All audiences are different – Heuristics are used to support in getting you closer to an answer, but not to solve specific issues – use them wisely!
Owned marketing engagement will differ by Market, Event Type, Sport and many other variables, please make sure that all Heuristics are relevant to your use case before applying.
These Heuristics intend to get you to the start line in client conversations, not the finish.
If you have specific questions or require support, please discuss with the Heuristics captains.
If you require visuals from these Heuristics, please contact the ‘Knowing Fans Best’ team.
All Known Audiences People in your database you have personally identifiable data on.
All Owned Audiences People you can reach through your platforms you own (like your website, app).
All Operated Audiences People you can reach via platforms you control (like your social channels).
All Earned Audiences
All Owned Media
All Earned Media
All Paid Media
All MCO (Multi-Channel Orchestrator)
All Open Rate
CTOR
Click Rate
People who engage with your brand via third-party advocacy, media coverage, or social sharing you didn’t pay or control the channel, but you benefit from the exposure.
Any content you’ve written or created that is published on a channel you own. The most common type of owned media is your website and all the content on it, but it also extends to things like your company blog and social media posts and content, as well as any other materials like white papers, infographics, reports or eBooks your company has created and published.
The amplification of your owned media and encompasses any talk or buzz about your brand online. Social media shares, retweets, mentions and reposts are all forms of earned media, as is any form of press coverage, reviews, recommendations, third party use of owned media and other content about your company written and published by users independent of your organisation.
Media that has been paid for. This includes PPC, paid social ads, paid influencer content and display ads. Anything you have paid for to drive traffic to your owned media channels comes under the paid media umbrella.
A platform that manages and delivers campaigns across multiple owned channels, such as email, SMS, app push, in-app messaging, and web overlays.
Opens / Sends
Clicks / Opens
Clicks / Sends
Audience size
audience funnel target should be 90% earned and 10% owned and operated.
Your owned/operated audience is the subset of your total audience that you can contact via direct comms, your website, or third-party social platforms you have an account on. Based on industry practices:
To effectively grow your owned audience
• Leverage digital platforms: Invest in mobile apps and online portals that offer exclusive content and interactive features to encourage sign-ups.
• Implement data-driven marketing: Use analytics to understand fan behaviours and preferences, tailoring your outreach to meet their interests.
• Introduce initiatives to drive people towards owned channels: Potential initiatives include Content Syndication, Membership Schemes, Gamification, etc.
Aim for 10–20% of your total audience to be owned or operated. Paid media is a great for bridging the gap between earned & known.
Focus on converting unknown fans into owned audience members through value-added offerings like exclusive content, personalised
Two Circles Summit (2023)
Marketing Engagement
Aim for +35% of your owned audience funnel to be ‘engaged’ over a 90-day period.
An engaged owned audience refers to the proportion of your known database that has interacted with at least one piece of direct marketing or content within a defined timeframetypically 30, 60, or 90 days . This could include opening an email, clicking a push notification, logging into the app, etc.
This is not a universally standardised metric, rather a KPI that some rights holders actively monitor to assess database health and fan activation.
This metric matters because:
Audience ≠ Activation: owned audience sizes could be misleading if only a small fraction is active.
Engaged audience size is correlated with revenue generation. Fans are more likely to convert on ticketing or merchandise offers, click partner activations, and participate in fan data capture campaigns.
Tracking engagement of marketing messages across all channels helps diagnose whether your comms strategy is resonating.
Reach
Marketing Engagement
Whether you want scale or action, understanding how each channel performs helps you match the message to the moment.
Some channels are great at driving mass awareness while others are more tailored to triggering immediate action.
Many sports organisations over-index on broadcast-style comms (email, social) and underuse channels with higher behavioural impact (push, onsite personalisation).
Social Media
Veryhighreach, medium-lowengagement
Web Display Ad
Extensivereachwith lowengagement
Email
Broadreach, moderateengagement Push/SMS
Highvisibilitybutonly amongatargetedaudience
In-Stadium Display
Lowreach,low-tomediumengagement
Engagement
Web Pop Up
Highengagementbut limitedtositevisitors
Different channels drive different outcomes. A web pop-up may be disruptive but drive fast action; a display ad might be ignored by most but reaches millions.
