How ConvertKit Grew

“He put up a page with a signup form and started writing blog posts about his philosophy on email marketing. ... He also wrote relentlessly about the problems these creators faced. So content marketing became the primary growth channel.”

Fexingo medium

“Kit includes unlimited landing pages and email sign-up forms on every plan, including free. There are 30+ landing page templates designed for lead magnets, waitlists, product launches, and newsletter sign-ups.”

Creatorstackclub medium

“In 2017, they launched a referral program where creators could earn commissions by recommending ConvertKit to their audience. That turned customers into an affiliate army. The program now accounts for a significant portion of new signups, and it costs nothing upfront.”

Fexingo medium

“The initial reaction online was equally positive. A few people said they thought ConvertKit was a better name, but they were the small minority.”

Nathanbarry medium

“Kit's Creator Network is a built-in recommendation engine connecting its 600,000+ creator accounts. When a subscriber joins one newsletter, they see curated recommendations for other Kit creators in related niches. You can also actively recommend other creators to your audience, building reciproc...”

Creatorstackclub medium

“He published case studies, open-sourced his own revenue numbers, and built a community around transparency that attracted early adopters who felt aligned with his philosophy.”

Fexingo medium

“Kit's Creator Network is a recommendation engine where newsletter creators cross-promote each other. When someone subscribes to one newsletter, they see recommendations for related creators. This can drive hundreds or thousands of new subscribers without paid ads. It's similar to Substack's recom...”

Creatorstackclub medium

“After having dipped to 3% year-over-year growth in October 2021, ConvertKit’s growth re-accelerated to 22% last month with the ad network launches of Creator Network, which lets writers do both free and paid recommendations of other newsletters, and Sponsor Network, which lets businesses sponsor ...”

Sacra medium

“The focus on authors also enabled us to start reaching out to potential customers. Since technical authors did well with ConvertKit, we contacted all the top sellers on LeanPub and Udemy. Out of about a hundred personal emails, we picked up 5-7 customers.”

Nathanbarry high

“All growth is inbound, content, referrals, and the network effects of creators recommending the tool to their audiences. That's the bootstrapped flywheel. Good product leads to happy customers who tell others, which brings in more customers without spending on ads.”

Fexingo medium

“Craft + Commerce, our annual conference in Boise, Idaho, was a great opportunity to make sure we spread the message exactly the way we wanted to. So it would become the “one more thing” in my update on where we are at as a company.”

Nathanbarry high

“Focus even more on direct sales. Talk to professional bloggers with lists of 30,000 to 250,000 subscribers to up their marketing game and switch to ConvertKit.”

Nathanbarry high