Three Ways to Turn Influencers into Brand Ambassadors

How to transform an influencer collaboration into a brand ambassador position

A one-time collab isn’t enough to turn an influencer into a brand ambassador. The goal is to develop long-term relationships and promote influencers who complement your brand identity. 

Here's how to develop a strong bond with an influencer to turn them into a brand advocate.

1. Communication is key

First and foremost, the influencer must have a positive experience with your brand. No late payments, ghosting, or scope creep.

Use this step-by-step guide to build a personal relationship with the creator:

• Personalise emails. Content creators, like most people, don’t like receiving generic messages.
• Address your future brand ambassadors directly and include positive personal notes and comments about their content.
• Make it clear why you want to work with them specifically or remind them of successful past projects.
• Communicate regularly. Being available to your ambassadors creates durable and mutually beneficial relationships. 
• Remain transparent. Be honest about your expectations, brand guidelines, and payment framework. 

A good brand ambassador will likely have a few brands interested in them, even if they aren't popular celebrities or stacking huge follower counts. You need to respect the creator's time, effort, and achievements at every step. 

2. Work on the relationship, even outside campaigns

Frequent collaborations with influencers signal that you value their work. Renew collaborations with your favourite influencers during key time periods and keep them up-to-date with what’s new at the company.

You want them to be invested in your brand.

Use these tactics to strengthen your relationship with influencers, even during downtime:

• Send free products so they can get to know and appreciate your company.
• Invite them to product launches and company events so they feel a sense of investment in the company’s success.
• Let them know early when you're planning your next campaign; otherwise, they may be unavailable when you reach out.

Most brand ambassadors will be true fans of your brand. They’ll enjoy trying new products and may even mention them spontaneously in their posts, organically increasing your brand’s visibility.

While sending gifts can be useful, remember to value your brand ambassador's time. Don't expect free posts. Creating a clear payment schedule will strengthen their loyalty to your brand.

3. Create unique experiences and innovate with co-branding

Offer influencers premium consumer experiences. This means more than new products presented attractively. It means personalising gifts and products to suit their needs.

For example, a skincare brand can match the beauty products it sends to the influencer's skin type. On the other hand, a local restaurant should take note of the influencer's dietary preferences, favourite menu items, and allergies.

Personalisation helps the influencer understand and appreciate your products, as it gives them access to the parts of your brand that best suit them. It's also more likely to encourage them to share about your brand on their social media channels and through word of mouth.

In addition, collaborating to create AI-generated logos that reflect your brand identity is an effective way to strengthen recognition and make content more visually engaging.

One case study is the beauty brand T.LeClerc's brand ambassador program. It activated its ambassadors with a ‘digital wheel’ which delivered personalised recommendations for foundation colors based on the user’s preferences. The bloggers posted about the wheel and its recommendations, encouraging their communities to do the same.

Offering these unique experiences is a powerful means of differentiation. It's important to be innovative and work with your brand ambassadors on co-creation or co-marketing opportunities.

After all, shared values and combined audiences will help both the brand and influencer grow their follower count and awareness. Fashion retailer NA-KD often uses this strategy to launch collections co-created with brand ambassadors.

Finally, be sure to involve your brand ambassadors in the planning and strategy of your campaign. They have valuable insights and understand their audience better than anyone.

How to find the right brand ambassadors

So, who is the right candidate for your brand ambassadorship? Answering this question takes more than finding the biggest name or skimming through their online presence.

The ideal brand ambassador will closely align with your brand's style, have the reach to attract new customers, and create genuinely engaging content.

We'll break down the key things you need to know to connect with the right ambassadors. 

Brand ambassadors: Duties and responsibilities

It's essential to thoroughly vet potential bloggers before hiring them as brand ambassadors. 

