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The Top Concern CEOs Have in 2021 and Beyond is…

remote work…managing remote teams. Numerous surveys of CEOs have found that the C-Suite and upper management at many companies are struggling to maintain productivity levels among remote teams. This makes perfect sense, since many businesses were forced to adopt remote learning out of necessity due to precautions over covid. Remote working isn’t something that many companies can embrace and see seamless results. But unfortunately, many businesses didn’t have a choice in 2020, and were thrown into the fire and had to adopt and adapt to remote work for their teams as quickly as possible.

Add in that many companies had to layoff or furlough employees as cost-savings measures, and it often made the remote work environment even harder for businesses to manage.

Remote work affects extroverts and introverts differently

As your business is reviewing your options for keeping your remote workers engaged and productive, don’t overlook how being isolated at home can impact the mental health of your workers based on them being extroverts or introverts. Suddenly being forced to work from home for months or even a year can be a bit depressing to all your workers. But keep in mind that your more extroverted workers thrive off in-person contact and collaboration. With that suddenly being taken away from them, it creates a negative impact on feelings, and can even lead to depression. On the other hand, taking introverted workers from an in-office work environment and having them work remotely, may actually increase their productivity. So if some of your newly remote workers seem to be less productive, consider that maybe they are extroverts who are simply missing the in-person contact and collaboration that they thrived off of.

 

Remote work is here to stay

Recently, Buffer surveyed remote workers to find out what they thought of the process. There were some interesting takeaways that your company should be aware of. Such as:

  • Almost 98% of respondents said they want to continue to work remotely, at least part time, for the rest of their working careers
  • 97% of respondents would recommend working remotely to others

What this means is that from this point forward, when your company courts candidates for open positions, those candidates will want, and likely expect, that you offer them the possibility of working remotely. If you can’t offer candidates remote work in most positions, it will begin to become a detriment for your company. Obviously, some jobs can only be done in-person and on site. But there are many jobs where you may want the candidate to be on location at all times, that could actually be done remotely, if necessary. You need to consider that starting now, it’s become necessary to offer a remote option for any work that can be done remotely. Not offering a remote option for such work will cost you qualified candidates to competitors that can offer them such possibilities.

 

Remote workers are facing difficulties

Remote work comes with some issues for both the employer, and the remote employees. According to Buffer’s State of Remote Work in 2021, some of the issues that remote workers identified as problems include:

  • Not being able to unplug – 27%
  • Difficulty collaborating and communicating with co-workers – 16%
  • Loneliness – 16%
  • Staying motivated 12%

These difficulties that remote workers are facing seem to overlap a bit with the concerns that CEOs have toward remote workers, don’t they? CEOs are worried about managing remote workers and keeping them productive and engaged. While remote workers are facing difficulty collaborating with co-workers and loneliness. And I think a lack of motivation can tie into those feelings of loneliness and struggling to collaborate and communicate with your team.

All of this points back to finding ways to better communicate and engage your remote workers. This seems to be a problem that runs through multiple issues that both workers and management face.

First, consider again if you are dealing with introverts or extroverts as your remote workers. Introverted workers are more likely to enjoy working remotely and the autonomy that comes with it. You may likely see their productivity actually increase. On the other hand, you may see the opposite for extroverts that are suddenly put in a position of working remotely. Extroverts thrive off in-person contact are likely more productive and happier with their work when it involves in-person collaboration. So you will need to think about how you can work with them to help facilitate the interaction with their co-workers that they are missing with remote work.

 

Consider adding ways for workers to engage outside of work

One of the best things your company can do to build morale and keep your employees motivated is to give them ways to engage with each other outside of work. We become more productive when we actually like the people we work with. Focus on finding ways to facilitate engagement among your workers and time for them to be social that doesn’t revolve around their work.

Some ways to do this could include:

  • Slack channels devoted to any topic OTHER than work
  • Facebook groups devoted to non-work topics
  • Zoom birthday parties for co-workers
  • Organizing online gatherings for workers such as playing games together online, participating in hobbies such as sports, genealogy,

Another option is to create an Employee Advocacy/Ambassador Program that can contain some or all of these elements. Such programs are designed to allow your employees to promote your business to customers and potential candidates, but it can also be used to keep your employees engaged and motivated.

