Boost eCommerce Sales: Brand Ambassador Marketing Examples
8 Minute Read
If you choose the correct individual, brand ambassadors will help to humanise your brand image, boost visibility, increase website traffic and open up new lines of communication.
Brand ambassadors are the associates of a business who use word-of-mouth marketing to depict a brand in a positive light. They typically hold very similar values as the brands they work with, sustaining a following which suits their target demographic.
In simple terms, they are valued online personalities. That isn’t to say that they always hold huge followings, but their content resonates well with the niche audience that follows them.
The power is in the platform; a successful brand ambassador example will show off products organically. This could be anything from a trip to Italy, to a tub of protein shake. As long as their persona and their following matches your target audience, you should be on to a winner.
There lies a talent in the ability to create engagement. And in such a creative industry, brand ambassadors are very good content creators. Whether it be creating images, blogs or video; they’ll work collaboratively with your sales and marketing team in order to execute a successful campaign.
Benefits of brand ambassadors:
- Organic promotion
- Humanised brand-image
- Spreading a positive brand message
- Generating traffic and sales
- Valuable audience feedback
- Part of a multi-channel approach
- Word-of-mouth from a trusted voice
- Network expansion
- Targeted audience
In the digital age, authenticity is becoming more important to people’s purchasing decisions. It was recently reported that 85% of website visitors find user-generated content more influential than branded social content. Now, you just need to find suitable ambassadors for your brand.
The most important thing is to find those individuals who hold a relevant following to you. If their engagement comes from people who do not suit your target demographic, then leave them to work with another brand; it is not worth your time.
The best way to avoid this, is to maintain a keen eye on the influential members of your respective industry. You never know when you might need their help.
When working alongside a variety of ambassadors, it’s important to stay organised and professional.
Which is why we recommend using a tool like DottedSign. This is an easy-to-use electronic signature solution that can save a lot of time in the long run, plus it’s pretty inexpensive.
Where to find Brand Ambassadors…
As touched on above, it you have a finger on the industry’s pulse, you’ll already be aware of the individuals who you would suit your brand.
It’s important not to get lost in the numbers. If you’re selling frying pans, a huge influencer who has 1 million followers may not be as effective as someone in the food industry who has 10 thousand followers. It’s about engagement and authenticity.
Focus on relevant bloggers, influencers, people who mention your brand on socials and even your employees. Examine WHY they are popular to your target demographic. Do they mirror the characteristics and values of your brand? Will people buy into it?
If you’re still struggling to find the correct match, a tool like Mention can come in handy. This will notify you whenever your brand name is mentioned online. Chances are, if you’re already making an impact on your industry, there will be people in your niche who are already speaking highly of your brand. Could any of these be used as ambassadors?
But if you simply do not have the time, there’s a bunch of brand ambassador agencies out there who can match you with suitable candidates. This option will obviously cost a little more, but they’ll do most of the work for you.
SO… now you’ve got the run down. Time to take a look at some brand ambassador marketing examples to help you on your way to your next big campaign.
Build your own Ambassadors
Starting off with the basics, one of the best ways to introduce a brand ambassador campaign to your business is to create your own.
A lot of brands have found success in encouraging user-generated content amongst their own audience. This is when a brand publishes images or videos created by their customers. This method often shows authenticity, trust, and positions your products in ‘real-life’ situations.
A lot more friendly on the budget, all you really need to do is watch over your brands socials channels. This way you’ll find the avid fans who would value the opportunity of being featured on your page. If they hold an audience in your niche, why not make them an ambassador?
GoPro
GoPro does a brilliant job at encouraging their followers to post content that features their brand and products. In return, they’ll post selected user-generated content on their own Instagram page.
GoPro maintain their ‘Photo of the Day’ campaign to encourage customers to share the content they create on GoPro’s. Each day, they select an image from the hashtag, re-posting it on their main account with the individual tagged. Each day they have a different ambassador.
But the clever part, is that regardless of whether or not GoPro posts all the images they’re tagged in, there’s still hundreds of people everyday who upload images to social media, tagging GoPro in the post.
This is a great way to promote free content, show your customers that you appreciate their loyalty and inspire more individuals to keep pushing out social posts that feature your products. The knock-on effect speaks for itself.
Use Social Media Influencers
With so much opportunity, social media is arguably one of the most effective spaces to find and use your brand ambassadors.
If you want to get your hands on loyal and result-driven brand ambassadors, look to social media influencers. These are the ‘popular kids’ of the social media world, who hold a strong and devoted following. If their following suits the audience you are trying to reach, then you should consider the individual for the job.
Typically, a social media star will use posts, poll, competition, stories and live-streaming to create an urgency buzz. Followers invest in their content because they’re great storytellers. In fact, we only need to look at the fame of successful YouTubers, Instagram influencers and bloggers to understand how successful a brand ambassador campaign can be on social media – more exposure, more sales.
