Editor’s Note: Laura runs Goodsell Marketing, a San Diego based an affliate marketing agency (and a great partner on a few projects here at Plannedscape). In this article, Laura details a case study (and a success story) in how an affiliate program has grown the company with no upfront costs for customers/leads, commission only.

* * *

Companies looking to grow their business always seem to face hard decisions about spending ad/marketing dollars when money may be tight. Affiliate marketing offers some great solutions since affiliates are only paid on commissions for actual sales. We do a lot of affiliate marketing campaigns and wanted to share this case study of one client.

Case Study: Sleefs Ambassador Program

Sleefs is a long-term Goodsell Marketing client. They are an online retailer of sporting goods and apparel. The brand is popular with High School and College aged team athletes. They have been running a successful affiliate program for several years and wanted to get additional reach with their marketing dollars.



Challenges

1) Increase Sleefs revenue on a commission-only/CPS basis

2) Reach Sleefs' target audience without paying any social media placement fees


Solution

Goodsell Marketing utilized Sleefs huge Instagram following to create a pool of influencer "Ambassadors". The Sleefs Ambassadors get paid a commission for every sale referred with their unique coupon code. The Ambassadors post pictures on Instagram of themselves or their teams wearing the Sleefs products and promoting their codes in the post, caption or in the user's bio.


Results

* The Sleefs Ambassador program picked up quickly and is now a main driver of overall revenue. The program continues to grow with a big 2019 Holiday season and is projected to drive $200k in incremental revenue in 2020.

* There are approximately 7,000 Sleefs Ambassadors in the program and hundreds of new applicants every month. The Ambassadors continue to promote the brand and its new products on a daily basis. Sleefs pays the Ambassadors only when a sale occurs, no per-post charges.

* Ambassadors can choose to be paid in cash or with a Sleefs.com gift card creating great efficiency in marketing dollars. (A surpring number of Sleefs Ambassadors have opted fo the gift cards, which is great for Sleefs.)




Conclusion

The low-risk of only paying out commissions to affiliates based on real sales is incredibly attractive to companies on tight budgets looking to increase sales.

Affiliate marketing campaigns have to be well-disciplined and communicate effectively both with the parent company and the affiliates themselves. Yes, companies can do these things directly, but at the risk of this sounding like an ad for our services, utilizing an affiliate marketing agency (like ourselves) who have run effective programs before are more likely to run successful campaigns.

Each product’s affiliates have their own personality. Sleefs Ambassadors are particularly young, Instagram friendly and in many cases are happy to take their marketing fees in the form of gift cards.



About Goodsell Marketing

Goodsell Marketing is a specialized affiliate marketing agency located in San Diego, California. We work with a variety of clients, developing and managing their CPS/CPA programs in Affiliate, Influencers, Search, Retargeting and Email campaigns. Please contact Laura Goodsell at laura @ goodsellmarketing . com or 619-746-8386 to find out how we can help your digital marketing efforts.