Brand ambassadors – who and where are they?

What exactly is a brand ambassador? Paid or unpaid, they are a combination of three things:

• Cheerleaders
• Sales rep
• Customer service

Their efforts work towards sharing a positive brand image, creating buzz, and goodwill.

Unpaid brand ambassador are also called “brand advocates”. They promote your organization because they want to share a positive brand experience and have a genuine appreciate for your product/service. Unpaid brand ambassadors usually fall into the following main categories:

• Your past and present clients
• Your fans/followers on your social media pages
• Your suppliers

But there is another, often untapped source, source of brand ambassadors – employees.

For the purposes of this post, employees that we do not typically associate as a brand ambassador, those in a support role: customer service, shipping, reception, admin, accounting, technical reps, etc. These team members are often underutilized brand ambassadors.

Now, this does not mean that they should all be asked to partake in traditional “sales” but rather to “support” clients. These “Secret Agents” are on the frontlines and know the joys and challenges your customers face when interacting with your brand, so why not give them the skills they need to promote your business?

Take away: Don’t underestimate the power of your #1 brand ambassadors – and your secret weapon to really differentiate yourself from the competition – your staff.