Email: Ideal for reaching a broad audience with personalised content, balancing reach and engagement.
App Push: Effective for timely, high-engagement messages to users who have installed the app.
Web Pop-up: Useful for capturing attention of active site visitors, prompting immediate actions.
Web Display Ads: Best for brand awareness campaigns due to their extensive reach but lower engagement rates.
Social Media: Important for awareness; but not as important for direct action.
In-Stadium Display: Good for brand activation, not direct response
Marketability
This threshold is considered a strong baseline to ensure meaningful engagement and to maximise ROI.
Sports organisations should strive to have 50% of their known audience as marketable.
First-party data remains the most reliable, compliant source for targeting fans.
Understanding and optimising the proportion of your owned audience that is marketable is crucial because:
- It maximises the monetisation potential of your digital audience.
- It enables compliant, data-driven marketing
- It boosts sponsorship value and fan lifetime value.
- It is a foundational KPI for digital & engagement success
1. Optimise your opt-in touchpoints
2. Create value-driven reasons to subscribe
3. Use pop-ups, overlays and embedded forms Strategically to drive opportunities to opt in.
4. Convert social followers or app users into email opt-ins
5. Use preference centres over ‘All or Nothing’ unsubscribe
Marketability
The more engaged or high-intent the touchpoint, the more likely a fan is to share their data and opt in to marketing.
High intent: tied to attendance, deeper engagement.
Value-driven (discounts, delivery updates).
Often seen as utility-only, minimal fan affinity.
The more active and emotionally invested the fan interaction is, the higher the likelihood that fans will:
• Share their personal details
• Opt in to marketing communications
• Engage with future CRM content
High-value moments (like redeeming a ticket or buying merchandise) align more closely with a fan’s passion and intent.
Whereas passive touchpoints (e.g. using Wi-Fi) offer little value.
Maximise marketable data by embedding opt-in points at the moments where fans are most emotionally invested.
RYI-style activations should be core to your owned audience growth strategy.
Passive engagements like Wi-Fi should be supported with clear incentives (e.g. exclusive video access, prize draws) to improve performance.
Marketing Engagement
The best-performing subject lines create emotional cues this is for me, this is urgent, or this is something new.
In direct marketing, getting seen is the first battle and open rate is the foundation of all downstream performance.
Across campaigns, subject lines that trigger one of three emotional cues consistently outperform others:
Familiarity → Feels personal and relevant
Statista reports that emails with personalised subject lines see an average open rate of +5%, compared to non-personalised ones.
Urgency → Feels time-sensitive, important, or creates FOMO
According to Experian, subject lines emphasising urgency can boost transaction rates by up to 22%.
Curiosity → Spark Intrigue or teases information
Campaign Monitor found that emails using curiosity-driven subject lines had significantly higher open rates, sometimes as high as 45%.
These triggers cut through inbox fatigue and work across almost any type of campaign.
You might be writing dozens of emails a week (and the recipient receiving hundreds) so it’s easy to treat the subject line as just a label. But here’s the thing: If fans don’t open the email, nothing else you built inside matters.
Subject lines are the most visible, most decisive moment in any owned campaign and the easiest lever to pull for quick wins.
So, if you're stuck on what to test, these three emotional cues (familiarity, urgency, novelty) give you a clear starting point.
Subject lines using familiarity and personalisation can boost open rates by up to
Marketing Engagement
Emails landing between 8am-10am on a weekday maximizes opens, seeing on up to a 33% higher open rate.
In a crowded digital environment, timing your content right is often as important as what you say.
Sports fans behave in patterns - driven by match schedules, work/life rhythms, and emotional momentum. Well-timed comms cut through, while poorly timed ones get ignored or deleted.
Morning sends consistently outperform afternoons and evenings, especially in inbox-dominant channels like email.
