Right now, you’re building your UGC empire.
But do you ever dream of being more than a pretty face behind the latest product? Do you wish people knew your name, your face, and loved what you stood for and the brands you promoted?
If so, you may dream of becoming a brand ambassador someday. If so, I will hand you the entire playbook on becoming a brand ambassador.
This process isn’t for everyone, so we’ll discuss the pros and cons first. But if you want to make it happen, your amazing content creation skills make it possible!
If you want to level up from UGC Creator to brand ambassador, here’s how!
What is a brand ambassador?
Brand ambassadors have unique relationships with brands.
If you’re a brand ambassador, you’re not just a content creator or influencer who worked a few times with a brand. You’re someone they’ve chosen to represent their brand. You get special privileges, like ongoing contracts, early product access, and event invites.
In exchange, you’re expected to be loyal to the brand, get results, and not promote their competitors.
As you can see, you’ll need to like a brand (and be willing to put substantial time and effort into promoting it) if you’re going to become a brand ambassador. You can’t just make one piece of UGC for a brand and decide you’re one of its ambassadors–it’s more involved than that.
One significant difference between UGC creators and brand ambassadors is that brand ambassadors are usually bona fide influencers–people who have a substantial following on social media or are already celebrities.
After all, brands are usually trying to leverage their ambassadors’ social clout–not just their content creation skills. But if you have the right audience and marketing skills, brands will LOVE having you as their ambassador because you’ll help humanize their brand and establish personal connections with customers.
If you’re looking for some examples of brand ambassadors, think about George Clooney’s relationship with Nespresso or Malia Manuel’s with Lululemon.
If you’re just starting on your UGC journey and haven’t built a strong personal brand yet, figuring out the ins and outs of becoming an ambassador for a brand might be something you need to tackle down the road. But it’s never too early to know what it is and if that’s something you want to pursue. Let’s look at the advantages and disadvantages of becoming a brand ambassador!
Advantages and disadvantages of being a brand ambassador
Becoming a brand ambassador is a huge responsibility–but it can also be fun! Here are some pros and cons when you get that first brand ambassadorship offer. 🔎
Advantages
First, being a brand ambassador stabilizes your income. It depends on your brand agreement, but you can more or less assume there’s security because you’re making it official with a brand. Also, you should get extra perks! These will depend on the brand, but they could be free new products or traveling to company retreats.
Second, the longer you stick with a brand, the more likely you are to get GOOD pay for your work. The more you sell for a brand, the more valuable your collaborations become.
Finally, associating with bigger brands can add credibility to your personal brand, which means you have more leverage down the road when negotiating deals.
Basically, becoming a brand ambassador, especially for a big, recognizable brand, gives you more leverage and financial security in the long run.
Disadvantages
However, becoming a brand ambassador isn’t all perks. There are some downsides, too. Let’s talk about them!
The first disadvantage is that brand ambassadors usually have to commit to the brand’s guidelines and image, which, for some brands, can be a LOT. Sometimes, you may not agree with everything the brand stands for, but you’ll be expected to keep your mouth shut. At other times, they may ask a lot from you and pick you apart for tiny deviations from their brand guidelines. It’s a lot.
Another issue is that it limits future collaboration choices. When you become a brand ambassador, especially with bigger brands, you’ll be expected ONLY to endorse that brand and stay far away from competitors. So, you may run into potential conflicts of interest down the road–especially if the brand expands into new markets.
You’ll also be under pressure to consistently perform and deliver results–and, with the fickleness of social media algorithms, this can be stressful! It may feel nearly impossible to keep up, depending on the expectations of the brand you’re working with.
Finally, becoming a brand ambassador DOES mean that you’re locked into a contract. With bigger brands, you may not be able to get out of it for a certain period of time if you aren’t careful. But you can mitigate this specifying in the contract that you can drop out if you don’t want to work with them anymore.
How to become a brand ambassador in 2024
We’ve made it! You’re about to learn how to become a brand ambassador for clothing, makeup, travel, or any industry you hope to conquer. Just keep in mind that the steps below WILL take some time–but if you follow these steps, you’ll be heading toward your goal!
