INSIGHT
being of value. Creating a wealth
of high-value information for your
audience allows them to ultimately
link your brand with the idea of
being a trustworthy resource for
valuable information.
Your website is ground zero for
your brand analysis. It should be easy
to read, easy to navigate and easy to
recognise. If it appears generic and
unremarkable, it is unlikely your that
visitors will remember you even if your
other content is fantastic.
Analyse how your site is presented
and consider how memorable your
brand is. Only once you have that
under control should you look at the
next layers of content: news, reviews,
articles, newsletters, and so on.
All affiliates should be producing
this content but you must make sure
you’re always optimising and looking
at how to keep users on your site, so
they engage more with your activity
across all channels. Add contextual
links to other pages on your site, ask
questions, encourage sharing and drive
your users to take action to sign up for
offers, new accounts and newsletters,
or visit other pages around the site.
Never stop innovating
Content is still the key but we are
getting to a point where users want
more than standard reviews and news
pieces. Implementing and continuing
to optimise a killer content strategy is
what’s going to make the difference.
Content for the sake of content no
longer works, just as relying solely on
clever SEO no longer works.
As affiliates, you need to be building
brand reputation through constant
innovation. Speaking of which it’s not
always easy to see where there might
be room to carve out a niche away
from the crowd – but opportunities
always exist. One recent example can
be found in the football betting tips site
Kickoff.co.uk. Offering its audience
content far beyond the standard betting
site reviews and generic sports articles,
it has weaved into its offer a wealth
of interactive elements. It provides
features such as allowing users to
track their betting history and – maybe
most interestingly – user-aggregated
insights, including an option to “follow
top tipsters”, with up-to-the-minute
data on the tips consistently providing
most value.
Leveraging user-aggregated
information is a simple and highly
impactful way to innovate your
content strategy. Consider what
information you are already collecting
and strategise as to how this could
be purposed to add further value to
your audience.
More innovative features on
an affiliate site will increase user
‘stickiness’. And as user-engagement
signals are now more important than
ever for healthy search rankings, the
priority needs to be around evolving
your site with a unique and engaging
content strategy, underpinning
ongoing innovation and continued
brand strengthening.
Every avenue of digital marketing
is favouring big brands in the affiliate
space. As these brands get bigger, they
will steadily push the competition
aside to a position where it is no longer
enough for these less-recognisable
affiliate site owners to rest on existing
content or SEO efforts.
In the era of the brand, all betting-
affiliate sites need to focus on an
innovative content strategy to keep
ahead of the competition. It is essential
to be developing a brand that will
resonate with users and therefore win
favour with Google. Without a content
strategy to build your affiliates brand,
obsolescence is inevitable.
“When we talk about
innovation, it’s not
always easy to see
where there might
be room to carve
out a niche away
from the crowd
– but opportunities
always exist”
ANDY SCOTT
is account director at
Digital Fuel Marketing
and has worked in affiliate
marketing for close to 10
years, taking in spells at Ladbrokes
and Luxbet. When he’s not recruiting
affiliates he can be found in the
crowd at Wembley wishing he
followed a team with trophies
in the cabinet.
iGB Affiliate Issue 71 OCT/NOV 2018
31