Back in 2016, ConvertKit was just another email marketing tool. They were pulling in $70-80k a month but needed something more to break out. Enter Nathan Barry (the founder) and Darrell Vesterfelt, just two guys on a ski trip, were hashing out a strategy to ramp up growth.

The Game Plan

When your business is small, you don’t need 10 different marketing strategies. By chasing 5 rabbits, you’ll catch none. You need one repeatable strategy that works. 

Forget fancy gimmicks; Darrel came up with an idea for webinars. It was their golden ticket. Affordable, effective, and right in the wheelhouse for a lean operation like ConvertKit. The goal? Pure and simple: Max out on webinars.

The Hustle

ConvertKit went all-in. We're talking about 150 webinars in just 365 days. All the webinars were the same but each was hosted by a different affiliate. They partnered with anyone keen to join their affiliate program, size of the audience didn’t matter. The message was clear: Everyone gets a shot.

The Raw Tactics

1. Friction-free sign-up: ConvertKit's affiliate program was pretty easy to get into. Sign up, get going, and earn money.
2. Audience Size Doesn’t Matter: Big fish, small pond – didn't matter. ConvertKit teamed up with anyone ready to act. Although, they managed to book Pat Flynn in the first quarter. This webinar alone got around a thousand signups within 24 hours.
3. Real Value, No Sleazy Sales: Their webinars offered pure value and asked nothing in return. At the beginning of each webinar, they countered “typical webinar sales traps” objections by announcing “We’re not going to sell you here a single thing”. Instead, they gave away online courses, ebooks, and t-shirts. And affiliate partners often gave freebies of their own.
4. Laser-Focused on Bloggers: Darrell and Nathan knew their target audience – bloggers. And they stuck to it, making every move count.
5. Reliable Tech: Nothing flashy, or breakable. Just solid, reliable tools to get the job done right.

This helped ConvertKit grow by over 625%. 

They went from $98k/month to $625k/month within a year. 

If the lesson you took away from this story is that webinars are the key to rapid growth, then you learned the wrong lesson.

Often marketing is made out to be some weird, incomprehensible voodoo. However, the reality is it’s about creating a simple, solid plan and being consistent with it.

ConvertKit’s story isn’t about a magic bullet. It's about being intentional and consistent.