Configure Your Kit Account for Email-First Success

When you first create your Kit account, it’s important that you configure it for success. The good news is that it’s simple to do. In this document, you’ll discover what each setting is for and choice recommendations where appropriate.

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Settings

Once logged in to your Kit account, navigate to the menu option entitled ‘Settings’, which can be found at the bottom-left corner of the desktop. Once clicked, this menu option will take you the page where you can configure all the core settings of your Kit account. Let’s work through each of the Settings options.

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Login Details

The screenshot below shows the configurable options for the login details.

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Profile Picture

This image is purely for your use only. The image you upload will not be shared whenever you send emails, as that needs to be configured outside of Kit. It may seem redundant to upload your own image, but if you ever start managing other people’s Kit account, then having a visual indicator is a real life-saver as you scan a long list of accounts. When you click on the ‘Upload’ button, you’ll be asked to select the photo you wish to use and it gets loaded into Kit image editor. Once loaded, you can edit the photo by rotating it, flipping it horizontally, vertically, or even by applying filters and colours. Once you have finished editing it (if you wish to edit it, that is), simply click the ‘Done’ button and your photo will be applied to your account.

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Name

The Name, Login email, and Password are fairly self-explanatory - your ‘Name’ value will be used when Kit sends you emails, and the email address and password are what you’ll use each time you login to Kit.

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Multi-factor authentication

This adds a layer of additional security to your Kit account, in case your login credentials are stolen. When switched on, you’ll be challenged for a unique one-time code to enter to access your account. There are two options you can switch on; Authenticator app and SMS message.

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Authenticator app

When you enable this option, you’ll be prompted to enter a one-time passcode which is generated by your preferred authenticator app. If you don’t already have one, Google’s Authenticator app is a good option, and it’s free to use. You’ll find the app available in both the Apple Store and Google Play. To set it up, scan the QR code presented to you when you toggle the Authenticator app in your Kit account. Once you successfully submit your unique six-digit number provided by your authenticator, you’ll see this message pop up to confirm that you have enabled multi-factor authentication. SMS Authentication If you prefer to use SMS authentication, or add it to give more convenience by having two ways in which to authenticate your account, you can switch that option on too. You’ll be asked for the country code for your mobile phone and your phone number. When challenged, you need to enter the unique six-digit number sent to your mobile.

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Notifications

When you click on the ‘Notifications’ menu option, you’ll see a list of activities for which you can configure your notification preferences. The Account Summary can be configured to be sent either weekly or monthly. Other notifications are normally sent hourly so as not to overwhelm your inbox if you have a busy account. Available notifications are determined by which Kit features you have configured for use; e.g. if you’re not selling via Kit’s Commerce platform, you won’t see ‘Purchases’ as an option. If you decide you don’t want to receive any notifications from Kit, there is a button that will turn them all off with a single click.

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Brand

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Business Name

This can be whatever you want it to be, but should be reflective of your business or brand and should make sense to your subscribers when they see references to it. You can change the name value if you decide to rebrand at any point. Remember to hit the ‘Save changes’ button once you’ve made any changes.

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Saved Colours

You can save up to ten (10) brand colours so that they are conveniently accessible whilst you’re creating any assets in your Kit account, including emails, Products, landing pages, forms, etc. To save a colour, click on any of the empty swatches and select a colour from the colour picker, or type in the hex code value, if you know it. If you want to delete a colour, simply click the swatch and hit the trash can icon. Deleting a colour from your palette does not impact any existing asset.

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Favicon

If you’re not familiar with the term ‘favicon’, it’s the little icon or logo that appears at the top of your browser tabs; see the image below for an example of the emailfirst.co logo being used in a Kit asset, replacing the default Kit logo; The favicon on the left is what you get out of the box; the one on the right is what you get when you add your own logo. It’s a subtle change but can help maintain a consistent look and feel for your digital brand. To add your favicon, click the add favicon button. Once you have uploaded a favicon, the button will change to Replace image.

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Saved links

You can add links to websites, social profiles, podcasts, YouTube channel, or any other digital assets that you wish to provide access to via your Newsletter site. You can create up to 10 links.

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Email

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‘From’ Email Addresses

In order to send emails from your Kit account, you need to have at least one ‘from’ email address, and it needs to be confirmed before you start sending. You can have multiple email addresses from which to send your emails, and one must be marked as the ‘Default’ address. You can switch your default ‘from’ email address if you wish, provided it’s with another confirmed email address. To add another email address, click the ‘Add from address’ link and enter the details. Once added, click the ‘Add Email’ button and After adding the new email address, Kit will send you an email containing a link that you must click to confirm that you have access to the email address. Until you click that link, your email address will indicate that it’s ‘pending’, and therefore unable to be used. The email you receive from Kit will look like the image below; you must click the button to confirm your email address. Once verified, Kit will then mark your new email address as ‘confirmed’, as shown below;

