness that power and exploit it.
Jon Marlow is Business Unit Director for retail execution at Cosine (www.cosineuk.com), an award winning field marketing agency based in Haddenham, Buckinghamshire. Follow Cosine on Twitter or Linkedin.