Brand ambassadors can be anybody – your best friend tagging the brand of the shirt she is wearing in an Instagram post or your husband’s t-shirt displaying his favorite football team’s logo. Being a brand ambassador can come with many perks, including pay, networking opportunities, and free merch. This may lead you to ask how to become a brand ambassador? 

A brand ambassador, or brand representative, is someone who promotes a company’s services or products. Promotion can include tasks like attending events for product launches, providing a company with reviews, and answering other people’s questions about the product and the company’s offerings. In short, a brand ambassador is a spokesperson for the company who tries to influence others to try the company’s products or services out. 

Typical brand ambassador tasks may include: 

• Sharing social media posts or blog posts about the company’s products and services
• Helping to develop product marketing campaigns
• Tracking and measuring key analytics, like engagement and conversion rates
• Advising possible clients about a company’s products or services
• Creating company website content, such as blogs or social media posts
• Developing marketing campaigns

Initially, only celebrity or large social media influencers could fill this role, but with social media today and the rise of micro-influencers, anyone can now step into this role. In fact, the best brand ambassadors are often already loyal customers before they even begin with the company. 

Chris Grayson, Founder of Streamscheme shares that “When we first started our coaching business, we knew that we needed to find a way to stand out from the competition.. We decided to use an influencer to create free content as part of our marketing funnel, and it turned out to be a great decision. Our Youtube channel quickly grew to 181k subscribers, and we were able to reach a whole new audience. The best part was that our influencer was able to share our message with authenticity and sincerity, which helped us build trust with potential customers. We’re now in a position where we can scale our business rapidly, and we’re indebted to our influencer for helping us get there.”

How to become a brand ambassador

Many of you may now be asking: 

Do I need a large following for this? What qualifications do I need? What’s the catch?

The short answer is no. 

Begin by considering brands you are already familiar with, passionate about, and a fan of their product lines. Above all else, companies are looking for authentic brand ambassadors who already have a finger on the pulse of what’s going on with their products and competition. If you already publicly support or post about a company’s products, this may also give you a leg up. 

Next, try narrowing down your options to your top three choices and begin building engagement to catch the attention of your target company. We recommend gathering comments and likes on your social media posts to grab your desired company’s attention. Remember that you don’t need a massive following for this – a small but engaged audience is often better than a large but less engaged one. Try commenting on other well-regarded blogs or pages to gain more attention and become active in the community. 

As you do this, consider your brand and online presence image. You’ll want a cohesive and distinct feel to your social media profile. Be genuine and create something that reflects yourself. If you’re sarcastic, use this in your captions. If you love dressing to the nines, share this in your posts. Whatever your interests and style are, make sure you share them, and it’s consistent throughout your content. We recommend considering what you want your color palette to look like and sticking with a few cohesive colors to make you look more professional. 

Continue building your following, but keep in mind that large numbers can be impressive, but your engagement and conversion rates will be more critical to most companies. Try also to make connections with other influencers. Here are a few ways you can go about this: 

• Directly message other influencers you like and try to build genuine relationships
• Comment and like other influencers’ posts
• Collaborate with other influencers
• Shout out other influencers that are in line with your brand that you genuinely like

Indeed’s Brand Ambassador job postings

After you’ve built up a following, begin contacting the companies on your list and engage with their content regularly. For example, you could message the company on social media and ask them directly about working with or representing them. Even if they say no, try following up later when you have a larger following and continue staying active through comments and likes on their social media so that you are reminding them that you are there. 

If you’re interested in in-person events and opportunities, research what events are happening near you and attend as many events as you can. Speak directly to brand representatives at these events to learn more about their opportunities. Other companies may have applications online about brand ambassador opportunities, which is another route you can take to become a brand ambassador. 

Influencers as brand ambassadors: The secrets to your success

Influencers and brand ambassadors are not one in the same. Brand ambassadors can have a much smaller following and typically work more intimately with a few companies. On the other hand, influencers generally are more experienced content creators who work with a large number of companies, many of whom they may work with only once or twice, rather than an ongoing relationship. 

