Brand am­bas­sad­ors and their im­port­ance in online marketing

When it comes to how it appears to the public, every brand wants to show its best side. Not only do they want to demon­strate the quality of their product, they also want to show the company’s values, while also main­tain­ing closeness to their target audience. In the world of modern marketing, this is the re­spons­ib­il­ity of the brand am­bas­sad­or. Among other things, here you can read about how these marketing spe­cial­ists work, what the average brand am­bas­sad­or salary is, how to become one yourself, and why social media is the ideal en­vir­on­ment for them.

A brand am­bas­sad­or embodies the corporate identity of a company and brings the public closer to its products, service, and even core values. Brand am­bas­sad­ors operate at the point where marketing and the market intersect, giving a face to the brand. They should have friendly per­son­al­it­ies which make positive impacts in the public sphere. Ad­di­tion­ally, they should also remain in the memory of (potential) customers long term by leaving such a good im­pres­sion.

Companies, that can afford it in their budget, will opt for a famous brand am­bas­sad­or; someone who is already a well-known public figure or is at least well-known in the relevant sector. More recently, however, busi­nesses have begun to recruit brand am­bas­sad­ors who are not so well-known. They are usually found either amongst their own ranks of employees or else they are scouted from social media.

The role of brand am­bas­sad­ors is to bring attention to a company or to specific products. This occurs via press spots, social media posts, or on location with pro­mo­tion­al activ­it­ies. This means that the focus is less on the selling of products and more to get/keep in touch with the envisaged consumer target audience.

This is why it is becoming more common to come across brand am­bas­sad­ors in company blog posts, or you see them taking over a business‘ social media accounts, or present for them at fairs and con­fer­ences. Even at public events, where the business may already be present as a sponsor or organiser, the brand am­bas­sad­or will be present with the aim of showing the best face of the company. On Facebook, Instagram, etc. the in­di­vidu­al is strongly as­so­ci­ated with the brand name and builds a solid re­la­tion­ship with their re­spect­ive followers.

Often it is the case that am­bas­sad­ors will bring about a positive dis­cus­sion about companies, brands, and products. This occurs on social media via exciting content – great posts that feature pictures, videos, and stories. At fairs and events, they will lead panel dis­cus­sions, give demon­stra­tions, or dis­trib­ute free testers. With both cases, on social media or at events, the brand am­bas­sad­ors guarantee large amounts of vis­ib­il­ity for a brand; assuming you have the right com­mu­nic­a­tion strategy for the various channels and execute them correctly. This can begin with branded clothing, followed by a positive im­pres­sion, and then fostering an overall great image with the target group in question. Everything that can bring the customer base closer to the brand and leads to greater brand loyalty.

There are three primary char­ac­ter­ist­ics that a brand am­bas­sad­or should have in order to be con­sidered as the potential face of a brand:

1. They should bring a high level of iden­ti­fic­a­tion with them: anybody who works as a brand am­bas­sad­or has to come across as being genuine and combine their own values with those of the brand. When it comes to social media, busi­nesses adopt a similar approach to how they would recruit micro in­flu­en­cers: they look for the profiles of in­di­vidu­als who have charisma, who share sim­il­ar­it­ies with the company values and products and who are deemed to be spe­cial­ists in their re­spect­ive field. For example, a food spe­cial­ist who fre­quently posts recipes and images of amazing meals on Instagram could be seen as being a very suitable brand am­bas­sad­or candidate for a food company. However, it goes without saying that they may not ne­ces­sar­ily be suitable for a company that only sells vegan products. There needs to be a strong overlap of char­ac­ter­ist­ics between the brand and brand am­bas­sad­or.


2. The person should be com­mu­nic­at­ive and well-connected. Anyone rep­res­ent­ing a brand at fairs and such should in no way be shy. In situ­ations like this, being proactive is just as important as being cha­ris­mat­ic, as well as having a talent for com­mu­nic­a­tion. Ideally, the person would already have es­tab­lished them­selves in the field making them a re­cog­nis­able figure. This means that the brand am­bas­sad­or should have a solid repu­ta­tion, which will then also rub off on the brand. Ad­di­tion­ally, they should also be in the position to be able to quickly establish as well as foster new con­nec­tions.


3. They should be well informed as well as up to date. Anyone who is rep­res­ent­ing a product or brand at events or on social media needs to know as much as possible about what it is that they are rep­res­ent­ing. This includes being able to respond com­pet­ently to inquiries and spe­cial­ist questions. In theory, a brand am­bas­sad­or is not a sales­per­son; they are a kind of spe­cial­ist; an image of know-how and expertise. A person who does not know everything there is to know about a company or a product will not leave a positive im­pres­sion on the target group and therefore will not be taken seriously. Negative im­pres­sions like that will sub­sequently rub off on the brand in question as well.

