AMBASSADOR MARKETING – THE DEFINITIVE GUIDE TO E-COMMERCE

What’s the key to marketing in the 21st century?  People, not ads. Here’s why. As a company or business owner, if you are still stuck with the traditional method of advertising, then, you are probably missing out on tons of benefits that come with the new rave. That’s right! There’s a new rave and companies are keying into it at the speed of light. So, what’s the new rave?  Brand ambassadors!

It’s totally normal if at this point you are probably picturing Selena Gomez or David Beckham marketing your company’s product or service. That’s not exactly far off from the idea but let’s get you started on what a being brand ambassador really means.  3, 2, 1 and here we go!

Who is a Brand Ambassador?

A brand ambassador is someone who represents your brand, product, event or service. Simply put, a brand ambassador is a creative way of referring to someone who markets a brand, product or service through grassroots, face-to-face or “word of mouth” marketing strategy.

These are people that are essentially doing the marketing for a brand.

The term refers to a person who is hired by an organization or company to positively present and represent a brand in order to strengthen the customer-product-service chain and increase awareness and sales. A brand ambassador lives, eats and breathes the brand he or she represents. (Just kidding, that’s a hyperbole!) If you are also thinking of trade show hosts, in-store promotional members, and street teams, you are right!  These are brand ambassadors!

They employ both online and offline techniques to ensure that a brand, service or product is effectively marketed such that, people are influenced to patronize that brand, service or product. Voila! It’s that simple.

Recent surveys indicate that a substantial number of purchases are as a result of “word-of-mouth” referral. So, it’s not the fancy ad that got the pounds trickling in but someone somewhere who told someone else somewhere else   “Hey! You should totally check this out, it’s good stuff! “(Okay, this is getting too irrelevant. Let’s get back to why we are here.)

So, word-of-mouth is one of the best strategies for any brand to thrive.  People will most likely patronize a brand if the referral is coming from someone they trust. This is why more and more companies are creating ambassador programs, one-to-one customer engagement, and ambassador platforms.

So what do smart brands do? They incorporate ambassador marketing into their marketing budget. It’s a win-win, they simply connect with people who support their brand, build strong relationships and create an ambassador community that will help them spread the word in a more efficient way that any advertising campaign can do.

Mind-blowing, right?

A brand ambassador produces results through communication tools either publicly, such as social media, or privately including emails, messaging and one-to-one marketing strategies.

Types of Brand Ambassadors

There are basically two broad types of brand ambassadors: paid and unpaid brand ambassadors.

“Wait, did you just say unpaid?  Like no salary?”

Shush! Let’s tell you about them.

When you think of brand ambassadors, you are most likely thinking of the paid ambassador.  (Well, it’s the most common ambassador type and we all know why). A paid brand ambassador is paid by a brand, either through money or free products and services (The Good Life). Paid brand ambassadors include your favorite celebrities and social media influencers a.k.a. macro influencers (which kind of makes sense now, when you think of all the review videos you see on YouTube or Instagram).

Paid brand ambassadors are one of the best options for brands due to their strong media presence and a large number of followers. This gives brands the opportunity to connect to a larger audience.

The unpaid ambassadors are equally as important, although, they may not guarantee a large audience like the paid ambassadors. They are the micro influencers. The unpaid ambassadors consist of loyal customers or enthusiasts who refer a brand to friends, families or colleagues through word-of-mouth. Unpaid ambassadors are a more authentic and trustworthy avenue to market a brand, due to their proximity to their audience. Unpaid ambassadors could also include online reviewers who write positive reviews advocating a brand and encouraging others to patronize it.

So, no salary?

Yes, no salary.

What is Ambassador Marketing?

Nowadays, programmatic advertising, Facebook and Google search ads alone won’t do the magic. This does not mean that those are not effective methods of creating awareness and increasing sales but the world is rapidly evolving and so are the trends.

More and more companies are adopting ambassador marketing as a marketing strategy.

Why Ambassador Marketing?