Weekend emails are hit-and-miss unless tied directly to a live sporting moment or purchase urgency (e.g. merchandise).
Push notifications can be more flexible but still follow similar behavioral cues (pre-match = hype, post-match = summary).
Objective
Recommended Timing Why It Works
General email sends 8–10am weekdays
Pre-match hype 2–4 hrs before kick-off
Fans are checking email early –+33% open rate uplift seen here.
Fans are in the zone; ideal for preview content, upsells, & reminders.
Post-match content 12–24hrs post-match
Newsletters/Updates Tuesdays or Thursdays
Captures post-match emotion before attention moves on.
Inbox fatigue is lowest; open rates tend to be highest midweek.
Marketing Engagement
The average open rate for an email sent by a sports property to sports fans is 35%.
Email open rates are your campaign’s gate keepers – they reflect the
Clarity and quality of your subject line
Overall audience engagement
Success of your email targeting
However, open rate benchmarks are not standardized across campaign types as different campaigns offer different value to you and your fans.
They occur on a sliding scale from feedback and surveys with low engagement to exclusive content which fans are likely to highly engage fans
Therefore, understanding the purpose of each campaign to personalise, test and improve will drive up open rate across the board.
Marketing Engagement
Aim to maintain a click-to-open rate of at least 2-4% for all email campaigns.
Click-to-open rates indicate the quality of the content within an email, removing the noise of deliverability and fan inbox behaviour.
Clicks occur when something earns the attention of the fan, measuring the creative content, layout or copy of the email.
Like open rates, CTORs differ across campaign types, and occur on a sliding scale and rightsholders should develop specific tailored benchmarks per campaign.
Campaigns that contain exclusive content and essential information will driver higher Click-To-Open rates.
Ticketing, newsletters and campaigns focused on reach will have lower Click-To-Open rates.
To drive up email clicks, ensure that:
The email’s content lives up the subject line.
The Call To Action is clear and simple.
The content is engaging, personal and an appropriate length.
The content is driving value, not just information.
Ensure the most important information is at the top of the email
Marketability
Most fans unsubscribe when content feels irrelevant, excessive, or unexpected.
Expectations at sign-up If fans didn't expect marketing, they'll opt out
Sender reputation Poor IP rep → fans less trusting, more exits
Unsubscribes aren’t always bad — they help clean your list and improve deliverability. But if you see a pattern, it’s a signal to refine your strategy.
8 Ways to Reduce Unsubscribes
Segment better – Send only what’s relevant to each fan.
Limit frequency – Avoid overloading inboxes.
Personalise content – Use names, teams or player info.
Add a preference centre – Let fans choose topics, not just opt out.
Be clear in subject lines – Set honest expectations.
Balance your content – Avoid constant sales or sponsor pushes.
Pause inactive fans – Don’t keep sending to those who stop engaging.
Learn from opt-outs – Track what drives unsubscribes and fix it.
Marketing Personalisation
76% of consumers prefer purchasing products with information in their native language, with localised campaigns seeing higher open rates, click-throughs, and ROI (up to 760%).
Your audience isn’t homogenous. Fans engage differently - not just in language, but also in timing, tone, and content relevance.
Localisation is more than just translation:
• It’s sending matchday emails at the right local time
• It’s using local currency or city reference.
• It’s swapping “soccer” for “football” depending on the market
This is most relevant for Global Governing Bodies or Organisations with a strong international following.
Increases performance fast - localised content has been shown to drive up to 760% higher ROI than generic sends
Shows you understand your audience - fans are more likely to engage with a brand that communicates in a way that feels personal and culturally aware
Low Hanging Fruit - you don’t need to overhaul your strategy, just adapt subject lines, send times, and key messaging blocks
Helps in scaling global CRM - without localisation, international lists can underperform and churn
Partnerships become more valuable - sponsors want to reach fans in specific markets, and localized emails improve response and click-throughs
Of consumers prefer purchasing products with information in their native language.
Design Principles
The media market values this too, with CPMs for above-the-fold inventory often ~2x higher than below the fold.
a relic of the print news world, where newspapers are physically folded in half and the most important headlines were printed “above the fold.” In the digital world, it describes anything displayed on a screen without requiring a user to scroll.
