Hello everyone, I hope you are excited as I am about the incredible work that continues at IndexCoop. I just wanted to solicit feedback from the Community on possibly utilizing Crewfire to enhance our brand ambassador program.
While I am aware we have impression mining and an Excel spreadsheet program now, we might want to outsource that functionality to Crewfire in a similar but unique fashion as MantraDao has done with their #Sherpa campaigns. As our goal is to become the Blackrock of Crypto Index space, and what gets measured gets improved!
Crewfire could allow us to track progress and manage all your brand ambassadors, their content, and the rewards system in a transparent manner.
ScreenShots from MantraDao/CrewFire activities:
Here is what the roadmap might look like for setting it up…(sourced from Crewfire website):
Introduction
It’s getting more and more challenging every day to acquire customers through conventional channels, such as print media, paid social ads, and organic reach. In a post-COVID climate, even reaching customers offline
using authentic marketing tactics has become difficult.
In today’s competitive direct-to-consumer (DTC) climate, in order for IndexCoop to stand out, our marketing approach must be different. Social media, fortunately, holds the answer: brand ambassadors. We have passionate customers who love your products, a brand ambassador program can be a powerful way for Index Coop to unlock tremendous growth.
About Crewfire
CrewFire is a brand ambassador marketing platform that helps consumer brands drive more engagement, shares, user-generated content, and referrals by turning their customers into their army of brand ambassadors and micro-influencers on social media.
❏ Designate a program manager
It is important to appoint a designated leader for the brand ambassador program who will be responsive and able to keep in constant communication with your brand ambassadors. It can be an Intern, an employee, or even a third-party professional. What is important is that you do have someone to take on the role.
❏ Define your program goals
The most successful brand ambassador programs have clearly outlined goals that they are working towards. Goals provide clarity for the purpose of your program, as well as metrics to determine if you’re heading in the right direction. Common goals include increasing sales and revenue, driving more traffic, raising
engagement, and building communities around the brand.
❏ Once you have an idea of your brand’s readiness and goals, take the time to envision who will ‘fit the role’ of your brand ambassadors. Brand ambassadors will essentially act as the face, so it is important
to match them as closely as possible to your ideal target demographic. Internally strategize on what their persona is and what skills they should have to help streamline the selection process. Also, think
about whether you want the program to be an exclusive endeavor, where it is invite-only or a program that is open to the public.
❏ Tactically Outline your program activities.
While eventually, you want to reach the point where your ambassadors take the lead on generating user-generated content (UGC) in the beginning, and to hit the ground running, plan out key activities they will do that will align with your goals. These can range from sharing their referral code to engaging with your company’s content, to providing reviews on multiple websites, all the way to sharing video testimonials.
❏ Outline your rewards & incentives
As you plan out activities, outline the rewards and incentives you will offer. Ideally, you’ll want to reward the behavior you’d like to see with higher rewards for actions that involve higher levels of engagement. Rewards can be monetary (cash payments), non-monetary (free products, access codes, exclusive discounts), or
commission-based, all of which are supported in the Crewfire app.
❏ Outline your recruitment strategy
Decide how you will recruit brand ambassadors and from where. Brands have the option of either organizing their programs in cohorts (there is a set start and end date) or as an ongoing program.
Additionally, begin to research where you will recruit brand ambassadors from. You can send invite links to repeat customers, run promotional emails, or even recruit from sites like Trend, Buzzsumo, Klear, Discoverl.y, and Upfluence, which specialize in pooling brand ambassadors together.
❏ Create program documentation
Create an entire handbook documenting the goals, expectations, and rules of conduct, if you will, for your brand ambassadors. It may feel silly, but full documentation for the program brings the highest level of transparency and ensures that everyone is on the same page.
❏ Create program assets
Additionally, take the time to create and assemble all assets for the program, including welcome packages that each brand ambassador will receive, indoctrination videos, a landing page where potential
candidates can apply, and graphics and other images brand ambassadors will be able to use for their content.
❏ Define legal documentation
Before launching, check in with your legal team to establish the legal framework within which the brand ambassador program shall operate. Figure out what agreements your company will need in
terms of licensing, content releases, program terms and conditions, age limitations, and FCC advertising regulations.
Going Live
Once you have thoroughly prepared and planned your brand ambassador program, the next critical step is going live. Let the whole world know that your program is up and running.
❏ Announce your program
Even the most well-designed brand ambassador programs won’t work if they sit stale. Once you have launched your program, get the word out that you’re accepting applications. Make your recruiting
assets and landing pages live, and let everyone know the requirements and benefits of participation in your program.
❏ Welcome new ambassadors
As applications begin to roll in, welcome your new brand ambassadors with open arms. Provide them upfront goodies for making it through the process, and encourage them to get started with the smallest level of engagements to get a feel for the program.
With your brand ambassador program now up and running, it’s time to get to work. Take the following steps to maintain your program and maximize the benefits of brand ambassadors for your company.
General Maintenance
❏ Rotate in fresh activities
Keep things interesting by refreshing the activities that your brand ambassadors are doing. Stay up to date on the latest trends and solicit feedback from your ambassadors on activities that they think will add value to the program as well.
❏ Fulfill reward orders
Prioritize being responsive when fulfilling rewards orders. Failing to send out materials as quickly as possible or not sending out the right materials will erode the trust your ambassadors have in your critically important. The better the tool, the more manageable the program is, and the happier your brand ambassadors will be.
❏ Approve new applicants
Keep your landing pages and program assets live and continue to approve or reject new applicants as they are received.
Maximizing your program
❏ Communicate regularly
Emphasize maintaining a constant yet appropriate line of communication open with your brand ambassadors. If there’s too little communication, your ambassadors may lose interest. However,
if there’s too much, they may feel overload and burnout more easily. Find the right balance between providing feedback to your team, giving them ongoing access to digital assets to use (i.e., images, BTS videos, etc.), and giving them exclusive company updates.
❏ Foster community & relationships
Keep your community of ambassadors engaged and loyal to your brand by developing relationships with each of them and encouraging them to form connections with each other. Invite ambassadors to come up with campaign ideas, spotlight well-performing ambassadors, provide free educational tools from which
they may benefit, and even ask them to participate in Beta tests of your newest products and services.
❏ Continue recruiting
Lastly, no matter how rockstar your current brand ambassadors are, continue recruiting more potential candidates. There may be a time where your current brand ambassadors desire to move on and the
the last position you want to be in is short on people to work with.
Ongoing recruitment activities help keep your program fresh, creative, and therefore successful.