 

GE created an employee ambassador program to recruit better job candidates

I did a write-up on GE’s employee ambassador program two years ago here. This particular program was focused on helping GE better promote its brand and working environment to potential job candidates. But the employees who were involved in the program became more engaged and excited about working for GE. We all want to be a part of something bigger than ourselves. We all want to feel useful and that we are playing a role in something important.

And I think an employee ambassador program helps your employees better understand what your business is doing and why its important. Let’s be honest, if your workers understand your company’s mission and the positive impact it makes on the world, that motivates them to work harder on your behalf. Too many people hate their jobs mainly because they feel as if their work doesn’t have a higher purpose or meaning. On the other hand, if you believe that your business is making a positive impact on the world, it motivates you to work harder to see that impact take hold.

Adopt a proactive mindset toward remote work

Since remote work is now a reality for business, embrace it as an opportunity to grow. How can you incorporate remote work into your company’s culture in order to improve it? What are the opportunities to leverage remote work as a way to actually increase productivity? We’ve already talked about how offering and embracing remote work could help the hiring process. Another example is your company’s annual retreat. Having your teams meet in-person for the first time in months or possibly even a year could have a huge positive impact on bonding, communication and culture.

Remote work is here to stay, so embrace it as a potential asset to your business, not as a problem to be dealt with.

 

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How to Be a Better Marketer

Marketers, as a profession, are one of the least-trusted groups around. They are the guy at the party that everyone dreads seeing. You are with your friends having a perfectly delightful conversation, then here comes the marketer. He steers the conversation to himself, and brags incessantly about his accomplishments. When someone in your group attempts to change the subject to something more interesting, he immediately dismisses the introduced topic, and moves the focus back where it belongs. On him.

This is how most people view the average marketer. And often, this illustration isn’t that absurd. Yet, most marketers aren’t bad people, they simply fall prey to human nature far too easily.

The reality is, we all act in our own best interests. Period. Yet, good marketers understand how to make human nature work for them, and not against them. They understand that in order to reach their desired goals, they have to also provide equal or greater value to someone else.

 

TLDR: How to Be a Better Marketer

  • Respect your customers, market to them as you would your friends and family.
  • Your marketing communications should focus on and create value for your customers.
  • If your marketing isn’t relevant to your audience, then it will be ignored.
  • Understand who your customer is before you market to them.
  • Don’t sell your product, sell what your product allows the customer to do.

 

Why are marketers so distrusted?

Let’s back up for a minute and talk about how one brand figured out how to be better marketers. As with most good stories, alcohol is involved.

Bill Samuels Sr founded Maker’s Mark in 1953. Senior was the epitome of a craftsman. He loved crafting bourbon and prided himself on his ability to do so. His son, Bill Samuels Jr, took over as President of Maker’s Mark in the 1970s with one clear directive from his dad: “Don’t screw up the whisky.”

Father and son were diametrically opposed when it came to the topic of marketing. Junior was a showman. He loved marketing and appreciated the power of promotion and sales.

His father absolutely hated marketing and distrusted most marketers just as much as the rest of us do. Senior hated marketing so much so that often when junior would attempt to have a marketing discussion with his father, Bill Samuels Sr would simply stand up and walk out of the meeting.

So Bill Samuels Jr was at an impasse. He knew that Maker’s Mark needed to do SOME marketing in order to grow, but he also knew that his father would simply continue to shoot down any attempts the son made at adding marketing communications to the mix.

Finally, Bill Samuels Jr decided that it would probably be a good idea to better understand why his father was so opposed to marketing. The son figured that if he understood why his father didn’t want to invest in marketing, then maybe he could come up with a compromise that would be palatable to his father. Bascially, Bill Samuels Jr was marketing the idea of investing in marketing, to his father. So his father was his customer, and the son was learning how to better understand his objections to marketing, so he could factor that into his efforts. Which is what all good marketers do.

Bill Samuels Sr didn’t view the people who bought his bourbon as being customers, he viewed them as being friends and family. And he viewed marketing as selling, and in his mind, you didn’t sell to your friends and family.