Screenfuls of Content
First impressions matter, use the limited time a subscriber spends in an email, or on your website, to get them to do what you want. The most important material should be above the fold. If you are creating longer emails/pages, there are a variety of ways to encourage subscribers to scroll all the way through, including:
Use the subject line, titles, and preview text to tease content further down in an email
Use visual indicators, like diagonal lines or even arrows, to show that people should keep scrolling
Create a strong hierarchy using headings to make scrolling and scanning content easier
Design Principles
Apply these rules to increase opens, clicks and conversion.
Subject lines should be short & concise to avoid being cut off.
Make sure to include a preheader. Links can read like spam.
Less than half of people read beyond the fold. Place your most important content first.
Buy Merch New Merch Just Dropped Merchandise for the 2025 NFL season has just launched, follow the link below.
Headline, CTA, & Image need to be in the first 300-500px
Getting email design right is critical - it determines whether fans open, click or ignore your content.
Best practice principles include:
Subject line: < 50 characters, focused and front-loaded with value. HubSpot found that specific subject lines can perform 47% better than vague ones.
Above the fold: Place headline, CTA, and key image in top 300–500px
One purpose per email don’t overload with competing messages
Mobile-friendly: Content needs to appears in a single-column for mobile with tappable buttons
Clear visual hierarchy: Lead with what matters, use contrast and whitespace
Consistent branding: Make it feel like you
Test & learn: A/B subject lines and layouts regularly
SuperBowl Tickets Now on Sale! This is your chance to grab tickets to the
The median opt in rates for android is 81% vs 51% for iOS, due to differing default permissions.
Apple Opt in Rate
On average 68% of mobile app users opt- in to receive push notifications.
The variance between systems is due to platform level permissions:
Android users are automatically opted in more frequently, offering a broader reach.
Android owns 71% of the global mobile market thanks to dominance in countries with large populations and developing economies (e.g., India, Brazil, Indonesia, and China). This offers access to a significantly larger audience.
iOS users face stricter privacy defaults, requiring explicit consent and more convincing opt-in messaging.
Narrower reaching iOS campaigns, require more targeted, personalised messaging to be effective.
Understand user behavior by device: Tailor your strategy based on whether users are on Android (broader access) or iOS (needs deeper personalization).
Prioritize opt-in incentives for iOS: Use compelling copy, value-driven messaging, and timing to nudge users toward enabling notifications.
Maximize reach via Android: Leverage the higher opt-in rates and global market share by delivering more frequent, segmented pushes.
Marketing Engagement
The difference is personalisation: relevance turns “spam” into value, driving retention instead of churn.
Push notifications are critical for driving re-engagement and visibility :
Apps that send none risk losing 90% of users in the first 30 days.
But frequency alone isn’t enough: generic pushes annoy users, while personalised pushes keep them engaged.
This underscores the importance of restraint and relevance in push strategies. You must therefore:
Prioritise quality over quantity in messaging.
Use pacing and personalisation to tailor frequency to user behaviour.
Implement capping mechanisms to stay within user-specific tolerance limits.
Over-messaging = opt-outs.
Under-messaging = invisibility.
The balance is 2–5 personalised, behaviour-triggered pushes per week.
However, sending 2 5 generic
Push notifications
Automated push messages account for 21% of all push orders while constituting only of total sends, highlighting their efficiency in driving conversions.
Automated push messages make up for 3% of total sends, yet they drive 21% of total push orders, a strong signal of their conversion efficiency.
These automated pushes are typically behavior-triggered, such as:
Cart abandonment reminders
Product view follow-ups
Purchase confirmations
Because they are timely and relevant, users perceive these automated notifications as helpful rather than disruptive and create meaningful user interactions without adding to push fatigue.
Prioritise automation: Even a small share of automated messages can yield outsized results. Allocate more effort to building out behavioral triggers.
Go beyond bulk: Shift focus from large-scale editorial sends to contextaware, event-driven messaging.