There are a couple of reasons why ambassador marketing strategies have usurped traditional marketing strategies.  Here’s some:

Putting up ads on TV or emails is great but people are sick of getting spam every time. And how many people watch TV these days?  Social Media is the in thing.

A-ha! Social Media it is then! So, you decide to put up ads on Social Media too right? But here’s the thing too, people are sick of ads popping up in between important chats or while watching a video.  This is why the ad blocking technology was created. So, adios! Social media ads. Now, your audience is probably blind to your ads on social media, TV, and emails. How do you reach them?

So, here’s the thing, most people will talk to people they know, trust and like to get advice when making a purchase decision. For example, you’d most likely ask someone or Google “reviews” about a particular hotel or restaurant before making reservations. This is why brand ambassadors are the real deal. People influence other people’s decision even when it comes to making purchases.

What are the Brand Ambassador Marketing Strategies?

Now that you know why you need brand ambassadors, you may be curious about what marketing strategies these brand ambassadors will use to help strengthen your brand image and increase sales. There are many ambassador marketing strategies that brand ambassadors use.  But these can be broadly categorized into three: Social media, Online reviews, Ambassador/Affiliate marketing software.

Let’s run through them, shall we?

1. Social Media

Again, it’s the 21st-century a.k.a. the digital century. Brand ambassadors use various social media platforms to spread the word about a brand.  This is completely different from an advertisement. This time, your brand is projected through a person via social media.

Brand ambassadors can help share content or links relating to a brand to their friends and families on social media platforms such as Facebook, Twitter, and Instagram. In many cases, these brand ambassadors are remunerated with product bundles and free samples.

2. Online Reviews

Yelp or Tripadvisor is also a great online brand ambassador marketing strategy through which brand ambassadors can review your business. If you want to improve your reviews online, all you need to do is enlist the help of your brand ambassadors. You can in return, pay them per positive review or send them gifts.

3. Ambassador/Affiliate Software

The emergence of brand ambassadors and affiliate software make it easier than ever to manage and scale brand ambassadors’ social media campaigns. With these softwares, you can track the activity of each ambassador, their value added to your brand and incentivize them appropriately. You can pay them according to their contribution or send them free products. The distribution channel, in that case, doesn’t really matter as long as you can track the results and measure the ROI.

Don’t forget that this type of brand ambassadors already like your brand and product. So, in most cases, they will be just fine receiving free samples from you.

What is a Brand Ambassador Program?

Bet you’ve heard the phrase “brand ambassador program” before, if you know what it means, good for you.  If you don’t, that’s why you are reading this.

So, it’s established that word-of-mouth marketing is one of the most effective tools a brand can ever employ. A substantial amount of purchases are influenced by word-of-mouth rather than ads.  This is why many companies are creating their personal brand ambassador programs.

Get to the point already!

Patience people, patience.

A brand ambassador program is designed to utilize the passion of a brand’s most enthusiastic or loyal customers by giving them exclusive benefits and the autonomy to carry the brand’s message to consumers. It is basically creating a word-of-mouth scheme to help a brand, product or service receive optimal recognition and thrive.

Brand ambassador programs are designed to suit the personal needs of a brand. A brand ambassador program that works for one brand may not work for the other.  That said, there are four types of brand ambassador programs. These are affiliate marketers, informal brand ambassadors, college ambassadors, and requirements-driven influencers.

This video from Adam Erhart tackles how to effectively build brand ambassadors:

Affiliate Brand Ambassador Program

This type of brand ambassador program is modeled on the affiliate marketing structure. This involves a partnership between a brand and some individuals, usually influencers or bloggers. These individuals function as affiliate marketers.  This means that they promote a brand and in exchange, get a commission whenever a purchase is made through their promotion.

This brand ambassador program is a win-win for both sides as both the brand and affiliate marketer profit from the purchases.

College Brand Ambassador Program

This type of brand ambassador program is more popular than the other types and easily comes to mind when people think of brand ambassador programs. This type of brand ambassador program simply involves a partnership between a brand and students. The brand leverages the students’ internal connections to raise awareness for an organization and increase its sales.  College brand ambassadors use word-of-mouth and social media promotion as their brand ambassador marketing strategies. Other marketing strategies include spotting outfits that advertise the brand they represent, hosting on-campus events, handing out product samples, putting up posters or coming up with ingenious ways to promote the brand they work for.

