17% More Revenue, Building a More Profitable and Sustainable Affiliate Program

Mad Rabbit is a tattoo skincare brand that offers high-quality, natural products for a full cycle skincare routine from preventative + post aftercare to daily tattoo skincare solutions. Because Mad Rabbit’s “no nonsense” approach values clean ingredients and provides an easy solution that works, as well as an appearance on “Shark Tank,” the brand had a well-built customer base.

Before Baotris, Mad Rabbit created an affiliate program that would allow people who love tattoos to be rewarded for sharing the Mad Rabbit message on their social media. Mad Rabbit decided to partner with Baotris to grow the affiliate program and network.

In order to grow the revenue of the affiliate program, Baotris decided to do three things:  diversify the risk of the program, increase the number of clicks by increasing the number and quality of outreach, and increase conversion rates by adjusting the commission rates.

• Increased the size of the program to minimize risk
• Track and measure the performance of every campaign, using data to double down and optimize flows, messaging, and promotions to create more conversions
• Developed content beyond transactional messaging

Growing the affiliate program meant adding more affiliates, Baotris increased the number of affiliates by 23% affiliates to decrease the risk. With these additional affiliates added, if any were to drop out or underperform, there would be others to pick up any deficiencies, and the program would continue to be on track.

While a larger affiliate network requires more time, Baotris took over the management of the program. This allowed the Mad Rabbit team to focus on other projects. And, in turn, the affiliates got one dedicated Baotris team member who was there to build relationships, provide support, answer questions, and ensure the affiliates felt a part of the team, rather than just having a transactional relationship. Part of building relationships is building trust with affiliates. To do this, we evaluated the touch points of the affiliate experience, and as a result, we increased commissions and ensured on-time payments. We also increased discounts for first-time customers, which helped affiliates increase their conversion rates.

Each campaign was tracked and measured, including the performance of outreach content, where we measured engagement through clicks, bounce rates, and conversions. If a message did not perform as expected, it was swapped for one that elicited more engagement. We also looked at what content was popular with our audience - what they wanted to read about and how they interacted with it. We used this information to inform future decisions about content creation and distribution.

Another critical aspect of the Baotris affiliate process was a consistent communication cycle. Baotris uses a CRM to track all our outreach which helps us analyze the traffic coming from the affiliate’s channels as well as the number of new customers coming in.

With tracking, we were able to see a 62% increase in clicks over previous months with the adjustments we made to the communications going out. We wanted the affiliates to know Mad Rabbit better, so we included product information such as descriptions, images (aka product photos), prices, and discounts (if any) in the newsletters we sent out. This helped readers understand what they were getting before they clicked on an affiliate link.

We also started adding brand messages so that affiliates got to know the story and connect to the values. We wanted affiliates to understand what makes Mad Rabbit different, so they felt more in tune with the brand.

• Mad Rabbit’s affiliate program revenue grew by 17% in three months
• The network of Mad Rabbit affiliates grew 23%
• 62% click increase in affiliate engagement due to improved content and affiliate offerings
• A more consistent communication cycle with affiliates
• Lower churn rate on affiliates, longer lifetime value