Learn how this designer-turned-coach used segmentation, automation, and Kit landing pages to grow his audience and revenue
Take one look at Dan Mall’s Instagram and it’s easy to see his passion for teaching design shining through. “Design has impacted my life in ways I couldn’t have dreamed. It feels like I’ve stumbled upon a cheat code for life, and I want to show as many people as I can how to have their version of that too,” Dan Mall writes on his website.
That sense of possibility drives everything Dan does now. After running a design system consultancy for over a decade, he shifted his focus to teaching. Today, Dan runs two education businesses. Design System University teaches enterprises how to scale design. Make More Money is a three-month coaching program for freelancers and agency owners running design businesses—people who are talented creatives but never went to business school.
His mission is simple but powerful: help creative people live on purpose. “A lot of people don’t feel like they can,” Dan says. “And even if they do feel like they can, they don’t know how.”
The vehicle for that mission? Email.
Why Dan chose email as his growth engine
Three years ago, Dan had a thousand dormant email subscribers and no real strategy. He’d built his audience primarily on social platforms—he’d been on Twitter since 2006. But something shifted. Social platforms started to feel different, less reliable, more algorithmic.
“I was hearing all this stuff about email is really where you need to grow your list and grow your audience,” Dan recalls. “I didn’t really know much about it. I never sent any emails out.”
Then he took email seriously. In three years, he grew his list from 1,000 to 60,000 subscribers. “It’s the fastest growing platform that I’ve ever had,” Dan said. “Now I really understand the connection that I can have with my readers through email.
The difference between social and email? Control and connection. On social platforms, you’re at the mercy of algorithms. With email, you own the relationship, and Dan’s turned that relationship into a thriving multiple six-figure business. His coaching program generates 75% of his revenue, with Design System University contributing the remaining 25%.
Here’s exactly how he did it.
The systems and 5 strategies Dan uses to sell while he sleeps
Strategy 1: Build one educational sequence that does the heavy lifting
Everything in Make More Money funnels into one core sequence: the Six-Day Revenue Roadmap. This eight-email educational sequence teaches people how to generate revenue quickly if they can’t afford his $5,000 coaching program.
“All things point to that,” Dan says. “It’s essentially, if you need revenue fast, here are the things that I would suggest you do.”
The sequence serves dual purposes. It delivers real value to people who aren’t ready to buy, and it pre-qualifies prospects who are. After the six-day sequence, two days after, he delivers follow-up emails prompting qualified leads to book a discovery call.
How to create a six-day educational email sequence
His unique setup:
- 6 days of educational emails with actionable revenue-generating strategies
- 2 days of follow-up emails inviting application to coaching program
- All other lead magnets eventually feed into this main sequence
- Constant iteration based on subscriber replies and testing
Why it works: You’re not just pitching. You’re teaching. When subscribers get real results from your free content, they trust you with their money.
Your action step: Create one flagship educational sequence that solves a real problem for your audience. Make it genuinely valuable whether or not they buy. Then funnel all your lead magnets and entry points toward this sequence. Use Kit Visual Automations to keep this educational sequence running constantly.
Strategy 2: Start warming people up eight weeks before you sell
Dan treats product launches like dinner parties. “You don’t tell people like, ‘Hey, everybody, dinner party’s tonight. See you later!’,” he explains. Instead, you give advance notice, share details gradually, and let excitement build.
For his annual Black Friday sale, Dan starts messaging about it six to eight weeks in advance. He doesn’t just announce once: he provides regular updates that prime his audience to buy.
“It takes seven times for people to hear your message and really let it sink in,” says Dan of the rule of advertising. “So one announcement isn’t going to be enough.”
Why it works: Most creators sell because they’re desperate for cash, and subscribers can smell it. When you prime your audience weeks in advance, you’re building anticipation instead of desperation. You’re also giving people time to prepare—just like you would with that dinner party.
Your action step: For your next product launch or Black Friday sale, map out an eight-week email sequence. Plan what you’ll reveal each week and let anticipation build naturally. Bonus: Download our Black Friday Automations Power Playbook to get four automations and templates to use right now.
Strategy 3: Use tagging and segmentation to sell more with fewer emails
Dan stopped blasting every promotion to his entire list last year during Black Friday. Instead, he created opt-out opportunities, tagged people based on their behavior, and tailored messages accordingly. If someone wasn’t interested in his Black Friday offer, he let them self opt-out so he didn’t waste his time sending content to them and could focus on those who would be more likely to buy.