So this prompted Bill Samuels Jr to completely shift his mindset toward who the Maker’s Mark customer was, and in turn, how to communicate with them. Samuels Jr went back to his father and said they would define the Maker’s Mark customer as being someone who they would like to invite over to their house for drinks. Bill Samuels Sr signed off on this, and Jr got to work on building a marketing strategy based on communicating with friends and family, instead of selling to strangers.

As an aside, this shift in marketing strategy opened the door for Maker’s Mark to launch one of the most successful brand ambassador programs of all time. In the early 1980s, Maker’s Mark was the recipient of some wonderful exposure in national publications like The Wall Street Journal. That surge of PR catapulted demand for the brand’s products, which actually created a massive distribution problem for Maker’s Mark. Prior to this, Maker’s Mark was essentially a regional, Kentucky brand, and its distribution channels were regional as well. But thanks to the exposure in the WSJ and other publications, there was suddenly national demand for a brand that not only didn’t have the distribution channels to handle a national supply, but the product itself took years to make.

While the brand didn’t have a national distribution channel, it did have customers across the United States. More than that, it had customers that loved the brand. So Bill Samuels Jr. decided to embrace those happy customers, and empower them to market for the brand. Maker’s Mark began to mobilize its customers across the country to demand Maker’s Mark be shipped to their corner of the country. The efforts of its customers slowly expanded Maker’s Mark’s distribution from coast to coast. These efforts by Maker’s Mark to empower its customers to market for the brand would eventually be folded into an official brand ambassador program, which still lives on to this day. You can learn more about the program here.

Bill Samuels Sr. distrusted marketers for the same reason most of you do; He found the very idea offensive, as he felt that marketing was selling, and you don’t sell to friends and family. So Maker’s Mark focused on treating its customers as friends and family, and adjusted its marketing strategy accordingly. Bill Samuels Jr would later call it ‘marketing without fingerprints’.

The key takeaway? If you respect your customers, that changes how you sell to them.

 

The power of being second

Let’s go back to human nature for a minute. It is human nature to want to take care of ourselves first, and everyone else later. For instance, if there’s a shortage of a particular product, say gas, do you let everyone else fill up their tank first, then you go get your gas a week later?  Of course not, you will try to fill up your tank of gas today, and you assume everyone else will do the same. That doesn’t make you a bad person, it just makes you human. We all think of our wants and needs first, before others. Not all the time, but in general.

It’s no different for most marketers. Most marketers focus first on getting the sale, and pleasing the customer can come later. But smart marketers understand the power of pleasing the customer first, and how that will LEAD to sales.

In 2004, Sarah McLachlan released the single World on Fire. Her record label gave her $150,000 to create a music video to support the song. Just as she was preparing to begin filming the video, she came across a letter written by a volunteer with the group Engineers Without Borders. This letter detailed the work that the group was doing to help impoverished people around the world. Sarah was so moved by the work Engineers Without Borders was doing, that she decided to take all but $15 of the $150,000 her record label had given her to create a music video, and she instead donated it to 11 charitable organizations, including Engineers Without Borders.

Now, this was a very generous act on Sarah’s behalf, but her record label still wanted her to create a music video. So Sarah took the last $15 from her budget, and bought a video tape. She then, working with a few friends, created a very low-tech video for World on Fire.

But the video told an incredibly compelling story. What Sarah did with her video was explain to the viewer all the normal expenses associated with creating a music video, and how much each item normally costs. Then, Sarah detailed what the money was actually spend on, via her charitable donations. What resulted was, and absolutely amazing music video, created for just $15:

This video received a Grammy nomination for best music video, the only such nomination of Sarah’s 34-year career as a recording artist.

So let’s break this down: Sarah received $150k to record a music video for World on Fire. Instead, she donated almost all of that money to 11 charitable organizations around the world, impacting the lives of millions of people. And she still got to create a music video for World on Fire, which received a Grammy nomination.

All because Sarah didn’t use her video as a way to ‘sell’ her song, but instead she used it as a tool to help others, to advance causes she is passionate about, and to tell a compelling story. She got the sales she (and her label) wanted, but she got so much more than that.

The key takeaway? Good marketing isn’t about the person sending the message, it’s about the person who hears it. If you create a compelling marketing message, the sales will take care of itself.

