Our Affiliate Program Explained

Why we started an affiliate program, and how it works.

Welcome back to our second post about the programs we have to offer here at Xplore Nutrition. 

If you’re just tuning in, you can look back at the blog post we made that lays out how our nutrition coaching program works by clicking here. It’s a good follow up after reading through this post, because it explains exactly how our coaching program works and what you or your clients can expect.

With that said - we are here to talk about our affiliate program this time around. 

“What is an ‘affiliate program,’ and why would I want to join?”

Chances are, if your eyes are glancing at this page, you are looking for some kind of nutrition solution for your CrossFit affiliate, personal training studio, yoga business, hospital (you can read more about our first relationship here), or any myriad of organizations where nutrition can play a role. 

An affiliate program is like a working relationship that allows us to work together as a team, rather than a strict franchise agreement. It allows you to focus on what you do best, while allowing our team of experienced coaches and dietitians to work by your side. As a former gym owner of 6+ years myself, I know how hard it can be to balance running more than one program at a time. More often than not, it results in both coming out half baked, and stressing you out - which is why we started this program from day one of Xplore.

Not only did we launch our affiliate program from day one, but we designed it to be 100% free to join (that’s right - $0), and you’ll receive 20% every month for every referral you send our way. So it isn’t just free to join, but a program that can add to your bottom line as it grows.

If that sounds like you, our team can help. Whether you simply don’t have the bandwidth, the knowledge, or the desire to run a nutrition program in house yourself - our affiliate program is a turnkey solution to do just that, without all the extra work. 

“Hold on…so your team works alongside ours? How does this work?”

We designed this program to be as turnkey, and ready to launch as we could. 

It starts by heading over to our affiliate program page by clicking here, and filling out our sign-up form. From there, our team will be in touch with you to get some final information to wrap things up and get started. We’ll send you a link to fill out a W9 for our records (so we can pay you), an invite to create a Stripe Connect account with us (how we pay you), and an email with some details to help get our relationship started. This email will also include our contact info, links to blogs, a copy of our nutrition guide for your team, and promotional material for printing if you want something physical to handout.

From there, much like coaching, it’s all about communication and ongoing teamwork. See a post we wrote and want to share? Have at it! Maybe you saw a graphic we made and want to post that too? Be our guest! One of the things we love to do most when we start working with a new affiliate, is to host a free livestream for your clients to ask us questions about nutrition (yup…we said free again).

We love hosting these livestreams, because it gives us a chance to be more than some random humans on the internet to your clients. It puts a face to a name, and gives them a chance to hear what we are all about. Our program is personalized for each and every person that signs up, so we want to be personal before they even get started.

“What does our team need to do if Xplore is handling the coaching?”

Talk about nutrition, talk about it again, and then talk about it some more. Bring it up during your clients onboarding classes if you have them. Mention the importance of eating vegetables during a workouts transitional period. Bring up the importance of hydration while your clients are cooling down after a workout. Our team will handle working with the people you refer, but they can only be referred by you.

Need help figuring out ways to bring it up to your clients, or what to say? Reach out to us, and we are happy to help you come up with a strategy that works.

“You said that working with Xplore can add to our bottom line, right?”

We sure did - and it doesn’t cost a dime to do it.

Our affiliate program is 100% free to join, and we don’t see that changing anytime soon. We wanted to make sure that we weren’t just some “refer and forget” program - so we created it as a way to also add to your bottom line. For every referral we receive, our affiliates get 20% of that referral’s monthly membership for the life of their time with us. Whether they stick with us for 3 months, or they’re around for 3 years, that 20% will still exist.

When creating our web app, we decided to build our payment processing system around Stripe Connect. What does that mean for you? It means that when a client pays us, they pay your organization and their coach at the same time. No waiting, no fuss, just simple ease of use.

“How do you know a client was referred by us?”

During the sign-up process, or even in our contact form, we ask how someone was referred our way. If they tell us that they were referred by their coach, or an affiliate, we double check to make sure we know who that affiliate was. From there, we assign your organization as a payee for that clients account, and we are all set. So far in the last ~2 years of running our program, we haven’t had a single person sign up without being credited to the affiliate that referred them.

