So, you have started Affiliate Marketing, but do not know how to promote your affiliate products. The biggest problem that beginners and experienced Affiliate Marketers face is that they do now know how to promote products through a powerful sales funnel.
Additionally, Salesforce says that 79% of marketing leads are never converted into sales. So, if you want to make the most out of promoting your affiliate products, you need to create an effective sales funnel.
And, that is what I will be sharing in this post! Read on to find out what a sales funnel is, learn about the popular AIDA model and if you want to create a powerful sales funnel, I have placed my video on the topic later in this post.
What Is A Sales Funnel?
In simple words, a sales funnel or funnel is the stepwise journey of your visitors across your website from the landing page to the thank you page or the last page.
In formal words, “a sales funnel is the process visitors go through to become a customer.” Each stage of the funnel takes the buyer one step closer to making a purchase, alright?
Keap defines the sales funnel as: “A sales funnel is the marketing term for the journey potential customers go through on the way to purchase. There are several steps to a sales funnel, usually known as the top, middle, and bottom of the funnel, although these steps may vary depending on a company’s sales model.”
Real-Life Example Of A Sales Funnel
Now, I will share a story that explains how a sales funnel works in real-life.
It was the year 2018. I was pursuing my master’s degree and one day after coming home from class, I watched a video in which the presenter said that anyone can make money online. So, once that video ended, I opened Google and typed, “How to make money online?”
When I clicked “Search”, a long list of blog posts appeared. On that day, I read at least 4 to 6 blog posts and watched about 5-6 videos on making money online.
While reading a blog post, I saw a banner ad. The ad was about making money online in 3 simple steps through the power of Affiliate Marketing.
The ad caught my attention, I clicked on the banner ad and landed on a page that asked me for my name and e-mail address. Since I wanted to learn how to make money online through Affiliate Marketing, I decided to sign up for the webinar.
Fast forward to the end of the webinar, the presenter gave an offer that was so irresistible, that I clicked the offer link, reached the checkout page, filled up my details, paid the amount, and reached a page that said, “Thank you Shubhamjeet! Here’s the link to access the course!”
I accessed the course, watched every video, learned helpful lessons, took notes, and was able to set up the tools that run my business.
To summarise:
- I was reading a blog on making money online and saw an ad.
- After clicking the ad, I landed on the landing page that asked me for my name and e-mail. I entered my details and registered for the webinar.
- After registering for the webinar, I got access to the session.
- Towards the end of the webinar, the presenter offered his course or the link to the checkout page. I clicked the checkout page link and purchased the course.
- As soon as the amount was deducted from my bank account, I was sent to the thank you page.
So, my journey from the ad to the landing page to the thank you page was possible due to a funnel. A sales funnel defines a series of steps that your visitors must complete to purchase a product or complete the desired action, okay?
Why Do You Need A Sales Funnel?
According to Keap, “A sales funnel helps you understand what potential customers are thinking and doing at each stage of the purchasing journey. These insights allow you to invest in the right marketing activities and channels, create the most relevant messaging during each stage and turn more prospects into paying customers.”
What Is The AIDA Model?
AIDA is an acronym that stands for Attention, Interest, Desire, and Action. The AIDA model is designed to lead people through a process that gets their attention, makes them interested in the product, makes them desire the product in their minds, and then convinces them to take action.
So, when people go through the steps in order, it is the way to convince them to buy a product or perform the desired action, okay?
Now, I will share with you each step of the AIDA model in detail:
A: Attention
Attention is important to get people to look at your product or service. The goal of this step is to get people’s attention with something that they will feel is interesting and arises curiosity.
The product should be something that stops people from scrolling their feeds, and convinces them to look at and click the link, alright?
For example, if your niche is health, you can ask a question like, “Hey, do you workout?”
So if someone is looking for health information and they come across your question, it is relevant to them, and you will have their attention, alright?
You can break the scroll loop by asking a question like, “Hey, do you workout?” or you can share a fact like, “Did you know that 2 out of every 5 Indians are obese?” Questions and stats like these capture people’s attention and they are usually looking to know more about your offering.
You can capture people’s attention through ads, images, carousels, etc.
I: Interest
Now, let’s move to the second step of the AIDA model, Interest. In this step, you should build interest in people about your product or service.
You can build interest by sharing interesting case studies, or results of people who used your products and got results. You can also use images of how people’s lives will look after using your product, okay?
In this step, your goal should be giving people multiple uses for a product that they may not have even thought about.
For example, if your niche is health, you can share this fact to capture people’s attention: 85% of people are more likely to exercise if they schedule the time the night before.
This is such an interesting stat that people will be encouraged to schedule a time to exercise before going to bed. So, in this step, you’re trying to give people interesting stats, quotes, facts, and case studies in the Interest stage.
D: Desire
In this step, what you want to do is make people desire your product or service. Create a desire in their minds that they want to go after your products.
To create a sparkling desire, you must show them how their lives will be better with your products. Please keep in mind that at every step of the journey, you must provide value and help people, okay?
For example, if your niche is business growth, you can hook your audience by sharing a case study like, “Sujot got a 28% rise in sales by following this strategy and you can get similar results right away!”
If your target audience sees this ad or image, they will immediately start thinking inside of their heads, “I make ₹40,000 per month, so if get a 28% rise like Sujot, I will be making ₹51,200 per month!”
In a nutshell, your audience will start imagining their lives with those results.
To add, case studies and testimonials of people who used your product and/or service and got results, work well to build a strong desire for your products.
A: Action
The last step of the AIDA model is ‘Action’. You create ads and host webinars so people take action.
In the ‘Action’ stage, you want people to take one specific action. It could be one of the following:
- Purchasing your course
- Subscribing to your newsletter
- Registering for your webinar
- Booking an appointment
- Scheduling a call
You put in the effort to get people to complete a certain action, okay? So when you create your next campaign, please ensure that you give people a clear action they must take.
NOTE: There must be a clear call to action or CTA in your email, video, blog post, webinar, or whatever you create.
How Can You Create A Powerful Sales Funnel?
A few months ago, I posted the below video on YouTube containing the steps to create a powerful sales funnel for your marketing campaign.
I use CartFlows to create my sales funnels and, believe me, it will make your work so much more effortless!
Conclusion
To summarise, in this post I shared what a funnel is, shared a real-life example of a powerful sales funnel and shared the reason why you must create a sales funnel for your marketing campaigns.
I also walked you through the popular AIDA model and shared a video where I illustrate the steps for creating a powerful sales funnel.
As a bonus, I would love to give you my premium Affiliate Marketing course worth ₹4,999 for absolutely FREE!
Click the below button and enrol on the free course, now!
How were you promoting your affiliate products until now? Let me know in the comments box below.
