How to increase brand awareness, via brand ambassadors – some Olympian inspiration

It's unlikely any company other than Coca-Cola has the marketing budget of Coca-Cola and furthermore, can afford brand ambassadors such as the Olympian athletes. However, as we've seen with several Olympic success stories, the underdog can also win the gold. Find out more on how you can increase brand awareness through your very own brand ambassadors. 

First, some inspiration from marketing pros: 

Brand Ambassadors from 2016's Olympics

Ashton Eaton and Alex Morgan via Washington Times

Simone Biles via E News

Our fav: Jordan Burroughs via CNN

What defines a brand ambassador?

It doesn't take a company like the ones above to gain success in this form of marketing. Really, they just skipped a few steps through their purchasing power.

For the rest of us, a brand ambassador works like this: Anyone who tries your product and then goes to others to say they loved it becomes one of your brand ambassadors. Without a huge budget or contract, it obviously takes a bit more creativity and work to get your lesser-known ambassadors to make an impact and spread your brand, as say Simone Biles did for Kellogg's. 

Don't be discouraged. 

First off, word of mouth is the most influential aspect in purchasing decisions. Having several people talking about you is still your most powerful marketing asset. This is above paid campaigns and Olympian commercials!

"74% of consumers identify word-of-mouth as a key influencer in their purchasing decision"  – AdWeek

Besides this, it's a virtually free form of advertising. Once you get one person to be happy with your product and to talk about it on or offline, they initiate a conversation about your product. This may get a few more people to walk through your door or to seek out your website.

In a nut shell, we are encouraging you to focus on creating a positive user and customer service experience, and a strong product – more so than investing in commercials and advertising. 

Now, your turn...

How to create brand ambassadors 

1. Make their digital experience easy

In a previous post, we discussed Warby Parker's brand ambassadors. One of the reasons Warby Parker is able to create so many happy campers is in how they listened to their customer's needs and invested in a useful tool on their website. They know that not everyone wants to drive to a store to try on glasses, so they made a tool that allows you to try them on online. 

One of our clients – a real estate agency – knew it was important to help their potential clients shop for homes based on location. With our team, they designed a tool with Google Maps to make this easier. Read more here. 

In these cases it's clear, investing in the pre-purchase experience for your clients makes them happier post-purchase. 

2. Make it beautiful

Another contributor to a positive user experience is your website. A daunting but true stat comes from Google: it only takes about 50 milliseconds for the average person to form an opinion about your site. People want a site that looks modern and trustworthy and is easy to navigate, otherwise they'll look elsewhere. Investing in a site that people will like will help them like you! See more in a quote on Social Triggers' study:

Poor interface design was particularly associated with rapid rejection and mistrust of a website. In cases where the participants did not like some aspect of the design the site was often not explored further than the homepage and was not considered suitable for revisiting at a later date…The main reason that websites were rapidly rejected was due to the design of the interface. – quoted in CrazyEgg 

Need a better website but don't have the funds to start from scratch? Use our free website audit tool to map out your priorities. 

3. Engage & repeat

I LOVE receiving the monthly email from ClassPass. Admittedly, I haven't ever signed up for the product, however it highlights an impressive chain of events in brand-ambassadorship: 

• My coworker signed up for the product after seeing how much she liked the user experience of their website. It has a tool which allows you to schedule which gym classes you will take and when. This tool also shows you information about each class like what to wear and bring – the dream for any avid-gym class attendee.  = One brand ambassador
• She shared it with other coworkers and two of them signed up for ClassPass as well. They've both expressed how they appreciate the way this business works. = 3 brand ambassadors
• She showed me this tool, I was impressed and signed up for their newsletter. I love their newsletter layout and find the content inspiring for my next workouts. They send out their newsletter, ping me on social media and the like, but I appreciate it as their content is well-executed and useful. I'm recommending it to you and others = 4 brand ambassadors (+more?)

With this story as inspiration, take time engaging via your digital messaging and newsletter, as users could appreciate it. Don't be afraid to send out a monthly note, reminding them you're here to help.

4. Be nice & responsive

The way things spread these days, every conversation, big or small, matters to your company, big or small. Take time to train your staff to respond in a way that accurately reflects your company. Besides this, take time to develop content ideas and marketing campaigns that show customers you appreciate them. Read our tidbits on how both Spotify and Bruegger's Bagels have nailed this. 

If you'd like some help increasing brand awareness – whether it be developing a website, your brand or your content strategy that truly engages your audience – be in touch! We like to make people like you!