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:

  1. Invite returning users to subscribe to push or WhatsApp

  2. Promote weekly newsletters with analysis or player stories

  3. Promote web push notification subscription

  4. Offer quizzes to boost fans' engagement

WhatsApp channel notifications

• Share exclusive or premium updates via WhatsApp to a loyal fan base

Examples:

1. “Tactical Briefing: What we learned from this transfer window"

2. "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.