Build an Affiliate Sales Funnel in 6 Simple Steps

Launch Your Online Business in Just 7 Days

Are you interested in affiliate marketing and looking for the best affiliate marketing funnel to increase your sales?

If you answered YES, make sure you read this guide.

It might sound easy, but the hard work comes in when you need to convince consumers to buy your product.

Because of this, you need a proper strategy and plan before you start promoting it.

In this blog post, you will learn the six top steps that will show you how to build a successful affiliate marketing sales funnel.

Want to know how to go about generating affiliate sales?

Let's go!

1. Affiliate sales funnels 101

In affiliate marketing, a business signs up an individual or other companies (known as affiliates) to sell its products or services.

The affiliates are usually influencers or webmasters who use ads or organic content to promote and sell their products.

They are then paid a commission or referral fee based on their performance.

The measurements used to gauge performance are click, conversion, registration, and sale rates.

1.1. What is an affiliate sales funnel?

Firstly, let's take a look at what an affiliate sales funnel is.

Think of it as a journey that a consumer takes before purchasing a product or service.

It includes various steps that potential customers follow so that they can move towards purchasing the actual product or service.

Sales funnels entice leads and help to sell your product or service.

An effective sales funnel:

Provides customer value at each step
Solves customer problems
Maximizes the number of leads
Establishes you as a specialist in your field
Generates repeat business
Earns buyer trust

2. Finding your niche

One common issue among affiliates is the frustration of putting in a lot of effort to promote products but not seeing any sales.

This can be attributed to selecting the wrong product to promote.

To avoid this, it's important to first choose a niche before selecting an affiliate product.

When choosing a niche, consider the availability of quality products and favorable commission rates.

Avoid making decisions based solely on what others are selling, higher commission rates, or popularity.

Instead, try to find an untapped niche that offers the best potential for success.

2.1. Characteristics of a good affiliate program

A good affiliate program should have:

Clear and concise terms and conditions
Offer competitive commission rates
Provide quality marketing materials
Have reliable tracking and reporting systems
Offer timely payment and support to affiliates.

It should also have a strong reputation and be relevant to the affiliate's audience.

By prioritizing these characteristics, a good affiliate program can attract and retain top affiliates, drive sales, and ultimately lead to mutual success for both the program and its affiliates.

2.2.1. Recurring Commission

Choose affiliate products that offer lucrative and recurring commissions.

When you sell a product with a recurring commission, you can get a commission for as long as the customer keeps using the product.

2.2.2. Suite

Select affiliate products that are part of a suite.

This trick helps in boosting your income because a customer usually ends up buying all the products available in the suite.

2.2.3 Track Record

Conduct research based on product recognition and the track record of the product developer.

The higher the brand recognition, the easier it is to sell a product.

If a potential customer trusts the brand, your job is easy.

2.3. Types of Affiliate Marketing Funnels

There are three main kinds of funnels you can use to promote affiliate products.

2.3.1. Course Funnels

Course funnels let you create low-priced courses which can attract customers to your main affiliate product.

It is a conversion-boosting hack where you convince your customers to buy a low-ticket course that supplements your main product.

There are several platforms like Systeme.io, Teachable, Thinkific, Podia, etc. which allow you to host your courses and craft them strategically.

These platforms let you focus on marketing your courses without all the technicalities.

2.3.2. Webinar Funnels

A webinar funnel is all about attracting your target audience, inviting them to attend your free webinar, and then leading them toward the objective.

The objective can be to provide valuable training while ultimately promoting your product.

Here are some benefits of using webinar funnels:

Increased Engagement: Webinars allow businesses to connect with their audience in a more personal and interactive way.
Lead Generation: By providing valuable content during a webinar, businesses can attract potential customers and capture their contact information for follow-up.
Sales Conversion: Webinars can be used to showcase products or services and persuade attendees to make a purchase.

2.3.3. Book Funnels

Amid all the successful sales funnels, a free shipping book funnel works well, specifically when you have a limited acquisition budget.

The trick here is providing the physical books for free and charging only for shipping.

2.4. Lead generation

To successfully run a sales affiliate program, pay attention to the following:

2.4.1. Traffic Source

Your traffic will be generated from two main sources:

Organic traffic- it comes from those who try to find answers to their queries using search engine results. Search engine optimization (SEO) helps to rank high in organic search results.
Paid traffic emanates from visitors who click on advertisement links paid for by businesses.

