Are you selling an affiliate product? Or maybe you’re selling a product you’ve created yourself? Whichever category you happen to fall into one thing remains the same.. To ensure your campaigns are successful, you need an optimized funnel.
Many new affiliates are doing what we call the ‘spray and pray’. Meaning they just sprinkle their affiliate links all over the content and pray they make sales.
If this was the way top affiliate marketers did it, everybody would be a top affiliate marketer.
In reality, “spray and pray” has about the same odds as leaving it up to Lady Luck when it comes to producing any kind of actual long-term results.
You must understand the process from making the visitor aware of a product; to the final act of making the purchase.
In digital marketing, “the funnel” is the process a visitor goes through from the moment that they discover the affiliate product, to the time that they complete the required action. To ensure your campaigns are profitable, you need to optimize this process.
Optimizing the funnel helps you to better plan this process and allows you to put more work where needed to convince the visitor that the offer you’re promoting is the best one available.
Below, I will show you the best way to optimize your campaign for profitability.
Building a Profitable Affiliate Marketing Funnel
Awareness
Awareness does not start whenever the visitor discovers your affiliate product. Awareness starts the moment you create the content.
This stage begins with researching your niche.
Understand that trust is particularly important when it comes to purchasing products on the internet.
As much as people trust information from blogs, they still look out for expertise.
When promoting a product, you must ensure it is related to the niche you are in.
For instance: If your blog, vlog, or channel is about gardening and outdoors, don’t choose to promote web optimization software.
They are two completely different niches and this could cause the visitor not to trust you. You haven’t presented yourself as someone very knowledgeable in the web optimization niche.
The next point is product research.
You’d be surprised at how many new affiliate marketers ignore this point.
They just jump ahead to picking a product on ClickBank, ShareASale, and other affiliate networks. They may not even check to see if there is a pre-sell page.
It is important to check for many things when picking an affiliate offer. Know the seller and know what you’re selling.
★ Does the seller have the website?
★ Is there customer support?
★ Is there a money-back guarantee?
★ How good is the product? Is it really as effective as advertised?
Many times, it is beneficial to call the customer support number yourself to listen to their scripts and understand how to perfectly pitch the product. Knowing the product shows expertise.
Here are a couple of things you should look out for.
Speaking to the visitor
This is the stage where awareness happens.
You want to solve the problem. To do this, you must understand the visitor’s problem. Their pain points and frustrations. You need a persona that embodies their likes and objectives. Knowing this information will help you know how best to sell to them.
Your content must express the fact that you not only understand their problems, but that you have the solution they’ve been looking for. Make sure that what you are offering and the objectives of your visitors align.
Visiting blogs and forums in your niche will help you to understand the recurring questions, as well as the fitting answers to them.
Build interest
Now that the visitor is on your page, you’ve expressed understanding in their problem, and have shown you have the answer, you need to build awareness towards the product itself.
Introducing the offer
One way you can introduce the offer is by integrating the link with your content. You can refer to it as “one of the best” in its category and urge visitors to check it out.
Or - you could have a banner that promises to provide great value and lasting solutions through a product, a book, or a course.
When you have a promotional offer as a discount sale, you may want to use a sticker bar banner. This will contain a discount code and it takes your visitor to the pre-sell landing page.
If the visitor goes through the link or the banner, Great! The chances of making a sale have increased.
Later we will go over how to ensure that you make the best of your pre-sell landing page.
What if the visitor does not take the offer?
This is not the end of it.
Since you provide a solution, you can use a lead magnet such as a book to lure the visitor.
For instance, let’s assume you blog about gardening. Your visitor has come to know how to beautify a garden. Having provided the answer, it is easy to pitch a free book titled: 100 Ways (With Pictures) to Make Your Garden Mind-blowing.
This is a very attractive offer for someone interested in gardening. Just ask for the email address to send it to. Voila! That’s one more person to your email list. Send the link to the book.
Help to make a decision
Sticking to the gardening example…
By getting the visitors email, you have been able to ascertain that they are interested in gardening and the chances are high that they will be drawn to related offers.
On the “Thank You” page, you can pitch an ‘amazing’ exclusive limited offer of a gardening product.
You are getting the person hooked on making a purchase. And the chances are high that you will make a sale.
However, you need to do it right.
Don’t forget that people don’t buy products, they buy solutions. Therefore, provide the benefits of owning that product. Let the prospect know that this product will solve their problems.
With the email address on your list, you should send helpful tips and blog posts to build trust and increase open rates.
If the merchant provides a video, use it.
You can offer a discount or a coupon code and emphasize the limited time they have for the offer.
This is also an avenue to send affiliate offers. Don’t just drop emails with these. Pitch every offer. Let them know the benefits they stand to gain. Everyone loves benefits!
The Pre-sell Landing Page
This is where the money is.
If you can get the prospect to this stage, the chances of making a sale are high.
You need to seal the deal with your pre-sell landing page. Some merchants won’t give you this. Instead, their affiliate link may lead prospects straight to checkout.
You have done a lot to get the prospect to this stage, so you have to nail it.
You might be asking - “How?” You’ll need to provide an attractive headline and a great copy.
Don’t be afraid to go long-form in stating the benefits of buying the product. If the product is a course, you’ll want to provide the course outline and what they stand to benefit from each module.
Someone who is about to put money on a product will want to find out a great deal about it.
You can write your experience with the product and how it really benefited you. If it is an upgrade, you can state the new advantages it has over the older version.
You can also give some social proofs. What are other people saying about the product?
If there is a video that can explain the benefit of the product, provide it.
This is a page where you should not have ads and pop-ups. The only call-to-action should be the one for the purchase of the product.
Ensure that you test everything on this page from the headline to the call-to-action button.
You can create pre-sells landing pages on ClickFunnels or LeadPages. You can customize these landing pages to match the theme of the merchant’s website. This is to ensure that there is no big contrast when they get to the merchant’s website.
Always have in mind that on this page, you should sell the product as if it were yours. Thus, you need to put in all the required work.
Tips on optimising your funnel
Use your banners
Many times, the banners provided by merchants are ugly and it may not fit in with your website layout. Get your banner designed.
Having your banner designed will allow you to include your brand identity which is a mark of trust. This goes beyond just selling affiliate products, this means that you endorse the product as a knowledgeable person in the niche.
Use opt-ins
Opt-ins are very effective in taking your visitors from one stage of the funnel to the next.
You can use them to build an email list or know those who will be interested in an offer.
Design your opt-ins to contain the benefits of taking the required action. Ensure that your call-to-action is clear and visible enough.
Don’t be aggressive
You got the visitor to your website with the promise of providing a solution. That’s the primary reason the visitor is there.
Your affiliate offer comes as an option.
You shouldn’t have a pop-up without an exit icon. This would be annoying.
Don’t hard-sell.
Let them get drawn to the product by pitching the benefits. How will the product solve their problems?
Even when they don’t make a purchase, try to build a long-lasting relationship. You can do this with a lead magnet they have to provide their email addresses to get.
Final Thoughts…
Your campaign funnels have to be well optimized. This is what makes the visitor have a seamless experience with your offers.
Pay attention to every step, personalize the offer, and sell the product like it is yours.
Don’t be scared of making changes and adjustments. You may need to test several angles to see what works best.
Ensure that you track every sale to know how well your funnel works.
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