How to convert your influencers into brand ambassadors?

Tired of invasive promotional stunts, consumers now more than ever yearn for authenticity. It’s the time for authentic and enthusiastic content creators to shine! They promote brands organically, beyond the margins of the mere marketing campaigns. However, how can we turn an influencer into a true brand ambassador? The burning question, answered in this article.

  What’s a brand ambassador?

Before diving into the subject, we’re going to set the basis of the topic. A brand ambassador is an individual that appreciates a brand and recommends it spontaneously and recurrently. This communicative enthusiasm has earned brand ambassadors a prominent position within influencer marketing campaigns. 

A brand ambassador can be an employee, a partner enterprise, a client or an influencer. Micro influencers and nano influencers are excellent brand ambassadors. They have the advantages of consumer profiles (as they’re authentic) as well as those of a content creator one (a moderately large audience). In a nutshell, these “small” influencers are believable promoters. A must for any enterprise.

Attention, a one-shot collaboration isn’t enough to convert an influencer into a brand ambassador. Read the rest of the article to find out how to gain the long-lasting support of a content creator.

Choose content creators that are fans of your brand

The main advantage of a brand ambassador? The passion, evidently! Choose influencers that appreciate your brand and your products for your ambassadors program. They’ll be genuinely enthusiastic and will share your message organically with their followers. 

To find these particular influencers, use social listening tools to identify those that mention your brand’s name on social media. Another option, use a CRM tool to find content creators amongst your clients. To go faster and further, think of using a matching tool like the one proposed by Hivency. This way, you’ll much more easily find good matches for your brand.

The brand Pylones, for example, has had no hesitation. The enterprise has been collaborating for months now with a dozen influencers found thanks to our influencer platform. What’s so special about them? They’ve been chosen precisely for their interest in Pylones campaigns. Now brand ambassadors, they continue sharing their love for the brand with their audience and have reached an excellent engagement rate (6.14% for their latest Mother’s Day campaign)

Personalize your communication with influencers

Do we still need to remind it? An influencer isn’t an ad-man. “Good” influencer marketing is based in true, sincere human relationships. To convert an influencer into a brand ambassador, you must establish a personal and durable relationship with them.

✅ Always personalize your emails. Content creators are now more solicited than ever, and they’re becoming allergic to generic messages. The ideal? Include in your message a concrete reference to one of their publications or a previous collaboration you’ve done. This is how you prove your interest in them is sincere.

✅ To ensure a prosperous relationship in the long term, communicate regularly with your brand ambassadors. A small card in the box, a nice comment on social media, a kind “thank you” message after a collab are very appreciated by influencers. It’s the perfect way to strengthen ties with your brand admirers!

Multiply the points of contact, even outside campaigns

To convert your influencers in ambassadors, it’s essential to establish frequent collaborations to keep alive his interest in your brand. In order to do so:

✅ Renew your collaborations with your favorite influencers during the key dates of the year.

✅ Inform your brand ambassadors of your novelties and make them try your products year-long.

The most advisable thing is to regularly send products to your ambassadors. As they’re true fans of your brand, they’ll have the pleasure of trying out new products and incorporating them spontaneously in their publications. In this way, they communicate their preference for your brand organically. It’s an effective way of promoting your brand’s visibility, even outside of influencer marketing collaborations.

Offer an adequate reward

What’s the ideal way of attracting influencers? Offer them premium consumer experiences. In order to do so, make sure you’re offering them not only pleasant products (beautiful packaging, card) but that also match with their profile (skin type, dietary preferences, particular necessities…). This way, you’ll increase your chances of them appreciating your products and wanting to talk about them on social media.

With its “Digital Roulette”, the brand T. LeClerc found an ingenious solution. They proposed to their ambassadors a 100% personalized offer. The brand, which specializes in the beauty sector, proposed a digital system that allows consumers to find their perfect shade match in powders and foundations. After having taken the test, each influencer received a selection of cosmetics. The result? 40 micro influencers in love with the product and an excellent communication to more than 608 000 consumers.

Propose unique experiences through co-branding

Keep your ambassador’s passion alive by proposing unique experiences. You can use different tools for this: personalized gifts, meet ups, travels, masterclasses, webinars, courses, etc.

The best advice to innovate and surprise? Do a co-branding! Co-branding (or co-marketing) consists of two brands that share values and an audience, collaborating in their marketing strategy. Particularly in influence campaigns, these collaborations offer two fundamental advantages:

• Attract your fans with an unusual, attractive proposition.
• Gain in visibility by reaching other brand’s audiences.

An example of a successful co-branding? For Grandmother’s Day, the cosmetics brand T. LeClerc and the jeweler Atellier de Famille associated. The objective: propose to ambassadors a compact powder and a necklace with their name engraved. A sweet detail that content creators undoubtedly appreciated.