While the NFL regular season undoubtedly presents ample opportunities to engage fans, there’s an additional opportunity to drive year-round engagement: the off-season. The off-season now allows brands to connect with a target demographic of avid fans and bettors. These fans spend more money, place bets, and dedicate more time to the NFL ecosystem year-round than other fans, so the off-season is a prime time window to focus marketing efforts toward that segment.
With the upcoming season just around the corner, let’s explore strategies to keep your audience captivated both on and off the gridiron.
The end of the Super Bowl is just the beginning
The NFL off-season has become a valuable time to engage with football fans despite the absence of games. The NFL off-season is far from idle, featuring key events such as the NFL Combine, the NFL Draft, the schedule release, and training camps.
These tentpoles cater to fans’ needs and build anticipation for the upcoming season. Furthermore, these events also offer companies the opportunity to create content and monetize traffic across high-converting topics: betting, fantasy sports, tickets, how to watch, and merchandise.
Avid bettors follow every detail of the off-season—from trades and free-agent signings to draft picks, coaching changes, and injuries. This fuels excitement and speculation, allowing fans to make early predictions.
Fantasy football enthusiasts, a significant portion of the fanbase, are just as engaged, preparing to dominate their leagues, whether among friends, family, or colleagues.
Fans eagerly organize their schedules around their favorite teams, with ticket sales surging immediately after the schedule release. For those unable to attend games, securing the right streaming service becomes a priority.
Fans are also deciding which player jerseys to buy for the upcoming season, often influenced by major free-agent signings or top draft picks, fostering a stronger connection to their favorite players.
Planning before the first snap
The NFL off-season is an opportunity for media companies, sportsbooks, OTT platforms, and affiliates to tap into a passionate and dedicated fanbase early on. But how should they do it?
You first need to know your fans. What kind of questions do they have in the off-season? What type of information do they want? Avid bettors, fantasy players, and casual sports fans will be researching what bets to make, how to build their fantasy team, what to purchase, and more. That’s why it’s essential to plan well ahead and ensure you have content ready to cover all the questions folks have in the off-season. Ultimately, the goal is to drive traffic and business to your site for actionable queries fans have.
NFL keywords and search queries are highly competitive and expensive. To improve your chances of reaching your target audience and driving conversions, consider using a long-tail keyword strategy. This approach focuses on more specific search terms that are less competitive but have a higher conversion potential. To learn more about SEO and long-tail keyword strategies, check out our blog post on how to outrank your competitors on search engine results pages (SERPs)
Second, it’s time to think about your content strategy. How do you ensure you have content ready to cover all aspects of the off-season? Luckily, we’ve already covered the main events: the NFL Combine, the NFL Draft, the schedule release, and training camps. Building your content plan around these events will guide what articles to promote and when.
Know your fans and give them what they want
We recommend the following articles to attract football fans to your website in the off-season:
To maximize site traffic and engagement during the off-season, understanding your audience and providing the content they crave is essential. Creating this content can be time-consuming, but there are effective solutions to overcome resource limitations.
Capitalize on year-round traffic
By partnering with Data Skrive, we help you target the right audience, generate football content, and boost performance, even when no games are played. Our customers benefit from the following:
- More Traffic: You’ll be a trusted football source all year round. Early content on betting, fantasy, tickets, and merchandise attracts a dedicated audience ready to engage.
- More Fan Engagement: Our insightful and engaging content will foster a deeper connection with your audience, increasing brand loyalty, time on site, and repeat visitors in the regular season.
- More Revenue: More traffic translates to more revenue opportunities through advertising, merchandise sales, or other ventures.
The off-season is just the beginning. Stay tuned for strategies, recommendations, and more as the regular season continues to build momentum.
About Data Skrive
Data Skrive is transforming the way sports fans around the world connect with their favorite teams, players, and brands. Our technology enables personalized experiences for every sports fan across the globe, and we power some of the biggest names in sports, media, and betting. Combining our breadth and depth of sports knowledge with content tailored to individual needs, we nurture fans during every window of interest to maximize engagement. For more information, email us at info@dataskrive.com. For press inquiries, email press@dataskrive.com.