There are two types:

Push traffic - targets audiences based on their online behaviors. Example: Facebook Ads.
Pull traffic - this is when a customer already knows what they are looking for. Traffic from Google or Youtube ads is an example of pull traffic.

2.4.2. Opt-in Page

Opt-in or landing pages are the first impressions of your website, and their purpose is to encourage visitors to take action.

To create effective opt-in pages, follow these tips:

Showcase your authority in your niche by selling high-quality products and providing honest opinions.
Create a sense of scarcity by offering limited-time offers and encouraging quick action.
Use social proof to enhance your credibility through testimonials, case studies, and reviews.
Automate manual processes using apps that connect almost every web app/service and allow you to automate your entire workflow.
A/B split test different versions of your landing page to see which ones get the best conversion rates.

2.4.3. Offer and Follow-up

Offer your product in such a way that it addresses problems and provides solutions.

Once a customer has bought your product or a prospect has clicked the call-to-action button, you now have them on your mailing list.

You can now take control and provide value to them using email campaigns or other means.

In your correspondence, move your customers further up the funnel and stay in touch with them.

Message them regularly so that your business stays top of mind.

3. Build your affiliate sales funnel in 6 steps

So, by this stage, you should have a clear understanding of the workings of an affiliate sales funnel.

The next 6 simple steps will help you to execute your plan.

3.1 Clarify your target market.

Focus on building out your funnel to be relevant to a core marketplace.

Ask yourself questions like :

What do you know about them?
What things do they care about?
What are their hopes and aspirations?
What are their key frustrations and pain points?

The biggest mistake most affiliates make is to have a too broad and vague audience.

3.2 Define your end goals

What do you want your prospect to do after going through your funnel?

Do you want them to buy specific products?

Or, is there something you want them to purchase during a webinar?

The end goal helps you to see the project in its entirety.

3.3 Map out a journey

How are you going to walk your prospect through the funnel logically and emotionally?

And, how do you make sure you have the best odds of getting them headed in your direction?

Your core pathway must address both the logic and the emotion in order to get your prospects to your result.

Map this process in a flowchart that shows all the steps along the way.

Think of each arrow between the two boxes as a conversion point that you can track.

3.4 Create your written funnel and build a plan of action.

Arrange your plan into steps of importance and by timeline.

Include things like marketing collateral you might need, web landing pages that need to be wire-framed and built out, and database work to build in your funnel automations.

3.5 Build out your funnel and test it.

After you complete the build-out plan and finish the funnel, make sure you test it out to fix any bugs.

3.6 Launch your funnel and track your results.

Over time you will notice which steps along the way of your funnel need more attention to optimize.

Never try to fix and refine your funnel in one go.

Pick one conversion point at a time and implement a sequence of improvements.

This cyclic approach works because it's both doable and time-sensitive.

4. Systeme.io: The best platform to build your funnels

By now you have a plan, and a clear vision of what your audience wants, and you have mapped out the ideal funnel for your affiliate journey.

Now it's time to actually build the steps and pages for each phase of your funnel.

You need something to make the building process of your sales funnel as less time-consuming as possible.

That's where systeme.io steps in!

With systeme.io you can:

Build a high-converting sales funnel with our easy-to-use sales funnel builder
Quickly create landing pages, upsells and downsells, and thank-you pages from scratch or from our templates library
Manage your leads and email marketing

And so much more!

4.1 Systeme.io’s pricing

In terms of pricing, Systeme.io offers an incredibly robust free-forever plan and three paid plans: Startup, Webinar, and Enterprise.

systeme.io’s pricing

Our free plan includes:

Space for 2,000 email subscribers
1 contact tag and automated campaign
3 sales funnels with 10 steps (connect your custom domain as well)
1 blog with unlimited posts
1 online course with unlimited students
24/7 online support via email
A 1-click upsell
1 A/B test

5. Conclusion

So, before selecting a sales funnel for your next affiliate marketing campaign, it is better to understand your affiliate product first.

Different sales funnels are best for different niches and work in their own way.

If you’re looking for a robust, all-around marketing platform, have a look at what systeme.io offers.

For an unbeatable monthly fee, you’ll have the ability to build a next-level affiliate sales funnel to help you rake in sales.

Get your forever-free account today!