College ambassador programs are ideal for brands whose target consumers fall within the college or university demography.

Informal Brand Ambassador Program (Referral program)

The informal brand ambassador program is less structured than the other types.  Anyone who shows unwavering loyalty or love for a brand can join this brand ambassador program.  All he or she needs to do is spread the word about the brand to friends and families. Informal brand ambassadors may get incentives for purchases made based on their referrals. It is a highly efficient and powerful type of brand ambassador program.

Requirement-Driven Brand Ambassador Program

Requirement-driven brand ambassadors complete certain actions for a brand within a specific time frame. In this case, a company might reward the ambassadors with free products or money. Most of the time, requirement-driven brand ambassadors are influencers with high content engagement rates. This helps brands increase their ROI and raise awareness for their brands. The requirement-driven brand ambassador program is an economical way to develop a brand since the company only gives out free products or stipends to their brand ambassadors.

Top Brand Ambassador Programs

So far, you’ve learned the concept and types of brand ambassador programs.

But, does brand ambassador marketing beat the good old traditional marketing strategies?

Well, a survey of some top brands that have adopted this marketing strategy will convince you just how effective and profitable brand ambassador marketing is.

Maker’s Mark

Maker’s mark has one of the most popular brand ambassador programs: The Embassy. This brand treats its ambassadors with recognition and utmost respect (People love to be treated right). Their brand ambassadors are rewarded with freebies such as special tastings; business cards and wait for it… get their names burned into the side of a bourbon barrel. (How special is that?)

This makes it super easier to recruit new brand ambassadors.

Lululemon

Oh, the company that sells athletic gears?

Yes, that one.

One thing you probably don’t know about this brand is its impressive brand ambassador program. This brand is targeted at the hip, athletic and vibrant unit of the society; the youth. This is why their brand ambassadors identify with this group of people. For promoting the brand, brand ambassadors are rewarded with recognition, autonomy, and fee products. Lululemon’s ambassadors are mostly athletes. This is a strategy to further build the brand’s credence.

So, if you are a company looking to promote your brand, there are several platforms which can help you access the right brand ambassadors,  an example of such is Inbassador.

Inbassador helps brands expand their reach by giving them unlimited access to word-of-mouth among their customer base. This is achieved by reviewing the social media profiles of your customers to obtain the number of followers on each platform and their engagement rate. This is achieved in five simple steps:

1.   Connect your shop.
You can upload your CSV file or connect your data from Magento, Shopify, WooCommerce or MailChimp in a single click.

2.   Find influential customers.

3.   Boost sales.

4.   Track the results of each ambassador.

5.   Just kidding.  That’s all!

Why so many successful and wealthy people still feel unhappy?

Why so many successful and wealthy people still feel unhappy? 

By Catherine Chan

Have you ever wondered why some extremely successful individuals still feel unhappy even when they have wealth and everything they want in life?

In fact, happiness is related to biological processes in our bodies.  According to Professor Loretta Graziano, Dopamine and Serotonin are the happy chemicals in our bodies that give us a feeling of happiness. These neurotransmitters are not meant to always make us feel good, but rather to basically help us survive. Naturally, they work by turning on and off at different times.  The logic is that there is usually an increase in the serotonin level of successful people when they first gain social dominance and power, giving them a feeling of empowerment.  This feeling however doesn’t last long, since the human brain doesn’t allow these hormones to be released all the time as well as in excessive amounts.  Too much of these would deplete our energy.  Once a person is used to the status of power and wealth it will no longer trigger the same amount of serotonin as before. As a result, a let-down feeling is created replacing the joyous feeling.

Dopamine behaves the same way as serotonin. It spikes when people are filled with excitement about achieving their goals or close to a win. This triggers good feelings, motivates us to pursue more success.  However, after attaining our goals, our dopamine sags and returns to normal taking away the good feelings, which can make a person feel really bad. 

