Nathan Barry on How To Build An Audience Without Being An Expert

Joining me this week is Nathan Barry.

Nathan, besides having the best last name in the world, is also a creator, author, speaker, designer, and founder of ConvertKit, an email marketing platform. ConvertKit powers the audiences for creators like Gretchen Rubin, Pat Flynn, Tim Ferriss, Carrie-Anne Moss, and Tim McGraw.

Nathan has been cutting his teeth since 2010 by blogging online and selling various digital products to his growing online audience. He has become an authority on audience building and email marketing. In 2014 he decided to devote himself full time to growing ConvertKit, when they were at about $1,000 a month in recurring revenue. He has since grown the business to nearly $30 million a year in annual recurring revenue.

This episode is a treasure trove for anybody thinking of building an online audience, establishing themselves as an authority, and packaging their knowledge as information products. In this episode, you’ll learn about:

How Nathan views experimentation and prioritizes the pace of iteration.
How to pick channels to find your tribe.
How to establish a consistent content process that doesn’t kill you.
How to convert people from social media to your own email list.
What the value is of having your own email list.
How to think about cadence, segmenting, and making offers to people on your list.

If you’ve ever wondered what it means to have an email list, Nathan’s description in this episode is absolutely brilliant. I challenge you to listen to this without wanting to create your own!

So please sit back and enjoy my episode with Nathan Barry.

Full Episode

Guest Links

Nathan’s website
Nathan’s Podcasts
Nathan’s Twitter
ConvertKit
10 products that came before ConvertKit
How to Launch Anything – Smashing Magazine

Show Notes

Nathan shares his learning journey: How you start by learning from others, and how others learn when you begin to teach what you know. (00:02:47-00:07:36)
How Nathan began blogging and building an audience. (00:07:37-00:11:48)
Nathan discusses his process for picking his topics to write about. (00:11:49-00:13:10)
We talk about Nathan’s first information product, The App Design Handbook. (00:13:11-00:17:35)
Understanding pricing strategies, price points, and price tolerance. (00:17:36-00:23:26)
How Nathan learned the ins and outs of the online business through iteration and learning from others. (00:23:27-00:27:40)
Nathan shares his ideas and perspective on building an audience. (00:27:41-00:33:24)
What are the best channels to use to find and build your tribe? (00:33:25-00:38:04)
How to establish a consistent content process that gets you going and doesn’t kill you. (00:38:05-00:41:47)
How do you convert people from social media to your own email list? (00:41:48-00:46:50)
Approaches that have worked for Nathan when converting an audience to his own email list. (00:46:51-00:51:13)
The amazing value of owning and controlling your email list. (00:51:14-00:55:47)
Cadence, segmenting, and making offers to people on your list. (00:55:48-1:05:05)
The opportunities of the creator economy and what Nathan is most excited about in the near future. (1:05:06-1:10:32)
Where to find Nathan on social media. (1:10:33-1:11:02)

Selected Links from the Episode

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