USA Today Sports Media Group Boosts Opt-In Rate by 22% With OneSignal's WordPress VIP Plugin

USA Today is a multi-platform news and information media company aimed at delivering high-quality and engaging content across print, digital, social and video platforms. A spin-off publication to the main flagship newspaper publication, USA Today Sports Media Group encompasses all sports initiatives, including the MLB, NFL, and NCAA. Reaching an audience of more than 50 million readers each month, USA Today Sports continues to be one of the most-visited sports sites in America.

John Turner, Director of Business Development at USA Today Sports Media Group, consistently strives to think of new, creative ways to better engage and monetize the company’s multi-million audience reach. However, telling a compelling story in a non-intrusive way while also implementing efficient methods of targeting users required the USA Today Sports Media team to expand beyond their previous channels of engagement.

For media giants like USA Today Sports Media Group, OneSignal paved the way for them to leverage push as a tool to acquire, engage, and convert customers. With over 60 different applications hosted across OneSignal, John's team of editors have all the tools they need under one platform to effortlessly craft their push updates in a timely manner.

Whether it’s the latest updates on Golfweek or HoopsHype, USA Today Sports Media Group relies on OneSignal to get the right content in front of the right fans. By using OneSignal’s WordPress Plugin, this has allowed USA Today Sports Media Group to automatically send notifications and instantly reach their multi-million user base using notifications even after they’ve left the website.

Having brought more than 12 million notification impressions and 100K visitors back to the site each month, the seamlessness of integrating OneSignal’s Wordpress VIP plugin has driven re-engagement and open rates to 22%. Now, with just one-click, the team at USA Today Sports Media Group can stay in front of their audience and be the first to share news alerts to the sports world within seconds of its release.

OneSignal’s WordPress Plugin is used by over 100,000 sites. As a WordPress VIP Gold Partner, OneSignal has been rigorously tested to handle even the highest volume use cases with reliability and ease of use.

In addition to delivering messages on time and fast, USA Today Sports Media Group uses OneSignal to remain relevant by curating an authentic, engaging user experience for their readers. After monitoring the frequency of notifications per trade deadline or game, John’s team sought to provide quality content that people would want to read and engage with, and this has in turn generated organic sign-ups and elevated the overall user experience.

With OneSignal’s Advanced Analytics, news media companies like USA Today Sports Media Group can easily quantify which messages are driving sales, engagement, and direct actions. The team has successfully involved heavy analytical strategies around notifications to remain timely and relevant, while also building user-level relevance models to target the right audience group. USA Today Sports readers now have the opportunity to choose which personalized notifications they are receiving.

Timeliness is key for any news site, and OneSignal has made engaging readers for USA Today Sports Media Group fast, simple, and effective. As USA Today Sports Media Group remains the social hub for the latest sports news, OneSignal continues to help the team power over 12 million notifications every month.