It is quite possible that high achievers are constantly stimulating these happy chemicals more than the average individuals.  This situation puts them in a trap of falling victim to this cycle.  As health columnist Therese Borchard wrote in an article, some biochemical factors were suggested to be associated with high achievers.  Although work and success cause a sharp increase in dopamine and serotonin, this doesn’t last long. One begins to feel a sudden sense of loss when the amount of these happy chemicals starts dropping.  To some extent, this explains why some wealthy individuals are battling with depression.

Manfred Kets de Vries is a therapist who told The Telegraph that the individual goes into a kind of inertia when money is available in an almost limitless quantity, as he feels that there is nothing more life can offer to him.  Life seemingly stops to move forward.  As wealth coach Susan Bradley   says there is usually a constant rise in momentum prior to the period when businesspeople make huge profits. Then, there comes a sudden drop of morale after they make big cash outs, leaving them with a paralyzing feeling as all the champagne is gone.

In order to restore that happiness they once felt, they begin to search for more ‘feelings of high’. Forbes Contributor, Alice Walton, stated in an article that substance and alcohol abuse is prevalent among well-educated and high-functioning CEOs. In most cases, it is prescription Medication and alcohol addiction. According to David Linden, a neuroscience professor at John Hopkins’ School of Medicine, explained that the brains of high powered people are more prone to addiction.   It is quite possible that they are somewhat addicted to

‘feelings of high’  generated by happy hormones of the brain.  Alcohol and drugs  helps to stimulate their production of serotonin and dopamine temporarily. Continuous use causes them to become addicted.  In the long run, this worsens the vicious cycle and causes more depression. 

It’s true that our personalities and attitude on how to deal with such circumstances play an important role in our happiness.  As humans, we should learn to handle these ups and downs, accept our natural body processes and appreciate the on-and-off state of our happy hormones. 

The Best Hair Transplant Clinics in Pakistan

You can get the best treatment for the hair loss for the follicular unit extraction in Lahore. The method involves the extraction or removal of the individual follicle from the area of the donor and implantation on to the area of the recipient. After the process of follicular unit extraction procedure, there is no requirement for the linear scar and stitches. A frequently searched or asked question nowadays is where to get the best body hair transplant in Pakistan. People come from every country to get the best hair restoration in Pakistan. In Pakistan, body hair transplant is the most common surgery performed by Doctor Ahmad who has 18 years of experience.  As the medical services are cheap in Pakistan, but they are the best, Pakistan contains a massive inrush of people from all over the world. It is because the taxes are considerably less and no insurance schemes are present. All the medical services are cheap as well as excellent in Pakistan. The reason behind the services is that the doctors and surgeons are professional for their skills and they are involved with multiple cases which in turn increase their experience. All the people in the world contain a diversity of anatomical characteristics needs a lot of care. It is the reason why the doctors attain much experience by working on multiple patients. The skills and knowledge make the surgeons more renowned, and it involves a considerable number of people to travel from every corner of the world to Pakistan for body hair transplant. There are present all the latest and unique techniques that are quite affordable for follicular hair extraction. Hair restoration in Pakistan consists of two general methods: the follicular extraction method and the strip method. The FUE method is expensive as compared to the strip method as the former way needs professional skills and extra attention of the doctor or surgeon. It should be your utmost priority to get the best body hair transplant from the qualified and experienced surgeon as you have the right to get the treatment for your baldness. The strip harvest method includes a cost between 45,000 rupees and 100,000 rupees and the follicular extraction method consists of a price between 150,000 rupees and 350,000 rupees. It does not involve a long time to take rest after the surgery, but the doctors suggest you travel after some days of your treatment. The most renowned procedures present at our clinic are: 

·         Body Hair Transplant

·         Follicular Unit Transplant

·         Follicular Unit Extraction

·         Laser Therapy

·         Hair Regrowth Injections

·         PRP Treatment

·         FUE Hair Transplant.