How to segment your email list for higher conversions
How to set this up in Kit:
- Create an opt-in link in your pre-launch emails: “Interested in Black Friday deals? Click here.” Tag those who click.
- Set up an opt-out link: “Not interested in Black Friday promos? Click here to skip them.” Tag those who click.
- Use conditional paths in Visual Automations to remove purchasers from pitch sequences immediately after they buy
- Tag people when they take specific actions (purchase, click, download) and adjust messaging accordingly
Your action step: For your next launch, create three tags in Kit: Interested, Not Interested, and Purchased. Build your email sequence with conditional logic that automatically moves people between these segments based on their actions.
Strategy 4: Invite replies to understand what your audience actually needs (and how to price)
Dan prompts for replies throughout his email sequences, asking subscribers to share what they’re struggling with. “If this is a step that you need help with, reply and I’ll send you some tips,” he tells them.
The responses taught him things he never would have discovered otherwise. “People reply to the email sequence all the time, which is not a thing that I anticipated,” Dan says.
Some people tell him they can’t afford the $5,000 coaching program right now. Others share specific challenges they’re facing. Each reply gives Dan information he uses to improve his sequences and better serve his audience.
Dan doesn’t see this as rejection. He sees it as feedback. “Okay, cool. I can edit. So I’m constantly revising that sequence to really make it better for people.”
These conversations also revealed new opportunities. When subscribers told him they wanted the program but couldn’t manage $2,000/month payments, Dan created flexible payment options—including spreading the same total amount over six months instead of three.
Why it works: Before Dan built these email conversations, he had no way to know if someone was the right fit until they were already in his coaching program. Sometimes he’d realize a month in that they were at the wrong stage—too advanced or too beginner.
Now, his email sequences do the qualification work for him. People self-select based on where they are. “Just having multiple touch points with people, it makes it really helpful for them to basically elect that they are the right person or self-select out to say: not the right time for me or I’m not the right person for this.”
Your action step: Add a reply prompt to your next email sequence. Ask subscribers to share their biggest challenge or what’s holding them back. Actually read the responses. Use what you learn to revise your content, identify who’s ready to buy, and discover what pricing or payment options would remove real obstacles.
Strategy 5: Test offers fast with Kit landing pages
“The first thing that we do whenever we’re trying to test a new offer is we build a Kit landing page because it’s the easiest way to do it,” he explains.
Thanks to Kit, his assistant—who isn’t a web designer—can spin up landing pages quickly to test messaging, pricing, and positioning. If the offer works, they migrate it to a more permanent home on his website. If it doesn’t, they’ve saved weeks of development time.
How to test offers quickly with Kit landing pages
How to set this up in Kit:
- Go to Grow → Landing Pages
- Choose a template or start from scratch
- Add your headline, offer description, pricing options, and CTA
- Connect it to your email sequence
- Launch and test response rates
Why it works: Speed wins. You can test five different offers in the time it would take to build one custom website. Dan describes Kit landing pages as “a really good prototyping tool for us.”
Your action step: Create a landing page within Kit to test the messaging of your offer or campaign a small segment of your audience. Iterate based on response rates before investing in something more permanent.
The mindset shift that makes it all work
Behind all these strategies is a fundamental belief Dan holds: your job is to serve people, not just to sell to them.
What I want to do is I want to deliver—if you just need six days of quick tips, then that helps you make more money. That’s awesome. Great. That serves my mission too.
—Dan
“What I want to do is I want to deliver—if you just need six days of quick tips, then that helps you make more money,” Dan explains. “That’s awesome. Great. That serves my mission too.”
But that’s what matters to Dan. It’s about building real relationships through consistent value. Some people will buy your $5,000 coaching program. Some will take your free course and implement it themselves. Both outcomes serve your mission if you’re truly focused on helping people like Dan.
The beautiful thing about email? You can have both conversations at scale. With the right sequences and segmentation, every subscriber gets the message they need at the time they need it.
As Dan puts it, “Overall, I want to help creative people live on purpose. And I find that a lot of people don’t feel like they can. And even if they do feel like they can, they don’t know how. I’ve been lucky to find some glimpses of that in my life and career, and so I want to share that with people as much as I can.”
Ready to build your own revenue-generating sequences?
Dan’s strategies work because they’re built on a foundation of genuine value and strategic automation. He focuses on the work he loves—coaching and teaching—while his email sequences handle the nurturing and selling in the background.
That’s the power of treating your email list like the business asset it is. You’re not just collecting names. You’re building relationships that scale.
Want to see how Kit can help you automate your selling sequences like Dan? Start your free 14-day trial and build your first revenue-generating automation today.
