Increasing your reach in such a diverse marketing landscape requires a diverse workforce. After a year where Facebook reached over 2 billion worldwide monthly users and with 83% of Americans having at least one social media account, making sure your brand is able to canvas such a wide field can be problematic.
This is where brand ambassadors come in. Even with large companies, having a staff which is comprehensive enough to monitor and affect the many social media platforms on which your brand should be present is difficult. Brand ambassadors not only pick up the slack your understandable limitation creates, but they provide new opportunities to reign in yet more custom and engagement.
Social&Loyal looks at the basic steps to create the right brand ambassador program for you. Follow them to find out how to use one of the most important marketing resources available to all sizes of brands.
1. Define Your Measurable Goals
Before you go about defining your measurable goals, perhaps we should define the term ‘measurable goals’. These are the goals you set yourself in terms of ROI and reach. They are measurable, however, in many different ways. Brand ambassadors will need some instant feedback to make sure you are on the right track, but they are also sowing the seeds for long term customer loyalty.
What is it you want from your brand ambassador program? Perhaps you are doing well and simply want to broaden your reach, leaving no stone unturned in terms of marketing opportunities. The opposite, however, may be true. You might have flagging sales or be on a downturn with your ‘likes’ and ‘shares’ on social media platforms.
In terms of social media, goals can be measured by reach and interactions. These interactions have different values in and of themselves. A ‘like’ is one thing, but a ‘share’ is even better. If one of your followers shares a promotion on their own profile, you have now been granted access to their own social network, many of which may not have been previously familiar with your brand.
This is where another important aspect of brand ambassadors reveals itself: marketing to new demographics. What better way to tap into a new customer base than by doing so from the inside. Using ambassadors who already fit the profile of your new targets means you can use their insider acumen to relate to the group as a whole.
When you start a promotion, you will want to set goals for each brand ambassador. See how well your product or service has been doing in a particular demographic and then set a projection for what you can reasonably expect.
2. Find the Best Software to Meet Your Needs
Finding reasonable expectations can be difficult enough. This is why you need a customer loyalty platform which facilitates your brand ambassador program. It does this through different means, so finding the right loyalty software is imperative.
There are few reasons you wouldn’t need all the services available to you on the best customer loyalty program software. Even if you are a small business, you won’t achieve growth by expecting not to need them.
These services are all designed to help forge loyalty with existing customers, increase reach for new custom and maximize retainment. They achieve these goals through key customer interactions.
Your customer loyalty software should stay in contact via automatic responses, bespoke email mailing lists and push notifications on your program app. Not only do they stay in communication, but they provide the right kind of communication to suit the individual customer.
For example, you will have check boxes on your emails and payment confirmations. These allow customers to choose the level of interaction which is suitable for them. Some may want to be given everything you’ve got. Others only want to be informed about certain facilities provided by your brand. The right customer loyalty software will maintain these preferences and ensure you appreciate, not alienate your customers. Your brand ambassador needs to factor in these brand considerations also.
3. Set Up the Software Which Reflects Your Goals
Your goals will be unique to your brand during a specific time period or promotion, so the configuration of your software needs to reflect this strategy. Setting up your program should use all the elements available, but will need to be specific to your brand ambassador strategy.
What incentives will you provide your brand ambassadors? At one end is simply payment. You can hire a brand ambassador and pay them a stipend for services rendered over a period of time. This is practiced by many larger corporate brands and even crosses over into areas such as celebrity endorsements.
For most other brands, however, your brand ambassador will be a part of your reward program. This means you need to not only work out what you will provide for your brand ambassadors services, but you will need to configure it with your own loyalty software. If you provide a points based reward system, then each brand ambassador action can be paid for with a certain number of points.
If you have a tiered loyalty system, then your brand ambassadors can be automatically entered into a top tier where they remain as long as they fulfill their obligations. Be as open with your ambassadors as possible. When you know your goal, set a target for the individual ambassador. If they meet it, they can then enjoy the rewards set out for them. If they don’t, they will understand that being your brand ambassador isn’t for them.
Adding a brand ambassador program means adding another channel to your brand. Your customer loyalty software needs to be able to collate these multi-channels and analyze the data it receives. This is the main method of determining whether your goals have been met.
4. Launch the Program and Keep it Fresh
Once you have set your brand ambassador goals and configure your software to meet them, you need to launch the program. This doesn’t mean setting your brand ambassadors free without being in touch with them.
Before you launch, inform your brand ambassadors of what is expected of them. They will know that this is part of the deal when they receive their agreed upon compensation. This means any posts or social media activity needs to be meet the expectations you set out for your brand.
You will want your brand ambassadors to be creative and personal with their promotions. However, you will also need to remain a support network for them. Use your ambassador program software to stay in touch, keeping them informed with pertinent information, but also being there to provide advice if needed.
Once your brand ambassador program is up and running, you will need to keep it fresh. Encourage ingenuity and initiative. Allow your ambassadors to stamp their promotion with their own personal touches. This means your ambassadors use their own personal brand as a means to support your brand. It’s why brand ambassadors are so important in the future of your business.
If you want to learn how your brand can build a powerful ambassador program, schedule a free consultation here!
