Many successful creators cite Dorie Clark as their inspiration for starting their business and for using Kit. Dorie uses Kit to sell her courses, making seven-figures while also running a sustainable business that doesn’t rely on scarcity or hustle culture.
This is how she’s using automated emails to build a long-term relationship with her audience that leads to meaningful sales and a business aligned with her values.
Problem: Wanting to sell without “shouting” at people online
As an established leader in the creator space, Dorie Clark has seen her fair share of “shouty” emails. She was determined to never run a business like that.
I would see seven emails in a day with all caps and ridiculous hyper-urgency. I understand scarcity is valuable and can be a useful tool when appropriate, but it was just people shouting fire in a crowded auditorium.
Dorie wanted to play the long game with her business instead.
Yes I would love my email subscribers to buy things from me, but I would rather them respect me and three years from now buy a $2,500 product rather than harass them today so they spend $50 and then immediately unsubscribe.
Solution: Switch to Kit and set up an evergreen newsletter and sales sequence using automations
Instead of focusing her email strategy on “shouting” or selling, Dorie wanted to create emails that built trusting relationships with her audience over a long period of time.
She decided she wanted to repurpose and link to a lot of the content she’d written for other publications over the years in an automated email sequence that would add value to her subscribers.
But at the time, I was using an email service that would not let you segment an audience easily and was double charging you if you were segmenting. I found it offensive.
I switched over to Kit around 2017, and have been a huge fan and advocate.
I’ve sent a lot of people over to Kit because I am so appreciative of the ease and the way they make it possible for a regular person and not a specially trained certified mechanic to handle one’s email list.
Dorie felt empowered to finally create the kind of email sequence that aligned with her values and the value she wanted to provide to her readers.
I wanted to write a newsletter that intelligent people want to read and feel they are being respected. And hopefully they feel very good about making a buying decision rather than needlessly pressured into something they would later regret.
Take action: Want to learn more about how to create your own email sequences? Follow this guide.
Excerpt from the email sequence Dorie set up in Kit
Result: High open rate, a multi-seven-figure business, and $269,000 in 18 months
Because Dorie focuses on giving her audience valuable content above all else, when she launched her course Recognized Expert shortly after switching to Kit, she made $269,000 in 18 months.
Her open rate is also over 40%, which is high for a list of her size, and she attributes that to her focus on useful content meant to add value over the long haul.
I always try to make sure that the emails I send have a lot of useful and actionable information for people.
She turns that useful information into sales by simply dropping links when relevant.
Dorie often shares her products in the PS section
You don’t always want to be beating the sales drum, but you also want to sometimes beat the sales drum. So, I will just drop in a link, like, “Oh, if you’re interested in this topic, here, check this out.”
Or in the PS section. Sometimes I’ll say, “Oh, do you know I have a YouTube channel? You can follow me on my YouTube channel, click here.” Or sometimes I’ll say, “Oh, are you interested in how to negotiate your salary better or how to negotiate for promotion? You know, I have a course about that, right?”
It’s just low-key mentions. Certain things you need to really persuade people for, but for other things you can actually just let them know you have it. And nobody’s going to be super resentful if you make a sort of offhand, “Hey, by the way, in case you’re interested, here’s a thing.”
And the truth is you will sell a lot more because a lot of people didn’t know you had that thing.
Kit is great because you can have these mentions as part of your evergreen sequences, and then you also have the ability with broadcast emails to have time-sensitive launches that you’re doing.
One thing that is great about Kit is that the service makes it really easy for you to pick different ways of marketing things.
And one of those things Dorie marketed using Kit was her last book, published by Harvard Business Review Press: The Long Game.
Being an author is a dream Dorie had since she was a kid, and she says she’s grateful for the way Kit helps her not only share her books with people, but also create passive income streams that allow her to live a more sustainable creator life—one that gives her time and space to keep dreaming, writing, and creating.
If you found this case study helpful, please support Dorie by checking out her Kit newsletter for yourself. You can also learn more about how Dorie started her creator business here.
