5 things I’ve learnt since joining GHQ!

Monday, October 2, 2023

Back in July, we welcomed Daisy to the GHQ Team, 3 months on we asked Daisy what she has learnt so far in the world of Affiliate Marketing.

‍

1. The Marketing Funnel

I was introduced to the marketing funnel in my first week at Growth HQ. This helped me to visualise the categorisation of publisher types and understand how each level of the funnel is important for a successful affiliate programme. Traditionally, affiliate marketing mainly focuses on the bottom of the funnel. This would include partners like employee benefit sites, coupon sites and cashback sites. However, onboarding publishers from the top and middle levels of the funnel, such as influencers, media houses, review and product comparison sites are crucial for spreading awareness of the brand and reaching high-value customers. The most successful publishers are dependent on the brand, so I’ve learnt that working with publishers from all levels of the funnel is important for deciphering how to successfully progress the clients affiliate programme.

2. Relationships and Communication

I’m learning that marketing is all about communication and having good relationships with people. When running a brand’s affiliate programme, it’s crucial to have a good relationship with their marketing team. It is vital to understand their goals by discussing how they want to market their brand and which verticals they want to target. Being aligned on goals and understanding how the client measures their success is key to effectively running their affiliate platform. I’ve learnt that communication and building relationships with the publishers is also very important. Collaborating on ideas and discussing how to promote the brand in a style that matches their existing content is important in running a successful campaign. If the brand and the publisher have similar focuses or intentions, then the audience will be more engaged with the content.

3. Forecasting and Negotiating

During my first month at Growth HQ, I’ve been learning how to forecast and negotiate. This process consists of reaching out to a publisher and receiving their fees for content and various pieces of data from their previous collaborations. This allows us to see how many sales we can predict from this partnership measured against the fee they charge. If the cost per action comes in too high, then I would reply to the publisher and discuss moving forward with a lower fee or potentially changing the placement or content. Over the course of the month, I have become more confident in my ability to forecast and negotiate with publishers to reach cost-effective fees.

4. Learning On the Job

Despite having a keen interest in the marketing field, as a recent history graduate, I had very limited knowledge of affiliate marketing. But over the course of my first month at Growth HQ, I have gained a much better understanding of how affiliate marketing actually works. I believe I have learnt a lot in a very short time, and this is down to being able to learn whilst working. Hands-on experience has allowed me to understand the processes better and develop skills quickly. Trust from my colleagues and always having someone to advise me when needed, has dramatically increased my confidence in my abilities to complete tasks and to use my own initiative to know what work I need to complete as a priority.

5. Time Management

The idea of working across four different clients was, at first, very daunting. Trying to balance my time equally as well as trying to understand and remember the different processes that each client required is a complex task. However, by discussing with my colleagues and understanding what the weekly priorities are for each client, I can split the work into smaller, daily tasks. This has allowed me to get the urgent tasks completed and have a better understanding of how much time I’m spending on each client, which has helped me to split my day more evenly.

Let's talk