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Lawrence Yeo can’t help but create.
A musician, illustrator, and writer (among many other things), he is constantly on the move.
His current project? Philosophical, in-depth stories and illustrations he calls More to That.
He also runs a live multi-week course for creators called Thinking in Stories, which focuses on the building blocks of storytelling.
“My goal is to take everything I’ve learned about the human condition and condense it into a clear, digestible, and memorable format,” says Lawrence.
What matters to Lawrence is community. That, after all, is what the human condition is all about. Says Lawrence, “The great thing about email is that there’s something about it that builds a more personal connection right away.”
That’s what brought him to Kit.
He switched to Kit from MailChimp in January 2022 with 15,000 subscribers—and just a little over a year later, grew his email list to 24,000, a 60% increase. Says Lawrence, “I knew I had to start getting serious about this, and it was apparent that Kit keeps creators in mind.”
A snapshot of More to That’s impressive growth.
Here’s how he uses Kit to continue to grow his community, from his email list to his course:
Growing an email list behind-the-scenes with Creator Network
Every time you send an email, someone is going to unsubscribe.
Unsubscribes happen, but it can be discouraging. It can hurt to see so many people leave your email list, especially if you’ve worked hard to build it in the first place.
“The challenges of anyone managing an email newsletter really well is, of course, ‘How do you get this thing to grow?’” says Lawrence. “That’s when you start questioning, should I send this out on a weekly basis? Is my strategy all wrong? How can I refill this bucket? I’m putting out stuff, but more and more people are leaving.”
He knew his email growth strategy needed to include a way to counteract unsubscribes that naturally follow every newsletter and product launch. “Whenever I launch a course, I get a ton of unsubscribes. That’s just the nature of the beast. It’s a recurring struggle for creatives.”
With Kit’s Creator Network, email growth happens behind the scenes. Creator Network’s Recommendations allow creators to cross-promote each other’s newsletter to their audiences to increase email list growth collaboratively.
Creators can recommend newsletters they think their audience will like with the Recommendations feature.
“What’s great about Creator Network is that it gives people an opportunity to help people you already have relationships with,” says Lawrence. “It just removes the social friction from linking every now and then or doing a newsletter swap. The people that recommend me have enjoyed my work for years.”
Last month alone, Creator Network brought in 1200 subscribers.
“It’s a very big selling point, creating network effects within your newsletter,” says Lawrence. “But what I’ve noticed about Kit that’s different from Substack or Beehiiv is that the team is very thoughtful about this. It’s not playing catch up to other platforms, but its own thing that’s thoughtful about what creators need. I think that’s really cool.”
Using segmentation and tags to build a course waitlist
It takes time for someone to go from a new subscriber to purchasing a $1000+ product. Whenever Lawrence is getting ready to launch the next cohort of his course, he doesn’t bother with his entire newsletter list. Instead, he sends updates only to people who have already shown interest in his course.
Lawrence uses link triggers to create that segmentation. “I just love how they can click the link for the course page, and then I can add a tag. That’s an avenue I use a lot, building a waitlist,” he says.
Interested subscribers can add themselves to the waitlist for the next cohort.
This waitlist has a few additional feeders, including a free webinar around the creative process and a free 10-day mini-course on storytelling sent via email.
Once they’re on the waitlist, Lawrence sends an automated email asking, “What’s one thing you need some help with for your stories?”
“A lot of people reply to that,” says Lawrence. “I segment the waitlist, so I know who is interested in actually taking the course. That way, when it’s time for enrollment to open, I’ll send an email once every two days or more often to get people to enroll. I have it set up so that only those people on the waitlist but not enrolled get the email, and Kit makes it really easy to do that. It’s so seamless.”
This waitlist feeds every course cohort—now over 100 students—and continues to grow.
Forget about the creative struggle with Kit
Creativity is the heartbeat of everything Lawrence does. “It doesn’t matter where you’re at in the creative journey. You have to ask yourself, ‘What version of the struggle do you find worthwhile?’ Because there’s always a texture of struggle. And there is no end,” he says. “That’s the point. If the external validation was at zero, is the challenge still worthwhile?”
The signup form for the More to That newsletter, powered by Kit.
Most creators don’t set out to run a business. They set out to create something worthwhile and hope that others see its value. Transforming passion into income is always a challenge. “I still have a hard time calling it a business,” says Lawrence. “The tension between art and money is something I’ll always have to figure out. I just know I love to make things.”
That’s where Kit can help. Says Lawrence, “Kit has made it all so easy. It’s been awesome.”
Ready to grow your audience faster without working harder? The Creator Network is a way to scale your newsletter growth by joining forces with other creators. Because when one creator wins, all creators win. Join now to get started.