 

The best marketing is invisible. The worst marketing BECOMES invisible. 


This is Times Square, in NYC. Look at this picture, but really it’s the same with any picture you see of Times Square.

You always see marketing and advertising messages everywhere. Flashing billboards, and blinking lights as far as the eye can see.

So. Much. Marketing.

Now look at the people. Every single person in this image has one thing in common. Can you spot it?

Every single person is totally ignoring every marketing message.

Everyone in this picture is completely ignoring these hundreds of marketing messages that are all around them. The reason why is because these messages lack relevance. If a marketing message is irrelevant to you, then it is worthless to you.

It becomes invisible to you.

Now let’s go back to the Maker’s Mark brand ambassador program for a minute. We’ve already talked about how long-running it is, and how successful it has been. In order to join the brand ambassador program, you have to apply. In other words, you have to raise your hand and offer to perform the duties that Maker’s Mark asks from its ambassadors. So when Maker’s Mark delivers marketing messages to you, those are marketing messages that you asked to receive. Those messages have relevance for you, so you don’t perceive them as being marketing.

Let’s be clear: If a marketing message has relevance for you, you don’t view it as being marketing.

On the other hand, if a marketing message has NO relevance for you, you ignore it.

The best marketing is invisible. Meaning you don’t SEE it as marketing. You see it as something that has relevance for you.

The worst marketing BECOMES invisible. Meaning, if the marketing message is totally irrelevant to you. then you totally ignore it. It BECOMES invisible to you.

We’ve trained ourselves to view marketing as something bad, as a distraction, an irritant. Actually, that’s not fair, we have simply been exposed to so much BAD marketing, that we tend to view ALL marketing as bad.

Good marketing is relevant to us. It creates value for us, and respects us. As a result, we don’t view it as marketing.

What happens when we don’t view a marketing message as being marketing? We open ourselves to LISTENING TO THAT MESSAGE.

Once a marketer has gained our attention, then they have a chance to convert us into a customer.

The key takeaway? If your marketing message is relevant to your audience, then that audience will listen to your message. If your marketing message is irrelevant to your audience, then that audience will ignore it.

 

The best marketing is spoken in the voice of your customer

Let’s say you are a diehard fan of the movie Inception. Your friend Tom hates the movie, and thinks it is completely overblown.

You are trying to convince Jim, who you don’t know, to watch Inception. But at the same time, Tom is going to give the argument for why Jim should NOT watch Inception. And it just so happens that Tom is also Jim’s cousin.

So who do you think will be able to persuade Jim to watch or not watch the movie Inception? You may say that Jim will listen to Tom, because Tom is his cousin and he trusts his opinion. You would  probably be correct. But at the same time, Tom knows and understands what types of movies Jim likes. Tom would explain to Jim that he doesn’t like movies like Inception, why he doesn’t like them, and Jim would probably ultimately agree and not see the movie.

In the end, the fact that Tom and Jim were cousins wasn’t the deciding factor for Jim.  It was the fact that Tom understands what type of movie Jim likes to watch. You don’t know what type of movie that Jim likes, so in explaining what you liked about the movie Inception, you were actually making the case to Jim for why he should NOT watch it.

Think of marketing as a tax that your brand has to pay because it doesn’t understand your customer.  If you know precisely who your customer is, and you understand them completely, then you know how to create marketing that appeals to them at every stage of the process from awareness to sale, and beyond. Your marketing costs are significantly lower because you are crafting perfect marketing communications that are relevant to your customers, that create value for them, and which resonate with them.

When you don’t know who your customer is, when you don’t understand your customer, then your marketing costs increase at an exorbitant rate.

The key takeaway? When you understand your customer, you can speak to their wants, needs and desires. You don’t market to them, you talk to them. And they listen.

 

The best marketing doesn’t focus on your product, it focuses on your customer

The most effective marketing doesn’t sell your product, it sells how your product fits into my life.

Watch this Red Bull commercial, and as you do, notice how much time is spent focused on the Red Bull energy drink:

The Red Bull can isn’t shown till the last 2 seconds of the commercial. The logo is shown a few times throughout, but the star of this commercial is clearly the extreme athletes that Red Bull sponsors and supports. Red Bull doesn’t market its product, it markets what happens after you drink it.

