Sage Appliances

Sage Appliances: Exceeding Growth Targets

For those with only 30 seconds, this is what we achieved:

In less than 12 months, we:

• Revenue driven exceeded forecasts by +85% as well as a +337% uplift YoY.
• Traffic up by +84%, AOV up by +24% and orders up +253%.
• The contribution to overall online sales from the affiliate channel was 29%.
• Closed User Group partners now make up 9% of overall revenue (Apr 22 – Jan 23) versus 0% prior to Silverbeans programme management.

Who is the client and why did they come to us?

Client: Sage Appliances

Industry: Home Appliances & Electricals

Territory focus: EMEA

Target customers: Homeowners, Coffee Enthusiasts & Adventurous Cooks

Launched in 2013, Sage Appliances is renowned for their award winning kitchen appliances designed to inspire people to produce perfect food and beverage results in their own homes with ease. From espresso machines to food processors, the innovation in each appliance delights customers, providing optimum results with a stylish slant.

Although a global name, the UK segment of the programme was in its infancy, so the brand wanted to onboard key partners as efficiently as possible to grow revenue in line with targets for the year. With team Silverbean’s holistic approach to an affiliate strategy, we had the crucial knowledge and experience to be able to build a recruitment and optimisation plan around the customer journey, covering content, influencer, closed user, incentive & partnerships in our affiliate mix.

So, what did we do?

Diversifying the Affiliate Mix
Silverbean first took over management of the UK region of Sage Appliances’ global programme on impact.com in April 2022. We conducted a full audit of Sage Appliances’ affiliate programme to determine where there was room for growth and which publishers were missing from the mix. The team also undertook an internal gap analysis where they saw crossover with clients to ensure we were maximising efforts in terms of recruiting the right partners onto the programme.

Recruitment
Silverbean conducted a GAP analysis, whereby we established core partner verticals which were missing from Sage Appliances current publisher mix. A recruitment hitlist was formed from this and outreach conducted.
Partner outreach then took place, onboarding 47 new partners for the UK region in 2022, of which they have contributed to 36% of the UK revenue in 2022. Prior to this, the programme was predominantly influencer/content focused with few/if any traditional affiliates on board. There’s currently 36 productive (order active) UK partners in 2022, versus 11 productive partners in 2021, highlighting both success and growth.

Optimisation
Once onboarded, the team began to develop the partnerships, working to optimise key partners along the way. One key partnership that has arisen from this work was with Topcashback. The team ran a number of CPA increases as part of their test and learn strategy – with a key moment for the campaign taking place over the second Amazon prime day in 2022 (11th & 12th October), where an increase coupled with on-site promotions drove fantastic results. Across the 2 days, revenue driven from Topcashback contributed to 35% of the total revenue, leading to them being not only the 2nd top partner overall for that week, but also that month globally. Implementing strategic commission increases over key dates for the brand has become a firm part of the overall strategy, using this as a lever to drive revenue to ensure targets are met.

Brand Awareness
In the midst of the recruitment drive, a challenge that arose was the awareness of the Sage brand and establishing this with affiliates. Sage Appliances is a product of the wider Breville business and has been established in the UK for around 10 years. Due to the connection to the Breville name, confusion was caused with partners. The brand also has to contend with other well-known brands in the UK with the name ‘Sage’ who offer software solutions. The Silverbean team worked hard to overcome this and educate partners about Sage, who they are and what they offer.

As an agency, Silverbean pride itself on being able to support our clients and identify any other areas in their wider business we see gaps. One such gap was in relation to PPC. Sage Appliances’ lack of PPC ultimately resulted in a number of affiliate partners deprioritising the brand for onboarding, so it was Silverbeans’ goal to try and support these efforts to ensure Sage Appliances were not missing out on important traffic and sales. Discussions with Incubeta began in the latter part of 2022, which included outlining the challenges the brand faced and how the partner could support those challenges. The partner went live mid-Jan 23 and soon became a top partner for the programme in a short space of time, contributing to 3% of overall affiliate revenue in just 2 weeks (from overall dates Apr 22- Jan 23).

Closed User Group Vouchers
A longer-term strategy for success was to set up exclusive voucher codes with not only key voucher sites, but also closed user groups. A hit list was created to ensure we targeted the right partners to align with Sage Appliances’ audience and also to support the current economic crisis. Blue Light Card was a core partner here to bring on board and also supply unique codes for their audience. In 5 months, they have managed to drive 4% of revenue compared to an overall time period of April 22-Jan 23. The success seen here paved the way for similar partners to come on board and begin contributing successfully to the programme’s growth.

What outcomes were achieved?
Overall results since Silverbean took on management of the Sage Appliances UK programme in April 2022 – Jan 23 show that revenue driven exceeded forecasts by +85% as well as a +337% uplift YoY. Key metrics were also up YoY across the board, with traffic up by +84%, AOV up by +24% and orders up +253%!

The contribution to overall online sales from the affiliate channel was 29%. This was up a huge +164% from the target of generating 11% of revenue. This result shows how valuable the affiliate channel is to the success of Sage Appliances and a key digital channel to the wider business to continue to drive growth.

With the programme being in its infancy in terms of publisher types on board in April 22, by July 22 we had increased revenue contribution from cashback from 0 to 6%, then from July 22 up until Jan 23 this has improved further to 21%. Closed User Group partners now make up 9% of overall revenue (Apr 22 – Jan 23) versus 0% prior to Silverbeans programme management. Whilst content remains a key vertical and focus for the brand, Silverbean has worked to create a healthy mix of partners, ensuring reliance does not lie with voucher or cashback partners as some typical affiliate programs may do.

The Relationship
The Sage Appliances and Silverbean team have forged a strong relationship since working together in early 2022. Silverbean acts as an extension of the in-house Sage Appliances team, fully immersed in the brand, with an infinite growth mindset.

Collaborative working sessions epitomise teamwork, creativity and provide the optimum space to enhance solid, fruitful relationships. Not only do the team communicate regularly via numerous methods such as email, slack and calls, Sage Appliances also organised for the Silverbean team to visit their studios to have a brand immersion day. The immersion day consisted of a deep dive into the brand and their products, which included their coffee machines and pizza ovens! The immersion session allowed the team to understand the products and feel like an extension of the Sage Appliances team which both parties feel is essential to success.

‘In 2022 we made the decision to partner with Silverbean to drive forward our DTC strategy. We have had an affiliate programme for several years but we hadn’t optimised or built any strategy for our programme in the region, so this was huge potential to help us build our direct-to-consumer business. Finding an experienced agency, with a great understanding of the market and the ability to expand to other markets was going to be the key to do this.

What did Sage Appliances have to say?