How to optimise your affiliate marketing funnel

Using a sales funnel is a marketing process which moves customers through the steps in the sales process to maximise conversions. Although it seems complicated at first, an effective marketing funnel is an efficient way of turning the casual website visitor into a repeat customer in just a few easy steps. This is something every affiliate marketer must know to do if they wish to see success in their given niche.

The traditional sales funnel

A traditional sales funnel can be broken down into 4 main stages:

1. Awareness

Brand awareness is the first and one of the most important steps. It is impossible to sell a product people don’t know about! Try using a variety of marketing techniques to maximise brand awareness and promote your products.

2. Interest

Curate content, blog posts, social media and email campaigns to sell your product. Keep the information brief, persuasive and appealing to your customer base to convince them yours is the product worth buying.

3. Purchase

This is where customers will buy your product. Encourage them to sign up for email alerts at this stage to allow re-engagement at a later stage.

4. Loyalty

Repeat customers are the key to both a successful marketing campaign and a successful business. Connect with your customers on a personal level, keep them engaged in your products and reward customer loyalty to maximise repeat custom.

Once you’ve got the basics down and you’ve started to explore and utilise your analytics, the next step is to optimize the process. This is done by making adjustments to your marketing strategies based on your analytics, the product and its target audience. There are a number of different opportunities for optimization in any marketing campaign, so we’ve compiled a list of the best ones to get you started.

Evaluate traffic sources

Revise your traffic sources and keep in mind that quality is better than quantity.

Reaching a wide audience is important, but it pays off to invest your resources into the most valuable traffic.

Identify your target audience and which customers are likely to engage with your brand. These customers are the ones who are likely to be converted into loyal repeat customers, so most of your focus should be with them.

Have a trustworthy landing page

The first thing customers should see when they click through to your site should be a landing page that encourages conversion. An effective landing page will include:

• A prominent call to action
• An easy opt-in for email notifications
• A short and concise statement about your brand
• Photos or videos
• Customer testimonials
• FAQ section

These features will increase the accessibility of your site and increase trust between the customer and the brand

Develop valuable content

An essential feature of any company website is valuable content. Consider carefully the type of content you want to curate to best suit your clients and their needs. These could include newsletters, blogs, livestream events, customer testimonials, videos and other media.

No matter the type of content you are using, it should be:

• Well researched
• High quality
• Clearly presented
• User-friendly
• A unique perspective

Mobile friendly

Increase accessibility by curating a website that is mobile and tablet friendly and can be viewed on every type of device.

Make use of SEO

SEO is vital for increasing brand awareness right at the first stage of the sales funnel. Try including title tags and a summative meta description to enhance search engine results. Take time to research keywords that will help to boost your search rankings and use on-page optimisation including both internal and external linking.

Email strategies

Once you have a customer’s contact details, make sure to follow up with regular emails. This will keep customers reminded of your brand and up to date on any promotions or news. Use email to re-engage with customers, such as sending end-of-sale alerts, and find ways to drive users back to your website. This can be done using strategic messaging or by offering incentives.            

Use these steps to optimize your affiliate marketing funnel and work on providing high-quality, consistent content for your target audience. A repeat customer is essential in building a successful brand, so regular emails and reminders of your products will keep traffic coming back.

Customers want to feel valued and know that they are receiving a quality product so focus on building a trusting relationship with them. Keep space on your web page for customer testimonials, FAQs and reviews so that your customers can hear from real people that your brand is the right choice for them.

To further fine-tune your affiliate marketing funnel and take your program to the next level, get in touch with Affiverse’s agency today.