Using Kit, business consultant and Entrepreneur Magazine writer Terry Rice grew his business to over six figures in annual revenue and 9K email subscribers. But what he’s happiest about is how this has given him more time with this family.
This is how he uses Kit to power his business without ever feeling salesy.
The challenge: Overwhelmed by too many software tools and features
When Terry left his corporate jobs at Facebook and Adobe to start his own digital marketing consulting business, he used so many software tools that it felt overwhelming, even though he had a technical background. With a newborn daughter at home and a business to launch, he found himself buying tools like ClickFunnels or Webinarjam because that was what his corporate clients were using, but he says they were costly and cumbersome to manage as one person.
I was either up all night with my newborn daughter or up all night trying to figure out how to make things work.
Another tool he used was MailChimp to help start his newsletter, but soon felt that it wasn’t right for him anymore.
I’m sure MailChimp is a good program for some people, but it just didn’t feel like it was built for creators; it felt like it was built for everybody. So there were a lot of features that I didn’t need that were going unused, and a lot of features that I did need that I didn’t have.
Once Terry had four kids, he wanted to incorporate more passive revenue streams to have more time to spend with his family. He wanted to find one tool to help him do that more simply.
The solution: Research what creators you admire use
To find that tool, he looked to the creators he respected most.
I use them as the filters to block out all the noise. I looked at Pat Flynn and Dorie Clark and saw these very smart, very successful people were using Kit, so that’s what I decided to do.
It’s built for creators. You can tell when you’re using the platform that they want you to make money from your email list, and they want to make it as easy as possible for someone who’s not super technical.
That’s what attracted me to it, the ease of use, but also the fact that the Kit team anticipates my needs as a creator.
Terry dove into the platform and found it very easy to use. However, he struggled at first with feeling like the emails he was writing were too salesy.
I was just promoting my events and saying, “Hey, here’s this thing I’m selling.” I wasn’t building relationships.
But then things changed.
The strategies: Remember who you were when you started, join the Creator Network, and create an automated sales sequence
These are the strategies Terry implemented in Kit to grow his email list and revenue without being salesy.
1. Write a newsletter you want to read
Early on, Terry felt like his newsletter wasn’t growing or getting the results he wanted, and when he thought honestly about it, he had an epiphany.
I realized I would not read my own newsletter.
He asked himself what would change that? What would make him want to read his own newsletter?
I said to myself, go back to that guy you were seven years ago when you started. You just wanted information that would help you save time, make money, and avoid burnout.
Now my newsletter is structured in a way where every week you get one thought, one tactic, and one time saver to help you save time, make money, and avoid burnout.
As with any business, his goal was to make money and earn a living, but he realized that being too salesy wasn’t working towards achieving that goal, especially because that wasn’t really him.
Instead, he started to lean more into his personality while writing emails.
For Terry, that meant letting his natural stoicism into the writing process, even though he worried initially about coming off too blunt.
He remembers once trying to open an email with some charismatic or witty line and then giving up and just getting right to the point he was trying to make, which, in this case, was, “We’re all going to die.”
Leaning into his natural directness, however, really worked. It made writing his newsletters faster, and the people who subscribed resonated with his style because they could feel its authenticity.
People have said things like, “What I like about you is you don’t seem too excited. You’re not performing; you’re just connecting.”
Not only is he making more genuine connections with his audience, but he’s also having way more fun.
2. Grow your newsletter with Recommendations
Once Terry was excited about his newsletter makeover, he wanted more people to join it. He says what made the biggest impact was joining the Kit Creator Network and setting up Recommendations.
Recommendations is my number one source of leads right now. There are times when I’m playing with my kids, or I’m at work, but I’m still growing my list as a result.
I’ve never seen a program that works this well and has this big of an impact on my business.
He also optimized his creator profile so that when other creators consider recommending him, or others see him for the first time when he’s recommended, it’s obvious who he is and what he offers.
Originally, I led with my position, like writing for Entrepreneur Magazine. I realized that’s cute, but it doesn’t talk about outcomes. So now I say each week I share tips on how to make money, save time and avoid burnout. Then I say I’m a staff writer for Entrepreneur Magazine, a biz dev consultant, and father of four.
I noticed my conversion rate has gone up since then.
3. Set up an automated sales sequence (and then go back and check the stats)
When someone joins Terry’s newsletter, they are also offered a free, high-value, in-depth guide Terry wrote called Get Unstuck.
That guide helps creators of all kinds remove revenue roadblocks they may be facing in their business. It leads them through an email sequence packed with value and also shares how they can work with Terry more by purchasing his online course called The Solopreneur’s Fast Track or book 1:1 coaching.
While this sequence runs on autopilot and makes on average over 10K per month, Terry still likes to check the stats once in a while to see if there are any tweaks he can make to increase value and engagement.
I look at those sequences and ask myself, what is the open rate of each email? Am I losing people somewhere? Should I change a subject line?
He also looks at the click rate to see how many people click on the calls to action. For example, booking a call with him or clicking to learn more about his paid offerings. He also looks at unsubscribes.
During one of these data analysis sessions, Terry noticed one email in the sequence had a 57% open rate, while the next one had a 29% open rate, but the one after that had a 50% open rate.
The one with the 29% didn’t have a lot of unsubscribes either, so he figured it wasn’t so much the content that wasn’t resonating; the problem was perhaps the subject line.
He tweaked the subject line and the open rate went up to be on par with the rest.
4. Pitch without being salesy
In his sequence emails and weekly newsletter, Terry’s always pitching his products and services, but he no longer feels like he’s being too salesy.
The biggest shift he made is focusing his content on helping the reader first. He writes emails with stories and actionable advice they can use—even if they never buy a thing.
He mentions his products or services and provides links to learn more within his content, but he doesn’t worry too much about pitching directly because he’s implemented a banner at the bottom of his emails that he says does the promoting for him now.
The click-through rate on that banner is much higher than what I had before, which was more of a text-based pitch like “Whenever you’re ready, here are three ways I can help you.” Now, there’s a banner with a picture of me smiling. So, these are little tweaks we can experiment with to make it more actionable without feeling salesy.
The result: A 6-figure creator business, less overwhelm, and more time with family
To date, Terry is making multiple 6 figures each year and still manages to spend 1:1 time with his children each week.
He also says he’s gotten tens of thousands of dollars in brand deals with major global brands because of the strength of his email list.
He also loves the work he does to help other creators keep growing towards their big goals, and even recommends Kit to his own clients.
Years ago, if you wanted to do email marketing, you had to hire someone. Whereas now, tools like Kit democratize access to entrepreneurship by making it so easy that anyone can do it.
With the Creator Network ecosystem in place and the ease of use, it’s a no-brainer for me.
If you found this case study helpful, please show Terry support by joining his newsletter on how to build business resilience. You can also learn more at terryrice.co.