However, this is changing as companies learn the value of ongoing relationships with influencers. Influencers have a tight connection with their audience, who trusts their opinions and often envies their lifestyle. By using influencers in a long-term brand ambassador role, you can develop a stronger connection and more trust with their audience. 

Take this Instagram post which shares multiple favorite brands at once.

ggwrangler

1.3k followers

The more their audience sees an influencer using a brand or product, the easier it is for them to believe that this is a true favorite and a superior product that they should personally look into. 

So, if you already have a larger following, work to make ongoing deals with your favorite companies. This can be a mutually beneficial set-up, bringing consistent income in for you and long-term results for the brand you work with. On the other hand, if you have worked with an influencer in the past, consider bringing them on a long-term campaign.

Advice From Creators and Brand Ambassadors

Jodie Filogomo, the founder of Jodie’s Touch of Style has been a brand ambassador for many brands and they all are very different in their requirements and what she get out of them.

“It’s easier to work with companies that give you creative freedom. If they have vetted you, then they should know what kind of content you produce, so it shouldn’t need to be previewed at every step.

It’s [also] more authentic when I wear/use the items more than once. Which means it’s helpful that I get to choose what I want to promote.”

Creator Gennifer Rose shares some experience on a less than stellar brand ambassador experience:

“I was approached by a lifestyle brand to be a paid ambassador of their products for a full year. My contract stipulated that I would create branded content for them every month in exchange for product plus a cash fee.

At the beginning phase during the drafting of the contracts, they did not ask me any questions about my future plans during the next 12 months, or any major life events I anticipated happening during the contract period. At the time my husband and I were trying to get pregnant, and a few months into the contract time period, I found out I was pregnant.

When I told my brand partners about this new personal development, the reaction was overly negative and unsupportive. They decided to terminate the partnership because they felt that pregnancy was “off brand”.

I was very disappointed with their decision, and I felt that firing a woman for being pregnant was in very poor taste. We are a family blog and if they had done just a little bit more research on our content, they would’ve seen that possibly our values didn’t align from the beginning. The moral of the story is that both the brand and the influencer should have more in-depth conversations about future plans and core values before they move forward with a paid partnership.”

Both creators underscore the need to make sure the brands you choose to represent are reflective of your own personal values. Will Yang, the Head of Growth at Instrumentl, drives this point home from the brand perspective:

“In choosing your brand ambassadors, make sure that their branding, values, and what they stand for align with your company’s values. For instance, it wouldn’t make sense for a vegan and cruelty-free brand to engage with someone who doesn’t care about animal rights.”

How many followers do you need to be a brand ambassador? 

There is no set number of followers you need to be a brand ambassador. You could have as little as 1,000 followers and still be a fantastic choice for a brand. Smart companies will usually ask about your analytics and demographics rather than your follower count. 

Start by considering your demographic. If your demographic is millennial mothers, you may be the perfect brand ambassador for a company that sells products to primarily millennial moms. Reach out to brands with audiences that your brand identity speaks to. 

Caroline Duggan, Chief Brand Officer for Lumineux shars the following – “At Lumineux Health, we use brand ambassadors for our social media marketing. We frequently work with influencers who have at least 2,000 followers on their social media pages. These ambassadors post stories or videos demonstrating the use of our products such as our teeth whitening strips and pens. We look for individuals who have discovered our amazing products and who are excited to share their results with their followers. This provides a great opportunity for increasing brand awareness.”

Conclusion 

Becoming a brand ambassador is absolutely possible for influencers of all sizes. Remember that your analytics and audience will be more important to most brands than your following size. We hope this article helped answer your questions about becoming a brand ambassador. Anyone can become a brand ambassador and excel at it. 

Don’t forget to share and leave us a comment about your target audience and experience with brand ambassador work.