How Happy People Pickleball Is Building a Business Around Valuable Content

Even if you haven't played pickleball, it’s likely you’ve heard the sport’s distinct, high-pitched pop sound echoing throughout your neighborhood on a sunny morning. Maybe a curious shop has set up around the corner, selling paddles, nets, and balls with tiny holes in them. Or perhaps you’ve seen a local news story about the construction of a fancy new court or 2—or 10. Regardless, one thing is true: pickleball, almost overnight, is everywhere.

A cross between badminton, tennis, and table tennis, pickleball was invented in the 1960s, yet in recent years seems to be on a path of world domination. Or at least US-domination: the once niche pastime has become the fastest growing sport in America. According to the Association of Pickleball Professionals, there are now almost 14,000 pickleball courts in the US and nearly 50 million adults who have played within the past 12 months.

We talked to Brigette Windheim, a recent winner of Intuit Mailchimp’s Forward Awards, to find out how she’s addressing a lucrative gap in the market with her blog, online shop, and email newsletter Happy People Pickleball—and how she uses Mailchimp to grow her business.

Brigette, how did you first discover pickleball?

My parents started playing pickleball in Florida in the early 2000s, and I began to notice that the lifestyle and shopping aspects of the sport were underserved. There was an opportunity and a big gap in the market for things like pickleball apparel, party products, entertainment, health and wellness, fundraising events, jewelry, and vacation spots.

Why do you think pickleball has exploded in popularity recently?

It’s just such a fun and easy game to play with your friends. That's the beauty of the sport and why it's blossoming. It spans ages and demographics. You need minimal equipment to play. I literally play with my daughters in the driveway. And you're truly happy doing it, because you’re getting out there and socializing but also getting exercise. It’s a low-impact sport, but you can see great physical and mental health benefits from it.

How and why did you start Happy People Pickleball?

I started blogging a year ago to inspire people to live their best and happiest pickleball life, focusing on areas which are ‘adjacent’ to the sport, such as luxury pickleball jewelry, sunscreen, sunglasses, or popular travel locations. I have a background in counseling and educational leadership, so tying in the wellness and mental health benefits was also important for me.

The blog quickly turned into a successful affiliate marketing opportunity, which led to advertising opportunities, and that’s when the business took off. I started a newsletter, which is where Intuit Mailchimp came in. I actually used Mailchimp earlier when I was working for an education-focused nonprofit and needed a quick and user-friendly way to send emails to hundreds of parents. Now I use it with Happy People Pickleball and I’ve had a successful time growing sales via my newsletter.

What are the benefits of running an email newsletter? What are your goals?

Email allows me to have a deeper conversation with my audience. The inbox is such a personal space. It's very different from posting on social media. Because community is such an important part of pickleball, I realized I’d be able to engage with my audience on a more personal level through a newsletter.

Email is also a great tool for brand recognition—it’s a way to remind my audience that Happy People Pickleball exists. And with email, you can dig into insights and metrics to understand who your audience really is and how you can optimize, tailor, and personalize what you're doing. 

Which Mailchimp features and tools drive the most value for your business?

One of my favorite features is Mailchimp’s Click Map, which helps me to understand which links in the email receive the most clicks and how far down they got through the email. Mailchimp also has an awesome optimized segmenting feature, which allows me to quickly group my audience. I can look at my most engaged users, people who have opened my emails, and people who have unsubscribed. Other Mailchimp features I use regularly are the audience tagging tool, templicate replication, and the mailing list landing page.

What are your top tips for growing a successful newsletter?

The holiday season is a perfect time to connect with your audience, build engagement, and boost sales. Here are 3 tactics I use to leverage seasonal trends and build engagement with my audience.

1. Plan ahead. Grab your customers before other promotional emails start to overwhelm their inbox. This allows you to improve your content quality, create and test templates in advance, and set clear goals. Ultimately, this helps you construct a content calendar, which is essential.
2. Maintain a consistent email cadence. One of the major mistakes that email marketers can make during the holiday season is they’ll suddenly increase the volume of their emails. But that can lead to an increase in unsubscribes or your emails getting rejected, bounced, or going to spam. Instead, slowly ramp up.
3. Don't forget demographics. The metrics in Mailchimp are so excellent. You can even tie in Google Analytics if you have a website. For Happy People Pickleball, I create segments for different age groups because they have different holiday preferences and gifting targets. Their spending habits vary significantly. Make sure to really take the time to understand those metrics during the holiday season.

Finally, what do you wish you knew before you started the business and newsletter?

When I started the business, I wore a lot of hats: building and coding the website, setting up social media, researching content, and experimenting with newsletters. It became overwhelming. If I were to start over again, I would focus on one area at a time. If it's blogging, then start growing a library of content so that you can take pieces of content and use them on different platforms. If social media is something you want to get involved with, instead of spreading yourself across all the different platforms, just pick one and do it really well. 

Newsletters were actually the last part of my marketing strategy because I didn't really have an understanding of my audience. But I think you should just start, get into it, grow, and start segmenting! In that way, Mailchimp has been so user friendly and such an essential part of my business. I've been so happy that it's there for me.

Published: October 7, 2024