Don’t sell your product, sell the change that happens to your customer as a result of your product.

This is one of the most powerful marketing lessons you can learn. When someone isn’t familiar with your product, you sell the benefits of owning it. You sell the changes that owning this product will create for the owner.

Don’t sell me the product, sell what the product allows me to do.

Look at Nike’s iconic marketing campaigns. Just do it. The shoes and clothing is an afterthought, the focus is on the athletes and their accomplishments. Think of Apple’s marketing for the iPhone in recent years. The focus is more on what the iPhone allows you to do, the content it helps you create, moreso than the actual tool itself.

Notice how these examples of how to improve your marketing are focused on understanding your customer and marketing from the customer’s point of view. Customers don’t buy products, they buy solutions to problems, or improvements to their lives. If a particular product can consistently meet or exceed their expectations, then the customer will become loyal to that brand.

 

Your job as a marketer is to create fans.

In 2010 I attended the FIRE Sessions in Greenville, South Carolina. One of the speakers was Steve Knox, who at the time was the CEO of Proctor and Gamble’s Word of Mouth unit, Tremor. He said something that stopped me in my tracks:

“Victory in marketing doesn’t happen when you sell something, but when you cultivate advocates for your brand.”

Think about that quote and what it means. Who are advocates for your brand? They are the customers that LOVE your brand and who are advocating on its behalf. So they are not only buying your products, they are actively selling your brand to other customers.

How would your marketing change, if your goal was to cultivate advocates? To create customers that love you and who will advocate for you.

The amazing part is…you will still be creating sales. But you’ll also be creating so much more.

 

If you want to be a better marketer:

  • Respect your customers
  • Create value for your customers
  • Your marketing MUST be relevant to your customers, or it will be ignored
  • Understand your customers
  • Don’t market your product, market the positive changes in my life that your product will create for me
  • Don’t focus on sales with your marketing, focus on delighting your customers. If you create happy customers, the sales take care of themselves.

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Case Study: Patagonia’s Brand Ambassador Program Focuses on Product Design and Development Over Sales

Did you know Patagonia has a Brand Ambassador Program? Probably not, but the brand has had an ambassador program since at least 2000. This makes sense when you consider that Patagonia has never made advertising of any kind a priority for the brand. Patagonia founder Yvon Chouinard has often proudly proclaimed that the brand only spends one half of one percent of revenue on advertising.

Patagonia’s effort is a bit different from most brand ambassador programs in a few notable ways. Most brand ambassador programs, much to my disappointment, are structured largely to drive sales. Most brands view their ambassadors as potential promotional channels, with little or no thought given to how else these ambassadors could be leveraged to help the brand.

To be fair, Patagonia does use its ambassadors to promote the brand. But that’s not the only or even most important function that Patagonia’s ambassadors serve.

When you view Patagonia’s ambassador page, you’re immediately struck by how the ambassadors are organized based on the outdoor activities they excel at:

  • Climbing
  • Fly-fishing
  • Skiing
  • Snowboarding
  • Surfing
  • Trail-running

These are athletes, and typically athletes that are well-known and respected among their peers. So in that regard, you may consider this as more of an influencer marketing effort than a true brand ambassador program. But Patagonia has an ongoing, working relationship with these ambassadors, and they are paid a salary for their involvement in the program.

So when you consider that Patagonia is working with athletes who are well-known and influential within their respective disciplines, a working relationship based on sales promotion is assumed. Which makes this quote from the brand on the role and responsibilities of its ambassadors very interesting:

"Patagonia's ambassadors are known for not only being athletes, but for being integral to the company's product development and product testing. The company's ambassadors work closely with the design department to test, refine and validate products in the harshest and most remote locations on the planet."


I loved seeing this because as I've often written about here, leveraging brand ambassadors as a product feedback channel is one of the smartest things a brand can do. I'm sure Patagonia's thinking here is to put its products in the hands of elite athletes with the thinking being that they can give better feedback on how the clothing functions in their typical activities. Patagonia then can take this product feedback and leverage it to improve the product's design, durability, and function.

