First Published: 31st July 2019, written by Chloé Safilo | Last Updated on 6th January 2024 | Reviewed and Edited by Chloe Safilo
What is a brand ambassador?
A brand ambassador is someone hired to represent a brand positively to increase brand awareness and sales, through product endorsement. The brand advocate should influence their audience (hopefully the brand’s primary consumer group demographics) to buy the product on the strength of their recommendation usually through TV or social media channels like Facebook, Instagram, Snapchat, Youtube, etc. Social influencers are usually part of a brands Social Media Campaign marketing strategy.
How do you make money from Instagram
In the age of Love Island who doesn’t dream of Instafame?
Free Clothes ✔
Free Holidays ✔
Free meals ✔
Big paycheques ✔
Jetset lifestyle ✔
Hanging with Celebs ✔
The job title of Social Influencer is now a career choice. So how can you make money on Instagram or Facebook? With Fashion Brand Ambassador Programs available, dreams can come reality. Naturally beautiful people who look good in clothes can influence others within their social reach, with their followers inspired to follow their fashion sense. And Clothing brands know this, and it’s a great advertising route to a captive audience.
Who Gets Paid the Most from Instagram Posts?
Social Influencers aspire to keep up with the Kardashians makeup half of the Top 10 Instagram Earners and are rumoured to earn between $250’000 to $500’000 dollars per post. The record 169 Million followers of multi-talented Selena Gomez help her command the top of the list, but this is the pinnacle for any wannabee social influencer.
Brighton local Zoella estimated £10’000 a post is a more realistic aim but helped by her 11 million Instagram followers. She also started her internet stardom back in 2009 with a blog before the Youtube move that really took off. But this was years of hard work and clever networking, not luck. Emulating fashion influencers like x-factor contestant Betsy-Blue, who commands a high fee for posting is an achievable target for the right person.
The news of a winter series Office favourite Love Island is a timely reminder of how someone’s world can skyrocket. Forget the £50K winner’s purse, the real prize is celebrity endorsements topping £2 Million. Before they have even unpacked their swimwear, celebrity endorsement deals are being sealed and their Instagram followers into the millions.
How do you become a Clothing Brand Ambassador?
The original urban wear brand ambassador is arguably Gary Beadle of Geordie Shore. Before he started 11 Degrees, Gaz was the owner of Project 722, the first shop to stock Sik Silk. Gaz loved the clothing and he decided to put his full weight behind the brand. With his celebrity endorsement on social media and by wearing the clothes on set, he catapulted the then-unknown brand right into the public eye. But most people are unlikely to have 3.5 Million followers like Gaz, so here are our tips:
Don’t be lazy
Everyone wants an easy route to success, but you need a little bit of effort to go far. Here’s a list of Do’s and Don’ts, starting with don’t read on if you aren’t prepared to spend some time doing it right:
- Don’t buy followers. The marketing team can tell, everyone can. Influencers need to influence someone, that means genuine and engaged followers. There are techniques to get your followers up, and in reality, you are being paid for this social reach. If the audience is the right one, it will have a high conversion rate, so size doesn’t matter.
- Create genuine and engaging content.; take good pictures that stand out. Can’t do it? Get a fashion photographer who can. But new mobile phones these days have great camera quality.
- Don’t copy and paste a one-line message about how you should be sponsored as you as so amazing and bombard every brand there is. A lot of brands know each other, and in some cases own multiple brands. Even still, it’s arrogant and will be ignored. If you are a fan of the fashion brand, say so.
- Find brands that suit your style. If the clothing brands you are targetting are not on your Instagram, why are you even contacting them? We like working with people who genuinely like and wear our clothes, not those looking for an easy payday.
- Do link your social profiles or attach pictures. How can you want someone to hire you as a model if they don’t know what you look like? You are literally applying for a job without sending a CV. These are instantly ignored.
- Don’t be unrealistic. Why should you get free clothes? They cost money to design, manufacture, import, store and ship. And there is something called VAT which you probably need to read up on if you want paying. In short, each t-shirt you want just because you have an Instagram account with 3 mates and your Auntie Carol following you, costs a brand £20 to give away. So be realistic, it ain’t happening unless you have an Instagram account that might actually make that money back. If you are in this for free garments, that’s not going to get you far.
- Don’t be arrogant. Going to be a top sportsman? Yeah mate, brands have heard that before. Perhaps you have not noticed the top-level sportspeople wearing their stuff? If you magically get a response, be nice and genuine. Any other approach will see you blocked.
Get Inspired and get networking
Look at the good Instagram accounts and get ideas. They don’t have to be fashion bloggers/models to be inspirational. But don’t rip off people’s hard work, get creative. The urban street wear scene is smaller than you think, and the social influencers used in the fashion industry know each other. So get social networking, join groups, contact current influencers for some tips and maybe you can live the lifestyle of the legendary Paul Hutchie in Dubai.
Be Selective or be strategic
We all have to start somewhere, so keep your account clean or take logical steps. Just as you should not contact the big boys without any experience, don’t fill your feed with promotions of brands no-one has heard of and expect a big brand to want to be sitting alongside them. It’s not going to happen. So aim lower or tidy up that portfolio.
Get educated
Told you this was tough. Do you know what marketing channel has the biggest reach? Do you know your algorithms from your marketing funnels? Well don’t panic as not a lot of people do, so go and find out how to increase your followers organically and what Instagram is currently pushing more frequently on their feed. That is going to help your followers grow. What could be a problem though is Instagram removing likes in some markets which has lost social influencers followers.
Do all of that, then maybe clothing brand ambassador deals will start to come your way. The good news is, brands are looking and you can read tips from CrewFire that helps you understand how they will work.