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Brand Ambassador
Brand ambassadors are a must in every major company's marketing budget. According to Nielsen surveys, 92% of consumers trust product reviews from people in their social circle. Moreover, 75% of users make purchasing decisions using information from social media, but 96% do not follow the brands whose products they buy. As a result, companies are hiring brand ambassadors to get the word out about their products and their value to consumers.
What is a brand ambassador?
A brand ambassador is someone who represents and promotes a company. Brand ambassadors are people who act as living advertisements. They become the embodiment of a company's values or corporate identity. Most often, brand ambassadors are Instagram users who actively post photos and maintain a profile. However, U.S. companies now offer various paid programmes to brand ambassadors who can do their business in the organisation's merchandise, becoming a living billboard. Historically, brand ambassadors were celebrities: they starred in product ads, went to events hosted by the organisation, and wore the organisation's merch in their everyday lives. Now, the situation has changed: the market is no longer interested in celebrities; it wants real people you can meet on the street. 76% of active supermarket shoppers surveyed in the U.S., for example, trust content from "regular people" more than from any celebrity. Even rank-and-file employees unknowingly become brand ambassadors: 50% of employees from large U.S. companies post information on their social media about where they work, projects and products from that organisation.
To be a brand ambassador, you don't have to be an influencer or an expert in the industry the company is developing. The ambassador position often gets offered to people with few followers on social media or knowledge of a particular subject area. The requirements for the role of a brand ambassador do not involve qualifications relevant to the company's line of business.
The benefits of using brand ambassadors
A company that hires a brand ambassador does so for several reasons.
Firstly, the ambassador humanises the brand. Models and influencers don't help with that. Potential customers are more likely to try the brand's products on themselves if they see someone they know wearing or using them. This way, the company becomes closer to customers, more human and tangible, and this "removes" many potential customer questions.
Secondly, the ambassador solves several marketing problems at once. For example, a company selling sportswear hires a fitness instructor who wears its clothes to workouts. Students see the set of clothes from all sides. They observe how good the shorts or tracksuit look on the trainer and how confident they look wearing them. It increases the company's awareness and potential customer's interest in buying the product. Indeed, word of mouth is still considered one of the best marketing tools on the market.
Additionally, ambassadors can publish information about the company and its products on their social media channels. If they aren't an influencer, their followers, most often those who know them personally, will trust their opinion more than bloggers and celebrities who constantly post ad stories and posts. That allows a business to attract traffic with its resources and pay less money for it than usual, taking advantage of the loyalty of their ambassadors' subscribers.
Thirdly, ambassadors provide a business with good reviews. The definition of a brand ambassador does not always involve creating reviews of the products used. Still, the person chosen as an ambassador can always tell friends and acquaintances about their experience with the product. Businesses cannot escape bad reviews, but an ambassador programme can help to correct them. Furthermore, they offer potential customers an honest opinion about a product because the company they support and promote is something they like.
Fourthly, ambassadors help to expand a company's market presence. A company that enters a new country or wants to sell a new line of products for teenage girls, for example, searches for ambassadors from a new country or ambassadors of the appropriate age. Hiring an ambassador costs a fraction of the cost of creating and running a huge advertising campaign. This method is, therefore, mainly used in underdeveloped markets.ъ
What does a brand ambassador do?
What are the duties of brand ambassadors? Most often, the American companies whose jobs we reviewed for this article list the following duties in their job descriptions:
- Demonstrate product samples. Wear branded T-shirts, use branded toothbrushes, cook spaghetti from the brand, etc. In short, to use the brand's products in their daily lives.
- Distribute marketing materials. Sometimes brands looking for ambassadors require candidates to become promoters and hand out leaflets, put up posters and so on. Even messenger stickers are becoming marketing material these days, and distributing them in personal conversations is also part of this point.
- Install and dismantle the components of the brand presentation complex. In other words, put up brand tables and banners at local events and festivals and then put them back down. It's worth noting that this is rarely an ambassador's job.
- Publish information about the brand on their social media accounts. Only in the form of native advertising, of course, and not "directly." Often, brands will ask you to indicate that you are participating in an affiliate programme in your profile header.
- Invite friends and acquaintances to brand events and tell them about new products of the brand. You can do this through the "Invite a friend" feature on social media, Instagram stories, or Facebook posts. You can also ask them to review products. The reviews are generally posted on dedicated websites rather than in your accounts' feeds.
How much does a brand ambassador make?
It depends on the country you will be working in and the company's profile. It is also essential to immediately deduct from the brand ambassador's salary taxes (if paid before tax) and the cost of transport, commissions and other expenses you are likely to incur. Concert company ambassadors, for example, can expect to earn $300-700 per week. The minimum pay per hour is $12, and the maximum is $50. Beginners usually get around $20 an hour.
The average salary of an ambassador for a company selling products or offering services of everyday use is between twenty and sixty thousand dollars a year. The hourly pay starts at $10 an hour. The final amount, however, may depend on how many new brand customers you can attract.
Brand ambassador roles
What kind of contracts are brand ambassadors offered?
Standard. That means you will perform the above-mentioned duties and use the brand's products in real life. You won't be paid separately for posts, stories, reviews, creating sales funnel steps, etc. You won't be required to do any of these things.
Paying for leads. A lead is a user who has taken a specific targeted action. Examples include a user who clicked on your product link from your posts or subscribed to your shop's newsletter by clicking a link in your profile bio. Others are purchasing a product or completing a request for a consultation with a manager. There are many variations of the target action, all of which get written in the brand ambassador job description. In this case, you get paid for telling about the company in your social networks and thus attracting new clients. It is essentially traditional MLM marketing in a new shell. There's nothing wrong with this kind of marketing, and it's common practice for huge companies.
