Evolution Slimming has the UK’s largest selection of slimming and wellbeing products available on the web. The company has a range of products created to improve physical health and appearance using cutting edge innovative treatments and high quality herbal ingredients.
Evolution Slimming had focused primarily on PPC and SEO to market its products in the UK and across Europe. Along with an offline campaign, had been working reasonably well with some good results.
In 2010 the company explored other digital marketing avenues including affiliate marketing as it expanded its range of products and looked to increase sales online.
Objective
Evolution Slimming’s objective was to use an affiliate network as a proportion of web sales (whist ensuring the programme remains cost effective) and also to support its key multi-channel campaigns.
Strategy
It was essential Evolution Slimming worked with a network that could offer a deep level of insight and understanding in the health and beauty market as well as outstanding customer service and reporting – requirements that would help the company increase sales and improve ROI. As a result, after an intensive selection process, Evolution Slimming appointed MoreNiche the specialist affiliate network for the health and beauty market.
With a reputation built on in-depth market expertise in health and beauty the MoreNiche network was chosen to target publications, bloggers, voucher code and cashback sites whose audience sits at the core of Evolution Slimmings customer base.
Execution
The affiliate programme utilises cash back, loyalty and price comparison sites, all of which are proven to drive incremental sales and attract new customers. Implementing a CPA model, the programme has been particularly successful as affiliates have the added incentive of earning top commission rates from all converting referrals.
Offers which have run on sites such as Slimmers Digest and MyVoucherCodes, have converted especially well and this flexible approach to the campaign has meant Evolution Slimming is able to reinforce its key messages around highly effective products using quality ingredients that are highly effective and value for money.
Videos which Evolution Slimming has placed on YouTube have been converted for affiliate use as an added incentive for the network partners. This means Evolution Slimming can target specific products and contributes towards click-throughs, sales and ultimately revenue.
Results
The affiliate programme has lead to a 2000 per cent growth year-on-year in terms of new customer orders, with a 20% increase in repeat orders. Conversion rates have increased from 1/36 to 1/25 for all traffic, for targeted weight loss traffic MoreNiche has affiliates converting at 1/7.
This has resulted in MoreNiche completing commission payments of £20M since trading in 2008. MoreNiche has over 180,000 affiliates operating in the health and beauty market and offers rates of up to 40% for its affiliates.
Evolution Slimming’s eCommerce director, Russell Nicholls, said: “The affiliate programme has been enormously successful for us and has gone from strength to strength. It has become the highest converting channel for our product range.”
He added: “We knew that affiliate marketing could work well and we needed to ensure that we selected the right network. MoreNiche was chosen because it focuses purely on the health and beauty sector with a network of affiliates who understand our market. Similarly We have a clear understanding of how the programme is performing through the reporting process and affiliate marketing is now a core part of our ecommerce strategy.”
MoreNiche’s managing director, Andrew Slack, said: “We’ve been working with the guys at Evolution Slimming for sometime now. They have a very dynamic and innovative approach to ecommerce and are continuously exploring new ways to sell online and promote the brand. They have an excellent product range and we’ll be pushing our affiliate network even harder as we strive for year on year growth for the company.”