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Verified sending domains

Before we look at how to verify your sending domain, let’s understand exactly what this means. Most of the mailbox providers, like Gmail, Microsoft, Yahoo, and Apple, all look for certain signals to make sure the emails you send to their subscribers are genuinely from you (or, more accurately, from Kit, with your permission) and that you’re applying best practices with your email marketing. A verified sending domain requires three main records to be inserted into your DNS records with your domain host (e.g. GoDaddy, Hostinger, Ionos, etc.). The three DNS records are shown below; In the image above, you can see there is already a verified sending domain listed, and the green tick to indicate that Kit has detected your DNS records have successfully been inserted. The good news is that you don’t need to be technical to be able to do this, as Kit provides a tool that will do it for you. Add a verified sending domain Click the button most appropriate for you. If you already have a domain, choose the first button (in the image above), and if not, choose the second button where you can buy a domain and then verify it. The cost to buy a domain will vary depending on which one you buy, but as a general guide, you can expect to pay $20-$50/year for one domain. When you click the button, you’ll be asked to enter your domain. Click ‘Next’ to continue. Kit lists the entries that need to be inserted into your DNS records. For security, automation, and stability, it lists two records for DKIM - that’s normal. Click the button entitled ‘Set this up for me’ to use Kit’s automated tool; this will initiate the record-insertion process by determining your domain host and adding the records for you. To enable Kit to perform this function for you, you must supply your login credentials for your domain host (e.g. your login details for GoDaddy or Hostinger, etc.). Click ‘Continue’ and Kit will begin searching for your domain host. Once found, it’ll show you the name and ask for your login credentials Enter your email address and password for your domain host (e.g. GoDaddy, Hostinger, etc). If you don’t know your login credentials, you need to contact your domain host and request them. If you have multi-factor authentication set up for your domain host, you’ll need to supply a unique six-digit code for Kit to gain access. You’ll receive a one-time code from your domain host, either via email or SMS, depending on which domain host you use. Enter the code, as supplied by your domain host. Click ‘Continue’ to allow Kit access to your domain host account. Once Kit has inserted the DNS records, you’ll receive a message confirming it’s been done. Click the ‘Validate’ button to update your Kit verification. Click ‘Finish’ to see your new domain verified in your Kit account.

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Default time zone and sending times

Set the defaults for when you want your sequence emails to be sent. These settings are applied account-wide, however, you can configure each sequence individually to override these settings when you need to. In the example configuration shown above, emails can be sent out on any day of the week and will be sent around 9:00AM GMT. Actual send times may vary by a few minutes.

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Physical Mailing address

To satisfy anti-spam laws, every email you send must include a physical address where you can be contacted. To protect your privacy, Kit allows you to use their address provided you’re willing to accept their terms of use.

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Unsubscribe survey

If you choose to turn this option on, you can collect responses from subscribers who unsubscribe, as they leave. The simple toggle switch turns the feature on/off - the setting shown above has the feature turned on. When turned on, any subscriber leaving your list will be shown this form; There is no mandatory requirement for the subscriber to complete the survey, they can elect to close the form without submitting a response. Reviewing responses To review the responses of survey participants, navigate to the ‘Subscribers’ menu option and click on ‘Unsubscribes’;

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Subscriber consent & privacy

This is an option that displays a page to subscribers after they subscribe to your email list, requesting their consent for additional emails. This is to comply with GDPR (General Data Protection Regulations). It’s worth noting that the GDPR regulations apply in various territories, and the requirement references the geography of your subscribers (or potential subscribers), and not necessarily your location. In other words, even if you’re not in a GDPR compliant territory, your subscribers may be.

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Kit’s Free Custom Domain

As a Kit customer, you are allocated a kit.com custom domain. In this menu option, you can choose your subdomain to use with your allocated domain.. In the example above, the subdomain chosen is ‘kitmastery’. Whatever you choose to use as your subdomain, it needs to be unique, in other words, no other Kit customer has already chosen the name you want to use. The image below explains the structure of the custom domain; The breakdown of the custom domain The custom domain has two core components: (the custom domain shown below is just an example from one of my Kit demo accounts)

1. The subdomain (i.e. the part you can create, making it relevant to your business or brand)
2. The kit.com domain

Once created, the custom domain (or ‘subdomain’) becomes selectable when publishing a Kit asset, e.g. a landing page or Product page. When assigning a custom domain to an asset (e.g. a landing page), you can then create complete URLs to share with your audience by adding a suffix to the base address. In the example above, the full URL is https://kitmastery.kit.com/free-course

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Using Your Own Domain for Custom Domains

In addition to the one Kit provides, you can use any other domain you own to create custom domains; for example I own kitmastery.com, so I can create subdomains (or ‘custom’ domains) to use for my Kit assets. To use your own domain, you need to insert a few entries into your DNS records. If you’re not very techy and rely on someone else to take care of that for you, they can easily do it in a few minutes. That said, the task is literally copying and pasting values, so it’s not a technical task - anyone can do it. Example: I created a subdomain for my own domain and added it to my Kit account. The domain I won is kitmastery.com and the subdomain I chose is ‘hub’ (that’s the name of my community). So, together, my custom domain in Kit, using a domain I own, becomes hub.kitmastery.com. The image below shows the the records that need to be copied from Kit (Kit supplies everything you need), and you then paste the values in to your DNS records. Your DNS records will be accessible via your domain host (e.g. GoDaddy, Hostinger, Ionos, etc.). The values that are blurred out on this image are the IP addresses supplied by Kit. A typical IP address will look like this: 3.13.222.255 You will be able to nominate which asset will be the default destination for your custom domain, in other words, where visitors will be taken by navigating to the basic URL (i.e. without any suffix - in the example above, this is hub.kitmastery.com). In this example, I have nominated the Newsletter site as my default.

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Team Members

I you’re on a paid Kit plan, either Creator or Pro, you can add team members to your account. These could be people who help you manage your account, perhaps create sequences, automations, or subscriber-collection forms - or indeed, someone like me who can be added and can then design, build, and launch your entire Kit system. Your Kit plan dictates the number of team members allowed;

• Creator: 1 team member
• Pro: Unlimited team members

To add a team member, navigate to