6 Key Characteristics of a Successful Brand Ambassador

 

1. Knowledge of (and Appreciation for) Marketing

This isn’t to say your ambassadors and advocates need a marketing degree, but they should have a basic understanding of marketing’s core principles. Specifically, the best ambassadors appreciate the importance of authenticity in modern marketing, and grasp the role that digital marketing and social media play in driving high-quality referrals.

2. An Established Online Presence 

This ties back to the first characteristic, but it’s equally important. In order for word-of-mouth marketing to be successful, you need ambassadors to reach as many people as possible, across a variety of channels and platforms. Now, this doesn’t mean an ambassador must have 20,000 Twitter followers or thousands of email contacts to represent your brand. But they should have a well-established online presence and a highly-engaged network.

3. A High Level of Professionalism

While ambassadors won’t be employed by your company, these people will be representing your brand. They’ll be talking about your company, encouraging others to check out your products and services, and influencing how others perceive your business. If someone embarrassed themselves or your brand, you’d never hire them, right? The same standards should be applied to your brand ambassadors.

4. Natural Leadership Skills

Think about the people you look to for recommendations. Sure, they’re knowledgeable experts in a particular space, but you probably seek out their opinions because they also exude confidence and positivity — traits that draw you in and make you want to listen. These are the same types of people you want representing your brand in the marketplace.

5. A Passion for Building and Growing Relationships

Ambassadors are not salespeople heading out to make as many one-time sales as possible. They exist to foster strong, loyal relationships between your customers and your brand. Your ambassadors should not only be passionate about — and intimately familiar with — your products or services, they should also be skilled at making deep connections with others on your behalf

6. The Ability to Gather Feedback and Provide Innovative Insight 

No loyalty program is perfect. Neither is any particular product or service. Inevitably, brand ambassadors will gather feedback based on their experience with your product or services, as well as their conversations with your customers and competitors. This information can provide critical intelligence that helps you improve your referral marketing program (and, more broadly, your business).

Do You Have the Right People and Processes in Place? 

As with any marketing strategy, referral marketing requires the right mix of strategy, resources, technology, and people — the latter playing a particularly critical role in driving the whole operation forward. If you manage to find the right ambassadors with the right blend of skills, personality, and credibility, your referral marketing program will take off.

That isn’t to say that building a powerful army of passionate advocates is easy (it’s not). But with the right referral marketing strategy and approach, it is possible. Particularly if you focus on the six core characteristics I listed above, and pair it with a well-thought-out referral marketing strategy.