How to Manage a Brand Ambassador Team

So you’ve finally assembled a team of brand ambassadors who will represent your corporate identity in public and actively get customers engaged with your product or service. The rest takes care of itself, right? That would be nice, but a great team can fall apart just as quickly as it comes together if not managed correctly. With these tips, you can keep your brand ambassadors focused, motivated, and, don’t forget, happy for the long-term.

Set Clear Guidelines

Your brand ambassadors take your corporate identity with them wherever they go, so you had better make sure they know exactly what that means. Take time to clarify with them what aspects of your brand or product should be emphasized, but also what to avoid (and how to avoid it). Particularly in the age of social media, where mistakes are quickly compounded and permanently archived, keeping control of your brand’s voice and message is essential to maintaining its respect in the marketplace. The last thing you need is a brand ambassador putting that at risk because they weren’t properly briefed by management.

Monitor Progress

Luckily for brand ambassador managers, there are a range of tools that can help them measure their team’s performance. Upward Labs is a digital app that centralizes all your team’s activity in one place, allowing you to streamline all communications and quickly stay on top of issues as they arise. Turning raw data into useful metrics allows you to accurately judge individuals ability to hit targets, which means you can both properly reward high performing team members and identify those not pulling their weight.

Build Relationships

Ideally, you’ve picked the members of your brand ambassador team based on their ability to connect with customers and represent your identity. But that’s only the beginning of your relationship with them. Establishing trust and mutual respect is good management practice no matter what field you are in, and creating that kind of work environment will empower individuals to become high achievers. Things like creating an open, honest feedback loop for ambassadors to share their concerns will make them more engaged with their work, and in turn, will make customers more likely to engage with them. As you solidify your team, having that trust as a base can lead to giving them more responsibility and access, making them more effective ambassadors.

Make It Fun

Of all the things your brand ambassadors bring to the table, perhaps none is as important as enthusiasm. Even if you’ve chosen passionate, motivated people, you’ll need to keep stoking the flames of their excitement to get the most from your team. Giving away free product is one of the simplest ways to do so, but bigger ideas usually yield bigger results. Consider other perks, like granting your high achieving team members with VIP access to your next event, or even hosting a small event exclusively for them. Think of ways in which you can reinforce your team’s existing interest and knowledge, and then take it further; for example, if you’re a food company, teach your team how to prepare recipes using your product with a cooking class. The more you make it fun for them, the more they’ll transfer that excitement to customers.