Dan Go runs a successful fitness coaching and course business that focuses on helping creators live healthier lives.
But to make that impact, Dan needs to reach people with his content, especially his newsletters, which both teach free content and share more info about his paid programs.
But he was running into a big problem, one that was affecting his impact and his income.
The Challenge: Emails not reaching the inbox
Dan was using another email service provider, and his deliverability was dropping.
He thinks it was partly due to the major formatting issues he saw.
The formatting would look great on the actual page when I sent it off, but then it would come off whack when the email was sent out, and I’d be super embarrassed.
His open rates at that time were around 20%, and he was frustrated.
If your emails are not reaching a person’s inbox, it’s going to affect your business significantly.
Because of the low deliverability, he was reaching fewer people than ever before—and these were people signed up to receive his content. They wanted to hear from him but weren’t.
The emails were going to spam.
Not only were people not getting the information they wanted and the information he wanted to share, but the low deliverability also started to make him feel bad.
I thought it was me. I was just like, okay, well, my emails must just suck.
The Solution: Switching to Kit
Dan started talking about this problem with his creator friends, and they all had the same response.
“Why aren’t you with Kit yet?” Like, “Why are you so stupid?”
He laughs as he says this and shares honestly that switching seemed like a lot of work at the time.
But as his deliverability kept getting lower and lower, he knew it was time to make the move away from his OG email platform. And once he realized Kit offers free concierge migrations for accounts with over 5,000 subscribers, he decided to make the move.
I switched to Kit at the end of 2022. The migration team was helpful, and I loved just the ease of using it.
The biggest win was when he started getting replies to his emails again.
When I switched over to Kit, my deliverability went up, and people were actually replying to my emails because they were getting to their inbox.
They were saying, “Oh, I haven’t heard from you in so long,” even though I’d been sending these emails.
So after I started to get fast results with Kit in terms of deliverability, I was just like, this is super cool. I’m able to reach double the amount of people without having to double the email list that I have.
The strategy: Changing his lead magnet and making emails more editorial
Inspired by the immediate deliverability changes he saw after switching to Kit, Dan decided to see what else he could do to improve his open rates.
He decided to focus on two things:
- How he was getting people on his email list
- What he was emailing those people
At the time, his main email opt-in was getting people to sign up for a webinar as a lead magnet. It was effective, but he decided he wanted to try something else to see how it affected his open rates.
He changed his opt-ins to focus simply on inviting people to join his newsletter.
He still thinks lead magnets are great, but at this phase in his business and his focus on deliverability, he wanted to double down on reaching the right people with his emails and building a longer-term relationship with a focus on heart, value, and impact.
So instead of trading something for their email, you’re saying, “Hey, if you want to listen to what I say and get deeper with me, here’s my newsletter.”
There is a different energetic exchange when that happens.
And if you want to get on the newsletter, you’re expecting a newsletter, and that’s what you’re opening your emails for.
Dan then focused on his writing. He wanted to make sure his emails were worth opening and that his content added value to people even if they never bought a thing.
I went from being a direct response writer to treating my newsletter like a magazine article.
And not only did those emails get more replies than any others, but his writing, new opt-in strategy, the new paid offer he added, and his higher deliverability meant his business changed significantly.
The result: 52% open rates
Within months of switching to Kit, Dan saw emails with 52% open rates.
My open rates went up the first week I sent the emails. The first two weeks, it was about 34%. After about a month, that turned into 40%. Then the next month that’s when it got up to 50%.
And those open rates led to sales.
And now, every single email that I send gets tons of people replying back, just saying things like, “This was awesome,” or “This was so cool,” or “ I love reading your newsletter every single week.”
And to me, that feedback is golden. Because for me, things have to have heart.
And because he focuses on building genuine relationships with his newsletter, those people want to work with him even more.
The business has grown significantly. The year that we’ve been working with Kit, the year that our deliverability has gone up, is also the year we have seen close to a 100% increase in terms of our business.
More people are reading the emails, and more people are getting the emails.
Their list also went from 50,000 subscribers to 160,000+, with 24,000+ from the Creator Network. And Dan says all that subscriber growth, including his new subscribers coming from the Creator Network, has not negatively affected his deliverability at all. It’s only risen.
And it’s kept on growing, and our deliverability and our open rates have kept on going up.
Ever since using Kit, I haven’t looked back, and it’s a driving force behind my business.