Identify your niche and target brands
You probably already know this, but to become brand ambassador material, you must create a community around the niches you love.
So take a moment and ask yourself: What niches are you passionate about?
Chances are, you’re already creating UGC content in your favorite niche, so create a (short!) list of what you LOVE to make content about, and be flexible–you may add more later. Having this clarity will help you SO MUCH as you go through the following steps of this process.
Bonus points if you also take some time to create a list of brands in your niche whose products you love and who align with your values. This will help you know your end goal, which will help you as you’re trying to picture the kind of content you want to make.
If you don’t do this now, make a note to return and do it later!
Slowly build your brand
Since we’re talking about how to become a brand ambassador on TikTok or Instagram, let’s define building your personal brand as creating a small community online around the topics and niches you’re passionate about. (It’s good you worked through this in step 1, right?)
You can do this by educating and helping people in this community. Over time, your following will grow.
If you’re going to build an online community around your profiles, optimize your TikTok and Instagram profiles and post regularly about topics in your niche.
It sounds easy, but it’s a lot of work to keep this up regularly–but then, you’re a creator, so you already know that!
In addition to posting regularly, you’ll want to engage with your followers–that’s how you create a true community. Plus, by listening to their needs and desires, you’ll get content ideas and be better able to connect with them.
Building a community and a brand also means you’ll need to be super aware of and knowledgeable about your metrics and your impact on your community: things like engagement rates, reach, impressions, and developing a strategy for growing your account are super important. Later, you’ll need this expertise when you’re pitching to brands.
This takes a lot of time, but if you stick with it, you CAN make it happen!
Create high-quality UGC and post regularly
I know. I already mentioned this.
But it’s important–and complicated–enough that we must talk about it again.
It’s not enough to have a great camera and talk into it. Yes, those things help, but you need to create content that answers the questions of people in your community.
To do this, you can vary the types of content you make–educational posts, how-tos, tips, and insights are all great formats for answering those questions.
You can make videos, take photos, and even create blog posts. Whatever direction you want to go is fine.
While you create this content, remember that it will take time—and now you know why! Building this kind of online presence doesn’t happen overnight.
Build relationships with brands and apply to become an ambassador
Once you’ve built a community and made some progress, it’s time to take it to the next level. Can you guess what that is?
It’s time to learn how to sell yourself. That is how to become an ambassador for a brand.
Reach out to brands and pitch yourself. (That list you made at the beginning is a great place to start!) A good pitch should include your social media profiles, metrics, why you want to work with the brand or become their ambassador, and your passions. And, of course, your UGC portfolio.
Not every brand has a brand ambassador program, but the worst that can happen is they only hire you to work with them once–and that’s a pretty good worst-case!
From there, you’ll rinse and repeat. Follow up with brands. Apply to more brands, and keep trying to make deals. That’s the life of a creator, after all–and it doesn’t stop, even after you become a brand ambassador for the first time.
One way to mix it up and meet brands interested in developing relationships with creators is to attend events. Face-to-face events are fun, and it’s easier to connect in person than online.
Is it worth becoming a brand ambassador?
TBH, there’s not a straightforward answer to this question. Now that you know how to become a brand ambassador on Instagram (or TikTok or your blog), it’s time to weigh the pros and cons.
One extra advantage that I didn’t mention–but that you might’ve figured out anyway–is that in becoming a brand ambassador, you’re building a following and becoming an influencer. So, even if you don’t land the brand deal of your dreams, you’ve killed two birds with one stone by opening up many OTHER job opportunities because of your community.
But that also depends on your goals.
Full transparency: I’m not brand ambassador material. I’d much rather collaborate with brands on a one-off basis. It’s not as steady, but I’m okay with that because I don’t want to be locked into contracts and unable to book new gigs. But that might just be me–for many creators, consistency is everything.
So take some time to think it over, and then decide–will you become a brand ambassador?