“What kind of clients do you work with? What if someone has a medical condition?”

We are extremely lucky at Xplore to have a team filled with amazing nutrition coaches and registered dietitians, who genuinely care about every client they have the chance to work with. Having a diversified team allows us to handle almost every person that walks through our door. We’ve worked with CrossFit Games athletes, people striving to lose 100lbs (and succeed), individuals with thyroid conditions or diabetes, and those who just want to have a healthier relationship with food. If someone comes our way, we will do our best to help.

But don’t worry - every so often someone signs up that might not be good fit for our program, or perhaps we can’t help them for some reason. In those occasional cases, we have a network of other organizations we can refer them to that we trust, so they can find the help they need.

“Will you keep me up to date?”

Whenever we feel a client could use a hug from their coach at home for something incredible they’ve accomplished, or if we feel they need one because they’re going through a hard time, our coaches can reach out to give you a heads up so we can help your client accomplish their goals together. For privacy reasons, there will always be certain things that will never leave the confines of the discussions between them and their coach. But for those situations in which they can, or we have permission, we want to work with you - not without you to help them achieve success.

“Does your company do things like 6-week challenges?”

Xplore’s speciality is in longer term, more personalized nutrition programs, rather than short term challenges. 

That said, we are always happy to help if we can should you decide you want to run one. Let’s brainstorm ideas as a team, think of ways we want to measure progress, and how a winner is decided. We can even help figure out prizes to give your clients. Sometimes those ideas are great and we run an awesome challenge using our coaching program! Other times brainstorming may fall flat, and that’s ok too - we can always circle back when the time is right.

“What if I want to handle nutrition in house? Can you help with that?”

Our affiliate program was really designed for organizations who want a simple, easy to implement way of adding a nutrition program to what they already offer. It allows our team of coaches and dietitians to handle everything from creating a plan for your client, to answering texts when they have questions. As such, it may not be the best solution for you and your organization if you’d rather run the program in its entirety yourself. If this sounds like you, we also created a web app that allows you to track your clients nutrition that can be found here. You can also sign up for a subscription on our pricing page by hitting this link.

At Xplore - we are all about community. If you decide that having us run your nutrition program isn’t for you, but need help figuring out how to run your own, we’d love to talk to your team and help out in any way we can. A large portion of society needs our help, so there’s plenty of pie to go around. Let’s work together to come up with better ideas on how we can do just that. You can even be an affiliate despite running your own program in-house! If a client you feel uncomfortable working with comes your way, or seems beyond your scope of practice, our team can be there to fill in the gap.

“One more thing - how many clients can I expect?”

This is a question we get all the time, and it’s one that will likely never have a truly concrete answer. Our team will do it’s best to give every client an experience they won’t forget, but no one can get your clients interested better than you can. If you sign up to become an affiliate, do an intro livestream, and then stop talking about it or we never hear from you again? There is a good chance that people will forget, or very few will sign up. But if you sign up, bring it up to your clients whenever you can, and talk to us about how we can help? There’s no telling what we can accomplish together.

We’ve worked with organizations that are constantly looking for ways to collaborate, or getting their clients involved in the conversation, and we love to see them thrive.

Like all new programs - the first person is the hardest to get in the door.

“Are there any plans for the future of your affiliate program?”

We have a lot of goals in 2020 to make our program one of the simplest ways to add to your company as humanly possible. While we won’t get into the nitty gritty of what those things are, or when they will be released, we’ll be working hard to add more value to what we already have. One thing we are excited about, is a complete refresh of our web app that will make it easier than ever to use for your clients.

So - now what? Let’s have a quick refresh.

Becoming an Xplore Nutrition Affiliate is 100% free, and for every referral we receive, you’ll get 20% of that clients monthly membership fee for the life of their time with us. Our team of coaches and dietitians are here to help your clients accomplish any goal they may have, from almost any background they may be coming from. We firmly believe in working together to create a healthier community.

If our affiliate program sounds like a good fit for your brand, your clients, and what you want to offer - head here to sign up and get started. If you have questions about how our program works, or you just want to talk about nutrition, feel free to reach out or email me directly at sam@xplorenutrition.com.

This blog was created by Xplore Nutrition founder & nutrition coach - Sam Karoll.