Long before Austin FC played a single match, its supporters group already had a name, a chant, and a plan. Austin Anthem started in 2013 as a grassroots campaign built on a bet: that a city with no top-flight soccer club could talk one into existing. Members go by Los Zanates, after the grackles that fill Austin's skyline, and these days they take over the South End of Q2 Stadium on matchday, run a large Discord group, and organise tailgates and travel for every away trip.

Through it all, one channel has stayed constant – a weekly email that goes out to supporters scattered across the globe, whether Austin FC is playing at home or three time zones away.

We spoke to Josh Babetski, who founded Austin Anthem back in 2013, about the long road to MLS, what a typical matchday email looks like, and how they've pushed open rates from 48% to 60% and beyond.

Tell us a bit about Austin Anthem – how did it start, and what does the organisation do today?

Austin Anthem started in 2013 as "MLS in Austin" – a community advocacy group to bring a Major League Soccer team to Austin, Texas. MLS is the division one professional soccer league in the U.S.

Josh Babetski – founder of Austin Anthem, the original supporters group for Austin FC.

Austin Anthem was founded years before Austin FC even existed. What made you believe MLS would come to Austin, and what kept the momentum going during those years of waiting?

That's a very, very long story. The short version is research, information, and passion. Research that Austin was a great potential soccer market. Information about what the league was doing and saying with regard to expansion. Passion for our community, and that we could influence bringing a club to town.

Then, in 2021, Austin FC launched. What was it like to finally see the club you campaigned for take the pitch for the first time?

The club played its inaugural match during COVID, so while only a few fans were able to travel for the game (it was in Los Angeles), over 1,600 people gathered at our watch party near the stadium site. The build-up was a series of steps: watching the stadium getting built, helping to decorate the team jerseys, player signings, partnership announcements, etc. But none of it was real until that first kick of that first game.

A purple flag with a white grackle bird silhouette waving in the wind.

One of Austin Anthem's grackle flags flies above the stadium. The grackle – the supporters' symbol and the bird that fills Austin's skyline.

Who makes up your membership? How has the supporter community grown and changed since Austin FC's first season?

We have members all over the globe, but obviously, the bulk of our membership is concentrated here in Austin. We're in our 6th season, so over the years, some traditions have started to take hold, and the fandom has grown and diversified, but the one constant is the support we show the club on match day.

How long have you been using EmailOctopus? What made you choose it?

We switched over from another provider in 2024. We've been sending regular newsletters since at least 2018. One of our members was on another mailing list which used EmailOctopus, and after considering a few options, we went with it.

Being an all-volunteer non-profit where leadership changes, we wanted to have something that was easy for a non-technical person to manage and get support.

Austin Anthem's landing page for its weekly newsletter.

You send a weekly campaign to your full list. What does a typical Austin Anthem email look like, and what is your main goal for each campaign? How do you decide on topic, tone and structure?

The main driver of most emails is the next upcoming match. If it's a home game, details on the opponent, match date and time, and tailgate information. If the club is away, a watch party, travel and television info. After that, it's community, group, and club news, as well as upcoming fixtures and other local events. The newsletter tries to be conversational and written as fans – because that's who is writing it.

Volunteers in black t-shirts kneeling and painting large green and black tifo banners laid out on the ground.

Austin Anthem volunteers hand-paint a matchday tifo ahead of an Austin FC game.

Which EmailOctopus features have saved you the most time?

Duplicating campaigns and being able to surface previous images in the library. Our newsletters have 2 main modes – home and away. So, we often toggle art back and forth between the local watch party HQ – an amazing local place called "Haymaker", and the tailgate and stadium map and information. Being able to swap that quickly is a time saver.

What's your approach to subject lines and preview text to drive open rates from 48% to 60% and beyond?

This year – emoji in the subject lines. It helps to visually stand out in a cluttered inbox and helps with a shorthand for the match. For example, leading with a "🧳" if it's away match info, "🌳" if home (Austin FC's crest is a tree). Otherwise, the subject line highlights the match-up and one other big topic of the week.

Austin Anthem supporters at Q2 Stadium unveiling a large tifo of a tree-like figure with the words "We are Groot," surrounded by fans holding up green cards in the stands.

Austin Anthem's "We Are Groot" tifo unfurls before an Austin FC match at Q2 Stadium – a nod to the club's tree crest.

What does list hygiene look like for a community organisation like Austin Anthem? How do you keep your list healthy and engaged?

It's tricky because our membership sign-ups come from a different system – our online store. So we have to periodically import new members and unsubscribe older contacts. The bulk import tool and EmailOctopus being able to ignore emails already on the list is a huge help here, so we don't duplicate the contacts within our list.

Email is one of many channels available to a supporters group, but you're also on many social media platforms like Discord, Instagram, Facebook, etc. What does email give you that social media can't? Has there been a moment where the newsletter played a particularly important role?

Despite all of the engagement online, email is still king when it comes to keeping supporters up-to-date with info. It is the axle around which our entire communications wheel is built.

It's also been of great help when we have member-only or other special perks we need to communicate to members and supporters when we can't really broadcast on social. For example, a meet-n-greet with a player, or participating in a promotional videotaping. Sometimes it's short notice to pull these things together, and email is the only viable option for it.

A snapshot of an away-match edition of the Austin Anthem newsletter, with watch party and travel details for a trip to Houston.

Looking ahead, are there any new email strategies you're planning to experiment with next?

We'd love to work with EmailOctopus on more tools and techniques to streamline our workflows even more. Ideally, we could duplicate a previous email to keep the evergreen info, like our From address and recurring content, without rebuilding from scratch, and then have sections within that email we could toggle on or off, so swapping our "home" and "away" content each week would be much quicker, instead of hunting back through the image library for graphics we've used dozens of times before.

What would you say to another MLS supporters group thinking about building an email list?

If you're not already, you should. It's a great investment in time to ensure your members know what's going on and when. It is important to try to maintain a regular cadence of sending as well. Off-season, we try to send two emails a month. During the season, weekly or sometimes twice a week if there's a double match.

Thanks!

Check out Austin Anthem and follow along on matchdays.