If you’re migrating to Kit manually, here’s how to bring over everything you’ve built—your subscribers, forms, automations, and content—without disrupting what’s already working.
Your email list isn’t just a collection of addresses. It’s your direct line to readers who trust you, customers who buy from you, and a community you serve. Moving that to a new platform should feel like an upgrade, not a risk.
Luckily, moving your email list to Kit doesn’t have to be stressful. This guide walks you through how to migrate your subscribers, automations, and content to Kit, step by step.
Why creators switch to Kit
Most professional creators switch to Kit because they’ve outgrown their current platform. Maybe you’re spending too much time on tasks that don’t bring you joy. Maybe you’re leaving money on the table because you can’t segment your audience well enough. Or maybe you’ve realized that building better systems now means more freedom later.
Whatever brought you here, the goal is the same: move to Kit so you can focus on the work only you can do.
What things are called in Kit
There are the terms you’ll use throughout your Kit account. Getting comfortable with them now will save you time later:
- Subscribers (not contacts or users): The people on your email list
- Forms and landing pages: How you collect new subscribers
- Broadcasts: One-time emails you send to your list
- Sequences: Automated email series sent on a schedule
- Visual Automations: Workflows that trigger actions based on subscriber behavior
- Tags: Labels that organize subscribers by interest, behavior, or purchase
- Segments: Filtered groups based on shared characteristics
What to expect when migrating to Kit
When you bring your subscribers to Kit manually, you’re in control of exactly what comes over and how it’s organized. Here’s what you can import:
- Email addresses and names: Your core subscriber information
- Custom fields: Any additional data you’ve collected (like location, preferences, or purchase history)
- Tags and segments: Your existing organization system translates into tags in Kit
- Subscriber status: Active, inactive, or unsubscribed status carries over
The key is preparation. Before you start moving data, spend time cleaning your list. Remove inactive subscribers, merge duplicates, and organize your tags. This isn’t just busywork—it’s setting up systems that will serve you for years.
Step-by-step migration guide
Step 1: Import your subscribers
Start with your most valuable asset: your subscribers.
Export from your current platform: Download your subscriber list as a CSV file. Most platforms let you export with all custom fields and tags included.
Prepare your CSV: Make sure your file includes columns for email address, first name, and any custom fields you want to preserve. If your current platform uses groups or interests, you can convert these into tags during import.
Import to Kit: In your Kit account, go to Subscribers, click Add Subscribers, then Import a CSV. Upload your file and map your columns to Kit’s fields. You can add tags during this process to maintain your existing organization.
Handle duplicates automatically: Kit merges duplicate email addresses for you, so don’t worry about importing the same subscriber twice.
Step 2: Recreate your forms and landing pages
Your forms and landing pages are how new subscribers find you. Rebuilding them in Kit gives you a chance to improve what you already have.
Go to Landing Pages & Forms in your Kit account. Choose a template that matches your current design, then customize it using Kit’s visual builder.
Focus on clarity over decoration. What action do you want people to take? What will they get when they subscribe? Answer those questions clearly, and your form will convert.
Once your Kit forms and landing pages are live, replace your old ones. Update links in your social media bios, website, and anywhere else you send traffic.
Step 3: Rebuild your email templates
Your email template sets the visual tone for every message you send. Recreating it in Kit takes a few minutes and ensures brand consistency across your emails.
Go to Email Templates under the Send tab. Choose a template close to your current design, then customize it with your logo, colors, fonts, and any elements that appear in every email (like section headers or footer content).
Think of your template as the container—the parts that stay the same. Your actual email content (the parts that change) will go into Broadcasts and Sequences later.
Step 4: Recreate your automations and sequences
Here’s where manual migration requires the most attention. Automations run your business while you create, so getting these right matters.
Sequences first: Go to Send → Sequences and create a new sequence for each automated email series you currently have. Copy your email content over and set your send schedules. Start with the must-haves: a welcome sequence for new subscribers and a re-engagement sequence to clean your list.
Visual Automations next: Go to Automate → Visual Automations to rebuild your more complex workflows. Every automation needs a trigger (what starts it) and actions (what happens next). Map out your current automation before you start building so you don’t miss any steps.
For example, if you have an automation that tags people who click a specific link, you’ll create a Visual Automation in Kit with that link click as the trigger and “add tag” as the action.
Connect your sequences to your automations: Once both are built, link them together. Your Visual Automation might add someone to a sequence, or remove them based on their behavior. This how you build systems that run your business while you focus on creating.
Step 5: Bring over your past content (if relevant)
If you publish newsletters or want your previous content to appear on your Kit Creator Profile, you can recreate past emails as Broadcasts.
Go to Send → Broadcasts and create a new broadcast for each piece of content you want to preserve. You’ll need to manually adjust the publish date to match your original send date. Then, publish each broadcast to the web so it appears in your newsletter feed.
This step isn’t essential for everyone. If you’re using Kit primarily for email marketing and automations, you can skip this and move forward.
Step 6: Test everything before you flip the switch
Before you send your first email from Kit, test your setup:
Preview your forms and landing pages: Check them on mobile and desktop. Subscribe yourself to make sure the experience is smooth.
Send test emails from your sequences: Review how they look in your inbox. Check that links work and images load correctly.
Trigger your automations manually: Subscribe to a test form, click a test link, or perform whatever action should trigger each automation. Confirm that tags are applied correctly and emails send as expected.
Testing feels tedious, but it prevents the kind of mistakes that erode trust with your subscribers.
Common email migration questions
How long does manual migration take? It depends on the complexity of your setup. Importing subscribers takes minutes. Recreating forms and sequences can take a few hours. Complex automations with multiple triggers and conditions might take a day or more. Budget time based on what you have, not what you wish you had.
Will my subscribers know I switched platforms? Only if your emails look dramatically different. If you’ve rebuilt your template carefully and your sending domain is the same, the transition will be invisible to them.
What if I make a mistake? Kit lets you pause automations, unpublish forms, and edit sequences anytime. Nothing is permanent until you hit send. And even then, you can always fix it in the next email.
Can I get help? Yes. If you have over 5,000 subscribers and upgrade to a paid Kit plan, our migrations team will handle everything for you at no extra cost. Reach out to our migrations team if you’d rather have experts take care of the details.
What to do after migration
Once everything is live in Kit, you can put your systems to work.
Send a welcome broadcast to your entire list. Let them know you’ve moved to a new platform (optional, but builds trust) and remind them why they subscribed. This re-engagement also helps your sending reputation with email providers.
Then, start building the automations and workflows that will free up your time. Set up a product launch sequence. Create conditional emails that show different content to different people. Build the systems that let you work less and earn more.
Let Kit handle it for you
Your expertise got you here. Kit helps you scale it—without scaling your workload or losing the personal touch that makes your business special. Ready to make the move but need some guidance? Talk to our migrations team if you’d like us to handle everything for you.