Order Conversion for Automated Pushes vs Manual Pushes
Invest in predictive tech: Tools that anticipate fan’s needs, like AI-driven suggestions or re-engagement nudges, will boost automated push effectiveness.
Push notifications
Personalized push notifications lead to 59% more engagement compared to non-personalised ones, emphasizing the importance of tailored messaging.
o Consumers increasingly expect tailored experiences and push messaging is no exception.
o When messages reflect user behaviour, preferences, or location, they feel more like service than spam.
MLB
John, batters are up Yankees vs Red Sox in 1 hour – line-ups just dropped!
o Relevant messages are more likely to be opened, acted-on, and remembered – driving stronger user retention
o Whether it’s a real-time alert for a favourite team line-up or nudge based on recent in-app activity, personalization signals attentiveness to user interests and can ultimately help build brand trust and loyalty
Weekend Highlights
John, relive all the dunks and buzzerbeaters from the NBA finals! NBA
Overtake Alert !
Your favourite driver, Max Verstappen, just took P1 with a daring move!
Evolving Beyond Basic Personalisation:
o Push notifications are evolving beyond first names or product categories. In the future, we will see a shift towards hyper personalisation – where content, timing, and delivery channels are intelligently tailored to individual's user behaviour and preferences
Leverage Behavioural Data for Greater Impact:
o Rightsholders that integrate deeper behaviour data into campaigns will be able to craft campaigns that resonate with fans – boosting customer loyalty and improving ROI
AI Powered Personalisation:
o With AI and machine learning becoming increasingly accessible, hyper personalised push may become the industry standard
The most effective times to send push notifications are between 6-8AM and 10PM – 12AM, with Fridays being the most popular day, accounting for 17% of sends.
Optimal Timing for Sending Notifications
Timing can significantly influence push notification performance and aligning push notifications with natural user downtime increases likelihood that the message will be seen, read, and acted upon
Early morning (6-8AM) and late evening (10PM -12AM) are key windows for engagement as these timeframes correspond to typical commuting hours or wind-down routines.
Among days of the week, Fridays are particularly effective as people transition into the weekend and tend to be more receptive to content
Let Data Lead the Way
Data should remain the foundation of any push notification strategy as the most effective send times will be proven by your own audience behaviour.
Test different send windows to reveal unique engagement peaks –this type of tailor insight allows for smarter, data – backed scheduling decisions.
Look out for AI opportunities
Emerging AI technologies offer a unique opportunity to enhance notification performance by analysing individual user routines and adjust send times in real time.
As these tools become more common, smarter scheduling will aid in improving click through and retention rates.
Short, sharp, and clear messages win attention.
Push notifications under 10 words perform best:
2x more clicks than 11–20 words
3x more clicks than 20+ words
Why? Short messages reduce cognitive load, making them easier to process at a glance. With most notifications viewed on lock screens and wearables, conciseness ensures clarity in environments where attention is scarce.
Deliver one clear message per push
Front-load the most important words
Keep it short but test tone urgency vs. value
Use emojis or rich media to add meaning without adding words
A/B test continuously to refine clarity and engagement
Marketing Engagement
API push notifications are 3x more effective in driving engagement than editorial push notifications.
EXAMPLE
API notifications are automated, often based on a profile’s specific behaviours. They are:
Timely – delivered when they are most relevant.
Personalized – based on favourite team, club, player or even matchspecific notifications
Data-driven - based on opt-ins, and profile flags.
Whereas, Editorial pushes are manually scheduled, and sent to broader audience segments
One-to-many and are often not personalized beyond basic segmentation
Scheduled based upon a wider marketing calendar
Content-led usually driven by updates across wider owned marketing channels
If the aim is to use a message for storytelling, or campaign amplification, Editorial messaging is the best choice. To grab attention immediately, API messaging should be relied on.
To avoid push fatigue, and maximize consistent engagement, API notifications should form the backbone of push communication strategy,
Aiming for 60-80% of push volume to be API notifications, and the remaining 20-40% being Editorial communications is ideal for maintaining engagement and minimizing push fatigue.
