How to Empower Your Brand Ambassadors | PINATA

Deskbound talent has a plethora of software tools that help them to be more productive and efficient, follow best practices, execute plans, and showcase their work to demonstrate the efficacy of their efforts.

Sadly, the same doesn't apply to those working in the field. Traditionally, they work in-market on an island. Without access to the technology that their deskbound counterparts have, it is more difficult to complete assignments and showcase their great work.

Brand ambassadors fall into this category of employees that work on an island. They sample products and represent retail brands in the field, with the settings ranging from:

• Retail execution
• Retail sampling
• Tastings
• Field marketing
• Street team marketing
• Trade shows or other marketing events

They are the doers, problem-solvers, creators, and frontlines of any organization. As the lifeblood of the company, they are a crucial success factor, and it's only fair for a company to empower them to get the most out of their day-to-day work. Here are some valuable strategies your company can employ to empower brand ambassadors:

Use Technology

Consider providing technology solutions to your brand ambassador's mobile devices. The platforms can serve as a centralized command center to streamline the tasks at hand and showcase their work to those in the office via actionable reporting.

Just like CRMs and task management software have revolutionized how deskbound workers do their job, workforce optimization software can do the same for brand ambassadors.

With such solutions, tracking each ambassador's work and impact and the value they add to the brand becomes easier. Incentivizing them becomes more manageable based on performance as opposed to bias.

By ditching clipboards and embracing mobile tech, the outcomes of this type of empowerment include:

• Standardized protocols to follow. With technology platforms that brand ambassadors can access remotely, it becomes easier to form a list of best practices for brand guidelines.
• Streamlined communication with teammates and other partners as well as scheduling. It's essential to consolidate communication to a centralized command center between the in-office and field teams. Your team can eliminate disparate emails, texts, and calendar invites with a centralized communication platform. It also becomes easier to track events and mark off what's complete while preparing for what's pending.
• More straightforward execution of the field-based tasks. Instead of your brand ambassadors manually filling out a checklist on a clipboard, with a few taps on a mobile device, they can send it to the entire team in real time. That goes a long way in saving time and improving efficiency in communication and feedback.
• Showcase all the great brand ambassador work. You can further motivate your ambassadors by displaying their work in the field in real-time using pictures, geo-tagging, and date stamps.

Be Clear with Directions

For numerous reasons, engaging brand ambassadors with your brand story is crucial. You want to align their activities with the brand message to your target audience. In addition to informing the brand ambassadors, you also want to inspire them and make them feel confident when representing your brand.

So, empower them to fully immerse themselves in your brand's purpose, vision, messaging, and values. They should understand where the company is coming from and what it hopes to achieve.

Final Thoughts

When brand ambassadors become active participants in shaping a company, and when you recognize their direct contribution to its success and they share in its vision, they become inspired to do much more. One of the most effective ways to empower them is to use technology to streamline their activities with the company's operations, goals, mission, vision, and purpose.

At PINATA, we focus on providing businesses with such solutions. We deliver data-driven task management for the real world of work. The PINATA platform drives efficiency, compliance, and ROI impact. Whatever the job to be done, we have industry-tested solutions for you.

Contact us to schedule a demo and learn how PINATA can empower your brand ambassadors.