Tailored Athlete was founded in 2016 by Harry Simonis, with the belief that an athletic physique shouldn’t inhibit anyone from dressing well. Being a staple in the athletic community meant marketing was always a focus for Tailored Athlete.

When Tailored Athlete’s Head of Marketing, Casey Parram, realized how competitive paid ads channels have become, he knew it was time to diversify their customer acquisition and try something new.

“The increased cost of paid ads has forced us to innovate and diversify as things become more competitive. The tide moves incredibly quick with regards to best practices for paid ads, so anything we’ve been able to do that provides more consistency has really helped alleviate that pressure.” Casey Parram, Head of Marketing at Tailored Athlete

Knowing that referrals can be a powerful growth tool and given the strength of the athletic community, he originally tried building a traditional refer-a-friend program with popular loyalty app Stamped.io. To his disappointment, Stamped’s legacy style referral program never gained traction among their community, and eventually Casey decided to sunset it.

After exploring many referral and affiliate solutions, Casey decided Social Snowball was the best fit for their needs.

Why? From Day 1, Casey could tell that the customer success team cared about his success more than he’s ever experienced with other Shopify apps.

“We had a look at quite a few options after we shut down our program with Stamped. In terms of pricing, Social Snowball was more competitive when compared to the other big names out there and offered important functionality that was impossible to find elsewhere.” Casey Parram, Head of Marketing at Tailored Athlete

The results of making the switch from Stamped?

• • Increasing referral revenue by 444%

• • Generating over a 10x ROI

• • Reducing blended CAC and consideration period by unlocking a new results-based growth channel

In this article, learn exactly how Tailored Athlete structured their referral program to see success, and why it’s different than the average refer-a-friend program often adopted by brands.

Structuring the right program for your brand

Having a very shareable product, Casey knew that with the right incentives and touch points, referrals would drive significant customer acquisition. Using Social Snowball’s out-of-the-box post purchase configurations, Tailored Athlete was able to achieve an affiliate activation rate they never imagined possible. They created a program that incentivized referrals with cash to anyone who refers a purchase.

“Turning customers into affiliates post purchase has been super powerful for us. We’re able to offer referral incentives right when our customers are most excited to share. People who shop with us are very aware of other people dealing with the same problems that they have, so putting the referral touch points where they are in the customer journey has really helped with the activation rate of customers becoming affiliates.” Casey Parram, Head of Marketing at Tailored Athlete

There was a key success for the program. It’s sounds uncool, but it’s the affiliate’s payout redemption. When affiliates are able to redeem their cash payout quickly and in the method that they choose, they’re more motivated to refer more people. For example, only being able to redeem cash in the form of PayPal or store credit, may inhibit redemption rates and cause the loss of urgency. However, with Social Snowball, when Tailored Athlete sends a payout to an affiliate, they recieve an email, login to a portal, and can redeem cash right away through 700+ options like bank transfer, Visa gift cards, PayPal, Starbucks gift cards, and more.

Being able to offer a smooth cash payout redemption experience meant affiliates saw value in referring their networks, and drove results for Tailored Athlete.

Making the switch lead to real results

After things were up and running for a while, Casey and his team were thrilled with the program’s ability to predictably drive significant revenue while helping lower their blended cost to acquire. Tailored Athlete is now able to consistently and predictably acquire new customers for a fraction of the cost of any other growth channel, while driving revenue at an impressive 10x ROI.

“If you look at the ROI from what we are paying to acquire these customers, it far exceeds any other channel that we are using.” Casey Parram, Head of Marketing at Tailored Athlete

The Tailored Athlete team was not only pleased with the program’s ROI, but they noticed that as a channel it is continuing to drive more and more revenue as time passes. After Stamped.io set the bar for overall low activation and revenue, Casey was relieved to see that their second attempt at referrals did not disappoint.

The right referral program can move the needle

Being a luxury brand, Casey and his team are used to the consideration period for a customer to convert being on the longer side. Thankfully, Social Snowball has done its part in decreasing that across the board.

Social Snowball is now a key piece of Tailored Athlete’s tech stack. They consistently and predictably acquire new loyal customer at a consistent CAC, on autopilot. You can try creating your program and running it for 30-days free with Social Snowball here.

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