Inside Nashville SC’s Marketing Playbook
/At our latest AMA Nashville Thought Leaders Luncheon, Nashville SC Marketing Director Lindsay Cavarra and Digital Marketing Director Andrew Fair gave us a behind-the-scenes look at how the club approaches a challenge every marketer can relate to: turning awareness into genuine loyalty.
For Nashville SC, that challenge has been especially interesting. As a relatively young club in a city already filled with professional sports, concerts and entertainment, simply getting people to know the brand was only the beginning. The bigger question was: How do you turn someone into a fan? and beyond that an advocate?
#1 Know Who You’re Talking To
One theme came through clearly throughout the conversation: there is no single Nashville SC fan.
The club reaches people across different ages, locations and levels of familiarity with soccer, and its marketing reflects that. Rather than pushing the same message everywhere, the team thinks carefully about who they’re speaking to and what will resonate.
That extends to social media. Instagram, Facebook, TikTok and X each serve different audiences and purposes, so content is developed with the platform in mind rather than simply copied across channels.
Sometimes that means polished storytelling. Other times, it means a raw phone video posted minutes after a goal. The team has found that immediacy and authenticity can often outperform highly produced content, particularly when fans want to feel like they’re part of the moment.
“We figure out who our audiences are and what they want to see” – Andrew Fair
#2 Look Beyond the Follower Count
That audience-first approach is showing results. Despite ranking 28th in MLS in follower count, Nashville SC ranks 10th in average engagement across its social platforms.
For the team, engagement can be more meaningful than simply building the largest possible following. Shares are particularly valuable. When a fan sends a Nashville SC video to a friend or reposts a match day moment to their own audience, the club reaches people it may not have reached on its own.
It’s a useful reminder for any marketer: the size of your audience matters, but what that audience does matters even more.
#3 From First Match to Advocate
Nashville SC also thinks about fandom as a journey.
Someone might begin as a person who has never attended a match, become a first-time attendee, return for another game and eventually become the kind of fan who brings friends along with them.
The first experience is especially important. The team shared that once people experience the atmosphere of a Nashville SC match, many want to return. The marketing challenge is getting them there in the first place, and then continuing the relationship afterward.
That’s why the club looks beyond acquisition to retention: understanding where fans are in their journey and finding ways to communicate with them differently as their relationship with the club grows.
#4 Fans Become the Growth Channel
Perhaps the most interesting part of that journey is what happens when fans begin doing the marketing themselves.
From supporters traveling to championship games to fan-created traditions and referrals, some of Nashville SC’s strongest brand moments happen organically. Instead of trying to manufacture every interaction, the club finds ways to amplify the enthusiasm already coming from its community.
“Fans are our biggest growth channel.” – Lindsay Cavarra
A great experience gives someone a reason to return. An exceptional one gives them a reason to tell someone else.
That may be one of the biggest lessons from Nashville SC’s approach for marketers in any industry. Building a community isn’t just about reaching more people. It’s about understanding them, creating experiences worth sharing and giving your most engaged customers a reason to bring others along.
A huge thank you to Lindsay Cavarra and Andrew Fair for joining AMA Nashville and sharing the strategy, experimentation and creativity behind Nashville SC’s growing fan community!