Marketing your personal brand and constantly looking out for new brand partnerships can quickly become exhausting.
In becoming a brand ambassador, many social media influencers see a way to find a stable source of finances, a necessary break from chasing new brand deals.
Does it sound like the right calling for you?
If so, this guide will tell you everything you need to know about how to become a brand ambassador and what the job itself entails.
- An Overview of a Brand Ambassador: A Primer
- What You’ll Need to Become a Brand Ambassador [& Associated Costs]
- Is It Hard to Become a Brand Ambassador?
- How to Become a Brand Ambassador in 5 Simple Steps
- Reasons to Consider Becoming a Brand Ambassador
- Frequently Asked Questions
- Similar Gigs to Check Out
- Wrapping Up
An Overview of a Brand Ambassador: A Primer
A brand ambassador makes a job out of being the “face” of a brand.
Brand ambassadors act as a brand’s spokespeople, promoting the company’s products or services to potential customers. They tend to be recruited from the ranks of celebrities, social media influencers, or otherwise, people with a significant social presence.
This doesn’t imply that you must be famous to be a brand ambassador. Many companies prefer to employ micro and nano influencers as brand representatives due to their greater potential for direct engagement and frequent personal familiarity with the brand.
The usual tasks of a brand ambassador include promoting the brand on social media platforms, involvement in marketing campaigns, leading brand awareness campaigns, or acting as a company representative at marketing events and other official and semi-official gatherings.
Having a distinct personality promote a brand in a charming, accessible way adds a human touch to a company’s marketing efforts and helps boost sales.
A successful brand ambassador can exponentially deepen the feeling of a company’s brand authenticity.
How Much Do Brand Ambassadors Make?
According to Glassdoor, the average total income for brand ambassadors in the USA (as of 2023) is $47,313.
The actual income range for brand ambassadors is quite broad and varies depending on the company’s brand value, as well as the ambassador’s own personal exposure.
While Glassdoor gives $74,000 as the top expected salary, there are celebrity ambassadors who earn larger salaries.
The most valuable ongoing celebrity endorsement belongs to George Foreman, whose partnership deal with Foreman Grills is worth $137.5 million.
What You’ll Need to Become a Brand Ambassador [& Associated Costs]
Becoming a brand ambassador requires a background with certain qualities and qualifications, some of which may come with associated costs. The following section will provide a full breakdown of these qualifications and the costs involved.
1. Strong Personal Brand
A potential brand ambassador should already have an established reputation among the brand’s intended target audience.
This can be achieved through a strong social media presence or through social niches such as a music subculture or university campus. Creating a strong personal brand could cost between nothing and several thousand dollars.
2. Familiarity With the Brand
If you want to represent a brand, it’s necessary to familiarize yourself with the products you’ll be promoting, as well as the brand culture. This often requires some investment in brand products, the cost of which may wildly vary.
3. An Education in Marketing
Brand ambassadorship is a marketing job, and if you want to work more effectively, it’s valuable to possess theoretical know-how.
Formal qualifications can range between an online course and a Marketing or Communications Degree.
While some of these courses are free, such as the Google Digital Marketing Course, the average cost of attendance for a Bachelor’s Degree in Marketing lies in the $10, 560-$37,650 range.
How Much Does It Cost to Become a Brand Ambassador?
Most of the time, becoming a brand ambassador doesn’t require any spending that’s 100% necessary.
If we take all optional spending into account, however, the total cost may even go over $50,000. The biggest part of this sum would go toward a Marketing Degree, which, luckily, is far from essential.
Is It Hard to Become a Brand Ambassador?
It’s often assumed that brand ambassador jobs are easy, and the only responsibility is to appear in marketing campaigns.
This couldn’t be any further from the truth. It’s a highly responsible job that demands taking on full public responsibility for your employer’s brand image from the moment you take it on.
For this reason, some potential employers will demand an official certificate proving that you’re ready to take on these duties before choosing to enroll you in their brand ambassador program.
Without a relevant college degree, a reputable sales certificate will most commonly do instead.
How Long Does It Take to Become a Brand Ambassador?
While no formal qualifications are always necessary to land a brand ambassador job, most companies will demand a level of previous experience in sales or marketing.
A total of two years of experience in a related field should be enough to get the hang of all the necessary skills.
Becoming a brand ambassador requires having an already established personal brand that can influence the target audience.
With the current trend of companies increasingly turning toward smaller influencers for ambassador programs, no more than six months’ worth of accumulating a social media following is necessary.
How to Become a Brand Ambassador in 5 Simple Steps
Here’s a step-by-step guide on how to start your journey toward becoming a brand ambassador.