With pay per activity. For example, for a post, an Instagram story or several of them, presence at an event, a review on a unique resource, and so on. Most frequently, all variants of activities are indicated in the contract, along with the cost per unit of activity. Several Instagram stories are considered to be such a unit. Such a contract can be offered in addition to the main one if the cooperation suits both parties and your social media audience becomes interested in the company of which you are the ambassador.
Duties of a brand ambassador
Being a brand ambassador is not just about walking around a shopping centre in a hoodie with a company logo. Job offers regularly require at least familiarity with the company and its corporate culture for you to be considered a brand ambassador. Sometimes they get asked to attend trade fairs and events to present the company and respond to queries from potential clients in various communication channels with the company (e.g. forums). You may get asked to provide a link to your social media accounts - you will then post reviews of company products or services on these accounts. Applying for the brand ambassador position with a contract rather than with the wage by the hour or by leads also involves knowledge of essential marketing tools; no qualifications are necessary, but understanding how the industry works is vital. Brand ambassadors also often help to follow up on negative comments, get creative, suggest new ideas for advertising campaigns, and write reports on their work and the work of other companies' ambassadors. If you see a company advertising "brand ambassadors wanted," put together a CV with experience as a brand ambassador or promoter - a serious approach will be greatly appreciated.
Examples of brand ambassadors
You can find examples of brand ambassadors everywhere. Below you will find brands whose ambassadors you definitely know or whose representative you can become.
Shein
Shein is an online shop which sells all the components of a wardrobe. To become a clothing brand ambassador, you don't need to have a million Instagram followers. Shein hires nano-influencers - up to ten thousand followers on Instagram, five thousand on YouTube and fifty thousand on TikTok; micro-influencers - up to one hundred thousand followers on Instagram, twenty-five thousand on YouTube and one hundred and fifty thousand on TikTok; medium-influencers with up to five hundred thousand followers on Instagram, up to two hundred and fifty thousand on YouTube, and up to seven hundred and fifty thousand subscribers on TikTok. Also, their Ambassador Programme extends to brand influencers and celebrities.
Shein offers ambassadors free clothing, featuring in their videos, and the opportunity to make a collection with their design. Payment only occurs when users click on your affiliate link. To become an Ambassador, you need to publish a photo or video of yourself wearing clothing purchased from Shein. In the post's caption, you need to mention the shop's social media account and use the tags #shein and #sheingals. If the account doesn't write to you, send a link to the post to blogservice@shein.com. Tell them about yourself and why you want to collaborate with the shop. If you are suitable for collaboration, the brand will reply to you.
Fashion Nova
Fashion Nova brand ambassadors receive income depending on the number of subscribers in their social networks. For example, the company will pay $250 for a post for an audience of up to one hundred thousand people, $1,000 for a post for 250,000 people, $10,000 for an audience of up to fifty million, and $100,000 for an audience exceeding that number. Additionally, you will be offered discounts on products, freebies, discount coupons for your subscribers and so on. Some influencers also become models for Fashion Nova's new collections and attend brand events.
To become an ambassador of the company, you need to gain more than 10,000 followers on Instagram, post a photo wearing clothes purchased from Fashion Nova, adding the hashtag #NovaBabe, and tag the company's account. You can also email a link to the post to the brand representatives at pr@fashionnova.com. If these methods don't work, go to www.fashionnova.com/pages/want-to-collab, open the collaboration form, enter your details, links to your social media and the products you would like to receive from the company, and tell them about yourself.
Nike
The brand does not offer an ambassadorship format to anyone other than influential athletes. So, for example, Nike shoes and clothing are worn by Manchester United midfielder Bruno Fernandes, a genuine Premier League star from Portugal, and Kevin De Bruyne, his clubmate, the driving force behind the midfield and one of the most influential players in the country. Also, ambassadors for Nike are Robert Lewandowski, the Barcelona player, who previously proved himself in German football. The list includes Kylian Mbappé, the French national team player, and of course, Cristiano Ronaldo, one of three players to have signed lifetime contracts with the brand. The other two are Michael Jordan, after whom certain lines of Nike trainers are named, and LeBron James.
Red Bull
Red Bull, the maker of energy drinks, hires college students as its ambassadors. The brand has a whole programme dedicated to it. The company's ambassadors promote the brand, talk about it on social media and at events, and distribute Red Bull products. Ambassador rates start at $18 per hour. You can fill out an application on the company's official website: https://jobs.redbull.com/microsite/student-marketeer.
How to become a brand ambassador
So, how do you become a brand ambassador and earn good money? Below you will find a checklist for becoming a brand ambassador, with a description of what to do.
Learning by topic
- Research the companies you know well and whose products you use. These may be advertising agencies you already know, tour operators, manufacturers, beauty salons, small shops, etc. Look at the companies' social media posts and the accounts of current brand ambassadors of particular interest to you. If the company doesn't have an ambassador, becoming one may be more complicated than it sounds, as people won't be willing to pay you for representation.
- Increase your visibility on social media. A brand will only be interested in you if you are known, read and liked. To increase engagement and reach of posts, hone your storytelling and warm up your audience, so they buy something from the brand you want to represent. Companies are interested in users with a bright, unusual representation on social networks. They want bloggers who show the real themselves on social networks, who can attract an audience and interact with them, and who are not afraid to tell the truth about themselves rather than paint a perfect picture.
- Be proactive. Think back to those companies you found in the first stage. You need to email them and tell them who you are, what social media accounts you run, what your audience is like, what they are interested in and why the brand would benefit from working with you. For example, an ambassador position can be published on a job aggregator, on the company's website or its social media account. Keep an eye on all channels of communication with the brand, or ask directly about available options for collaboration.
