Tutorial
How to Build an Automated Welcome Email Sequence in Kit (Free Plan), With AI Writing Help
A step-by-step tutorial for small business owners on building a signup form, a 5-email welcome sequence, and an automation in Kit, using an AI assistant to draft the emails.
Disclosure: This tutorial contains affiliate links. If you sign up for a paid plan through them, Pocket Stack AI may earn a commission at no extra cost to you. Everything in this guide works on Kit’s free plan. Full disclosure.
A welcome sequence is a short series of automatic emails that new subscribers receive after they join your list. It’s the highest-leverage email you’ll ever write: you write it once, and it introduces your business to every new subscriber for years, while you sleep.
In this tutorial you’ll build one in Kit (formerly ConvertKit), using an AI assistant such as ChatGPT to draft the emails. Budget about 90 minutes.
What you’ll need
A free Kit account. Kit’s Free plan supports up to 10,000 subscribers with unlimited forms, landing pages, and broadcasts (Kit Help Center).
An AI assistant (the free tier is fine).
Your business’s physical mailing address. Commercial email in the U.S. must include a valid postal address under the CAN-SPAM Act (FTC CAN-SPAM guide).
One “lead magnet,” meaning something useful you’ll give new subscribers: a checklist, discount code, or short guide.
A note on screens: Kit updates its interface regularly. Menu names below describe what each feature does. If a label looks different on your screen, search Kit’s Help Center for the feature name.
Create your free Kit account →
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Step 1: Decide what the sequence should achieve (10 minutes)
Before writing anything, answer three questions in a notes document:
1.
Who is subscribing? For example: “owners of small salons who found my pricing guide.”
2.
What do they want right now? The lead magnet, and a quick win.
3.
What one action do I want them to take by email five? Book a call, buy a starter product, reply with a question, or simply keep opening your emails.
Keep this short. You’ll paste it into the AI assistant in Step 3.
Step 2: Create a signup form (15 minutes)
1.
In Kit, find the forms area (under Grow → Landing Pages & Forms at the time of writing) and create a new form.
2.
Pick a simple inline template. Keep the fields to first name and email. Every extra field lowers signups.
3.
Write a headline that names the benefit, not the newsletter: “Get the free 1-page pricing checklist for salons” beats “Join my newsletter.”
4.
In the form settings, set what happens after signup. Show a thank-you message, or send people to a thank-you page on your site.
5.
Incentive email: Kit can send a confirmation or “incentive” email that delivers your lead magnet. Attach the file or a link to it here.
6.
Copy the embed code (or the form’s hosted link) for your website. On a static site, you’ll paste it where the newsletter placeholder sits.
Tip: name the form clearly, like “Salon pricing checklist – homepage,” so you know later which form brought in which subscribers.
Step 3: Draft five emails with AI (30 minutes)
Open your AI assistant and paste this prompt, filling in the brackets:
Prompt
You are helping me write a 5-email welcome sequence for my small business.
Business: [one sentence]
Audience: [who subscribes and why]
Lead magnet: [what they got]
Goal by email 5: [one action]
Tone: [e.g. warm, plain-spoken, no hype, short paragraphs]
Rules: under 200 words per email; one idea per email; one link per email;
no fake urgency; no claims I can’t back up; end each email with a question
they can reply to.
Write:
1. Day 0 – deliver the lead magnet + what to expect
2. Day 2 – my story / why this business exists
3. Day 4 – one genuinely useful tip they can use today
4. Day 7 – a customer example or common mistake to avoid
5. Day 10 – a soft invitation to [goal action]
Give 2 subject line options for each.
Then edit like an owner, not a proofreader:
Replace anything generic with something only you could say: a real customer story (with permission), a real number, a real opinion.
Delete any claims you can’t support. AI assistants can produce confident but wrong statements, so check every fact.
Read each email aloud. If it doesn’t sound like you, rewrite that line.
Step 4: Build the sequence in Kit (15 minutes)
1.
Go to the sequences area (under Send → Sequences at the time of writing) and create a new sequence called “Welcome – [lead magnet].”
2.
Add five emails. Paste each draft and set its delay: email 1 immediately, then 2, 4, 7, and 10 days. Kit lets you set delays per email and choose which days of the week emails can go out.
3.
For each email, preview it on desktop and mobile. Most people will read it on a phone.
4.
Check that your footer has your postal address and an unsubscribe link. Kit adds these to the email template, but confirm the address is correct. CAN-SPAM requires both a clear way to opt out and a valid physical postal address (FTC).
5.
Make sure each email is published / active. Draft emails inside a sequence are skipped.
Step 5: Connect the form to the sequence with an automation (10 minutes)
1.
Open the automations area (Automate → Visual Automations at the time of writing) and create a new automation.
2.
Entry point: “Joins a form,” then choose the form from Step 2.
3.
Action: “Subscribe to sequence,” then choose your welcome sequence.
4.
Optional: add a tag such as lead-salon-pricing so you can segment later.
5.
Turn the automation on. Automations are inactive until you publish them.
Step 6: Test it end to end (10 minutes)
1.
Open your form in a private browser window and sign up with a second email address you control.
2.
Confirm that you get the incentive email and the lead magnet link works.
3.
Check that the subscriber appears in Kit with the right tag and is enrolled in the sequence.
4.
To check later emails without waiting days, use the preview and “send test email” options on each sequence email.
5.
Unsubscribe your test address and confirm that it works.
Step 7: Put the form where people will see it
Your homepage, above the fold.
At the end of every blog post (“If this helped, get the checklist”).
Your YouTube video descriptions and pinned comment.
Your email signature and social profile links.
What to measure after 30 days
Signup rate on the form: visitors who subscribed ÷ visitors who saw the form.
Open and click rates per sequence email. If one email sharply underperforms, rewrite its subject line first.
Replies. Replies are the best signal, because they tell you what your audience actually wants.
Goal completions: calls booked or products bought from email 5.
Be careful with open rates. Privacy features in some email apps can inflate or hide opens, so treat clicks and replies as the more reliable signals.
Common mistakes to avoid
Asking for the sale in email 1. Deliver value first.
Sending without a postal address. That’s a legal requirement in the U.S., not a nicety.
Buying an email list. Don’t. It hurts deliverability and may break the law, and most email platforms prohibit it.
Never revisiting the sequence. Review it every quarter, or whenever your offer changes.
When to upgrade from Kit Free
The free plan covers forms, landing pages, and broadcasts. Kit’s paid plans unlock more automation features and integrations, and the exact feature split changes over time, so check kit.com/pricing before you upgrade. A good rule of thumb: upgrade when a paid feature would save you more than an hour a month, or when your list is earning you money.
Start on Kit’s free plan →
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Sources
1.
Kit Help Center, The Kit Free plan: https://help.kit.com/en/articles/16627071-the-kit-free-plan
2.
Kit pricing: https://kit.com/pricing
3.
Federal Trade Commission, CAN-SPAM Act: A Compliance Guide for Business: https://www.ftc.gov/business-guidance/resources/can-spam-act-compliance-guide-business
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