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The Social Strategist

Michelle Gifford in a purple suit filming herself with an iPhone on a tripod.

What is a Brand Ambassador and What Do They Do?

Branding

Have you ever noticed influencers talking about brands and products they love in their own content? It’s almost as if they are trying to sell it to you in a super fun and natural way. If so, they might be a brand ambassador. What is a brand ambassador and what do they do, you ask? A Brand Ambassador is someone who’s not just an influencer for themselves but a genuine advocate for a brand. 

Brand Ambassadors play a vital role in shaping perceptions, driving engagement, and building lasting connections. How do they do it? (And how can you start doing it, too?) This post is going to break it down for you. Let’s get started. 

 

What is a Brand Ambassador?

Michelle Gifford posing for an iphone video shot.

A Brand Ambassador is someone with a strong online presence who promotes a brand and its products to their audience. Promoting the brand should increase its’ awareness and drive more sales. An Ambassador represents a brand’s personality, values, and voice. 

You may have heard of influencer marketing and brand partnerships (and may even be an active participant in these industries), but Brand Ambassadorship is slightly different than these two marketing avenues. 

Brand Ambassadors have historically been celebrities who already have a strong presence with many people. In today’s social media-driven world, more and more “everyday” people are becoming Brand Ambassadors. 

Why? People trust their friends way more than a celebrity. As an Influencer, you have the power to show up as your followers’ friend in their feeds every day. When you create content they relate to, they will continue to follow you and when you post about brands you love (and are an Ambassador for), they will be more likely to purchase the products per your recommendation. 

 

Influencer Marketing vs. Brand Ambassadorship 

Influencer marketing is more of a general term referring to someone with free reign to create and post content on social platforms. As an independent Influencer, you are not contracted with anyone telling you what you’re supposed to post when. You can post whatever you want to grow and nurture your community.

As an Influencer, you can be involved in programs like affiliate marketing, brand partnerships, and brand ambassadorships. All of these are ways you can make money as an Influencer. Most influencers are involved in these types of programs because it’s a great way to make extra income while growing your own business.

 

Brand Partnership vs. Brand Ambassadorship

You’d think these two terms mean the same thing, but there are a few stark differences. 

A brand partnership is more of a transactional relationship where the brand and the Influencer benefit from one another. In a brand ambassadorship, the Ambassador takes the lead in marketing the brand products to their audience.

An Ambassadorship is usually a long-term relationship with a brand whereas a brand partnership is more transitory. A partnership usually focuses on the Influencer helping the brand meet certain short-term marketing goals, but an Ambassadorship helps the brand bring in revenue to the company over a long period of time. 

Depending on your business goals, you can decide which of these works best for you. If you want to see what it’s like working with a brand before you commit to something long-term, I recommend starting with brand partnerships. If you like how it goes and start to get really good at it, then you could level up to becoming a Brand Ambassador. 

Either of these marketing avenues is a great choice to grow your own brand and your skills as an Influencer. You’ll learn how to appropriately talk about products you love, how to work with other bigger companies, and become more comfortable selling in your stories, posts, etc. 

 

What do Brand Ambassadors do?

A desk with a laptop open and someone's arms typing on the keyboard.

Companies hire Brand Ambassadors to positively impact their brands and spread awareness and revenue to new audiences. But what does that look like on a daily basis?

You create content to post regularly on your social media platforms endorsing the brand and its products. The types of content can include, but are not limited to:

  • Blog posts
  • Podcast episodes
  • Instagram stories
  • Instagram reels/posts
  • Facebook posts
  • YouTube videos
  • Pinterest pins

A brand ambassador may also attend in-person events promoting the brand to help represent the brand and endorse its products. This one is less common than social media marketing, but it can certainly be a part of the ambassadorship. 

The details of how the brand expects you to endorse them and what you are willing to do will be discussed and determined by you and the company you are working with. This should be included in the contract upon initial onboarding. 

 

What skills do you need to be a Brand Ambassador?

Consumers trust you way more than a brand itself. Brands prefer Ambassadors to promote their products because it’ll help generate more sales than they’d ever get from marketing on their own. There are four skills to master if you want to have a better shot at becoming a brand ambassador. 

 

Online Presence & Community

If you’re looking into brand ambassadorship, you probably already have a steady following on your social media platforms. You only need one social platform with an engaging audience to become a brand ambassador. 

There is no minimum follower count required to become an ambassador. Brands care more about having a high engagement than a large audience alone. They even prefer influencers with a small audience with high engagement versus a large audience with low engagement. 

