You’ve chosen your brand ambassadors, and now you must maintain and grow the relationship.
A good brand ambassador will form an emotional connection between consumers and your product; they ensure value and promise of delivery to the consumers.
Because of the power of this connection you want to make sure your ambassadors feel valued themselves.
1. Authentic Communication
Establishing a genuine line of communication with your representatives is important.
Make sure you keep your mass e-mails to a minimum and that you’re checking in more than once a year.
Communicating with ambassadors is perhaps one of the most important jobs a marketer has when organizing a brand ambassador program so by creating authentic communication you will be making your job easier in the long run.
Recognition can go a long way when it comes to motivation and building excitement around your organization. Whether a brand ambassador is working for free merch or pay, they are all looking to advance their own careers.
2. Praising Their Work
Exclusive invitations and swag are exciting benefits, but public praise can really help ambassadors advance their own careers.
It will make them attractive candidates in their own job hunt and boost morale.
Small things like retweeting them or sharing their content from your company’s official channels are great opportunities to make ALL ambassadors, not just your top performers, feel valued.
If your organization has various brand ambassadors, it’s important to keep track of each ambassador and outline your brand’s relationship with them.
3. Keep Tabs
Keeping specific notes and records of your interactions with each ambassador will not only help keep you in the know, but it will also help you in sounding sincere in your interactions with each ambassador (see tip #1).
Once you’ve identified someone as an ambassador, you should try to keep a record of your communications and take note of their social mentions, blog posts, the last time you sent them free merch, and most importantly, the last time you checked in.
Although time-consuming, this can really prevent any falling out between an ambassador and your organization.
Even when you and your ambassadors have a great relationship, it’s important to remember that they have their own careers and lives going on as well.
You will need to put in a little effort to keep the attention of your ambassadors.
4. Stay Relevant
This shouldn’t be a weekly e-mail, but rather a creative outreach to keep your brand on minds of your brand ambassadors.
Sending monthly newsletters or infographics that highlight information about the brand, birthday gifts, free merchandise, or hosting “thank you” events are great ways to remind your ambassadors of your organization and the mission.
You could also do something simpler like asking for their feedback and then acknowledging them when you use their advice.
Applying these tips will help you maintain your organization’s relationships with brand ambassadors and essentially maximize the ROI of a brand ambassador program.
If you’re looking for more ways to develop your marketing strategy, contact us today. We’re here to help!