Your brand ambassadors love you — and it’s not just because you paid them to talk about you. They actually want to hype your brand because they believe in the quality of your products.
On the surface, brand ambassador programs look like other “give-to-get” marketing strategies, like affiliate or referral programs. Dig a little deeper, though, and you’ll find brand ambassadors are a niche but incredibly powerful customer pocket that can help your business to grow.
All ambassador programs should generate brand trust as well as spread the word to people who are most likely to become loyal customers — but no two brand ambassador programs are the same. If you’ve been on the fence about creating a brand ambassador program, we’ve pulled together four different programs that offer unique rewards for their top content creators.
Maeven Brand Offers Tiered Rewards Based on Follower Count
Maeven Brand is a subscription service box for couples beginning to plan their wedding. Beyond being useful for engaged couples, this subscription is a quick, easy, and affordable way for event planners and wedding professionals to stay on top of the biggest trends each season.
Source: Instagram.com/karnataurus_rex
Maeven’s brand ambassador program requires an application so the brand can select applicants who are a good brand fit. They want to work with influencers who have the potential to create high-performing content that will maximize engagement on social media.
That’s why one of the application’s top qualifying factors is follower count. Applicants receive higher rewards for more followers and the potential reach of their social media content.
The company makes an exception for YouTube content, which requires no minimum follower count in exchange for a free box per video. This makes sense when you consider YouTube’s algorithm is focused on connecting content to the most receptive audience — because of this, follower count is less important than creating highly relevant and visually pleasing content for your target audience.
Why it works: While a large social media following doesn’t guarantee engagement, it does increase the potential reach of high-quality content to target audiences. Maeven Brand also dictates how many times a brand ambassador must post to their Instagram feed and Stories in order to remain in the program.
Bombay and Cedar Scales Rewards Based on Sales
Bombay and Cedar is a woman- and family-owned subscription box company that gives customers access to a monthly curated assortment of lifestyle products. Each box comes packed with “high quality, earth-friendly & cruelty-free products” to help customers to live more sustainably and mindfully.
Like Maeven Brand, its brand ambassador program is structured into tiers. But, rather than by follower count, Bombay and Cedar breaks out its tiers by sales.
Sales-incentive programs are useful for generating revenue. In fact, a recent study shows companies that employ a sales incentive program could see as high as a 500% increase in sales. But you don’t need to reward your brand ambassadors with commission alone. Research from IRF shows that 68% of incentive programs reward their participants with merchandise. Similarly, the use of gift cards as a reward went up by an estimated 39% in 2021.
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At Bombay and Cedar, the more subscriptions an ambassador sells, the more rewards they become eligible to receive. Everyone starts in the Intro Tier and works their way up to better rewards and perks depending on how much money they rack up in sales. Over time, Bombay and Cedar monitors its ambassadors’ effectiveness to ensure they are still a good brand fit.
Why it works: As an added incentive, Bombay and Cedar cross-promotes content from brand ambassadors on its own social media accounts. This gives the company access to user-generated content (UGC) that it can use for its content calendars. Plus, this kind of cross-promotional tactic helps ambassadors to grow their own followings, which also helps the company.
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Cocotique Rewards Free Products in Exchange for Content
Beauty box subscriptions that feature makeup, skincare, and wellness products are nothing new. But Cocotique designed its box specifically for women of color — to take the frustration out of finding high-quality beauty, wellness, and lifestyle products that fit their needs.
Cocotique offers both an affiliate marketing program and a brand ambassador program. Affiliate programs with word-of-mouth marketing are great but often lack the influence of people with larger social media followings. So, the requirements and rewards structures reflect that. At Cocotique, affiliates are given pre-made branded assets to post on their social media platforms to take the guesswork out of creating impactful content.
But brand ambassadors are typically strong content creators, so Cocotique can trust that this group can create impactful reviews of products and tutorials. And they’ll share their positive thoughts about the company on a regular basis. Because of this need to constantly build video and photo content, only applicants with at least 1,000 followers on Instagram are considered.
Source: Instagram.com/beauty.her.way
The company’s brand ambassadors receive special rewards beyond the scope of their affiliates, like free boxes each month in exchange for content and an exclusive lifetime discount code.
Plus, every ambassador is given a unique discount code to share with their followers on social media. These codes are not only easy to track (especially if you’re using a growth marketing tool), but they also let the ambassador earn a commission for every purchase made through their channel. It’s an affiliate program with an influencer boost.
Why it works: Cocotique’s program helps promote brand awareness by encouraging influencers and content creators to promote the beauty box on their own channels. It also does a fantastic job of increasing the visibility of beauty brands run by and for women of color.
BURST Oral Chooses Professionals Over Influencers to Boost Brand Credibility
BURST Oral’s subscription box includes toothbrushes and dental hygiene products for kids and adults.
The company credits its brand ambassador program as the secret to its success. That’s because the program has space for product feedback built-in, which helps the company create cutting-edge and high-quality products.
Source: Instagram.com/thewanderingtoothfairy
BURST takes a different approach with its brand ambassador programs than any other company on our list. It chooses to work with dental professionals instead of social media influencers or content creators.
Its goal is to increase brand awareness and trust among consumers. So, the company works with people who are knowledgeable and willing to hype the brand to their patients in person rather than on social media.
BURST’s brand ambassadors get access to products at a discounted rate, and they can share their thoughts directly with the product development team at BURST. Then they get reimbursements and rewards for their feedback. In turn, their input helps BURST create better products for consumers.
Why it works: BURST’s brand ambassador program has quality control built-in. It also incentivizes dental professionals to talk positively about the brand with their patients.
The Best Brand Ambassador Programs are Managed With Growth Marketing Tools
No matter how you approach your brand ambassador program, you need a growth marketing tool to help you stay organized — especially as your program starts to gain traction.
Juggling new applications, creating unique codes, pushing special promotions, and navigating reward payouts are hard to manage. But tools like Extole are designed to save you time and energy with automated rewards and outreach and tracking features to monitor the activity of your brand ambassadors.