outdoor research hero background - referral program talkable

600%

return on investment

17%

advocacy rate (2x higher than average)

7%

higher LTV of referred customers

Turning niche professionals into brand ambassadors with referrals

decorate navigation - referral program talkable
Company

Based in Seattle since 1981, Outdoor Research provides award-winning technical apparel and accessories. The brand relies on the real-world testing of their athlete ambassadors, mountain guides, and local adventurers involved in outdoor sports: alpinism, rock and ice climbing, hiking, backpacking, paddling, trail running, and backcountry skiing and snowboarding.

Headquarters

Seattle, DC

Industry

Apparel

Client objective

The Outdoor Research team was looking for a cost-effective marketing channel to acquire new customers by leveraging their existing PRO program - a community of influencers that work in the outdoors. They needed a tool with which to harness these brand ambassadors to spread the word about both the PRO program and the brand.

The client wanted a referral program partner to develop, integrate and optimize campaigns for multiple user segments to drive both PRO member sign-ups and online purchases.

Solution

The Talkable team configured the referral program to dynamically display two unique campaigns onsite depending on whether or not the site visitor was a PRO member. PRO members were incentivized to refer other outdoor influencers to sign-up for the PRO membership while non-PRO members were incentivized to refer new customers to make a first time purchase.

The Talkable team tested and optimized the offers, share channels, and campaign placements for each customer campaign separately in order to find the most effective setup for each segment.

A/B testing advocate share page for PRO participants:

whoop statistics - referral program talkable
whoop statistics - referral program talkable

By emphasizing email as a sharing channel, the advocacy rate of PRO members increased by 8% and the conversion rate of referral recipients increased by 29%.

Email as a default sharing channel influences advocate sharing behavior. Rather than post on social platforms such as Facebook and X (formerly Twitter), advocates gravitate towards referring specific individuals that are more likely to convert. On the other end of the referral, people are much more likely to consider an offer that was sent to them specifically, which leads to higher conversion rates.

When the sharing page was accessed on mobile, emphasizing SMS as a share channel led to a 7% increase in website visits and an 11% increase in purchases.

Looking to find the best reward type, the Talkable team also tested different incentives for friends and advocates, such as free shipping and discounts.

Results

As a result of the ongoing optimization and testing, the Talkable referral program led to:

600%

return on investment

17%

advocacy rate (2x higher than average)

7%

higher LTV of referred customers

Talkable powered a word-of-mouth channel for a niche brand, through customer segmentation, user insights, and a rigorous approach to testing.

For niche markets, like outdoor apparel, referral marketing is a perfect channel to grow a community around a brand and bring in qualified customers. Whereas other acquisition channels lack credibility and social proof, referrals tap into an existing community to refer others just like them.

Talkable has helped Outdoor Research boost both our new customer and Pro acquisition through their advanced platform and optimization ability. Being able to leverage our existing customer base to grow both revenue and new customers has been a great asset to our e-commerce strategy.
zach alexander - referral program talkable

Zach Alexander, Pro Marketing Specialist

decorate navigation - referral program talkable
More success stories you may like

Accessories

Referral marketing as a higher converting traffic source
Working with Talkable has been extremely positive. We started at zero and quickly got to a good place.
guillaume pauthion - referral program talkable

Guillaume Pauthion

Europe Brand Manager

Beauty

Boosting sales through referrals while preventing customer gaming of the program
Talkable has customized the platform to meet the goals of our company to cross-sell existing customers into new brands and convert new-to-company customers as well. Great and trustworthy partner.
griffin thall - referral program talkable

Griffin Thall

CEO

Beauty

Optimizing e-Commerce referral program through A/B testing
The flexibility that Talkable offers is unparalleled by other vendors. You can tinker with almost every aspect of the program and test and analyze every aspect of your campaigns.
chanelle leslie - referral program talkable

Chanelle Leslie

Senior Manager of Acquisition Marketing

Grow your brand with Talkable

Whether you are looking to acquire new customers, increase customer loyalty, or drive new subscriptions, Talkable can help.

Talk to an Expert
Ian J. Ecommerce Manager
“From start to finish, the process was very simple to implement. It’s honestly one of the only products I’ve ever encountered where I’ve been told it’s only a couple of hours to implement, and it was actually only a couple of hours.”
Neta D. COO
“Talkable has been a great part of our growth. Nothing speaks better than a friend’s recommendation. Great product, great team, highly recommended.”
Andrew S. Senior Growth Associate
“Great fraud detection, simple reporting tools that make it very easy for us to extract data from Talkable. Keeps great track of all associated metrics and is very user friendly.”
Ben J. Web Manager
“Pros: Support from their team, whether it be setting up new campaigns, helping with development or coming to the table with new ideas. Easy integration with Shopify and our other processes.”
Ian S. Marketing Manager
“Super easy A/B testing functionality for everything! Tons of data and every report type you could ever want. An easy to use interface, all the data you need is right at your fingertips.”