How to use the Customer Journey to Create an Engaging Affiliate Marketing Strategy

Developing an affiliate marketing strategy comprises multiple aspects. An affiliate marketing strategy needs to be effective, target well and work well for brands and customers. The foremost among them is to understand your customer in the best manner possible. Becoming customer-centric is important for brands to stay in loop with the competitive world. Having an affiliate marketing strategy will drive traffic, improve leads, sales, and encourage customers to engage with your brand. One of the main aspects is how affiliate marketing engages with the customer- direct, professional, and easy. In affiliate marketing, the traffic comes from a third party. It needs a detailed approach that is more than just a simple funnel. The traffic needs to be converted into revenue to continue the prospects on the customer journey. 

The Affiliate Funnel: All about it 

An affiliate marketing funnel can best be described as the route the customer takes before actually purchasing a product. Through a variety of methods, customers can move towards purchasing the core product and generate sales. A good affiliate sales funnel is one that- 

• Offers improved value to potential customers or prospects gradually with each step 
• Maximises leads 
• Increases action by prospects on company offerings 
• Provides a good solution to customer problems 
• Helps you earn the trust of buyers so that they come back 

Companies usually choose affiliate programmes based on the niche. The affiliate funnel is a path every customer goes through before they purchase the product. The funnel can be broken into four parts. 

Awareness 

This stage is where customers encounter your brand for the first time. Their initial interaction with the brand is what the awareness stage is made of. When people become aware about your brand, they connect with the ethos on a personal level. This awareness is essential for building a customer base. To make customers connect with your brand, this is where you need to connect. 

Exploration 

This is when consumers get to know the brand well. They can be referred through an article, review, or on social media. This is where customers begin to know the brand exists and look forward to associating with them. They will also look at competitor sites and products. This is when they will compare products and services on various factors like cost, delivery, availability, features, longevity, and more. 

Action 

In this stage, the customer is ready with purchase. They will now look for a coupon code, discount or something that will help them avail the product with a lesser cost. This is the part which a company looks for. The right action from a prospect customer. This can be the purchase, intent to buy, or more. When the customer signs up to be associated with the company- the action they undertake is this. 

Retargeting 

This stage is meant to target customers who did not complete their purchase with the brand. Those with abandoned baskets are retargeted with offers that make it difficult for them to ignore. This can include promotions or discounts of any kind to keep the customer. It is important to reactivate customers who may seem lost to optimise their buying experience. 

Affiliates and Customer Journey 

A deeper understanding of individual customer journey maps can help companies know what to promote or not. Making sure that affiliates are matched to each stage in the customer journey will help. Good content works best in every stage of the customer journey. Through social media, companies can tap into customer’s mind. More than 80 percent of companies use affiliate marketing to engage with customers. 

Understand the channels 

For companies to give customers the best value, it is necessary to look for a cross channel marketing approach. A cross channel marketing avenue is one that allows companies to check the performance of affiliates. Companies can then provide customers the channel that offers the best experience. While aligning customer journey with affiliate marketing, you combine a few channels to give a common message. With this you can test the impact of one campaign on others. This will improve customer experience and result in better upselling and conversions. 

Monitor results 

Affiliate marketers work based on high value. It is necessary to have the data to drill down into what customers think and why. Having the right data will help understand customer activity better, improve planning, and make the customer journey more pleasant. This insight can be helpful in influencing customers via advertising. Results of the affiliate marketing campaigns can be helpful in showing customer behaviour. Tracking results will also investigate and identify fraud. 

Ensure a good user experience 

If a prospect lands on your page, you have won half the battle. That is the first impression of your brand and it makes a great difference. If your UX interface is confusing, chances of customers being put off are more. If your site UX is not transparent and does not appeal to the viewer, they will click over. Making sure the message is consistent across the page or website is important. If customers have to click multiple times to get what they want, they will get frustrated. 

Collect customer data

Whether the customer is looking for a long or short relationship is irrelevant. It is necessary to know everything you need about them. Same goes with website visitors. Making sure you capture all the information of the visitor will help. Companies can contact those users via email and tailor their marketing approach based on user requirements. When customer data is available, it is easier to align what the customer wants with the brand.

Bottom Line 

Affiliate marketing is a great way to get new prospects for any company. Having a great customer experience plan is also important to make it better across the customer journey. Having a tailored approach is necessary to ensure that customers and brands are aligned with respect to their needs and demands. However, the same information you get from digging customer data can be beneficial in improving your affiliate marketing strategy in a helpful way. 

There are multiple tools and data in the market that make it easier to get customer data. This information will improve the customer journey and create a seamless silted approach. Using those insights can lead to good results- it can be in any form. Customer acquisition, retention, reduced churn rate, improved strategies or more. 

Guest article written by: Jyothi Tulasi is tech-savvy and proficient in technical SEO optimization for various SaaS products. She has profound expertise in outreach. She loves connecting to people and singing in her free time.  Site: https://www.smartkarrot.com/  Linkedin: https://www.linkedin.com/in/jyothi-tulasi-16090234/