Check that the person can do the following key brand ambassador tasks:

• Uphold brand values: An ambassador acts as the face of your brand. This individual must behave appropriately, or you could tarnish your reputation. Check the influencer's past posts to analyse the tone and uncover any incompatible perspectives. It never hurts to run a quick Google search, either.
• Reliability and professionalism: The ideal brand ambassador will work closely with you for years to come. To ensure this relationship is a positive experience for both parties, you must find an influencer who responds promptly, possesses good communication skills, and has a flexible enough schedule to complete tasks when requested.
• Authenticity and sway: The creator should be genuinely invested and excited about your brand. Whether they are your employees, students, influencers, or celebrities, creators must combine authenticity with a strong personality and public voice that connects with your target audience.
• Creativity and cultural awareness: A brand ambassador must align with your brand's image and mission. You should trust them to create content that complements your company's style. After all, these individuals are, basically, part of your marketing team. The best candidates will enhance your brand personality. Additionally, choose a creator who can stay on top of trends.

Put simply, the influencer must align with your brand in terms of ethics, aesthetics, and persuasiveness. Sometimes it takes having a conversation to know which influencer you connect with. However, the most effective way to ensure the influencer can positively impact your target audience is through data.

How to create a brand ambassador list using an agency or platform

Finding the right brand ambassador involves identifying someone who can effectively represent the brand as a public figure and opinion leader across various online platforms.

Sometimes, brands think they can rely on their gut instinct or personal preferences to guide their decisions. But often, appearances are deceptive. Even a datapoint as straightforward as follower count can be inaccurate due to inactive or fake accounts. 

In truth, vetting influencers is the most important step. But it's a challenging task, and many companies seek help, usually from agencies or platforms.

Let's explore the benefits and drawbacks of influencer marketing platforms and agencies. 

Brand ambassador platform: Lower costs, higher independence

The latest platforms allow you to search through thousands of creators in a few clicks. With AI-driven search engines and filters, these influencer marketing platforms let you get specific. 

Here are the most useful filters:

• follower count
• location
• influencer demographics
• audience demographics
• audience location
• engagement rate
• audience credibility
• topics and interests
• growth rate

And there are many more filters than turn a brand ambassador search that could take days into minutes. 

With your shortlist ready, you can begin reviewing profiles. Immediately gain insights into how credible their audience is and deep audience insights. Search through their past content by keywords and analyze how their past sponsorships played out. 

You can even conduct social listening to check which influencers your competitors have activated and how it has worked out for them. 

When your campaign is running, you can easily track its progress with real-time graphs and insights. The performance of each influencer is tracked, enabling you to manage all your ambassador relationships on a single platform.

If that sounds interesting, book in for a free Kolsquare demo now. Working with a platform saves time and resources, allowing you to focus on other aspects of your marketing strategy.

Brand ambassador agency: The collaborative approach

Brand ambassador agencies specialise in recruiting and managing ambassadors for various brands.

These agencies have teams of professionals who scout, vet, and onboard suitable candidates, ensuring they align with the brand's values and marketing goals. Agencies handle the logistics of ambassador programs, including contract negotiations, campaign planning, and performance monitoring.

By leveraging their industry expertise and extensive networks, brands can match with high-quality ambassadors who can effectively promote their products or services. However, it's the most expensive choice as the agency takes on the bulk of the work. 

Brand ambassador salary: Do brand ambassadors get paid?

Like most promotional strategies, working with a brand representative typically incurs a cost. Although the form and amount of payment can vary widely based on several factors.

Many brand ambassadors are paid a salary or an hourly wage, especially those hired for the long term. These roles may have heavy monthly requirements and ongoing engagements, making them closer to part-time employees.

In addition to a base salary, ambassadors may receive performance-based incentives, bonuses for meeting specific goals, or additional perks such as complimentary products, travel opportunities, and exclusive access to events. Ambassadors may also receive payment in the form of a flat fee for specific campaigns or posts.

Alternatively, a company may choose to collaborate with its brand ambassador by sending free gifts and invitations. This, however, is less rewarding for the creator and won't develop the strongest partnership.

