With more than one billion active monthly users, Instagram has certainly become one of the most popular social media channels. Its popularity has increased the demand for Instagram brand ambassadors, who help brands and organizations promote their services and products through word-of-mouth marketing.
This blog post focuses on Instagram brand ambassadors. We have divided it into different sections, including brand ambassador roles, skills, salary, and more.
What is a brand ambassador on Instagram?
A brand ambassador on Instagram is the face of the brand who uses his social media channel, established relationships, and word-of-mouth marketing tactics to promote the products and services of their brand. Popular brand ambassador examples include music artist H.E.R. for L’Oreal Paris and famous model Gigi Hadid for Tommy Hilfiger.
But, brand ambassadors are not always celebrities. They can be loyal customers of the brand or influencers/bloggers sharing the company’s story. You don’t need to have a great following to be a brand ambassador on Instagram. However, brands prefer ambassadors who are skilled in the same niche as the brand or have an engaged audience.
What does a brand ambassador do?
As a social media brand ambassador, your primary role is to improve a brand’s reach and visibility. Roles will be assigned to you according to the goals and marketing strategy of the company.
Here are a few roles that a brand ambassador is expected to play.
Become the face and voice of the brand
When you become an Instagram brand ambassador, people recognize you as the voice and the face of the organization. It becomes your responsibility to promote the products and services of the company with your words and actions. Brands gain people’s trust, which ultimately turns them into their paying customers.
Give product shout-outs
An easy and effective way of promoting products of the brand you are representing and increasing their sales is through shout-outs. There are many ways you can encourage people to buy your brand’s products. Some of these ways include:
- Join an affiliate program: You can become a part of the affiliate program of the brand. You will provide your followers with a promo code or a link. This way, you earn a commission every time someone buys an item using your code or link.
- Giveaways: You tell your followers to follow a few actionable steps to get a free product or a limited-time promotion on certain products. Since your followers trust your words, many of them will most probably invest in the products you are promoting.
Build a brand’s community through your Instagram page
Many Instagram brand ambassadors have an engaged following. One that comments, likes, shares views, and responds to their calls.
As a brand ambassador, you connect your audience with your brand’s page and share its vision with them. You can do this through product reviews, which are powerful tools influencers and bloggers use to sell products. More than 61% of consumers prefer buying products recommended by friends, family, bloggers, and influencers.
You can also write short pieces of product testimonials, which encourage people to take action and press the ‘order now’ button. According to a study, a brand’s conversion rate increased by 34% when it displayed product testimonials with its products.
A brand ambassador can snap a picture of the product, or even make its creative video. Visual content has a stronger impact than written content.
Host online events
The brand may also ask a brand ambassador to host or organize an online event. Events are usually arranged when a new product is about to be launched, or you need to maintain the hype about the brand. Such events provide brand ambassadors an opportunity to connect with other ambassadors and increase their social circle.
Change the perspective of people about the brand
Brand ambassadors change the general public’s views about a certain product by sharing its reviews. If a product is to be launched soon, you can give its ‘pre-release’ opinion to create hype about it.
Expand the market
Brand ambassadors also help companies expand their market. Let’s say you are from Asia and a European clothing brand wants to open its new store in Asia. They will contact you to help them represent their products and services to an Asian audience that has already been following you and trusts your words.
Brand ambassador skills
A social media brand ambassador must have the following characteristics or skills.
Knowledge of marketing
You don’t necessarily need to have a marketing degree in order to become a brand ambassador. But, it is important to have an understanding of the basic principles and strategies of marketing.
A competitive ambassador knows the value of authenticity in the online market. He understands that people no longer trust salesman pitches, and instead, prefer getting honest reviews and opinions about a product.
Leadership qualities
Social media brand ambassadors have a friendly, confident, and positive personality – traits that make people want to listen to them or follow them on social media. Due to their leadership traits, they build trust with followers and make them trust the brand they are representing, as well.
A highly engaged network or a well-established Instagram presence
As an Instagram brand ambassador, you need to have an engaged network or a good online presence that will help you make your word-of-mouth marketing successful.
Now, it does not mean that you must have over 1 million Instagram followers to become a brand ambassador. But, the followers you have should engage with your posts and profile. They should leave likes, comments, and views about your content. Having a larger number of followers will not get you anywhere if most of them are inactive.
Ability to foster strong relationships
A skilled Instagram brand ambassador knows how to connect his followers with the brand and create a lasting relationship between them. He is passionate about the products or services he is representing. He uses this passion for creating deep connections with followers and others on the behalf of the brand.
How to become a brand ambassador on Instagram?
