Discovery

How To Find Brand Ambassadors: 11 Proven Methods

January 2, 2023
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13 min
Author
Rochi Zalani
Content Writer, Modash
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Having a successful brand ambassador program is marketer heaven: what’s better than a cheer squad tooting your horn 24/7?

Brand ambassadors are passionate fans who not only love your product, but also align with your values and are willing to go the extra mile to support your company.

The roadblock? Finding these brand ambassador gems is like digging for diamonds in a coal mine. Here are 11 no-BS places you should look at to find brand ambassadors for your company:

11 ways to find relevant brand ambassadors for your company 

1. Use an influencer discovery tool to find ambassadors with a good following

Influencers make the best brand ambassadors because they:

  • know how to promote a product online
  • already have an engaged audience 
  • produce high-quality content

Using an influencer discovery tool like Modash makes the process easy-peasy. With a database of every single influencer on TikTok, Instagram, and YouTube, it’s hard not to find a list of fits-like-a-glove brand ambassadors.

You waste precious hours scouring through thousands of posts, finding potential ambassadors, examining their content quality, and matching their audience demographics to your target audience. Gah — when will you run your business?

With Modash, you have all the data at your fingertips:

You filter the nitty-gritty of potential ambassadors: Why waste your time examining accounts that might or might not meet your criteria? Enter any and all filters on Modash — audience demographics, follower range, location, and more. It takes less than two minutes to set up a filtering process and avoid hours of headaches.

You know the deets on influencer performance: Each influencer on Modash has a whole report dedicated to them and their account — what’s the engagement on their recent posts? What are their most popular content pieces? What does their audience demographic look like? No more requesting influencers to share their metrics.

You get their contact details without hunting the internet: Going to each potential ambassador's account and noting their email is exhausting. Who has that kind of time? If an influencer’s email is publicly available, Modash lists it. Unlock emails in one click and export them in bulk.

The best part of all? Modash has minimal to no learning curve. Super easy to use.

Try all features for free for 14 days.

2. Turn your favorite influencers into brand ambassadors

If you already have a successful influencer network, it makes sense to turn your high-performing creators into social media brand ambassadors.

Influencers who have already collaborated with your brand understand your target audience, follow your workflows, and are a safer bet. Turning your best-performing influencers to brand ambassadors offer compounding returns since you double down on the channels & creators providing you with the best ROI.

For instance, Molly Mae had been partnering on sponsored videos with luxury hair enhancement brand, Beauty Works, before becoming their brand ambassador and launching her product line in collaboration with the company.

Treat most of your influencer campaigns as a stepping stone to a brand ambassador program. Why? In the battle of influencer marketing vs. ambassador programs, the latter often wins:

  • Brand ambassadors form a deeper connection with your brand, while influencer partnerships may be one-off or transactional
  • Brand ambassadors are in it for the long haul, while influencers can be campaign-specific 
  • Brand ambassador programs are more scalable than influencer campaigns

3. Ask your customers to join your ambassador program

Customer advocacy marketing reigns supreme because existing customers have real stories to share that your target audience will 100% find relatable.

If you turn existing customers into brand ambassadors, not only will their loyalty to you be solidified, but they’ll also become top-notch salespeople for your company.

How do you find interested customers?

  • Use your email list: Add a snippet about your brand ambassador program in the order confirmation, sales, and promotional emails like KiwiCo does.
  • Check online reviews: Check for raving reviews from customers on your website or third-party platforms like Amazon (if you’re B2C) or G2 (if you’re B2B). Ask customers who love your products to be your brand ambassadors. For instance, Tatiana Ettensberger left a flattering, detailed review of Olipop drinks on The Quality Edit.  Turning her into a brand ambassador when she already preaches about the product is a no-brainer move.
  • Hunt for customers who keep coming back: A manual, but effective way to find brand ambassadors is to reach out to customers who repeatedly order from you proactively. There’s clear evidence they love the product, and asking them to join your ambassador program can only strengthen the customer relationship.

  • Track customer mentions on social media: Many customers who love your products share their experiences online. Since these customers are already talking about you online, the likelihood of them being interested in joining your ambassador program is high. Track the content you’re tagged in on Instagram and TikTok to stay on top of these posts. 

4. Tap into employee advocacy by making in-house workers your brand ambassadors

No one knows you better than your own (brand’s) kin. Employees know the audience your brand is trying to reach, understand how to speak to them, and are already deeply associated with your company.

Take Pragya Mishra, a former employee of the LinkedIn analytics tool company, SHIELD. She posted about her LinkedIn consistency through the tool’s screenshot. It has over 200 likes and 65 comments — instantaneous brand awareness.

