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Why you need brand ambassadors and how to inspire them

August 28, 2016 | Marketing

By Suzy Rounce

Brand ambassadors are simply people who represent and talk about your company in a positive, passionate way to everyone they meet who might care about what you have to offer. In short, they are your raving fans.

You need raving fans for many reasons, but here are just a few:

What they say is more authentic and credible coming from them than you

If someone is promoting your business straight from the heart, that will connect with people a lot better than you forcing others to listen to what you have to say. A brand ambassador can put their spin on your product or service and might highlight aspects of your business they were drawn to that you have never thought of before.

Customer Loyalty

Brand ambassadors feel like they know you personally, therefore they want to support you and help you thrive as their friend, not as just a brand. They humanize you (another benefit!) and shape you into something real that has made their life better.

Cost Efficiency

There is no cost to a brand ambassador promoting everything for you. But don’t fool yourself into thinking that means you don’t need to do anything. Your marketing and branding needs to be in place so that you can look just as professional and great at what you do on the outside as you are on the inside. None of that happens accidentally.

To make the world a better place

Without a tribe of people to call your own you may have the best ideas in the world but they won’t catch on. People spread ideas and products better than sales tactics do. If you haven’t read Tipping Point by Malcolm Gladwell check it out. It talks about this idea.

Longevity

Think of a brand ambassador as a mom who has chosen you to cheer for. Like our moms they will love us forever, no matter what. They will toot our horn every chance they get and give their passionate recounting of stories, experiences and love for what we do. However, THEY CHOOSE YOU! Of all the brands in the world they picked yours to be loyal to. Foster that and don’t take it for granted.

Now that you know why you need raving fans, here are some ways to inspire them:

Inspiration worth sharing

Tell your fans the stories that will get them excited about your business. Use your marketing as a toolbox for them to borrow from. Tell them what it is like to work with you—the inside scoop. Build a brand that shares images and content that inspires your fans to share your thoughts and ideas because they align with their own values. Showcase your team through your marketing. What makes them amazing and what have others said are their best qualities?

Send your fans thank you’s and special promotions, and find unique ways to make them feel important and rooted in your business. Think of genuine ways to praise them.

Send your fans thank you’s and special promotions, and find unique ways to make them feel important and rooted in your business. Be careful not to try to bribe them, because everyone sees through that (and it doesn’t work anyway). Think of genuine ways to praise them.

Other tools you can lend brand ambassadors include great website information, blog articles and freebee pieces that will keep fuelling them to tell others a bit more about your company.

However you do it, make brand ambassadors part of your marketing strategy and together you’ll fuel passion into your business.