Establishing a dedicated brand community allows you to market through your customers, rather than to them. If budgeted correctly, investing in a community of ambassadors will help you create stronger relationships with your fans and achieve your growth goals organically.
The question is: How much would putting together, and managing, an ambassador community even cost?
Almost every business decision comes down to two factors: time and money. How can you achieve your goal in the most cost efficient and timely way possible? Below are some factors to consider when budgeting for your ambassador community.
WHO WILL MANAGE YOUR BRAND’S AMBASSADOR COMMUNITY?
A community manager is essential to running the day to day of your ambassador community and ensuring your brand is staying on track to meet your brand goals. Managing ambassadors can often be a time consuming process, thus having someone to monitor performance will help expedite the process. If only there was a solution to streamlining communication, assigning tasks, and monitoring engagement…
DISCOVER THE BEST WAY TO COMPENSATE YOUR COMMUNITY
Incentives are extremely important to the ambassador model. To motivate your ambassadors, try offering merchandise, experiences, or even cash. This also fosters brand loyalty and keeps your community engaged with your brand. Nurturing this relationship with your ambassadors is essential, ensuring that they will remain driven and excited about your brand. You can even incentivize your community with a tiered reward system — offer opportunities to become top ambassadors for access to exclusive offers & bigger rewards.
When evaluating a budget for your ambassador community, examine the cost of rewards or payouts. How much can your brand spend monthly to fulfill rewards? What is your target cost of customer acquisition? You can limit spending on rewards by offering low cost, but high value merchandise and experiences. Additionally, try including your partnership team to offer co-branded rewards.
Utilizing organic growth to drive traffic and attention towards your business, if budgeted correctly, has the potential to produce an extremely high return on investment (ROI).
For more tips on evaluating, planning, and budgeting for your ambassador community, get your free download of SocialLadder’s eBook Expert Advice: Budgeting & Onboarding Your World Class Ambassador Community. Inside you’ll find a calculator tool to help you create your own budget.
Here’s a quick tutorial to walk you through SocialLadder’s Community Budget Calculator:
