How will you grow your business in 2021?

Affiliate programs across the globe have already been faced with a downturn in lead generation as a result of the coronavirus pandemic. With events still precariously being managed around lockdown restrictions and digital meetups becoming the norm we are still trying to find a balance between old school lead generation and new digital selling. 

As businesses prepare for an uncertain start to 2021, it is important that you rethink your sales and marketing strategy and develop a digital plan for the next year that allows your brand to be seen and heard in the noise that will fill the social void. Many businesses will be facing the challenge of trying to do more with a smaller budget. Digital allows you to track and measure your performance better than any other channel. 

With live events and exhibitions on hold, certainly, for the start of the year, it is imperative that you rethink how to boost your lead generation tactics and get your brand and offers more visible in front of an engaged audience. We are going to move away from mass marketing and into niche marketing to target and engage audiences who really want to connect with their customers or affiliates for that matter. 

Your new plan will have to work in a changing digital landscape and therefore will need to have some changes of its own. In order to make these changes work for your business, a platform and audience analysis will have to be carried out to identify your business goals and where/who you should be targeting to increase inbound lead generation. 

Digital advertising is an absolute must for your marketing plan in 2021. If you haven’t thought about this channel much in the past, now is the time to speed up. You may have a difficult time pushing through the noise and building momentum for your brand or program but being seen and heard in a variety of places will pay dividends in the long run. Getting your digital promotion strategy right in the next year is a sure-fire way to secure and generate new leads. 

Step One - Identify Your Audience 

Your ability to succeed in digital marketing depends on how your segment your affiliate or customer profile. You will need to have a clear idea of who your ideal customer or affiliate is in order to create a list of what platforms they will be using and what content they would like to see. 

By researching and developing a picture of your target audience you will be able to gain a better understanding of what they’re likely to enjoy, their hobbies, interests and more. This helps to engage on a more humanistic level. All of this information will help you identify what pain points they currently are facing and how you can work together to address these. 

Once you have background information about your ideal audience and an idea of what pain points affect them you will be able to create content which they find engaging and want to interact with. This is when you invite them to contact you or connect with you.  

Step Two - Choose Your Media Channels Wisely

Once you have pinpointed your ideal audience you can start thinking about where you should be sharing your content. Your audience profile should give you a good starting point for identifying which social and media platforms to use in order to get your message in front of the right people.  

Do you want mass branding that is largely ignored, or are you looking to develop a more meaningful partnership with a media partner that can help you connect, engage and grow? Just because you have a big database doesn’t mean you have the audience engagement for take up on offers. It’s key you understand the different digital media opportunities various sites can provide.

While one platform may be more popular than another, it is important to also cover multiple channels. This is because it is likely that your audience will be using a variety of channels themselves so which one will you get a response from and how much would you be willing to pay for that lead or engagement piece.

Using multiple channels can also help remind your audience that you are actively growing your brand, despite a lack of in-person events. In fact, some social media platforms will even enable you to host live videos and talks to connect with your viewers once a base of followers has been built.  

There are a number of new channels being used for digital marketing now which your target audience/ affiliates may be interested in. In addition to social media platforms, these include portals such as eBooks, podcasts and webinars. 

However, be sure to make use of traditional digital marketing tools such as email campaigns and paid for advertising as well. Incorporating a variety of digital portals into your marketing plan will help you reach your audience consistently. 

Step Three - Create great content

The demand for quality information and supported learning is going to be higher than before as we’ll all be focussing more on digital selling as a route to affiliates and customers alike. 

Now that you know who to target and why, you need to think of what you are going to be posting and sharing that’s of value and use to them. You need to create a range of engaging content from photos and videos to blogs and articles. Be sure to tailor your content relevant to the platform you are promoting it on. 

This will act as an alternative to attending the previously available live industry events when it comes to lead generation. Therefore you should not be afraid to invest money into these digital channels or worse - not invest at all. Services such as paid for advertising, content marketing and lead generation can help your content reach a larger audience than you can organically.

You should also invest in how you create your content, as well as promoting it. Quality content that is well written or professionally created is likely to perform better than an amateur post. Plus you want your business and brand to look professional online and be seen contributing natively in multiple sites that provide brand credibility. 

Investing time and money into your content marketing and sales/lead generation and digital marketing plans, will help you ensure your driving new sales, affiliate sign-ups and boosting inbound lead generation. 

Further Steps You Can Take

If you’ve managed to complete steps one to three successfully you’ll want to focus on nurturing these leads to convert to a signup or sale. 

To secure the best conversion rate, you should go further with your plan and optimise your sales and sign-up webpages. By ensuring these are easy to use, look correct when posted as links, and do not feature any bugs, you are more likely to get potential sign-ups to the endpoint. 

It can also be beneficial to listen to your existing customers and affiliates. By asking for feedback and implementing suggested changes you are showing them that you appreciate their input and want to improve their experience. This will increase their brand loyalty and encourage positive word of mouth advertisement. 

In order to succeed in 2021, your strategy will need to move away from providing a service for your audience and towards providing a digital experience. Standard advertising will no longer be enough but a strong strategy will help you break through the noise and survive and thrive in 2021.

It can be difficult to stand out from your competitors which is why some businesses get help with their digital marketing. When working with media owners be sure that they understand your business goals. That way they will be able to appropriately advise you on how to create the best content for the audience that they support. 

Here at Affiliate Insider, we know exactly how to make your business stand out. We work with affiliates, operators and suppliers to help you expand your affiliate program and grow your brand digitally. 

To find a package that will suit your business goals, get in touch with me or contact the sales team at [email protected].