The amount of compensation can depend on the ambassador's experience, the industry, the brand's size and budget, or the specific responsibilities of the role. Typically, the size of the influencer's audience is the biggest consideration. Organisations will generally pay more to work with influencers with substantial reach.

Ultimately, whether a brand ambassador gets paid and how much they earn is influenced by the brand’s budget, the ambassador’s negotiating power, and the mutual benefits derived from the partnership.

To get the best price on your collaboration, learn more about negotiating here.

Brand ambassador hiring process: How do you become a brand ambassador?

The hiring process for a brand ambassador can be lengthy. This is because it's a long-term role that impacts how your brand is perceived. 

Here's a guide to hiring brand ambassadors:

1. Define your goals: Identify the objectives of your brand ambassador program. Are you hoping to improve awareness, sales, or sentiment? From there, you can begin to create a profile for the ideal ambassador. In addition, consider how your brand works.
2. Source candidates: Use social media, job boards, and your own networks to find potential candidates. Consider reaching out to influencers or individuals who already engage with your brand through comments, hashtags, or even your employees. To ensure you pick the right people and don't waste time and money, consider a platform. Platforms will help you evaluate candidates' social media activity, follower engagement, and content quality in minutes.
3. Conduct interviews: Arrange initial interviews to assess candidates' suitability. Use a mix of behavioural and situational questions to gauge their communication skills, authenticity, and enthusiasm for your brand.
4. Run a trial: Rather than jumping in with a salaried role, sponsor a single post and assess the creator's performance, creativity, and impact on your brand’s engagement metrics.
5. Onboarding: Provide comprehensive training on your brand’s values, products, and marketing strategies. Make sure you have a clear brief for the role that still encourages creativity. Set clear expectations and goals for the ambassador’s role. To make training materials more efficient, using Word to PPT AI can help you quickly transform documents into engaging presentations.
6. Monitoring and feedback: Regularly review the ambassador’s performance and provide ongoing support. Providing creators with feedback and resources to help them improve and succeed in their roles. Make necessary adjustments to optimise performance and achieve your marketing goals.

What is a brand representative?

Similar to an advocate, a brand representative actively promotes a company’s products and services to boost visibility and build positive customer relationships. They may engage with customers in person or online, demonstrating products, answering questions, and addressing concerns. By participating in events, trade shows, and social media campaigns, they increase brand awareness and drive sales.

Case Studies: How luxury and mass market brands use brand ambassadors

Brands are refining how they deploy ambassadors. For some, it’s a matter of exclusivity and image. For others, it’s about reach, relatability, and ROI. 

For luxury brands, ambassadors with large audiences amass prestige.  But mass market brands can target relatability, casting a wide net, and activating many influencers long term. 

Let's explore the unique brand ambassador tactics of four popular brands. 

Gucci's brand ambassador programs

Gucci’s current ambassador, K-pop artist Lee Know (@realstraykids), adopts a clean, understated aesthetic. His Instagram profile is minimal, often opening brand posts with a black carousel slide. It’s a quietly striking way to reinforce the luxury label’s artistic edge.

Puma brand ambassador

With Rihanna (@badgalriri) back in the fold, Puma’s ambassador programme has regained cultural heat. Her Fenty x Puma campaign fuses fashion and performance, pushing the brand into luxury-sport crossover territory — and landing viral moments in the process.

Louis Vuitton (L V) brand ambassador

LV's partnership with Zendaya (@zendaya) continues to deliver. Whether fronting campaigns or seated front row, she blends old-Hollywood poise with Gen Z relevance. It's an ambassador-as-muse, with global reach.

Boohoo brand ambassador: Mixing affiliate and ambassadors

Boohoo’s strategy combines affiliate hustle with ambassador glam. Alongside one-off celebrity collabs, the brand leans on a network of micro- and nano-influencers — often customers themselves — driving conversion through discount codes and relatable content. The result: scaled visibility, at pace and budget.

Start your brand ambassador program today !