Why service businesses should consider brand ambassadors and influencers to drive growth | Your Influencer Agreement Checklist
An influencer or a brand ambassador is someone with a celebrity status. For example, an influencer might have a popular public social media profile, or be someone that has obtained a large fan-based following. Often influencers are models, actors, youtubers or reality tv stars. Because of their ability to drive sales of products through their following they have earned the title of influencer. When you think of a brand ambassador, you might picture a famous cricket player in a KFC tv ad, or a rugby player on a billboard for Gatorade.
In the past, service business owners and service providers haven’t traditionally used influencers or ambassadors. It is more common to see an influencer promoting products. But is that still the case, and should it be?
The Influencer Agreement Template linked below is ready for you to personalise:
In this article we explore why service based businesses should contemplate incorporating influencers or brand ambassadors in their marketing strategy. We also share an ambassador and influencer agreement checklist to help you decide who might be a good fit for your business along with some suggestions for what to consider to ensure a successful outcome from this type of arrangement.
Influencers for service businesses?
One example of an influencer or ambassador selling a service that you may have seen yourself might have looked like this. A company representative in their branded t-shirt standing beside someone famous (the ambassador) who is contributing to a conversation about the service that’s being sold. Or, of course, an ambassador alone selling the service.
The influencer or ambassador in these situations would ideally be a past client, or someone who has observed the service being delivered before. And, of course, they must be prepared to lend their personal brand to that service business for an agreed amount of time.
Benefits of ambassadors or influencers for service based businesses
The main benefit of having an influencer or ambassador promote your service business is the same as it is for businesses that sell products - to have the ability to broaden the awareness of your service or brand, to a new and larger audience.
The second key benefit is that by connecting your brand with someone that has a strong, reputable brand themselves and is trustworthy, authentic and genuine, trust can be transferred to your brand, by association. However, the overarching goal of engaging an influencer or ambassador is always to increase traffic to your website and increase sales.
With the ease of information being shared via social media, an influencer or ambassador can prove to be a great way to raise awareness of your business, brand and the services you offer.
What do you want the influencer or ambassador to do?
There are a range of ways in which an influencer or ambassador can endorse your services. Commonly an influencer creates content on social media that may include live videos and posts over a set period of time.
Ambassadors may do the same, speak publicly at events or the arrangement may simply be that a photograph of them is placed alongside the brand and used in a range of marketing materials, inferring that they recommend or endorse the service.
Typically an influencer is engaged for a shorter period of time than an ambassador. Influencers are often more interchangeable than brand ambassadors.
If you are thinking about engaging an ambassador or influencer, follow this checklist below to make a good choice for your service business.
How to choose the right influencer or ambassador for your service-based business
1. When considering possible ambassadors, ask:
What type of people do we want to purchase our services?
Who are the high-profile people they are likely to admire?
Do we have a past or current client that could be a good ambassador?
2. When narrowing down possible ambassadors/influencers, consider:
What are our brand values?
What are the values of the potential ambassador?
Do our values align?
3. When selecting an ambassador or influencer, consider:
Would our target market see this partnership as believable?
Will they be suitable for the type of promotion we will require? (For example, will they present well on camera or appear wooden and uncomfortable?)
Are they prepared to learn about our business or just deliver the endorsement?
If you are ready to approach an influencer or ambassador, it is wise to have a draft proposal ready, outlining the details of what you would like the arrangement to be. Having a proposal in draft and ready to go is a good way to approach influencers or brand ambassadors so they will take your offer seriously.
At this point it is also a good idea to include the commercial terms and key elements you might want such as exclusivity and how either party can terminate the agreement, in the event that is required. Don’t concern yourself with including the number of posts or how much someone gets paid until you are both ready to prepare the agreement.
Securing an influencer or brand ambassador to promote your services
Once you have found an ambassador or influencer that is the right fit for your brand, you will need to formalise the arrangement with an influencer agreement or brand ambassador agreement.
When I first speak with people about their intention to engage an influencer or ambassador, we need to determine the nature of the relationship as that determines the type of agreement that will be needed.
To do that, you will need to consider the specifics about what you want the individual to do in their role. If you want them to mention your business on their podcast, it might be a sponsorship agreement that is required. If you wish to have them create posts and share content about your service, it may be an influencer agreement you need. If you want them to be more broadly involved, it may be an ambassador agreement you require.
There are quite a few things to consider to ensure that your relationship with the influencer or ambassador starts well and continues well, too.
In my years of helping businesses negotiate the terms of their agreements, I have come across many ways that these collaborations can go poorly. For that reason I have put together this checklist so you can begin thinking about some of the finer considerations.
Your ambassador and influencer agreement checklist
Taking into account the how, what & when as well as any milestones you may wish to build into your relationship is key. When you have thought through each of the following considerations, tick it off the list.
How do you want the ambassador or influencer to promote your service? How will it be delivered? For example, via social media posts, TV appearances or podcast mentions? A mix?
What will your ambassador or influencer say? Can they decide for themselves? Will it be scripted? Or will there be some guidelines for what they can and cannot say?
What is legally required of them on the platform they will use? For example, will they need to disclose sponsored posts or podcast episodes?
What can be published? For example, will you need to approve every post and image before they publish it or will they have some freedom?
How often will your ambassador or influencer be required to mention your brand or service? For example, How many mentions per podcast? How many TV appearances? How many social media posts per month?
Is this going to be an exclusive or non-exclusive arrangement for them?
Will you be able to engage more than one ambassador or influencer at a time?
Will you be implementing objectives, such as 6 or 12-month milestones?
Will you be looking for a specific return on investment? If you are, how will you measure it?
If the ambassador or influencer engages in poor behaviour that may bring the brand into disrepute they won’t be aligned anymore, can the arrangement be terminated?
If you have considered what you want in an influencer or ambassador and you know what you would like them to do as part of this agreement, then you may be ready to create an initial proposal to send them.
If you already have a relationship with an influencer or ambassador but the arrangement isn’t formalised, and you’d like to formalise it quickly, you may benefit from using our influencer agreement template. Or, if you think your agreement might be a bit complex, speak to us and we can quote a customised influencer or brand ambassador agreement.
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Our influencer agreement template contains enough information for you to use the included schedule to work out all the commercial terms needed for you to create your own proposal. It also highlights the issues that you should be mindful of when negotiating these types of arrangements with a potential influencer or brand ambassador. Find our influencer agreement template here or book a time to discuss your needs here.