Step 1: Find and Research a Niche You’re Interested In
Look for a niche that aligns with your passions, values, and interests. Consider your previous experiences, too—the skills which you’ve managed to accumulate so far will carry you a long way.
Settling on a niche will help you identify the skills you wish to focus on honing.
Also, it’ll narrow down the number of compatible brands to investigate. It’s important to do a deep research dive into the industry and get a feeling of the qualities they expect a brand ambassador to possess.
Step 2: Create a Cohesive Online Personality
Online brand ambassadors are expected to appear on their company’s social media accounts.
Therefore, you need to use the data you’ve gathered to get a feeling of the ambassador profile that’s favored in your industry of choice. Then try to align your social media persona closer to the idea you’re aiming for.
Authenticity remains crucial, however. A brand ambassador needs to present a cohesive, unified whole that’s distinct and instantly recognizable rather than just an empty aesthetic.
Make sure that your brand ambassador persona is in tune with an authentic part of you that you enjoy showing to the public. Most importantly, it should rely on your own experiences.
Step 3: Build a Strong Social Media Following
When taking on brand ambassador opportunities, it’s important to prove your ability to influence people by highlighting the online following that you already possess.
Most people who are new to brand ambassadorship can start looking for work with as low as 2,000 followers on a social media platform of choice.
Getting there in the first place may be a challenge, though. The best approach is to engage your existing followers as much as possible while creating new contacts with already-established influencers.
Step 4: Demonstrate Your Marketing Skills and Industry Knowledge
If you’ve decided on an industry you wish to be a part of, you should demonstrate your familiarity with it through your social media channels.
Try to regularly make social media posts on topics relevant to the industry. It’s also worth it to create content that clearly shows you using products sold by your favorite brands that you may be interested in marketing.
If you have any previous qualifications in influencer marketing or marketing in general, make sure to include them in a visible portfolio.
Step 5: Reach Out to Relevant Brands
Now you should be ready to reach out to your favorite brands. Don’t be shy about sending them an email or messaging their social media profiles, asking if they have any interest in employing a brand ambassador at the given moment.
If you’re confident in your own charm, an even better option may be to reach out in person at an industry fair or another similar event.
Reasons to Consider Becoming a Brand Ambassador
Working as a brand ambassador offers many significant professional benefits.
- Help Your Favorite Brand Grow: If your values align with a certain brand’s mission, you may feel personally invested in its success. Working as a brand ambassador gives you the opportunity to work together with the brand toward that goal.
- It’s a Great Boost to Your Personal Brand: Working as the face of a well-respected brand gives extra professional credence to you, too. It’s a highly valuable addition to your portfolio, no matter what field you’re looking to branch into.
- Free Products: Your employer will let you use the brand’s products for free to help with their promotion. For example, consumer technology companies will give you the latest gadgets, while a beauty company will regularly send you cosmetics.
- Travel Opportunities: Working as a brand ambassador means traveling a lot to help increase brand awareness. For you, this translates into many opportunities for domestic and international company-funded trips.
Frequently Asked Questions
Are Brand Ambassadors the Same as Influencers?
No. While both roles focus on social media promotion and building an online community, the difference is in the goal.
While influencers build their own brand and occasionally take on affiliate contracts, brand ambassadors present a company brand to target audiences and attract new customers.
Do Brand Ambassadors Make as Much Money as Influencers?
It depends—one can earn more than the other, but there’s no solid hierarchy. The key difference in salaries lies in the expected rates.
Influencers have more freedom to set their own rates and can frequently go higher, but brand ambassadors tend to have a more stable income.
Similar Gigs to Check Out
If you’re looking for similar jobs but can’t see yourself in brand ambassadorship, check these alternatives out:
- How to Become an Affiliate Marketer: Does marketing various brands while keeping a low commitment level sound more appealing? Look into becoming an affiliate marketer.
- How to Become a Content Creator: Interested in using social media platforms to create quality content that can be monetized? Read our guide on how to become a content creator.
- How to Become a Digital Marketer: Want a space where you could hone your digital marketing skills? You should consider becoming a professional digital marketer.
Wrapping Up
A brand ambassador role has become essential for any company that wants to raise awareness of its brand and create a stable base of loyal customers.
While the role mostly used to be reserved for celebrities, in the last several years, it’s become more open to regular people.
We hope this guide helped you learn more about the role and provided useful tips to help you get started on your journey.
If you enjoyed the guide and found it useful, make sure to share it with others who may also be interested in working as a brand ambassador.
We welcome any feedback you may have, so feel free to use the comment section and make yourself heard.
