Brand Loyalty

Brand Ambassadors vs Brand Influencers: What’s the difference?

Brand ambassadors and brand influencers sound a lot alike and they are, but there are some important differences in these roles, their qualities, and the purposes they serve.

Brand ambassadors and influencers have some important things in common: they are both chosen for their authority on a brand, in a field, or over an audience. They achieve the same end for brands—sharing that brand with audiences to create new customers or users. Both create content and share it genuinely and in their own voices without it sounding like a sales pitch, and both are tasked first and foremost with building trust with new and potential customers or users.

But, it is the differences between ambassadors and influencers that will help you decide which is the best fit for your brand. Think of brand ambassadors as an organization’s ideal user. They are invested, engaged, and authentic fans of the item or program they are promoting, and they promote it because they truly believe in it and wish to share its benefits with others. They use word of mouth, testimonials, and anecdotal conversation to relay a genuine message others can relate to because they are building trust with firsthand experience. Relationships between ambassadors and the brands they promote are long-term, and they are chosen on the basis of their existing love of the brand.

Brand influencers usually have a far reach by way of social media followers, but their approach to promotion is different: they show their audiences how a product or program works, usually once or twice, and always for a fee (monetary or otherwise). Influencers might be celebrities or just people with a high volume of followers that are relevant to your program, and they use demonstrations, presentations, and program-specific posts about the brand if it stands out to them. They build trust by only promoting items that stand out to them, and in this way an influencer can become an ambassador if the product or program has enough appeal. Relationships with influencers are generally short term, and the influencer is chosen for his or her ability to reach the intended audience. ▪