It's really the best of all worlds for Patagonia. They've created a program where the ambassador have real input into the products they use. This means the ambassadors will be far more knowledgeable about the product and how it functions, which also helps them better promote it to other customers. Which is beneficial for Patagonia, since it's ambassadors are elite athletes who are well-respected and who are very influential among their peers.

Now How Do You Apply This to Your Own Brand Ambassador Program?

When it comes to the influencer vs fan debate, I've always said that the best of both worlds is to find an influencer who is also a fan of your brand. In a way, this is what Patagonia has done. They aren't just asking the ambassadors to promote Patagonia's products to their following (as you would with an influencer), they are also stressing that they want the ambassadors to use their products and give them feedback after they have done so. In addition, they've also carefully picked ambassadors who are already engaging in the same type of activities that Patagonia's customers are when those customers buy Patagonia's products. So the products are getting a real-world testing, which results in better feedback.

For your efforts, follow the model that Patagonia uses and focus on ambassadors who either already use your products, or who live a lifestyle similar to that of your current customers. Basically, you want to make sure that the ambassadors you pick are people that will be using your products in the same way that your customers would. This means that your ambassadors can give you better feedback and it means your brand can apply that feedback to improve the product. 

Remember, leveraging your ambassadors to promote your brand is fine, but that's hardly the only way you can work with them in order to grow your brand. 

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Case Study: Why GE Started an Employee Brand Ambassador Program to Solve One Specific Business Problem

GE employee brand ambassador program

Proper planning is the easiest way to improve the efficiency of your campaign, program, or project. It’s imperative that you develop a clear strategy so that everyone involves understands precisely what they are doing, and what business outcomes they are working toward. In short, “Here’s what we are doing, here’s why it’s important”.

That’s why I love the reason for the creation of the GE employee brand ambassador program; because it was created to solve a specific problem the brand was facing.  The brand found that it was having difficulty recruiting for open positions. GE determined that a big part of the problem was a negative brand perception. Applicants viewed GE as a sort of monolith corporate entity, and employees weren’t very active online and weren’t doing a very effective job of telling the brand’s story. In short, applicants didn’t understand why they should want to work at GE.

What is an employee brand ambassador program?

Before we discuss what GE did, let’s define an employee brand ambassador program:

An employee brand ambassador program is similar to a brand ambassador program for customers, but instead, it focuses on the brand’s employees. The employees are the ambassadors, and they are given a way to connect with each other, as well as the brand’s management. Typically, employee brand ambassador programs are used as a way to give the employees the tools they need to better promote their brand to others, often via social media.

Here’s why GE decided to invest in an employee brand ambassador program:

A few reasons led us to create the brand ambassador program – like many change initiatives, they were rooted in limitations.

First, we had a $0 budget starting this adventure with GE. I looked around and asked ‘what do I have?’. One of the key assets we had was access was 350,000 colleagues around the globe.

The second challenge was our lack of polish in online profiles. I looked around at what our recruiters and hiring managers looked like online (not great). Many reacted with shocked expressions when I mentioned that candidates were doing their homework and googling them ahead of time. Connecting these dots for them helped set this initiative in motion.

Note that $0 starting budget. Unfortunately, this is a situation that brands, even global brands like GE, often find themselves in when launching a brand ambassador program. However, note that GE leveraged its employee brand ambassador program as an initiative to take what the brand was already doing, and make it better. The initial focus was on aiding HR in filling job applications more effectively. In short, GE was having to spend too much time trying to recruit employees, and it wanted to shift perception about and knowledge of the brand so that applicants were instead targeting the brand for employment. This would result in GE being more in demand among applicants, which would mean the hiring process would become easier, quicker and less expensive. Plus, the quality of the hires would improve.

Also note, since the core function of the GE employee brand ambassador program was to aid hiring, HR managers and talent acquisition was heavily involved from the start. HR managers were trained and then worked with employees to train them on how to improve their online profiles and how to better ‘humanize’ the brand:

We started with a small group of recruiters (that were in most need of help but also a group that I would call skeptics – I knew we would get all the feedback we needed). Then we incorporated their hiring managers. We held these sessions live and learned a LOT just from facial expressions. Of course there was no shortage of direct feedback as well.

We post-training surveyed through a quick online tool we have a GE. It included rankings for each part of the training as well as some open form fields for feedback. We maintained the same survey after the pilot to ensure data continuity/integrity and be sure we continued encouraging feedback. The open feedback helped us iterate and refine the training so it is highly tailored to our audience.

Also note that by having HR involved, it helps ensure the progress and growth of the employee brand ambassador program as a whole.  But note in the above quote the importance on collecting and acting on feedback from both the HR managers and the employees they were training. This is vital to the success of any brand ambassador program, collecting and acting on feedback, whether the ambassadors are customers or employees.

So What Were the Results?

Within the first month of leveraging its trained employee ambassadors to better tell GE’s story, the brand saw an 800% increase in applicants. Additionally, what GE has found is that since its employee ambassadors are more engaged online, it’s creating organic engagement that’s eliminating the need for purchasing traditional advertising to support the initiative. In Q1, 2017, social amplification from GE’s employee ambassadors created engagement worth $3 Million for GE, which reduced the amount of money spent on traditional social advertising to support the campaign to $0. Remember, if you smartly structure and execute your ambassador program as GE did here, it should improve your existing business processes and save you money.

One Final Note

This employee brand ambassador program was a vehicle for GE to take control of the conversation happening about the GE brand, among job applicants. There were several misconceptions that job applicants had about GE as a workplace and employer, so GE empowered its employees to tell the brand’s story through relating their own experiences working for the brand. This greatly enhanced the brand’s reputation among job applicants, and made it easier for applicants to relate to the brand and see themselves working there.

The program worked for GE due to proper planning, and focusing on how an employee brand ambassador program could take what GE was already doing (hiring), and make it better.

Want to learn how your company can create an amazing employee brand ambassador program as GE did? Then email me today.

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How to Structure a Welcome Pack For Brand Ambassadors

Recently, the Alabama Mountain Lakes Tourist Association launched its first Brand Ambassador Program. You can learn more about the program here. I’m now advising AMLTA on this program, and they sent me the Welcome Pack they are sending their Brand Ambassadors as they enter the program. I wanted to share the contents with you here as I know many of you are considering a brand ambassador program for your own company or organization and this can help you figure out what to include when you reach out to your own brand ambassadors.

AMLTA promotes the North Alabama area and its ambassadors are a new tool to help local and regional travelers and tourists learn more about what makes North Alabama such a wonderful place to visit. These ambassadors will be helping to tell North Alabama’s stories and to help put a spotlight on what makes the area so special and unique.

 

What is a Welcome Pack for Brand Ambassadors?

A welcome pack is given to brand ambassadors as they agree to enter your brand ambassador program. Typically, a welcome pack will include merchandise associated with your brand, and other items designed to communicate to the brand ambassadors that you appreciate their involvement. Additionally, a good welcome pack will include guidelines and advice for creating social media content that promotes the brand, as well items that can be given to customers such as swag or discount codes. A good welcome pack will make ambassadors feel appreciated, but also give them the tools they need to create content that better promotes your brand, as well as connect with potential customers.

With that definition in mind, let’s look at what Alabama Mountain Lakes Tourist Association included in its Welcome Pack.

The Welcome Pack given to brand ambassadors includes:

  • Three t-shirts
  • One ball cap
  • North Alabama Activity Book
  • Spiral notebook and calendar
  • Flyer for connecting on social media
  • Spiral instruction book on how to use social media

Here’s the clothes included:

Welcome pack for AMLTA ambassadors

The three shirts and hat include the #VisitNorthAl hashtag as well as mentions the NorthAlabama.org website. This also gives the ambassadors clothing to wear when they are visiting sites and attractions around North Alabama. It’s worth remembering that with a program such as this, where a tourism association is using a brand ambassador program, the tourism association is attempting to get its member attractions and sites engaged in the program. By launching a brand ambassador program such as this, AMLTA is communicating to current and potential members in North Alabama that its ambassadors will help promote tourism in North Alabama. Sites and attractions around North Alabama will be able to more easily identify the program’s ambassadors, and see the value from their work. This will likely lead to members being proactive about working with the ambassadors directly to help coordinate trips and work with them on site. As the value of the program is more clearly communicated to members, those members will be more willing to participate and work with the brand ambassadors.

