Why we partnered with Customer First Digital...
The Decree affiliate programme was launched in January 2022. As a premium luxury brand, there were some initial reservations from Decree that associating with the affiliate channel, would diminish the premium aspect of the brand.
Our key objectives from the project included …
Objective 1: Increase awareness of Decree, through partnering with new partners
Objective 2: Have a positive ROI within the first 6 months & doubled ROI by Year 2
Objective 3: Create a channel which drives 10% of last click revenue
Objective 4: Increase the likelihood of coverage of PR activity
Objective 5: Reach new audiences, over-indexing against the new customer site average and creating awareness with a new APAC audience
The opportunity was reviewed by Decree and signed off. We mutually collaborated on a list of publishers to launch with, ensuring brand fit, as part of the proof-of-concept stage.
What has been delivered so far…
Phase 1 - Proof of Concept: The first 4 months included intensive management from Customer First Digital, leveraging the initial contact made at planning stage to accelerate onboarding of 50 publishers. By the end of month 4 we had 96% onboarded. We analysed the programme performance to demonstrate the incremental value the channel generated and used industry data to benchmark and demonstrate future growth potential if some recruitment restrictions were lifted. All stakeholders were delighted with the initial results and keen to scale the activity, whilst still being mindful of protecting the premium nature of the brand.
Phase 2 - Programme Expansion (May 2022 to December 2022): With confidence gained in the channel, management time was split, optimising the proof of concept publishers and expanding the programme. We developed a hitlist of another 50 publishers to outreach. Monthly affiliate channel exclusives were also introduced, including Gift with Purchase and Stretch and Save offers to maintain Decree’s luxury position in the market and gain free exposure with publishers.
Since the adoption of more publishers, we’ve seen:
Onboarded increased by 114.5% (all target publishers on-boarded)
Click active publishers grew by 67.5%
Sale active (last click) publishers grew by 83.3%
Phase 3 - Programme Diversification: Moving into Year 2, we held a strategy day with Decree to understand how we could diversify the programme. Whilst the core is to continue to see growth from existing publishers, 3 new pillars have been introduced:
Lead generation: our initial test was partnering with The Good Web Guide, where we ran a competition in conjunction with editorial content. This increased the database size by 36.2%
Influencer: we raised the growing trend of influencers adopting affiliate marketing, supporting Decree’s internal teams in this growing area.
International Growth: Whilst the UK is the primary target market, growing a US audience is a key strategic pillar. Although early days, we are focusing on recruiting awareness based publishers, including influencers, with 1% of last click revenue generated in the first 3 months
How Decree have benefited…
The partnership between Customer First Digital, Decree and Rakuten has positively impacted both overall business metrics, with growth in brand awareness and increasing the performance across all other digital channels. The affiliat channel peformance has also grown from strength to strength, with YoY growth across all metrics, from the number of publishers actively promoting Decree to the percentage contribution of revenue.
21%
GROWTH IN
BRAND DEMAND YOY
3X
GROWTH IN
ROI YOY
What we think…
"Overall, I couldn't be happier with what has been achieved with Decree's affiliate programme through Customer First Digital. They have constantly overachieved on KPIs, with our % sales mix YTD nearly hitting double what was targeted.
Most importantly, from the beginning we have been nurtured every step of the way, looking towards maximum results whilst safeguarding our brand identity within the luxury sector. Customer First always gives us the time we need to confidently activate and grow the programme, and their expertise and support is second to none, often stepping outside the given remit to aid in tasks and connect us with people that build a wider digital marketing strategy, which in turn bolsters the affiliate programme.
Now we are in our second year, the support hasn't waned, with continuous testing and improvement to ensure we are driving forward. As a new brand which is new to affiliate programmes, we couldn't have asked for a better partner to take us on this journey."
Claire Tranter
Head of Digital Marketing Manager at Decree