How to start a Kit sequence for new inquiries, by priority

Starting a Kit sequence for new inquiries means each person who fills in your form and says yes to emails gets your first email from Kit. You do not send it by hand. These steps work for any business that uses a Qualiform form on its website and Kit for email.

What do you need before you start?#

You need three things:

1. A Kit account on a plan that fits. Kit says creators on any plan can make API keys. Kit's free plan is called Newsletter. Kit says it allows one basic visual automation. Creator and Creator Pro allow unlimited visual automations.
2. An Admin in Qualiform. Only Admins connect tools.
3. A Qualiform form with an Email question. Without an email address, nobody can be added to Kit.

Qualiform sends no marketing email. It adds the lead to Kit, and the sequence you build in Kit sends the email.

How do you add OK to email them to the form?#

Only leads who say yes to OK to email them are added to Kit. A form without this question sends nobody.

1. Open the form and go to its Questions tab.
2. Press Add a question to open the library.
3. Pick OK to email them. It sits beside Email and Phone. Its line reads: "Asks if you may email them. Only a yes goes to your email tool."
4. Press Save at the top of the page to keep your changes.

The question comes with a hint for the AI, which you can edit. It tells the AI to ask once, near the end, after their email address: "Can we email you now and then?" The AI takes yes or no and moves on. It never asks twice, and never pushes after a no.

The question is never scored, so a no does not lower a lead's score. On the lead page, the answer shows as OK to email: Yes or OK to email: No. It is blank when it was not asked.

If the form has this question but no Email question, the editor says: "Add the Email question too. Without an email address, nobody can be added."

How do you connect Kit to Qualiform?#

First, make the key in Kit. Kit's help writes it like this:

1. In your Kit account settings, open the Developer tab.
2. Under the V4 Keys section, click Add a new key.
3. Give the key a name only you see, such as "Qualiform."
4. Copy the key and save it somewhere safe. Kit shows it only once.

Qualiform uses Kit's V4 API, so the key comes from V4 Keys, not from the V3 section.

Then paste it into Qualiform:

1. Open the Integrations page in the Qualiform app and find Kit under Email marketing. Its line reads: "Adds leads who said yes to emails to Kit, tagged by priority. Your Kit automation sends the email."
2. Press Kit and paste the key into API key. The key is stored encrypted, and never shown again.
3. If Kit refuses the key, you see: "Kit did not accept that key. Copy it again and paste the whole thing." Nothing is saved until Kit accepts it.

When you connect, Qualiform adds three custom fields to your Kit account if they are missing: Last name, Phone, and Qualiform form.

Kit has no lists, so there is no audience to choose. Tags do that job.

What does each priority get under By priority?#

Under By priority, the line reads: "Each lead gets the tag for their priority. Start your automation on that tag."

There is one row for each priority. Each row has a tag, filled in for you, and a switch.

A row that is switched off reads Not sent. Not a fit starts off, so those leads are not added to Kit unless you switch the row on.

Each lead also gets a second tag with the form's name, Qualiform form: <form name>. For example, Qualiform form: Website inquiry. Use it when you want an automation for one form's leads only.

A lead's priority comes from the rule it lands in on the form's Routing tab. That is why one connection serves every form. One form might put its top rule at 70 and another at 85. A Hot lead from either form gets the same Qualiform Hot tag. The guide to lead routing rules helps you set those cut-offs.

Choose forms limits the connection to some forms. A form without the question shows Does not ask OK to email them beside it there. If none of the chosen forms asks it, you see: "None of these forms asks OK to email them yet, so nobody is sent. Add it on a form's Questions tab."

For each lead, Kit gets their email, name, phone (when the form asks), and the form's name.

How do you build the automation in Kit?#

Kit sends a sequence only when a visual automation adds the subscriber to it. So build the sequence first, then the automation. These steps follow Kit's help pages. Kit writes some area names more than one way, so your screen may differ a little.

First, the sequence:

1. Click Automation, then Email Sequences.
2. Click + New sequence, near the top right, and select a default template.
3. Write the first email. Set Send this email to as soon as possible.
4. Publish the sequence and make sure it is activated. If it is not, subscribers get none of its emails, even inside an active automation.

Then, the visual automation:

1. Go to Automations under the Automate tab in the top navigation.
2. Click + New automation.
3. Click Start from scratch.
4. Click Start building to pick your first entry point.
5. Choose the tag entry point. Kit calls it Tag is added in one guide and Is added to a tag in another.
6. Select or type the tag, such as Qualiform Hot, then click Add Event.
7. Click the ➕ button below your entry point.
8. Choose the action that adds subscribers to a sequence, and select your sequence.
9. Click the Active toggle at the top right of the page.

On Creator or Creator Pro, repeat this for each priority you want to email, with its own tag and its own sequence.

What if you are on Kit's free plan?#

Kit says the Newsletter plan allows one basic visual automation. Spend it on Qualiform Hot. Those are the leads you most want to hear from you right away. Kit's pages do not say what a basic automation can include, or how many sequences the free plan allows, so build it and check.

For Warm, Cool, and Cold, send a broadcast by hand, filtered by tag. Kit's help writes it like this:

1. Click Broadcasts in the navigation, then + New Broadcast.
2. Write the email, then go to its Publish page and select Send email.
3. Under Who would you like to send this to?, the default is All Subscribers. Add a filter for subscribers with a tag, such as Qualiform Warm.

Kit's pages do not say whether the free plan can filter a broadcast this way, so check in your own account. When one automation is not enough, Creator gives you unlimited ones. The post on whether Kit can follow up on a new inquiry on its free plan weighs that choice.

How do you test it with one real lead?#

Send one real lead through your own live form. Nothing else tests the whole path:

• Check connection proves the key. Its answer is "Connected to Kit. Nothing was added." It adds nobody, because a test subscriber in Kit could set off your real automation.
• Preview sends nothing to any tool. No connection fires from it.

Kit's pages do not say outright that a subscriber tagged by another app, as Qualiform does, starts a tag automation. A real lead shows you whether yours does.

1. Make sure the sequence and the automation are both active. Kit's automations are not retroactive, so only subscribers tagged after you turn it on enter it.
2. Make sure the form's pill says active and the form is on your site.
3. Open your own site and fill in the form yourself. Use an email address you can read.
4. Give answers that fit the rule for the priority you built, such as Hot.
5. Say yes when the AI asks if it may email you.
6. In Kit, find the subscriber by that email. Check for the priority tag, the form tag, and the Last name, Phone, and Qualiform form fields.
7. Check that the sequence's first email reached your inbox.

Kit says subscribers who already have the tag do not enter the automation. To test again, use a different email address.

What does Recent sends tell you?#

Under Recent sends, each lead has one line saying what happened. Here is what each line means, and what to do.

Which of Kit's own rules still apply?#

Connecting Qualiform does not change how Kit works. Kit's own rules still apply to every subscriber Qualiform adds:

1. The automation must be active. An automation that is not active lets nobody in.
2. The sequence must be activated. Kit sends no sequence emails otherwise.
3. Automations are not retroactive. Subscribers tagged before you turned the automation on do not enter it.
4. Someone who already has the tag does not enter. Tagging them again starts nothing.
5. The free plan allows one basic visual automation. Creator and Creator Pro allow unlimited.

Qualiform adds one rule of its own: nobody who unsubscribed in Kit is added back.

Once your one real lead has gone through, read its line under Recent sends and its subscriber in Kit side by side. If both match what you expected, the path works.