The Mountain defines themselves as an eco-friendly apparel manufacturer from the moment their very first t-shirt ran through the screen in the early 90’s.
Their most famous design, Three Wolf Moon® and Big Face™ tees have helped launch the brand to where they are today. Since then, their eco-friendly mind-set has expanded and evolved into something that makes them unique in the industry.
The Mountain noticed a decline in affiliate revenue and traffic prior to contacting JEBCommerce seeking help managing their affiliate program.
In an effort to stop the downward trend and increase traffic and revenue, the company signed a 3-month contract with JEBCommerce for affiliate program management.
Updating Promotions
The affiliate program was not actively managed for a year prior to signing with JEBCommerce.
Upon gaining control of the program, one of the first priorities was updating outdated promotions.
These outdated promotions made it difficult for affiliates to effectively promote the brand.
To fix this, our team worked to upload new promotions into the network and archive the old ones.
Once this was complete, we worked to activate publishers that were not actively promoting the brand.
To do this, our team sent out personal emails to these affiliates.
The purpose; to create a relationship and address any questions they had. Since then, we’ve grown the number of active affiliates in the program from 128 to just over 230.
Niche Affiliate Recruiting
Another difficulty we encountered was niche affiliate recruiting. The Mountain had a specific audience, so finding niche affiliates required additional resources.
To make this process easier, we utilized our personal database to find quality affiliates that would be a good fit for the program.
Our team also searched relevant keywords to find content affiliates that we could recruit. After we did this, we utilized Commission Junction’s recruiting tool to recruit even more niche affiliates to join the program. Through these efforts our team found a mix of affiliates excited to promote The Mountain brand.
The Bottom Line
When The Mountain came to JEBCommerce, the affiliate program had not been managed in over a year and they were losing traffic and sales.
In the first 3-months JEB’s affiliate program management increased revenue by 5% YoY and clicks for the program were up 60% YoY.
Our first year actively managing the program, revenue for the program was up 5% YoY.
During this time, the program also recognized a 53% YoY increase in traffic to their site.
One of the biggest wins was the number of active affiliates in the program. Looking at YoY data (2015 to 2016) active affiliates in the program grew by 80%.
Based on the initial contract, work was to stop after 3 months. However, The Mountain was happy with the results and decided to have JEBCommerce continue managing their program.
“Our team felt the program should remain outsourced and experience a continual growth pattern prior to revisiting an in-house management plan.” – Susan Hyde, Ecommerce Project Manager, The Mountain
Through careful analysis, strategy development and implementation, the affiliate program is now one of the brands top performing channels.
Affiliate marketing is often set on auto pilot or paused, especially when there are so many other channels demanding attention or when facing economic uncertainty.
JEBCommerce is here to help get your affiliate program back on track or expand successful programs, all you have to do to get started is send us a note.