For more details click http://hairtransplantt.com/

Cosmetic Plastic Surgery Procedures in Thailand

It is a big decision to undergo plastic surgery. To choose any of the medical procedures for abroad makes it even a great choice. Thailand is offering Thailand cosmetic surgery procedures for approximately eight years. They provide multiple medical solutions, and their helpful staff will guide each and everything with the entire process of surgery. Their team offers all the details of the plastic surgery in Thailand, helps you to plan your whole trip, and tells you about the cosmetic surgery Thailand packages.

There is a diversity of cosmetic surgery Thailand packages. Their top procedures involve the following:

●        Liposuction

●        Facelift

●        Breast Lift

●        Tummy tuck

●        Breast augmentation

Liposuction

Thailand consists of the most professional and experienced nurses and surgeons who will make sure that their patients receive adequate care during their surgery treatments. Thailand provides affordable rates for liposuction in Phuket. The prices are almost 30 to 60 percent less as compared to other countries.

Facelift

The standard procedures are facelifts in Thailand as the costs of the facelifts are 30 to 60 percent less as compared to the facelift costs in other countries like liposuction. It is necessary for the individuals who undergo the facelift procedures to stay almost two weeks for follow-ups and the removal of the stitches before you come back to your home. The staff will guide you through each step, and they assure you that you take proper rest and you feel that you are in better hands.

Breast Lift

The best surgeon in the world present in Thailand is Dr. Sanguan, voted as one of the top three surgeons for the breast surgery around the world. Multiple people select to have their breast lift surgery in Thailand due to the cost-effective strategies and the state of art facilities.

Tummy tuck

Surgeons perform the tummy tuck procedures under the general anesthesia in Thailand. You must take off of almost three weeks after your surgery.  The benefit of taking the surgical procedure of Thailand is that you can relax and recover while enjoying on the Phuket island.

Breast augmentation

There are multiple benefits when you are going for the breast augmentation in Thailand. The cost/price of the surgery is less as compared to other countries, and you can enjoy and recover after your surgical procedure.

You can see at the affordable packages of the plastic surgery in Thailand which helps you in making the best decision for you.

Airport shuttle service in Sydney

The Sydney Airport PlanB Shuttle service in Sydney provides all the facilities including airport shuttle services, cruise shuttle services, and event charter services. It allows all these services in all the suburb areas of Sydney. You can take maximum benefit of its neat and clean, safe and secure traveling with your university groups or alone with the several features of the shuttle service to enjoy your time of travel. 

The Sydney Airport PlanB Shuttle Service caters various groups, business clients and families along with their children. You can prefer the PlanB Shuttle service for airport transfers as it is safe and secure, affordable and reliable.  Currently, they a are operating 14-seater and 12-seater minibusses which consist of the NSW transport department. 

Service is 

SYDNEY AIRPORT PLAN B SHUTTLE TRANSFERS

Considered as reliable and classy transfer system either to the Sydney airport of from the Sydney airport to your home. The PlanB Airport Shuttle Sydney Services are for those people who are fond of traveling, and the people who do not want any fuss and want to visit with maximum comfort. The services are present for 24 hours; you can take according to your flight timings, a few hours before the time of your flight. You can even start your trip when you sit in the shuttle as it is quite cozy, you can enjoy in it as well.

CRUISE SHIP TRANSFERS

Want to travel in style? Prefer to choose cruise ships, when you consider your destination as an essential segment of your trip. When you leave the door of your home, you can start your journey by sitting in the shuttle and going towards the airport.  When you sit in a local car of shuttle service, you can minimize your luggage problems and problems of public transport that ordinary people have to face every day. You can also reduce the traffic fuss with a shuttle that transports you and your luggage quickly than the other means of transport.  The PlanB Airport Shuttle Sydney Service can pick you from any part of Sydney where you want and can drop you in the same way.

EVENT TRANSPORT

The PlanB Shuttle Service Sydney  has a renowned name when it comes to talking about the event transport. On certain occasions, there are a lot of issues regarding the guests to go to the exact location. The shuttle service can pick them from their home or airport and drop them to the place of that festival.