Quick tips to increase engagement with your audience:

  • Show up in your Instagram stories every day using engagement stickers.
  • Share relatable content and tell your audience to like or share your post if they agree.
  • Reply to people who leave comments on your posts.
  • Use ManyChat to get more people engaging with your content and in your DMs. 

 

Authenticity

Authenticity is one of the main reasons brands prefer influencers for their ambassadors now. A “normal” person talking about a product they love and how they use it is way more convincing than a brand posting a promotional ad. 

People want real-life reviews from people. When you purchase a product on Amazon, do you read the customer reviews before you buy it? This is essentially the same concept. People know customers will be more honest about the product rather than the brand just trying to make more money for itself by posting positive ads. 

With that being said, it’s important to choose brands where you actually do love everything about them and their products and have had amazing experiences with using them. That way when you talk about them you are coming off as authentic to your audience and they will immediately want to try the products too. 

 

Michelle Gifford in a purple suit filming a video on her iphone that's held by a tripod.

 

Relatable 

Not only do you want to be genuine in your brand endorsement, but you want to relate to your audience. No one is going to care about how great you think a product is unless you first show them why it should matter to them. 

You relate to your audience by presenting a problem they have and then talking about how the product solved that problem for you. For example, a common problem my audience faces is feeling burnt out on Instagram. They run out of ideas and motivation to post every day. 

I talk about this problem to my audience often–using words I’ve read/heard them use over and over again. I know how they feel because they’ve come to me with this problem hoping for a solution. That’s why I created my Insta Social Society. I offer weekly content that helps give them ideas on what to post, tips and tools for growing their following, and a tight-knit community they can relate with as they are on their business journey. 

Think about a problem your audience faces (or a problem you used to face) and how a product will solve it for them (and solved it for you). Relay this message to them by leveling with them and then letting them know it doesn’t have to be that way anymore. 

 

Experience  

The last skill you need to become a desirable brand ambassador is experience. Experience with the brand you want to collaborate with and with using their products. It’s better to choose a brand you’re already familiar with rather than choosing a brand you’re interested in but have never used their products before. 

Your experience will show commitment to the brand because you’ll have real-life experiences using the products. This unique insight is a game-changer for selling products and is exactly what brands are looking for in ambassadors! 

 

Do Brand Ambassadors get paid?

Yes! Since you play a large role in direct sales and increased revenue, brands usually compensate their ambassadors through sales and commission. 

Brands typically give unique product links to their Ambassadors to help track their commission. Whenever you’re talking about the products on your social channels, you’ll use these specialized links for people to click on and view/purchase them. Once the products are bought, you typically have an automatic compensation sent to your Ambassador account.

 

How do you become a Brand Ambassador?

a close-up shot of a desk with things scattered across it like glasses, keyboard, color palette, notebook, and keyboard.

As mentioned earlier, the first step to becoming a brand ambassador is to establish a strong engaging relationship with your online community. This is one of the contributing factors to companies hiring you to work with them. 

Once your following is there, start to research companies you would like to be an ambassador for. Find brands that are compatible with what you are already posting about. For example, if you decorate cakes, you would search for brands that sell cake-baking products, etc. 

Curate a list of the companies you would like to work with and work your way through contacting each one. You could reach out to the brand’s social media account and essentially give them your pitch on why you would make a great ambassador for them. 

Biz Pro Tip: Brand ambassadorships can be competitive so when you pitch yourself to your desired companies, be enthusiastic about how much you love the brand and its products. Plus, showcase how you are ideal for connecting with and influencing the brand’s target audience.

 

Main Takeaways

  • A Brand Ambassador is someone with a strong online presence who promotes a brand and its products to their audience.
  • Brand ambassadorship is different than influencer marketing and brand partnership. 
  • As a Brand Ambassador, you regularly post content on various social media platforms you are an active participant in endorsing the brand and its products to increase awareness and direct sales.
  • There are four skills to acquire if you want to become a Brand Ambassador: Online presence & community, authenticity, relatable, and experience. 
  • Brand Ambassadors get paid usually via sales and commission.
  • To become a brand ambassador you must have a strong, engaging target audience that would match with the brand’s target audience. Reach out to those brands and pitch to them why you would be a great fit to influence your audience to buy their products. 

 

Brand Ambassador 101

Now you know all about Brand Ambassadors and what they do. Are you still interested in being one? I hope so! Brand Ambassadorships are really a great tool to get extra income and gain experience in selling products to your following in a fun and natural way. For more tips on growing and engaging your audience through your content, follow me on Instagram @iammichellegifford

If you liked this post and want to learn more about ways to make money online, check out these posts:

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