-
Select your niche
The first thing you need to do is define your personal brand, which is a combination of your niche, your personality, and the way you use your content on Instagram. Make sure you choose a niche you can work on for years to come, preferably a niche you are passionate about.
-
Build a strong Instagram presence
Create your Instagram business or creator profile. Optimize its bio with a few words and tell your future followers about yourself. Create quality content and share it on Instagram consistently. Make sure your content attracts both brands and audiences. Use hashtags to increase your reach.
-
Increase audience engagement
Your audience engagement matters more than the number of followers you have. You need to focus on interacting with your audience if you want to become a successful Instagram brand ambassador. Following are some ways of increasing audience engagement.
- Ask interactive questions in the caption.
- Give a timely response to your follower’s comments.
- Reply to their direct messages.
- Share authentic content to be more relatable.
- Post videos from time to time as they create 38% more engagement than pictures.
- Use Instagram Live to connect directly with your followers, and boost engagement.
-
Learn digital marketing skills
Anyone working on a social media platform must learn digital marketing tactics if he wants to stand out in a crowded online world. These skills will increase your demand when you reach out to brands to partner with you. They also help you boost your number of followers and engagement. It’s a win-win.
-
Go for affiliate marketing
Choose a brand that is a good fit for your followers. Start their affiliate program in which you will get a promo code or a link to share with your audience and increase sales of the brands. You will get a fixed commission whenever someone uses your promo or link to make a purchase.
-
Promote products of your partner brands
Now that you have established a strong Instagram following and learned the basic marketing skills, it is time to partner with brands. You can start your career as an Instagram brand ambassador by targeting startups or small businesses that need exposure.
You may have to work for free in the beginning, which is still great because you are getting work, experience (and free products, too!). You can look for work on freelance marketplaces as well.
-
Target bigger deals
If you have followed the above steps, you are in a perfect position to expand to larger brands and get bigger deals. Keep creating engaging content, sharing regular posts, improving your marketing strategies, and increasing your number of followers to get noticed by the bigger brands in the long run.
Do brand ambassadors get paid?
A person with an outgoing, confident, and friendly personality can become an Instagram brand ambassador and earn money in different ways. In addition to getting monthly pay, they often get free products, commissions, and tips.
The average salary of a brand ambassador in the USA is $52,113 per year, consisting of $33,497 base pay and $18,616 additional pay. However, if you work for a big brand, your salary will be much more than the average salary. It means your salary as a brand ambassador highly depends on the brand you are representing.
Some brands pay brand ambassadors based on the number of products you sell through your social media page. So, you may earn a lot if you bring many new clients, or you may earn nothing if you don’t succeed in promoting products.
Brand ambassador vs. influencer
Since the role of a social media brand ambassador and an influencer has many similarities, people often think that ambassadors and influencers are the same. Here are a few things that show what makes brand ambassadors and influencers different from each other.
| Instagram brand ambassador | Influencer | |
| Techniques of promoting brand | Use their words to tell others about a brand’s product (WoM) | Show people how they use certain products |
| Relationship type | Generally, they are already a customer of the brand | May have never used the products of the brand |
| Contract duration | Long-term contract length | Short-term contract length |
| How they are selected | Based on their passion for a brand’s products | Based on their ability to target a brand’s specific audience |
FAQs
What makes a good brand ambassador?
A good social media brand ambassador is skilled at conversation, and he can talk to strangers confidently. He has a positive attitude that makes him stand out and gain the trust of his followers. He knows how to keep his followers engaged through his reliable and authentic content.
Why are brand ambassadors important?
Global brand ambassadors can humanize a brand by using the brand’s products themselves and showing the world how they work. They make people trust products through their positive word of mouth. They make their followers the paying customers of the brand. They create a positive public image of an organization and defend it against any defaming news.
Who are the top brand ambassadors on Instagram?
Here is the list of the top brand ambassadors on Instagram:
- Cristiano Ronaldo has more than 425 million Insta followers. He has worked as a brand ambassador for Castrol, Talabat, etc.
- Selena Gomez has more than 311 million followers. She has endorsed Coach, Puma, Adidas, etc.
- Kylie Jenner has more than 327 million followers. She has worked as a brand ambassador for Calvin Klein, Pacsun, Puma, etc.
The wrap-up
Instagram brand ambassadors speak for a brand in front of their followers to build their trust in a brand and its products. People consider them a trusted source of authentic information that they use to decide whether a product is worth buying or not.
Brand ambassadors write product reviews, and share their images and videos to let people know how they work in real life. They arrange online events and come live on Instagram to keep their audience engaged and connect them with the brand.
Social media brand ambassadors are in high demand now more than ever. People with a positive, friendly, and outgoing personality can become successful brand ambassadors after learning the required skills.