Hey, it’s Chase and Jimmy!

Today we’re breaking down a brand that turned their newsletter into the funniest tee time in golf.

Bad Birdie’s Breakfast Balls isn’t about constant product pushes, it’s golf culture, pop culture, and clubhouse humor that keeps readers hooked. From ranking the best golf souvenirs to joking about “Tiger Fit” workouts, they’ve built a golf-obsessed community without selling in every send.

We’ll dig into what’s working, where they could boost reader participation, and how you can steal a few of these plays for your own brand.

Also inside:

✔️ Your Guide to Smarter SMS Marketing – Automate, engage, and sell more
✔️ AI Power-Up: Clone your best customers (ethically) and go find more just like them

Let’s jump in.

💬 Your Guide to Smarter SMS Marketing: Automate, Engage, and Sell More

If you’re still treating SMS like the sidekick to email, you’re leaving money on the table.

SMS is the instant reach, high-conversion channel your marketing mix has been missing. Whether you want to drive flash-sale FOMO, recover abandoned carts, or just get in front of your audience faster, this guide breaks down how to actually make it work.

Inside, you’ll learn how to:

• Build and grow a compliant SMS list that actually converts

• Use automation to recover abandoned carts (without sounding spammy)

• Drive urgency with flash sales and limited-time offers

• Pair SMS with email for double the impact

• Track ROI so you know what’s working (and what’s not)

Download it, skim it over your morning coffee, and start sending texts that turn into sales.

Bad Birdie’s “Breakfast Balls” Newsletter: Building a Golf-Obsessed Community (Without Selling in Every Send)

Bad Birdie’s Breakfast Balls isn’t a weekly sales pitch, it’s a standing tee time with their audience.

The newsletter blends golf culture, pop culture, and the kind of humor you’d expect in the clubhouse after a round. And that’s the point: they’re not just here to move polos and hats; they’re building a brand people want to hang out with.

Let’s break down the latest issues, what’s working, where they could sharpen the swing, and what other brands can steal from this content-as-community model. 

1. Iss. #253 | The $200K Augusta Experience

Focus: Storytelling-first coverage of an ultra-luxury Masters experience.

Why This Works:

✅ Feels like a friend giving you the inside scoop not a brand trying to sell you something.
✅ Breaks up the main feature with snackable sub-sections (Masters package breakdown, Tommy Fleetwood feature, Happy Gilmore 2 take).
✅ Reinforces community vibe, you’re reading the same stories other fans are reacting to, not just product pitches.

What Could Be Improved:

❌ The $200K package breakdown is fascinating but could be visually enhanced with quick-hit graphics.
❌ Long text stretches might lose skimmers, bolded one-liners could pull people back in.
❌ No nudge for readers to share their own Masters stories or golf trips - a missed community touchpoint.

2. Iss. #252 | How To Get “Tiger Fit”

Focus: Playful “how-to” on training like Tiger Woods, plus LPGA highlights and a non-golf amenities ranking.

Why This Works:

✅ The Tiger routine breakdown is so over-the-top it invites inside jokes among readers.
✅ Feels more like a clubhouse chat than a formal article, this builds the “we’re all in this together” vibe.
✅ Creative “Power Ranking” format turns casual observations into a shared talking point.

What Could Be Improved:

❌ Could have invited readers to submit their own “Tiger Fit” routines for a future feature = easy community engagement.
❌ LPGA highlight would shine more with a community-driven element (e.g., “Who’s your underdog pick?” poll).
❌ Amenities list is great, but linking to a reader discussion thread would deepen connection.

3. Iss. #251 | Happy Gilmore 2 Finally Drops

Focus: Movie release coverage with merch tie-ins, collabs, and tangential golf pop culture.

Why This Works:

✅ Taps into a cultural moment everyone in the community will have an opinion on.
✅ Merch giveaway ties into the conversation without being the focus.
✅ Instagram embeds make the conversation feel like it’s happening across channels, not just in email.

What Could Be Improved:

❌ Could have added a call for readers to share their favorite Happy Gilmore moments or memes for a follow-up issue.
❌ Netflix x Spotify x Bill Simmons bit ends without pulling the community into the speculation creates missed group chat energy.
❌ Merch tie-in could have been positioned as a “community drop” rather than a one-off promo.