Anyone who possesses these char­ac­ter­ist­ics and soft skills is ideally placed to become a brand am­bas­sad­or. There are a couple ways that this can come about: one is that you are found and contacted by social media. This sort of thing usually only happens if you have already es­tab­lished yourself as an in­flu­en­cer in this area by having amassed a certain number of followers and have made contacts within the industry. It is also possible to actively apply for positions such as these. Mostly these sort of job positions will be ad­vert­ised under headings like event planning, promotion, hos­pit­al­ity, etc. Often some sort of business education or back­ground (in­tern­ships, etc.) is very ad­vant­age­ous. Any companies may also look for brand am­bas­sad­ors in­tern­ally within the framework of an employer branding strategy. In cases like this, the employees that are sought after are those that have notable success stories to tell, which can then be com­mu­nic­ated further via the business’ own social media accounts. The extent of re­spons­ib­il­it­ies for these in­di­vidu­als ranges from blog and social media posts to other typical duties like meeting with customers, attending fairs, as well as other events where the company wishes to be rep­res­en­ted. The purpose of internal re­cruit­ment tactics like this is to portray the business as an at­tract­ive employer and make them appear more authentic. The salary of a brand am­bas­sad­or varies depending on the industry sector, qual­i­fic­a­tions, as well as general work ex­per­i­ence. Many companies will offer very good bonuses and perks, alongside a fixed salary. Spe­cial­ised knowledge and expertise may also play a very important role. While brand am­bas­sad­ors are often paid for in­di­vidu­al posts on social media (sometimes paid very well depending on how many followers they have), there are also agencies through which busi­nesses can book am­bas­sad­ors for in­di­vidu­al events – in such a case, it should be clear from the very start what the qualities and interests of the person involved are. In some countries, e.g., the US, such a system allows you have a regular job as well as being a brand am­bas­sad­or at events on the weekend. According to industry expert Kenny Azama, who has written a lot of guides and blog posts on the career of a brand am­bas­sad­or, the average salary of a brand am­bas­sad­or who attends fairs, festivals, and con­fer­ences, etc. should be somewhere between £10 and £40 an hour.

These days, in the world of online marketing, things like fairs and other such events have naturally taken somewhat of a backseat. Instead, it’s now social media that has become the focal point for both brand am­bas­sad­ors (current and budding) as well as companies. And in recent times, it is primarily Instagram that has become the social media for all involved. This platform is ideal for uploading photos of a whole range of things: products, the company itself, day to day life in a company, or even the employees within a business. High en­gage­ment rates for each post will indicate the potential of having a presence on Instagram and mean that success is very much meas­ur­able. Factors like this mean that Instagram has become the most important social media for busi­nesses online presence as well as any part­ner­ships that they might have with external in­flu­en­cers. Anyone who sees them­selves as an in­flu­en­cer has every op­por­tun­ity to become a brand am­bas­sad­or.

In order to become a brand am­bas­sad­or on Instagram, you should possess a similar set of skills and com­pet­en­cies as was outlined above. This means that you need to be able to sell yourself well, have plenty of self-con­fid­ence, and be spe­cial­ised in a specific branch of industry branch or product group. This is why you should try to be viewed as an expert in a field or as an important opinion-former/in­flu­en­cer. It is also ideal to have a following that, for multiple reasons, is of interest to busi­nesses. For this to happen, your own interests and those of your followers should be quite similar, and cor­res­pond with whatever these busi­nesses might be selling.

Anyone wishing to make it as a brand am­bas­sad­or should treat their followers re­spect­fully and never be in any way pat­ron­ising. Instead it is important to respond to any queries in a manner that is amicable and inspires con­fid­ence in yourself. You need to be able to come across as being full of know-how and an inherent ability to give tips. Repu­ta­tion within a certain scene can be decisive: at the end of the day, no company is going to want to work with someone who is unloved or even despised in a branch or sector. 

If you can do these things, while at the same time producing good quality content and being well connected, you greatly improve the chance of at­tract­ing a business’ attention to your profile. It may be that you are lucky and receive an initial query regarding a potential in­flu­en­cer campaign. And if a co­oper­a­tion between an in­flu­en­cer and company appears to have the potential of being be­ne­fi­cial for both sides, a casual pro­fes­sion­al re­la­tion­ship has the op­por­tun­ity to turn into that person becoming the official brand am­bas­sad­or on Instagram.

Such a part­ner­ship would mean the in­flu­en­cer would post about the company’s products and in exchange would receive test products free of charge. Even­tu­ally they would also begin to get paid as well. In an ideal world, the re­la­tion­ship is one that is win-win for everyone involved. Followers of the profile in question receive exclusive deals, discount codes, as well as the op­por­tun­ity to win prizes, vouchers, etc. – all of the above would have been posted by the brand am­bas­sad­or on Instagram in col­lab­or­a­tion with the company.

One company that has arguably perfected its brand am­bas­sad­or strategy on Instagram is the British fashion company Asos. Their strategy is as simple as it is superb. What they have done is that they have es­tab­lished part­ner­ships with fashion ori­ent­ated accounts, for example, asos_ashley or sarah_waiste. The trick here is that Asos’ brand am­bas­sad­ors have the brand name as part of their profile handle, while at the same time exercise complete freedom when it comes to the fashion pho­to­graphy and overall content. This means that the brand am­bas­sad­ors greatly strengthen the Asos brand simply by at­tract­ing attention to it. However, they never give their followers the im­pres­sion that these are a company-specific accounts or profiles. This ensures that the In­s­tagram­mers in question remain authentic and their fashion tips remain be­liev­able.