Not just this: employee advocacy on social media has wide-reaching benefits. According to Hootsuite’s Social Transformation Report:

  • 25% of companies say employee advocacy programs have boosted their brand health 
  • 28% say it has increased reach without using social media ads
  • 22% even agree it has boosted employee engagement

See if any of your employees have a significant following on social media or a strong influence among your target customers. Launch an employee advocacy program and turn your employees into brand ambassadors. Some best practices to follow for getting the maximum benefit out of employee advocacy:

  • Don’t force all employees to join the ambassador program: Not every employee will be up for becoming a company ambassador, and that’s okay. Ingenuine posts under pressure from the manager reflect the employee’s lack of enthusiasm in public. Give employees a choice, and the interested in-house folks will join automatically.
  • Train employees on content creation, but also leave room for flexibility: Your employees might not be the most skilled content creators — take some time to provide them with loose guidelines and an influencer brief. Leave room for them to personalize their posts, but also offer a loose structure they can build off from.

  • Encourage executives to build online thought leadership: Employees follow the footsteps of their leaders. Ask C-suite executives to be active on social media and create company-centric content to inspire in-house folks. In SHIELD’s example, co-founder Andreas Jonsson is an active LinkedIn creator. 

5. Attract inbound interest from potential ambassadors through social media and a landing page

Want interested ambassadors to come to you rather than going to them? An excellent way to do that is by sharing your brand ambassador program details on social media and creating a dedicated landing page for your ambassador campaigns.

For social media

  • Highlight the requirements and the perks of your ambassador program clearly  
  • Adapt your post to the platform — for example, use carousels & reels if you’re promoting on Instagram
  • Boost visibility by using hashtags, asking your network to promote the post, and resharing/reposting your content on Stories, retweets, etc.

This post by handmade pet accessories company, Cashew&Co., checks all the boxes.

⚡Pro-tip: Pin the brand ambassador promotion post on your account (like Cashew&Co.), so it’s the first thing someone sees when they visit your profile.

For landing pages:

  • Use testimonials from existing or past ambassadors (if you have any) for social proof
  • Share the criteria, perks, and requirements of your brand ambassador program
  • Answer any common FAQs to save the time of your marketing team
  • Show examples of high-performing posts from ambassadors 
  • Give directions about the next steps and how to apply
  • Optimize for SEO to get discovered on Google

Brava Fabrics’ ambassador program landing page is an excellent example of sharing all the details and anticipating ambassador questions without being overwhelming or cluttered. 

6. Ask your affiliates to be your brand ambassadors 

If you’ve found affiliates for your brand, it might make sense to convert the best ones into your brand ambassadors.

Affiliate marketers already know how to sell your products and have more stake in boosting your revenue since they are on a commission-based model of influencer payments.

Ask your top-performing affiliate marketers if they want to join your brand ambassador program. They might need extra perks to say yes — like getting invited to exclusive events, free merchandise, and promoting their posts on social media.

But the benefits are worth it because while affiliate marketers might be extra salespeople, ambassadors are the face of your brand who embody your values. The relationship elevation will reflect directly on your revenue growth.

While you’re at it, you might also consider merging your brand ambassador program with your affiliate program, like the swimwear company, Breezy Swim.

Apart from making things simpler, it also maximizes your return on investment from ambassador relationships by increasing the perks for brand ambassadors. 

7. Get your ambassador program listed on niche websites 

Many websites share articles like “top 20 brands looking for brand ambassadors,” which many potential brand ambassadors and marketers visit.

Getting listed on these websites directly puts you on the radar of many interested brand ambassadors at scale.

Also try to get listed on specific, industry-related popular searches such as “top 20 skincare brands looking for brand ambassadors” if you’re a skincare brand.

Getting your brand ambassador program listed on these sites brings your brand a large volume of eyeballs and traffic, but you might not get filtered and relevant ambassador applications. 

8. Ask for referrals from existing brand ambassadors

This method might be more relevant once you’re in the weeds, but if you already have a brand ambassador program, ask for recommendations from existing ambassadors. Their network reaches far and wide, and they might know people in their community interested in associating with your brand.

Tweak the following template for asking for referrals from existing ambassadors:

“Hey {first name}, we love our collaboration so far! Thank you so much for your work. We’re looking to add more ambassadors to our roster and were wondering if you have any recommendations? Would someone from your network be interested in joining {brand name} affiliate program?”

Referrals are often the best way to find similar kinds of ambassadors who don’t need a ton of vetting, direction, or hand-holding.

If nothing else, encourage your existing ambassadors to share your “call for ambassador” posts on their social media handles. Since your potential customers already follow them, you might uncover a gem interested in joining your ambassador program. 

9. Search for active ambassadors on social media

A manual way to hunt for brand ambassadors is to go old-school and search on social media.

How? There are four methods:

Method 1: Hashtags

Search for generic hashtags like #brandambassador or industry-specific ones like #fashioninfluencer to find posts from influencers who can be your brand ambassadors. 

⚠️ Remember: analyze each potential ambassador through an influencer analysis tool to check if they meet your criteria.

Method 2: Creator marketplaces

TikTok and Instagram have native creator marketplaces to help you discover influencers who might be a good fit for your brand ambassador program.

But these platforms don’t list every creator on their app — they have strict criteria like a certain number of followers.

What’s worse: they aren’t available worldwide, so it’s impossible to find local influencers if the marketplace is unavailable in your country.