ASOS
Take a look at how ASOS use brand ambassadors, like Rudy Trobrillant for example.
For a start, ASOS seem to call their brand ambassadors ‘industry insiders’, which I feel gives them a little more exclusivity. They choose social media influencers who suit the ASOS brand image; cool, fresh, alternative and usually quite positive.
ASOS appear to have a catalogue of brand ambassadors who hold smaller social media followings. This way, they can push content through a variety of social media accounts, breaking into a variety of specific, niche markets.
Fashion is a very diverse subject, so it’s important for brands like ASOS to take advantage of marketing methods that include a diverse range of customers. Followers become somewhat invested into brand ambassadors lifestyles – so the fact they are looking at branded content is not always obvious.
Live-Streaming with Shopcast
Live Streaming video content is the latest innovation and most successful way that brand ambassadors are boosting awareness, driving traffic and increasing sales.
Shopcast is the latest innovation to hit the eCommerce industry. Brand ambassadors have been using Shopcast to Live Stream video content directly from eCommerce websites. Viewers can engage in real-time, voting, commenting and following your ambassadors as they tour their way through your website.
Calla
As a brand ambassador for her company Calla, Jenni has seen impressive results by using Shopcast to Live Stream directly from her website.
As a retailer of specialist women’s shoes, Jenni wanted a way to properly connect with her audience, answering queries and providing support to a live audience in real-time. To incentivise viewers, Jenni uses a feature in Shopcast to provide time-sensitive discount codes for as long as her streams last. A brilliant way to create urgency and increase sales.
By providing great products descriptions, detailed presentations, engaging with their audience and setting up inclusive discount codes, Jenni (as a brand ambassador) has used Shopcast to increase conversion rates by 407%, as well as increasing the average order value by 64%.
Take a look at how you can use Shopcast to implement Live Streaming into your marketing strategy.
Competitions
Running competitions on social media is a great way to engage your audience, boost brand awareness and generate fresh leads.
Giving away free stuff is a great motivator for your followers because it shows them that you value their custom. Your entry requirements will often rely on your followers ability to ‘spread the message’ – ‘tag three friends to enter’ for example.
Even better, if you run your competitions through your brand ambassadors social accounts, you’ll tap into fresher channels routing to your niche market. Plus, by using multiple brand ambassadors, your competition should spread like wildfire. Meaning more awareness and hopefully more traffic.
Rebellious Fashion
Online female clothing retailer Rebellious Fashion are brilliant at using their brand ambassadors to push competitions through social media.
Take a look at this example in which Rebellious Fashion offer a £50 voucher to a randomly selected winner. In order to enter, you follow their Instagram, Like and Comment on the post tagging 3 friends. This is a clever way to drive a large amount of traffic to their Instagram account by using their followers as an army of brand ambassadors.
Those who land on the page are likely to take an interest in the competition which they’ve been tagged in. Harnessing the power of word-of-mouth marketing, with a great way to increase brand visibility through trusted sources.
Events with Brand Ambassadors
In the age of technology, brand events are the perfect way to stamp your mark on your industry.
With your brand ambassadors holding onto such large networks, gathering a relevant and engaged crowd is much easier. Whilst event marketing is great for launching new products, they’re also effective for positioning your brand as an industry innovator.
By co-organising your event alongside your team of brand ambassadors, you’ll find it a lot easier to create a buzz. In fact, lot’s of brands are opting to use a variety of smaller online personalities as a way to create a more diverse and engaged crowd. Choosing the individuals who have a smaller, more loyal following can often lead to a better environment at events.
If you think about the amount of social media content that your brand will feature in if you choose the right people, it’s great exposure.
Converse
Earlier this year, Converse showed us how to execute a brand event, promoted effectively by their army of brand ambassadors.
During London fashion week, the creative team at Converse created the ‘One Star Hotel’ to celebrate the release of their latest edition of the One Star model. Know for maintaining relationships with a variety of ambassadors, Converse showed off the latest innovations and collaborations they had been working on. ASAP Nast was there to show off his Converse X Nast One Star, Yung Lean introduced his Sad Boys One Star with lots more.
With no real idea on how the event would go down, the results were pretty impressive. Converse gained 40 thousand Instagram followers, 1.7 million live stream views and 226 million media impressions – I guess you could call the event a success.
Final word…
In the digital age, authenticity is the key to building a trustworthy brand.
The important thing is to choose the individuals that have an impact on your niche industry. You’ll need them on your side if you’re going to make a sustainable impact.
Make sure to take a look at Shopcast, the latest innovation to brand ambassador marketing. If you have any questions, do not hesitate to get in touch.