Rivalry!
Home Run Hero!
Marketing Engagement
Incorporating a single emoji in push notifications can boost open rates by up to 20% and click-through rates by 5%
Utilise Emojis to Boost Open Rates:
Incorporating even a single emoji into push messaging notification allows a notification to:
Visually stand-out amongst crowded notification centers and home screens.
Capture attention quickly compared to text-heavy notifications
Instantly allow a message to communicate tone, urgency and sentiment.
Emojis are a low effort, high impact addition to push communications. Allowing messages to stand out easily, without exceeding a character count.
Use emojis in push copy when they add clarity, reinforce emotion, or create urgency.
Avoid overuse and test variations to ensure effectiveness across audience segments.
Podium Secured ! !
Additional elements like images and gifs, alongside emoji’s can boost engagement by (compared to plain text)
SMS messages are most effective when driving engagement through short, time critical messages when a specific action is required.
When a specific action is desired, a clear CTA can drive a 6x higher CTO rate than emails.
SMS messages drive strong engagement when a specific action is required with an average CTR of 19%. Email
Accessibility of SMS without an internet connection makes it an inclusive channel for directly reaching diverse audiences.
Build your SMS audience by offering value to fans and outlining the benefits they receive by sharing mobile phone numbers. e.g offers, discount codes or exclusive benefits, when signing up with a mobile number.
SMS is a more intrusive method of marketing to your owned fans so be mindful of send times, frequency and audience size.
In the USA, UK, and parts of mainland Europe 8pm - 8am are nogo times for sending.
SMS is more expensive compared with email, so target your highest propensity prospects to push them to convert.
Marketing Engagement
You don’t just have to be persuasive - you must be visually persuasive in the places people look.
of “eye fixations” occur on the left half of a screen*
Whether browsing a website, scanning a menu, or walking through a store - humans don’t process all options equally. Our brains and eyes are wired to take shortcuts, and your design should work with them, not against them:
- 80% of eye fixations happen on the left half of the screen.
- Users decide in under 5 seconds whether to stay or leave a website.
- When presented with multiple options in a grid, we show a strong bias toward the middle
- In physical retail, products at eye level receive ~8% more attention and purchase intent.
These aren’t quirks they’re predictable patterns of human behaviour that can be designed for.
Put your most important content on the left and near the top e.g. navigation menus, lead CTAs, “shop now” buttons
Use the centre of content grids for your priority actions or offers e.g. mid-priced ticket types or featured merch
Make value clear, fast!
You have 5 seconds or less to convince someone to stay.
Clarity beats cleverness.
Audit your real estate
Whether it’s a product gallery, homepage, or scheduledesign with visual gravity in mind
Use colour to draw the eye away from the left
If a CTA exists on away from top left, use a standout colour to draw the eye to where you want engagement.
Source: Journal of Consumer Psychology; Journal of Retailing *among western audiences
Marketing Engagement
Rightsholders that use first party personally identifiable data in their website personalisation have a 30% higher conversion rate.
higher conversion rate for rightsholders that use first party personally identifiable data in their website personalisation.
Personalisation is about tailoring the entire experience based on user data and behaviour. This makes content feel more relevant, increases engagement, and directly boosts conversion.
Customised landing pages (varying content based on previous interactions)
Dynamic content sections (highlighting relevant content based on user’s browsing history or location)
Membership recognition (exclusive offers/loyalty points when a logged-in member returns to the site)
Behavioural triggers (e.g., “because you read this last time” or abandoned basket prompts)
Contextual adaptation (Changing messaging to reflect what’s most timely for each fan segment)
In the competitive landscape of sports marketing, personalisation is crucial for:
Enhancing Fan Engagement: Tailored content resonates more with fans, leading to increased interaction and loyalty.
Driving Conversions: Personalised campaigns are more likely to convert, whether it's ticket sales, merchandise purchases, or event registrations.
Maximising ROI: Targeted messaging ensures marketing resources are used efficiently, reaching the right audience with the right message.
