Ahead of Affiliate Leaders Summit, we speak to operations director Sue Dawson on how FTD Digital is building its brand to retain its market position.
The digital landscape is shifting, and every industry has been forced to adapt quickly and transformatively. But, it’s a difficult undertaking, with unpredictable tech requiring an experimental approach.
FTD Digital has been a dominant force in organic SEO, but it has had to adapt its content strategy as consumer behaviour changes – especially as users are now present in both high-intent search queries on Google and in passive scrolling on social media.
As such, operators have to draw players in who aren’t actively looking, which makes visual appeal and attractive acquisition offers even more important.
“Think of it as being like the stands at the end of the aisles in supermarkets,” says Dawson. “The items there need to be enticing and keenly priced to appeal to the casual shopper.”
This means operators have to craft short-form copy that draws users in, but drives high-value first time deposits rather than just a cheap one off click.
“It’s all in the wording of the call to action to match intent (including intent that players didn’t know they had). By understanding that, we’ve been able to send high value players to UK sites that don’t even have an acquisition offer,” Dawson explains.
Genuine content
The key to sustaining loyalty, she explains, is in building trust. Part of this is focused around community-driven content, which helps sustain customer loyalty, alongside injecting personality into content to help engage users in a more genuine way.
“Actually, each of our sites does have a primary (human) editor who stamps their authentic personality on the content regardless of where it’s sourced. And when we use outside writers, authenticity is paramount,” she says.
The type of content matters, too. Affiliates have traditionally relied on long, text-heavy reviews for SEO, but this is becoming less effective in comparison to speed and visual formats.
“We’ve never gone in for 2,000 word walls of text – we’ve always focused on what players really need to know and in particular, what they need to know that they can’t find out by simply visiting the brand themselves and having a look around,” adds Dawson.
“Lots of that information is on our brand listings as pros and cons and offer key terms, so players can make a quick, but well informed decision about where they want to play without even needing to read the review (and most do) unless they really want to take a deeper dive.”
Human-led
Then there are operators who rely on AI for copy, video, and live engagement, but that this is often counter-productive, Dawson highlights.
“To us, the human element of trust is the most important thing – and we think it’s going to be even more important going forward. You know that moment when you’re reading a piece of content and suddenly get a whiff of AI – and bang, all the trust is gone! We want that to happen to our competitors, not us.
“As to how – anyone who finds a way of using AI to scale content production without risking that whiff of AI ruining that trust is going to be guarding their methods very closely indeed. My lips are sealed,” she adds.
Measuring success
There are plenty of ways to measure success in this industry, and marketers all have their own metric obsessions to help define and understand their campaign effectiveness. At FTD, the classics are king.
“Good old fashioned metrics like traffic, engagement, clickouts, conversions, with an array of tools and a spot of AI magic to help us monitor precisely what’s going on,” Dawson tells us.
Looking forward, marketers and affiliates are continuing to learn from each other and use industry best practices to develop their brands and content.
“SBC’s conferences and events are a great place to make connections and find out what’s really going on in the industry which in 2026, is absolutely essential for affiliates. The quality of the talks and panels is always superb and you meet so many interesting people. Very much looking forward to Lisbon!”
The Affiliate Leaders Summit is the global home of performance and affiliate marketing. Across three days, affiliates, operators, media companies and technology providers come together to discuss traffic generation, conversion optimisation, SEO, paid media and the commercial strategies shaping the future of affiliate marketing.
Co-located with SBC Summit at Feira Internacional de Lisboa and MEO Arena on 29 September-1 October. Get your tickets here.
