This is a presentation I delivered to the ComNet Group of the American Board of Medical Specialties in December 2020.

1. Creating and Nurturing Brand
Ambassadors for Your
Organization
Presenter: Dan Dunlop, Jennings Healthcare Marketing
American Board of Medical Specialties: ComNet
December 2020

2. What is a Brand Ambassador
Program?
• A program where you turn you brand constituents
into effective brand storytellers and advocates
• Hand select individuals and train them to be
effective brand ambassadors and storytellers
• Share your organization’s values and reason for
being
• Add a human face to your brand communications

3. Why a Brand Ambassador
Program?
• It enables you to develop passionate
advocates spreading your brand message and
communicating your values
• This is authentic and credible marketing
• Your brand constituents represent an untapped
asset

4. Benefits of a Brand Ambassador
Program?
• Enhanced talent acquisition/recruitment (volunteers
and employees)
• Enhanced employee and volunteer retention
• Greater volunteer engagement
• Improved brand communications and outreach
• Enhanced brand image
• Improved organizational culture

5. Finding Your Why
• The ambassador program helps to connect
constituents, including employees, to your brand
• Understanding the organization’s “why”
• Encouraging constituents to think about their “why”
• Why do I work for or volunteer for this organization?
• Why is this organization’s mission meaningful to me?

6. Outcomes
• Word-of-mouth marketing
• The social amplification of your key messages
• Better equipped and informed presenters and public
speakers
• This process forces focus on key messages and leads
to consistency of message
• The process also forces focus on organizational value

7. The Phases
• Phase 1: Assessment
• Phase 2: Develop Curriculum, Tools, &
Identify Candidates
• Phase 3: Brand Mentor & Ambassador
Training
• Phase 4: Sustaining the Program

8. Phase 1: The Brand Assessment
• Immersion research – brand exercises
• Asynchronous focus groups
• Define the brand position
• Identify/draft the brand story
• Define brand values
• Identify challenges and gaps in perceptions
• Begin to identify potential ambassadors

9. Phase 2: Curriculum Development
and Identification of Candidates
Design the curriculum to answer the following questions:
• (Begin with an explanation of branding)
• How do I start a conversation about my organization and
communicate my passion for what we do?
• What are the two or three things I want people to know and feel
when they think about this organization?
• Build a self-awareness and intentionality to conversations

10. Phase 3: Mentor and Ambassador
Training
• Begin with a smaller group of mentors; they can help to champion
the cause as you move forward
• Break the curriculum up into several shorter training sessions
• Session 1 should introduce the ambassadors to the role of the
brand ambassador and provide an introduce to “brand”
• Many will come to the session with misconceptions about what
branding is; explain the idea of brand experience and the
importance of storytelling
• Session 2 you begin exploring your organization’s brand and
values

11. Phase 3: Mentor and Ambassador
Training
• By Session 3, you should begin role playing with the
ambassadors. The “grocery store” scenario.
• Social media training! How can they help to tell your story through
their social channels?
• Develop and share evergreen social media content

15. Phase 4: Sustaining the Program
• Let your ambassadors become a cohort
• For employee ambassadors, have them meet monthly and share
success stories/challenges
• Set up a system for giving them regular updates
• Make your ambassadors feel special

16. Tools to Support and Inform
Your Brand Ambassadors

17. Tools to Support the Program
• Brand Manifesto
– A manifesto is a powerful expression
of purpose and shared values. It’s
an inspiring narrative that speaks to
internal stakeholders) stimulating
thinking on the brand’s behalf,
creating a sense of belonging and
being part of something bigger,
something meaningful, something
that matters.

18. Tools to Support the Program
• Brand Messaging Triangle
– The triangle is the
messaging platform for your
brand that simplifies the
storytelling process by
giving your brand
ambassadors three key
areas of focus for their
messaging.

20. Tools to Support the Program
• Brand Lexicon Document
– The power of language: the lexicon document helps
guide and align the language that is used to
describe the organization in both internal and
external communications. This is a purposeful
branding element that helps your team describe
who you are, what you do, what audiences you
serve, and the value you provide to your
audiences.

21. Tools to Support the Program
• Fact Sheets and
FAQs
– Make it easy for
your ambassadors
to be well-informed
and on message.

22. Tools to Support the Program

23. Tools to Support the Program
• Brand Book
– Not an employee manual or
handbook! A brand book lies at the
heart of many strong companies and
often reveals insider details, goals,
values and passions. It would
capture much of the detail of the
brand manifesto, but in a highly
graphic package (small booklet) that
conveys the essence of your brand.

26. Tools to Support the Program
• Brand Affirmation Cards
– Each card contains a
message that reinforces
the brand values with
less than 12 words of
copy.

27. Tools to Support the Program
• Social Media Toolkit
– A toolkit of pre-developed posts and
graphics that the ambassadors can
freely share on various digital
platforms. Providing these resources
allows the ambassadors to ease into
their new role

28. Tools to Support the Program

29. Tools to Support the Program

30. Tools to Support the Program
• Brand Video or Series

31. Tools to Support the Program
• Brand Video or Series

32. Tools to Support the Program
• Brand Presentation Templates

33. Your Master Class in Developing
a Brand Ambassador Program is
Complete!
Feel free to contact me with
questions.

34. Contact Information
Dan Dunlop, Principal
Jennings
Email: ddunlop@jenningsco.com
Twitter: @dandunlop
Linkedin: www.linkedin.com/in/dandunlop/
Blog: www.TheHealthcareMarketer.Wordpress.com
December 10, 2020