Marketing Engagement
The most effective web layer formats are daily offers (~30%) and gamified pop ups (~9%).
Modern websites use a variety of web layer formats: To capture attention Drive conversions Collect data.
However, not all formats are equally effective, and their impact depends heavily on user experience, timing, device type, and level of interaction.
If your goal is maximum conversion, consider implementing gamified or urgency-based formats like spin-to-win or daily offers.
Prioritise mobile-first design and ensure overlays are optimised for both experience and load speed.
Rather than relying on generic pop-ups, test multiple triggers (e.g. time delay, exit intent) to identify what suits your audience best.
For data capture with added value, interactive formats like quizzes strike a strong balance between conversion and engagement.
Avoid format fatigue don’t stack multiple overlays at once. Instead, segment by intent or audience behaviour (e.g. returning users vs. first-timers).
Design Principles
First-time visitors to your homepage are more likely to bounce from your homepage than those who have used your site before.
Bounce Rate
Bounce rate
First-time visitors typically have less familiarity, less trust, and less intent which makes them far more likely to leave quickly if they don’t immediately find what they’re looking for. In fact, new users bounce at a rate +14% higher than returners.
That means your homepage isn’t just a brand touchpoint it’s a test. You have seconds to convince new users to stick around, and your returning users won’t stay loyal if the site underdelivers
Don’t design for returners only
Make sure core content and CTAs are obvious from first
Use pop-ups, overlays or onboarding nudges to orient new users fast Track bounce by source and device
A high bounce rate doesn’t always mean the content is bad, but it often means the layout, signposting or expectation-setting is
Conversion Rates
Website stickiness pays visitors who stay longer are up to 10x more likely to convert.
The longer someone stays on your website, the more likely they are to engage, convert, and come back.
Websites that can hold a fan’s attention consistently outperform those that are simply visited and exited. Return visitors who spend longer on-site are your most valuable audience: they're more likely to buy, register, subscribe, or share.
Creating a “sticky” site isn’t about flashy UX it’s about giving fans a reason to stay and come back.
Content that’s fresh and frequent
• Regularly updated articles, videos, and highlights keep fans returning.
• Match previews, fan polls, interviews, behind the scenes access. Personalised experiences
• Use CRM data to surface fav teams, local events, or personalised merch.
• Tailor homepage modules based on behaviour or log-in. On-site tools and utilities
• Add value: calendars, ticket finders, fantasy tools, loyalty dashboards.
• These keep users active, not passive. Smart navigation and content journeys
• Use related links or content “next up” suggestions to guide users deeper.
• Avoid dead-ends - every page should suggest a next step.
Membership and login incentives
• Logged-in users are more likely to stay and convert.
• Offer exclusive content or early access in exchange for sign-up. Performance and design fundamentals
All Known Audiences People in your database you have personally identifiable data on.
All Owned Audiences People you can reach through your platforms you own (like your website, app).
All Operated Audiences People you can reach via platforms you control (like your social channels).
All Earned Audiences
All Owned Media
All Earned Media
All Paid Media
All MCO (Multi-Channel Orchestrator)
All Open Rate
CTOR
Click Rate
People who engage with your brand via third-party advocacy, media coverage, or social sharing you didn’t pay or control the channel, but you benefit from the exposure.
Any content you’ve written or created that is published on a channel you own. The most common type of owned media is your website and all the content on it, but it also extends to things like your company blog and social media posts and content, as well as any other materials like white papers, infographics, reports or eBooks your company has created and published.
The amplification of your owned media and encompasses any talk or buzz about your brand online. Social media shares, retweets, mentions and reposts are all forms of earned media, as is any form of press coverage, reviews, recommendations, third party use of owned media and other content about your company written and published by users independent of your organisation.
Media that has been paid for. This includes PPC, paid social ads, paid influencer content and display ads. Anything you have paid for to drive traffic to your owned media channels comes under the paid media umbrella.
A platform that manages and delivers campaigns across multiple owned channels, such as email, SMS, app push, in-app messaging, and web overlays.