AMLTA also included a spiral Time to Get Social instruction book for its Brand Ambassadors. I just love this idea, as the book is designed to not only teach the ambassadors how to create content with social media, but to do so in a way that helps promote sites and attractions in North Alabama. The book gets into content creation, brand positioning and gives the ambassadors advice on how to best promote and showcase North Alabama via social media.

Social media guidelines for AMLTA ambassadors

If you’re launching a brand ambassador program, it’s vital that you give your ambassadors training and clear instruction on how to properly communicate with the people they will be interacting with every day. This instruction book on how to use social media is a fabulous example of a guidebook you could give your ambassadors to carry with them ‘in the field’.

 

When you are working with your brand ambassadors and giving them information and materials associated with the program, you want to focus on three areas:

  • Making sure the brand ambassadors are easily identified as such to other people
  • Making sure the brand ambassadors have the materials they need to promote your company or organization in a way that’s consistent with your program’s goals
  • Making sure the brand ambassadors have a way to refer other potential ambassadors to the program

When you create a Welcome Pack for your brand ambassadors, think about how you can create that pack with each of these areas in mind.  What would you give the ambassadors so they can easily be identified as such by others? What training or resources will you give them to better perform the tasks they are assigned? What tools will you give them to refer other potential ambassadors to the brand, or to spread the word about the program to others?

Hopefully this post gives you some ideas on how you could structure a Welcome Pack for your own brand ambassadors. To learn more about AMLTA’s brand ambassadors and program, click here.

Would you like to create a brand ambassador program for your tourism association or group as AMLTA has? I’d be happy to discuss your options, please fill out this form:

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Macy’s Brand Ambassador Program Leverages its Employees as Influencers

Last year, Macy’s launched an employee brand ambassador program called #MacysStyleCrew with 20 associates. The idea was to let Macy’s employees turn to social media to promote and sell the store’s clothing and other items. Employees are incentivized by additional pay for sales they generate via social media.

The program has shown promise, and was later expanded to over 300 employees. Now, the program is being opened to all Macy’s employees. The success of the Macy’s Style Crew has also allowed Macy’s to shift budgets away from external influencer marketing, and instead leverage its employees as social media influencers.

Notice that with this video, there is an instructional element as the employee is trying to teach viewers about how to select colors for their wardrobe based on the season. The clothing is promoted as well, but it’s more about teaching potential customers a skill and how to stay stylish. And yes, the audio is way too low and the background music is overshadowing it. That almost works, as it makes the video seem more ‘authentic’ and less ‘corporate’.

Of course, many of the updates are like this one, strictly promotional:

Still, I think this initiative has a lot of potential, and Macy’s must be seeing results they like, as they continue to grow and expand the program. Also, I love that Macy’s started with a small group of 20, and scaled later. I always advise clients to follow this format, to start with a smaller group, and then grow. Any time you launch a new initiative like an employee brand ambassador program, there will be plenty of mistakes made through simple trial and error. It’s better to make those mistakes with a smaller group, then iron out the issues and scale growth.

I do think that this initiative will show more fruit in the future if the employees are trained to focus more on creative instructional content versus promotional content. However, since employees are being encouraged to sell items with their content, this can be a confusing and tricky line for employees to walk. Just remember that brands like Patagonia, Red Bull and Nike sell an awful lot of products by rarely promoting the products directly.

I think the #MacysStyleCrew program is a great idea and if you work for a retail brand it gives you a chance to see what’s possible by unleashing your employees to serve as influencers to online customers. I do think that Macy’s will find an unexpected benefit from this program: It will help Macy’s hire better employees. As the #MacysStyleCrew grows, it can become a recruitment tool for new employees, seeing that they will be given the freedom to leverage their social media skills to bring in new customers.

If you’re a retailer, could you see a program like #MacysStyleCrew working with your employees? These efforts are still in their infancy, but over time I think you will see more retailers move in the direction of leveraging its employees as social media influencers rather than working with outside sources. It’s a notable shift and both retailers and those marketing themselves as ‘influencers’ will need to adjust.