They Are More Than Your Customers
It was 9:00 am.
I woke up but still in bed, opened my phone, went straight to Instagram, scrolled down the post page, and then go over the story feed. Carefully counted, I have viewed 6 story feed ads and 5 post ads after half an hour.
All of them are closely related to what I need at the moment, swimsuits and dresses that I planned to buy for my coming spring vacation. I devoted at least 5 seconds to each of them (mostly attracted by the face and body of models), but I clicked none of them.
I am not saying that their ads are terrible. In fact, most of them did a great job — fabulous model, aesthetic picture, eye-catching caption, specific purchase link, and competitive price. From a marketer’s perspective, these ads are definitely worth an A; however, as a consumer, a Gen-Z consumer, each post subtitled with “sponsored” on social media just annoys me. My shopping theory is if a company is willing to spend thousands of dollars in pushing, why can’t they use the money to improve the product itself and pull me in?
La Colombe Coffee Social Media Action
Recruit college student ambassadors is a wise choice to approach customers who are skeptical of advertisements, like me. Cheaper but more effective, it works just well for social media addicts.
That is what La Colombe Coffee is doing right now.
On February 28, La Colombe Coffee officially launched its fall 2022 college brand ambassadors program on social media, including Instagram, Twitter, TikTok, and its official website.
The recruiting message is simple and straightforward. Start with coffee pouring background and bolded recruit caption, followed by college students holding La Colombe Coffee pictures and video, and ended with reenforcing recruit information and brand logo.
Why We Need College Brand Ambassadors On Social Media?
- Deliver Trusted and Effective Message.
As we live in an information overload era, people are constantly consuming too much content and advertisements on social media more than ever. It becomes more crucial for a brand to show sincerity and honesty to its customers.
Based on Nielsen’s research, 92% of consumers trust recommendations from friends and family over any type of advertising. College brand ambassadors are part of the college community. They are more likely to share the same lifestyle or value as other college students, which make them more genuine and trustworthy than other general influencers.
A trusted message always leads to a better conversion rate. In fact, referred customers convert 30% better than non-referred customers and have a 16% higher lifetime value. Each person college ambassadors reach based on their network, the profit brands can earn is larger than 1+1. In accord with the snowball effect, the cumulated benefits are far beyond its original input.
2. Increase Brand Exposure And Build Up Brand Awareness.
By tapping into student ambassadors, brands are able to not only connect with their online audiences, but connect with students’ social networks.
To become a qualified brand ambassador, college students are required to be active on their social media accounts, school events, or even in their insider group chat where a brand can never reach on its own. This not only helps a brand get to know better where their target customers consume messages, but, more importantly, helps it gain extra exposure in students group and gradually build up its brand awareness.
Unlike other advertising posts, people are more willing to pay attention to their closest friends or someone they know in real life. Just think of your own experience, will you read all comments under an official Instagram account? How about changing the account to your best friend’s? See, people care more about the people surrounding them, and that’s how a brand can utilize its student ambassador’s social media account to earn exposure for itself.
3. Save The Budget.
Hiring a well-known celebrity is costly, especially for a local medium business. Unlike Starbucks or Dunkin’Dunkin’ Donuts, La Colombe Coffee is a relatively small coffee maker that highly relies on its local market, such as New York, Washington D.C., California, and Philadelphia. There is no need to invite a famous star for a business that only stays in 7 states. However, having several local networks in its tarted area among targeted customers can be a cost-effective choice.
The general pay rent for a college ambassador is around 10 dollars per hour, with no more than 20 hours per week regulation, the maximum payoff is 200 dollars per week, which is far below the national average salary. Besides that, there is no financial cost for both the brand and its ambassador to share a post on its social media accounts.
As I took a nap after the first 30 minutes of browsing on my morning, I opened my Instagram again. My friend just posted a story of her outfit with the store account tagged on it. This time, I did not skip it. I pressed the store name and clicked the follow on its official account. Even though she is not an officially recognized brand ambassador for that brand, she did help it gain one more customer, me, by a simple social media post.
This is Yang’s blog. Thanks for your reading. And see you next week :)