Be aware, The IRS is sending people who owe back taxes to third party debt collectors – they don’t have your best interests at heart

Owing the IRS money isn’t an unusual situation, millions of Americans run into issues with tax debt and that number keeps rising. It’s almost impossible to accurately assess just how much money the IRS are owed due to the ever increasing cost of penalties, interest and fines but at last count a conservative estimate was put at $138 billion by the New York Times back in 2017, but some estimates have been as high as $400 billion. It’s no surprise that the costs, manpower and time involved in recouping even a fraction of this colossal amount is a incredibly tall order, even for the Federal government with their almost limitless resources – imposing interest and penalties is one thing but the act of collection involves a lot of man hours that have stretched the IRS budget to its limits.

In an effort to relieve the strain, the IRS have previously sought to employ outside debt collection agencies to act on their behalf in 1996 and 2006 – both attempts ended in failure due to spiraling costs, poor collection figures and concerns about abusive tactics by the agencies. Reports about illegal and exploitative collection methods plus underhand psychological techniques brought a damning New York Times article that set out how collection agencies pushed hundreds of thousands of Americans into financial ruin. Unfortunately, the IRS is having another throw of the dice at collecting tax debt using these private collection agencies and unsurprisingly many reports are already worryingly familiar.

In 2017, the IRS appointed four debt collection agencies to pursue $920 million of tax debt with a goal of recouping $2.4 billion over the next decade through external collection agencies. On purely financial terms, the first year of the program has been a financial disaster for the IRS – of the $920 million only $6.7 million was collected. What’s worse is that it cost the IRS $20 million in payments to these companies, a loss of $13.3 million. In a further twist it was revealed that in several cases the IRS paid these collection agencies 25% commission on collections the IRS made without their help. In spite of these staggering figures the IRS have announced their attention to press on with the program regardless of the losses.

Leading you into financial ruin

This isn’t just a bad deal for the IRS, it’s a terrible deal for anyone struggling with tax debt and now facing the prospect of having to deal with these collection agencies. It wasn’t long from the launch of this program that alarming stories started to appear about the tactics employed by the agencies.

Firstly, it has become evident from the figures released that agencies disproportionally targeted those least able to pay. 44% of collected debt came from people who live below the federal poverty level, many of whom are living off Social Security benefits. Aside from pushing these families into ruin this tactic has a knock-on effect as these families are pushed further into government programs – if these cases were overseen by an IRS agent then for the most part they would qualify for hardship status and be declared CNC (Currently Not Collectable)

Secondly, and perhaps the biggest cause for concern for every single person struggling with tax debt, is the ruinous advice these debt-collection agencies are providing in an effort to maximize their collections. In a New York Times investigation it was uncovered that the four agencies used by the IRS had been encouraging illegal and high-risk financial strategies to pay back taxes debt. Some of these strategies include

·       Encouraging people to dip into a 401k or IRA to pay off their tax debt – even though doing so would certainly increase their tax liability.

·       Advising people to take out a home loan or borrow

·       Pressuring people to charge their tax debt to a credit card

·       Advising people to borrow money from family or friends to make payments.

·       Pushing people to liquidate assets.

Not only is this terrible advice, it is also illegal and in clear violation of the tax code.

Know your rights

Owing money to the IRS does not strip you of your rights and with third party agencies now involved it’s essential that you know where you stand and your rights.

If your debt is assigned to a private debt collection agency the IRS will inform you by letter – if you are approached by a third party claiming to be working on behalf of the IRS without having received notice you must contact the IRS immediately (it’s important to remember that this may well be a scam)

Under law, collection agents are not permitted to harass you regarding your tax debt; they must follow your instructions not to contact you at your place of work if you have requested this.

They must refrain from threatening you to make a payment.

Most importantly, you have the right to refuse any dealings with a third party tax collection agency and have your case dealt with by the IRS directly.

For the millions of Americans who are dealing with IRS attorney, the introduction of external debt collection agencies is a worrying development. It has never been so imperative that you arm yourself with the very best possible advocacy. Defense Tax Group works for you; we don’t stop until we secure you the very best financial outcome.

So if you are looking for tax help then you are at right place.