The use of marketing platforms in affiliate marketing is essential to further integrating your efforts and saving time. If all the tools you need are in one platform then most organizational issues are solved.
With online marketing you are going to need: most importantly, website traffic; an autoresponder/listbuilder for email marketing; a website page builder; SEO (search engine optimization); tracking statistics; and a methodology for making money.
These are essential tools for the beginner. Of course, there are more tools available, such as; pop-ups, cookies, ad widgets, social reviews, and funnels for your marketing campaigns.
Good marketing platforms will consolidate your primary needs so that you can focus on what you do best. Generating website traffic is the most important task in online marketing. If you have no traffic then you have no sales. Facilitating interactions between members allows for a flow of traffic and ideas.
Having your own website is definitely a must. But most marketers do not have coding skills. In the beginning a page builder with the ability to set up sign up forms, ad widgets, pop-ups, and various other uses without any coding, will serve you well. The extra time spent setting up web pages is worth the effort. Take the time here to be creative and stand out from the crowd.
As your website traffic increases a more productive environment for engagement is required. Having access to an autoresponder/listbuilder will allow for a more structured approach to information dispersal. Prospecting and customer retention is also further enhanced with the use of email marketing. The webpage you created will be used to gather email contact information for further consultation. Perhaps you have a free PDF or weekly newsletter to give away to your prospects.
An excellent method of attracting visitors to your website is with a review of your product. Provide the uses and benefits and the cons if any. Honest reviews are better for your image and prospect retention. Search engines like reviews because it is their job to provide accurate information about a search request. Having the ability to interact with comments on a review also serves SEO backlinking techniques.
So now that you have website traffic going to your offers and prospects signing up to your list, you will need some data on how it all flows together. Analytics code, cookies or a link tracker will provide you with those answers. You will definitely want to see which advertising campaign works the best. Which ad gets the most clicks? Which page gets the most signups? Which sales page actually makes a sale?
The questions are many and this is where a good marketing platform with tracking capabilities will outperform others. You log in, and everything is there in one place for easy editing and analysis.