Executive Summary

Xtrema's affiliate program was consistently losing traction, with sales repeatedly down year-over-year. Despite a large number of affiliates in the program, promotion by affiliates was dropping off and their top affiliate had shifted to promoting competitors.

Challenges

We took over the program with an approach of auditing which affiliates were promoting the brand less aggressively or not at all, which top performers could be activated, and how to leverage the existing program to quickly and effectively grow revenue.

Transforming declining affiliate program to skyrocketing sales

Energize top performing affiliates

We engaged top performers one-on-one to find ways to boost sales revenue for them and company.

Create affiliate portal

We created a landing page that included resources, creative and forms to make requests.

Streamline affiliate share process

We simplified sharing by providing quick, copy and paste shareables with their ID included.

Consistent communication and support

Weekly newsletters and one-on-one emails were used to be top of mind and keep affiliates updated.

Affiliate-driven sales

200% year-over-year revenue increase

We took over management of the affiliate program on April 1, 2020, which had been consistently decreasing year-over-year. Our management led to a 200% year-over-year revenue increase in affiliate sales the first month and the sales boom continued each month.

Strategy 1

Energize top performing affiliates

Hands-on Outreach to Top Performers

We reached out directly to top performers and prior top performers via email and phone, asking what we could do to help them. Some had never used the cookware, and samples were arranged. This energized affiliates who already were familiar with the brand and primed to promote Xtrema.

Xtrema Cookware "best brand" writeup

Example Affiliate: Leah Segedie of Mamavation

A green, eco-friendly blogger, activist and founder of a conference for green influencers, Leah Segedie is known for her vocal criticism of brands as toxic. She was an existing affiliate, but wasn’t actively promoting Xtrema. Not only did she boost promotion of the brand, she listed them as the only cookware brand she can recommend in a comprehensive comparison of cookware options.

Strategy 2

Create affiliate sign up and resource portals

Landing pages to encourage affiliate sign ups and support existing affiliates

We created two landing pages: one to encourage affiliate sign ups, which we used in our efforts to recruit high-impact new affiliates. The second landing page provided all resources in one portal for existing affiliates. This streamlined the sign up process, as well as providing a brand FAQ, easy one-click access to collateral and affiliate codes, as well as forms to request custom banner graphics or product samples.

Strategy 3

Eliminating the biggest challenge: time

Many affiliate managers focus exclusively on high-effort promotions like site redesign to include banner ads or full posts, but what’s often even more effective is social media sharing. At least weekly, we emailed affiliates a simple copy-and-paste text to share on any social platform that included their identifying information for full affiliate credit.

Strategy 4

Consistent communication and support

Affiliate email newsletters and direct communication

We used consistent email newsletters to affiliates, as well as one-on-one emails to existing affiliates and welcome emails to new affiliates to see what assistance they needed, to keep Xtrema top of mind. It also allowed us to discover anything preventing an affiliate from promoting the brand, and resolve those challenges.

“We are kicking butt and taking names. The affiliate program is a breath of fresh air to the brand.”

Patrick Bergstrom
Marketing Director, Xtrema

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