Affiliate Marketing Playbook, with Cricket Treanor
Affiliate Marketing gets a bad rap. People think it’s just discount codes and the spam you see on the sidebar of that cooking blog (before you smash that “JUMP TO RECIPE” button).
But done right, it’s a secret weapon for scaling without having to rely 100% on traditional paid media. WITHOUT sacrificing your brand values. Just ask Cricket Treanor, Affiliate Marketing Manager for Patagonia, the long-lasting, high quality outdoors brand. (Maybe you’ve heard of it LOL)
She built their Affiliate program to ~align perfectly~ with Patagonia’s mission (and premium brand rep) while also driving real growth. No coupons, no cheap promos, just a lot of earned trust. In our full conversation, we went deep on how to craft a program that’s built to last, not just convert short-term.
Here are 5 tips to scale affiliate in a way that grows revenue AND builds trust, in Cricket’s own lightly-edited words. ⤵️
1️⃣. Tell your brand story before anyone else does.
Cricket’s Take: “We don’t lean as heavily into loyalty and deal. We’re not off-price very often. We’re not a very promotional brand, but we see a lot of value in that content space.”
Think about it: how often do you see Patagonia commercials, or seen steep discounts, even on Black Friday?
Patagonia doesn’t rely on discounts or promos. They let their brand storytelling content do the work of grabbing attention + underscoring their mission. (This also makes their affiliates even more important. More on that in a sec.)
Patagonia’s partnerships reflect their values:
– Reviews and earned media in trusted editorial (Literally, they’re at the top of everyone’s best of lists.)
– Educational content, like in-depth product explainers of niche products & hobbies (Fly fishing waders aren’t for everyone and that’s OK.)
– Alignment of product + purpose (showing their commitment to environmentalism, the Earth tax, publishing metrics on their footprint, crazy-good repairs policy, etc.)
You know that quote, if you stand for nothing, you’ll fall for anything? That applies here. Your program is only as strong as your positioning.
If you’re unclear on what your brand stands for, it’s a guarantee your partners & customers will be, too.
Takeaway: What does your brand care about? What’s the mission? If you take away discounts, what’s left to stand on? Ask these questions to your brand team. Your sales team. Your C-suite. Literally everyone, until you’re in lock step. Start with identity before scaling anything else.
2️⃣. Show up where your customers are ACTUALLY researching.
Cricket’s Take: “A lot of people, when they’re doing research on products… they’re looking for sales and discounts. But I don’t want that to be the only content they’re talking about the brand.”
Most affiliate programs obsess over the last click. Patagonia cares about the first impression. They go deep into the content bucket, working with publishers who write product reviews, expert gear guides, and comparison articles.
Because that’s where buyers make their real decision. Not on your product page. Not at checkout. But when they’re Googling “Best [product] for [season, activity, use case].”
Patagonia picks partners who educate, not just promote. That builds brand trust early and drives higher-intent traffic later.
Takeaway: Search your top 3 product categories on Google. Look at the articles and publishers that rank. Are you featured? Are your competitors?
If you’re missing, make a hit list and pitch them. Prioritize getting into the conversations your customers are already having.
3️⃣. Scale your affiliate program like a real channel, not a side hustle.
Cricket’s Take: “To run a really efficient affiliate channel, it’s important to have a management platform that helps you understand the entirety of your channel, that helps you communicate with partners…it’s kinda the most important thing for the channel outside of the partnerships themselves.”
Affiliate isn’t just about cutting checks. It’s about managing relationships, optimizing performance, and actually seeing what’s working. That’s why Cricket moved the Patagonia program to impact.com. She needed one dashboard for comms, commissions, and campaign data. Especially as a team of one.
Without that visibility, you’re flying blind.
Cricket uses reporting to understand what products are being pushed, where affiliate fits in the customer journey, and how to double down when something works. She’s not guessing. She’s building a program with systems that scale.
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Takeaway: Are you running your affiliate/influencer program on too much iced coffee, a Google sheet, and a prayer? List out every step in your partnerships workflow. (It’ll be therapeutic.) What’s slowing you down that tech or automations can take off your plate?
4️⃣. Campaigns are won or lost in the prep stage.
Cricket’s Take: “If I’m preparing for [a fly fishing] campaign, I’ll say, ‘Hey, who are the big fly fishing publishers in this space? Are they currently in our program? Or do I need to do a little bit of recruitment ahead of the campaign to get them in the program, or reengage them and make sure that they’re aware that this campaign is coming out? And then, how can I optimize with them so that they’re talking about this product as it’s coming out and for the duration of the campaign?”
IMO, most affiliate campaigns fall short because they didn’t do the legwork first. They didn’t keep their partnerships warm. They launch with the wrong partners, or maybe no partners at all. They don’t have a plan for measurement.
Cricket scopes out the landscape early. Who’s relevant? Who’s got reach? Who might need some cultivation to come onboard before launch? How will they need to be compensated? Do you have enough time to do product seeding?
Do your groundwork first, and launch day will be a breeze. Or at least, breezier.
Takeaway: Start building a “dream partner” list way before your next campaign. Slide into their DMs early, or reach out on your Affiliate platform, and warm up a relationship. And internally, whether it’s securing budget early, or staying in touch with the brand rep you’re about to close a deal with, better prep = better ROI.
5️⃣. Affiliate isn’t just bottom-of-funnel. It can build your brand too.
Cricket’s Take: “I like to think about the affiliate channel as more than just a conversion-based channel… Maybe the goal is traffic, maybe it’s awareness. There are ways to get creative”
Too many marketers treat affiliate like it only lives at checkout. Patagonia flips that thinking. When they launched a fly fishing wader campaign, they didn’t just push product. They partnered with niche publishers, paid for clicks to campaign pages, and prioritized storytelling over sales.
Cricket even uses CPC campaigns to drive awareness, not just conversions. Because sometimes the win isn’t the purchase. It’s the visit. The scroll. The moment a new customer gets what the brand stands for.
Takeaway: Pick one upcoming brand or product campaign. Map out how affiliate can support it beyond just sales.
Can you drive traffic to a film, a landing page, or a community story? If you only use affiliates to chase transactions, you’re leaving long-term brand equity on the table.
IN A MEME
