Many sports publishers experience a drop in traffic during the off-season periods (e.g. when major leagues have time off). Contrary to popular beliefs, that’s not the time to take a break – according to Deloitte’s report, sports fans are expecting a year-round experience. Taking care of their needs between the seasons and play-offs guarantees better engagement when the leagues return.
The challenge is to keep the audience engaged, informed, and coming back, especially when there’s no high-stakes game coming any time soon. Many publishers take to promoting evergreens – throwbacks, deep dives, and, as the season approaches, predictions for the coming months. Communicating the content is a whole other task.
Goal
To maintain interest and re-engage your audience between key sporting events.
Solution
To achieve this goal, you can use a combination of automated messaging, personalized content, and well-timed reminders across several channels:
Web and mobile push notifications
- Send round-up content, e.g. "Top 5 moments from the 2024 season" or "The complete story of Gran Derbi"
- Tease upcoming content: "What’s next for La Liga?"
- Use segmentation to target fans of specific teams or sports to keep the messages relevant
- Reactivation series: trigger a notification if a user hasn’t visited in 7+ days
Onsite notifications
- Highlight trending stories when users visit the site during “off weeks”
- Highlight general-interest content related to popular teams, trending topics, or key moments to keep users engaged, even when no matches are live.
- Promote video interviews, editorial features, or fan polls
Pop-ups
- Use time-based or scroll-based pop-ups to:
- Invite returning users to subscribe to push or WhatsApp
- Promote weekly newsletters with analysis or player stories
- Promote web push notification subscription
- Offer quizzes to boost fans' engagement
WhatsApp channel notifications
- Share exclusive or premium updates via WhatsApp to a loyal fan base
Examples:
- “Tactical Briefing: What we learned from this transfer window"
- "Only 3 days till the first match - here’s your countdown content"
- Schedule WhatsApp messages during “quiet” periods to keep interest alive
Benefits
By using a multichannel messaging approach between sports seasons, publishers can build habit-forming engagement, increase session frequency, and boost traffic even when the scoreboard is quiet.