Method 3: Look for your competitors’ ambassadors and find lookalikes

Your competitors might already have a running ambassador program. Find their ambassadors through:

  • testimonials on their ambassador landing page 
  • ambassador highlights on their brand account’s social media channel
  • see their “tagged” section to find ambassadors who have tagged them in their post 

Since brand ambassadors work exclusively with a brand, you don’t want to approach these same influencers to join your ambassador program.

Instead, find similar influencers through Modash’s influencer lookalike tool. Simply search for your competitor’s ambassador’s username, and Modash will provide a list of influencers who serve the same demographic.

Method 4: Approach adjacent companies’ brand ambassadors

Some companies are a part of your industry, but aren’t your direct competitors. For example, if you sell healthy snacks, some companies sell healthy ingredients or healthy drinks. These companies aren't your rivals, but they might serve overlapping customers.

Brand ambassadors of these companies are likely to align with your mission and have a desirable target audience. Find the ambassadors of these adjacent companies on social media and ask if they’d be interested in joining your ambassador program.

The biggest con of finding brand ambassadors through social media is it’s painstakingly time-consuming, and you still have to do the legwork of analyzing whether or not the shortlisted ambassadors meet your criteria. 

10. Work with a brand ambassador marketing agency

Ambassador marketing is a hot industry. Many experts have turned to form agencies to help brands through everything — from ambassador discovery to ambassador relationships.

When examining the many agencies in the market, ask yourself the following questions to determine if they are the right fit:

  • Does their rate align with your budget?
  • Have they served many brands in your industry?
  • Are their case studies strong enough to justify the charges for their services?
  • Do they provide end-to-end services or cater to only a part of the workflow?

Working with experts in brand ambassadorships makes you grow fast and give you a competitive edge to launch a successful brand ambassador program.

But brand ambassador marketing agencies aren’t for tight budgets since expert services don’t come cheap. 

11. Check for brand mentions from influencers on social media

You might be surprised to learn how many potential ambassadors are already posting about you for free.

Many influencers would buy your products and post reviews for their audience. See how creator Sonakshi tags Dalmend — and many other brands — by sharing a picture of their products.

The mention is not sponsored or in partnership, but if she genuinely likes the company, she’d love to join their ambassador program.

Search brand mentions on Modash using the “mentions” filter in influencer filters to find those who are posting about you.

3 pro tips to add that oomph factor in your brand ambassador relationships

Just signing brand ambassador contracts and crossing your fingers for the best? Rookie mistake. Keeping your ambassadors happy through relationship management is critical to getting the best out of them.

Here are 3 pro tips to add that extra spice to your ambassador relationships:

1. Engage with brand ambassadors on social media

Help your brand ambassadors grow with you. Share their content on your social media, comment on their posts about you, and highlight their videos or images on your email list.

It’s a win-win deal — it helps them gain visibility, and you keep your content engine running by repurposing influencer content.

Lululemon is a great example of recognizing its ambassador’s stories, achievements, and efforts. 

They frequently share ambassador-produced content on their social media, highlight the causes they support, and give ambassadors a voice on their feeds. 

2. Stay top-of-mind with value-driven newsletters

Monthly newsletters for your brand ambassadors are a great idea because it allows you to get the mindshare of your ambassadors and is a low-effort way of staying in touch.

But don’t just send out a newsletter for the sake of sending out a transactional email. Ensure it’s value-packed with content that ambassadors might find beneficial:

  • Share any upcoming sales, events, or launches: This will help ambassadors create content in advance for these big days.
  • Highlight the top-performing posts: It’ll make ambassadors feel valued to be recognized and inspired to do better. No need to do this manually — Modash has an influencer monitoring tool that can help you stay on top of all brand ambassador posts and track the high ROI ones.

Newsletters that provide value to your ambassadors hit two birds with one stone — you get better influencer-generated content from your ambassadors, and your ambassadors feel thankful for the actionable advice they can use to serve you better.

3. Make ambassadors feel special through exclusivity

Everyone likes to feel special — but especially brand ambassadors. Since ambassadors go beyond influencers and affiliates to represent your brand, it’s reasonable for you to go out of your way to return the favor.

Making ambassadors feel valued is in the little, simple things:

  • Invite ambassadors to exclusive company events
  • Remember their birthdays & anniversaries
  • Celebrate their wins with them
  • Give them the inside PR scoop
  • Send them surprise goodies

Maintaining relationships is simple, it’s just not easy. 

Brand ambassadors are your true partners

Ambassadors don’t have a one-off, transactional relationship with you. They represent your company and become the face of your brand for the long haul. People start associating you with them and vice-versa.

This is why finding (and vetting) brand ambassadors who fit like a puzzle within your company is critical. One misfit collaboration can make your brand appear lopsided in the public eye.

The most reliable way to find brand ambassadors is by using Modash — painless, quick, and scalable. Try it for free to find your next ambassador. No more scrapping the internet for ambassador gems when Modash can do the digging for you.

 
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