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<p>Khe Hy—the creator behind <a href="https://radreads.co/" target="_blank" rel="noopener">RadReads</a> did the unimaginable: he left his Wall Street job in 2015 without a plan of what he’d do next. Despite that, he did something that ended up changing his life: he emailed 36 people and grew that small list into an audience of 27,000+ people over the next five years.</p>
<div id="attachment_33761" class="wp-caption aligncenter"><img aria-describedby="caption-attachment-33761" decoding="async" loading="" class="size-full wp-image-33761 lazy" data-src="https://media.convertkit.com/post/MA4mhBF6-khe-hy-radreads-subscriber-growth-trajectory.jpg?fm=pjpg" alt="RadReads subscriber growth trajectory" width="1500" height="501" /><p id="caption-attachment-33761" class="wp-caption-text">The RadReads subscriber growth trajectory.</p></div>
<p>And here&#8217;s how.</p>
<h2 id="chapter-1">How Khe uses evergreen automations to maintain an engaged email list</h2>
<p>Building a community is all about having an engaged email list and finding the best way to connect with your audience. Here is the 3 step system Khe uses to build an engaged list of 27,000+ subscribers with a 53% open rate (which includes marketing and launch emails!).</p>
<h3>Create dedicated lead magnets for every topic</h3>
<p>Khe attracts readers interested in topics like GTD productivity method, Notion, and a concept he calls $10K work. For each topic, he offers a dedicated <a href="https://convertkit.com/lead-magnets" target="_blank" rel="noopener">lead magnet</a> (some of which convert at a 12% conversion rate!).</p>
<p>One way he does this is by creating dedicated <a href="https://convertkit.com/free-landing-page-creator">landing pages</a> for any partnerships he does. For example, when he presented a tutorial as a <a href="https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=OjhFov5bkas" target="_blank" rel="noopener">guest on the Keep Productive YouTube channel</a>, he used a ConvertKit landing page to give Keep Productive viewers the free template he talked about in the video:</p>
<div id="attachment_33755" class="wp-caption aligncenter"><img aria-describedby="caption-attachment-33755" decoding="async" loading="" class="size-full wp-image-33755 lazy" data-src="https://media.convertkit.com/post/h1oECxHn-khe-hy-radreads-keep-productive-landing-page.jpg?fm=pjpg" alt="Khe Hy Keep Productive" width="1500" height="690" /><p id="caption-attachment-33755" class="wp-caption-text">Khe’s landing page for Keep Productive viewers. <a href="https://radreads.ck.page/554f2b585d" target="_blank" rel="noopener">Image via RadReads</a>.</p></div>
<p><a class="btn btn-xl btn-primary" role="button" href="https://app.convertkit.com/pages/preview/canyon" target="_blank" rel="noopener noreferrer">Like the look of that landing page? Grab it for yourself</a></p>
<p>After a reader opts into his list, Khe sends an engaging welcome email to let the reader know a bit about RadReads, what to expect in the future of his newsletters, and even asks readers to tell him a little bit about themselves.</p>
<div id="attachment_37296" class="wp-caption aligncenter"><img aria-describedby="caption-attachment-37296" decoding="async" loading="" class="size-full wp-image-37296 lazy" data-src="https://media.convertkit.com/post/Xrwtx0bZ-khe-hy-radreads-welcome-email-1.jpg?fm=pjpg" alt="RadReads welcome email" width="1500" height="1497" /><p id="caption-attachment-37296" class="wp-caption-text">The RadReads welcome email.</p></div>
<p>These initial quick wins with personalized content and an intro into Khe&#8217;s universe create the kind of perfect first impression that makes new readers feel seen and welcome.</p>
<h3>Create email sequences based on where subscribers came from</h3>
<p>With all his dedicated landing pages and lead magnets, Khe has built a wide net of resources to attract his readers. He uses automated sequences to send hyper-targeted emails to his new subscribers based on how they entered his email list and their interests:</p>
<div id="attachment_33753" class="wp-caption aligncenter"><img aria-describedby="caption-attachment-33753" decoding="async" loading="" class="size-full wp-image-33753 lazy" data-src="https://media.convertkit.com/post/NGOCA6Mg-khe-hy-radreads-convertkit-sequences.jpg?fm=pjpg" alt="Khe Hy ConvertKit" width="1500" height="538" /><p id="caption-attachment-33753" class="wp-caption-text">Khe’s sequences in ConvertKit.</p></div>
<p>As you can tell by these numbers, this works. Khe’s standard welcome email has a high open-rate—an excellent 70%—and other emails based on lead magnets have as much as an 88% open rate!</p>
<p>If we dive into the longest sequence on this list, here’s what we’ll find:</p>
<div id="attachment_37293" class="wp-caption alignnone"><img aria-describedby="caption-attachment-37293" decoding="async" loading="" class="size-full wp-image-37293 lazy" data-src="https://media.convertkit.com/post/pgzpHVFM-khe-hy-radreads-notion-email-onboarding-sequence-1.jpg?fm=pjpg" alt="RadReads Notion" width="1500" height="965" /><p id="caption-attachment-37293" class="wp-caption-text">Khe’s Notion onboarding email sequence.</p></div>
<p>This 10-email sequence attracts engaged, curious subscribers—the open rate remains around 50% even at the end of the sequence, giving Khe more opportunities to build trust with his audience.</p>
<h3>Set up visual automations to nurture subscribers and launch courses</h3>
<p>And to put all his landing pages and sequences together into an evergreen system, Khe uses ConvertKit’s <a href="https://convertkit.com/features/automations" target="_blank" rel="noopener">visual automations</a> to connect different triggers, sequences, and events.</p>
<p>If we step back and look at his Notion onboarding automation—one that nurtures subscribers interested in Notion resources—we can see <a href="https://help.convertkit.com/en/articles/2502666-how-to-begin-a-visual-automation" target="_blank" rel="noopener">it triggers the sequence we looked at earlier in five different ways</a> (think landing pages and forms placed in different resources):</p>
<div id="attachment_33750" class="wp-caption aligncenter"><img aria-describedby="caption-attachment-33750" decoding="async" loading="" class="size-full wp-image-33750 lazy" data-src="https://media.convertkit.com/post/wjylaqpE-khe-hy-radreads-notion-automation-convertkit.jpg?fm=pjpg" alt="Khe Hy ConvertKit" width="1500" height="929" /><p id="caption-attachment-33750" class="wp-caption-text">Khe’s automation for nurturing Notion-specific segments of his audience.</p></div>
<h2 id="chapter-2">Send dedicated content to your audience with ConvertKit automations</h2>
<blockquote class="blockquote-sm"><p>To have a toolkit like ConvertKit at your disposal is so powerful. ConvertKit is dynamic, modular, and easy to use. It really understands and anticipates the needs of people like me. I&#8217;m selling and following up. And I can do it in a way that&#8217;s enjoyable- I log into ConvertKit and it makes me happy to be there</p></blockquote>
<p>Want to see your open rates increase?</p>
<p>Take a shot at creating systems like Khe created to set up personalized content from landing page opt-ins to email sequences for all his readers. And with a ConvertKit 14-day free trial, you can check out all the features of our Creator Plan that you&#8217;ll need to create evergreen automatons to run all your communication for you.</p>
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How Khe Hy of RadReads maintains a +50% open rate with his 27,000+ subscribers

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