Why Putting the Power Into Affiliate Brand Ambassadors’ Hands Is Smarter for Brands
Affiliate brand ambassador programs are growing as a way to reach new audiences more authentically. Here’s how brands can succeed in onboarding new influencers.
This has changed the game for brands and influencers alike, so learn how to provide a great experience for your brand ambassadors and empower them with the best tools.
Different types of brand ambassador and affiliate marketing programs
Affiliate link programs provide influencers with a unique brand website link, complete with tracking tokens. Then, brands can track how many clicks the influencer’s unique link received, and pay out a percentage to the influencer when someone makes a purchase through their link. The downside of only using affiliate links is that legacy affiliate platforms were created for digital publishing, not for influencers — they’re often clunky and hard to navigate for creators and brands, and neither can easily and accurately track their success. Plus, brands can’t see the purchases made by followers of an influencer who navigated to their website without the link, whether that’s on their phone or just by searching for the brand.
Create discount codes for brand ambassadors
Consumers love nothing more than a discount. Providing commissionable discount codes, like 'Marty20' for 20% off, means consumers will actually do your marketing attribution work for you by taking the time to use the code — as opposed to brands just hoping influenced consumers will actually use the unique affiliate link.
Run sponsored influencer campaigns
Sponsored influencer campaigns, which typically involve paying influencers for posts on a particular theme, can be very effective if you find the right influencer with an audience that’s interested in your niche.
How to develop a successful onboarding process for affiliate brand ambassadors
The best brand ambassador programs are successful because the influencer feels supported by the brand. Here’s how to build an onboarding process that helps your ambassadors and influencers hit the ground running and succeed long-term.
1. Find brand ambassadors who align with your brand’s values and goals — use influencer communities and targeted brand ambassador recruitment
Brand ambassador recruitment can be challenging: Which influencers truly align with your brand values? Which ones are open for new collabs? Which ones have revenue expectations that align with your influencer marketing budget? Instead of spending hours on Instagram sending fruitless DMs, a brand ambassador management software like linkmonetize does the work for you, matching the right influencers with your brand and helping you prepare proposals and agreements.
2. Use the right affiliate brand ambassador platforms and tracking to incentivize activity.
Link Monetize gives brand partners a custom invitation page that they can send directly to influencers. This delivers a seamless and delightful experience for their current ambassadors to join the platform and can help improve the onboarding process. Link Monetize is built for brand-influencer collaboration, so both influencers and brands have easy access to their metrics. Brand ambassador tracking platforms let all collaborators see how every product, post, video, and campaign is performing and use that data to optimize performance and increase revenue on both sides.
3. Develop a brand ambassador kit
A brand ambassador kit, used in your brand ambassador training process, can include script and caption guidance (and examples), visual mood boards, product information, company information, and who to come to in the case of any doubts, roadblocks, or challenges.
4. Manage brand ambassadors on an ongoing basis and create a supportive community
Long-term partnerships are more effective than one-off collaborations, so ensuring your brand ambassadors are feeling supported and engaged with your brand is crucial. Don’t just set up a collab and move on — have regular check-ins to see how your team can support each influencer.
5. Empower brand ambassadors with monetary incentives beyond individual campaigns
If collaborating with an influencer is going well, you can go beyond discount codes and the occasional brand mention and pitch them on long-term, paid content. Pitch working with them on a branded video series, or a predetermined series of weekly paid posts featuring your products.
