Competition to reach (and influence) the more than 80 million millennials is fierce. So, here’s a great addition to your marketing mix: create a brand ambassador program with your current customers and biggest fans. Generating conversation among their friends and family may be just the thing your brand needs to reach those elusive millennials. Here are some of the many reasons to recruit ambassadors to reach millennials:
Recommendations
92% of consumers would trust recommendations from family and friends (or even a stranger) more than any form of advertising.
Everyone needs a shopping buddy to avoid…disaster.
How are you getting people talking about your brand and making recommendations to their family and friends? No doubt you’re on social media, and perhaps you have coupons or loyalty programs. You’ve probably spent some substantial dollars on SEO and advertising. But what about a structured program to get people talking positively about your brand offline? Activating a carefully selected group of your loyal, happy customers through an ambassador program promotes offline and online conversations and recommendations that you can’t get through traditional communication with customers.
Millennials don’t like advertisements
Who doesn’t immediately want to buy these skydiving elephants?
That’s not to say that your advertisements aren’t effective. You can build brand recognition through traditional advertising, but only one percent of millennials say a compelling advertisement will make then trust a brand more. What will build trust and increase the likelihood of acquiring new customers? Building relationships through peer-to-peer interactions and real conversations.
Trust
Brand ambassador programs build trust with current and prospective customers.
There’s a face you can trust.
It’s face-to-face engagement to supplement your other marketing channels.
Whether you’re solely online, brick-and-mortar or a combination of the two, you may never get face to face interactions with prospective customers. Millennials are seeking out authentic, meaningful interactions with brands, want to know that you’re listening and want to feel like they’re really taking part in shaping your brand. What better way to build trust and create loyalty than by listening to the wants and needs of your customers on the ground, physically present and then putting those new ideas into practice?
You’ll see results
So refreshing.
It’s true. Brand ambassador programs have measurable outputs, and you get both qualitative and quantitative data to show a big ROI. Brand ambassadors can do things like give out promotional codes, collect data, share information and report feedback from both current and prospective customers.
So, do you want to learn more about how to start a brand ambassador program and build relationships with your target audience? We’re ready to help.