4. Iss. #250 | What Is the Best Golf Souvenir?

Focus: Crowd-sourced and ranked list of best golf souvenirs, plus tangential stories from the golf world.

Why This Works:

✅ The ranking format naturally sparks debate which is exactly what you want for community engagement.
✅ Opens with a relatable question that pulls in casual and die-hard golfers alike.
✅ Keeps variety high with Viktor Hovland quotes and Claire Rogers shoutouts that feels like you’re catching up on golf Twitter.

What Could Be Improved:

❌ Could have sourced souvenir picks directly from readers and credited them in the list.
❌ Photos of the souvenirs could have encouraged readers to send in their own.
❌ Stronger prompt at the end (“Tell us your #1 golf souvenir”) would keep the conversation going. 

So, What’s Working?

🤝 Community-First Voice: Every issue reads like a back-and-forth with your funniest golf buddy — not a brand lecture.
🎯 Culture Over Commerce: They use cultural touchpoints, humor, and shared experiences to keep people opening week after week.
🌍 Cross-Channel Connection: The newsletter pulls in Instagram content, Reddit threads, and golf world gossip,  making the community feel bigger than just the inbox. 

But Here’s What’s Missing:

💬 Reader Participation: The content talks to the audience, but rarely features them but adding reader quotes, polls, or submissions would strengthen loyalty.
📸 Visual Storytelling: More photos, GIFs, and UGC could make the issues feel alive and personal.
📣 Stronger Cross-Promotion: Clear CTAs to join the conversation on social or share with friends could turn readers into active members. 

Final Takeaway:

Bad Birdie’s Breakfast Balls is proof that when you focus on belonging over selling, you build something people want to be part of every week. The newsletter is funny, smart, and totally self-aware, and while there’s room to grow with reader participation and visual engagement, it’s already a model for turning casual customers into a tight-knit, culture-driven community.

The BFCM Hack That Recovers 6x More Revenue (Without Lifting a Finger)

BFCM is right around the corner... which means abandoned carts are about to skyrocket.

Here’s the good news: LiveRecover has a little secret up their sleeve to help you recover more of that “lost” revenue (without adding more work to your plate).

And the best part?

💸 You don’t pay until you actually recover revenue. 

Zero risk. All upside.

Here’s what LiveRecover will do for you this BFCM:

• Personally text shoppers who abandon checkout (when your bots legally can’t)

• Recover up to 6x more revenue than automations alone

• Turn “lost” carts into real dollars without upfront costs

So, before the holiday rush hits… let’s make sure you’re not leaving money on the table.

👉[Recover More with LiveRecover]

 🙃 Meme Drop

When your ‘loyalty program’ is just the same coupon code on repeat.

🤖 AI Power-Up: AI Power-Up: Clone Your Best Customers (Ethically, Of Course)

Forget “lookalike audiences” built on stale data - you can now actually reverse engineer your top customers and go find more just like them.

Here’s how:

1. Export your top 100 customers (highest LTV, most frequent buyers, whatever “best” means for your brand).

2. Drop their order history + demographic data into ChatGPT and ask it to:

   • Spot weirdly specific patterns (do they all buy two at a time? Always during certain months?)

   • Map lifestyle or interest clues from the products they purchase.

3. Generate a hyper-detailed “persona pack” → talking points, content angles, and even ad creative hooks built to attract exactly these kinds of buyers.

4. Hand that persona pack to your ad, email, and content teams and suddenly every campaign is built to resonate with your most profitable segment.

Result? You stop chasing just any sale and start multiplying the right ones without wasting budget on bad-fit customers.

Annnnd that’s a wrap for this edition! 

Thanks for hanging with Chase and me. Always a pleasure to have you here.

If you found this newsletter helpful (or even just a little fun), don’t keep it to yourself! Share ecomemailmarketer.com with your favorite DTC marketer. Let’s get them on board so they don’t miss next week’s drops.

Remember: Do shit you love.

🤘 Jimmy Kim & Chase Dimond

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