How to Connect ConvertKit to UniLink (Grow Your Email List Automatically)

A step-by-step guide to linking ConvertKit (now Kit) to UniLink so form submissions on your page automatically add subscribers to your ConvertKit account.

ConvertKit (rebranded as Kit in 2024) is the platform of choice for a large portion of independent creators — writers, course builders, coaches, and podcasters — who want email marketing that's powerful enough to run real automations without the overhead of enterprise tools. If ConvertKit is where you run your business, getting your UniLink page to feed new subscribers directly into it is one of the highest-leverage setup tasks you can do. Every person who lands on your page and fills in the email form should be in your ConvertKit account within seconds, not sitting in a spreadsheet waiting for your next manual export.

What the ConvertKit Integration Does

The ConvertKit integration connects UniLink's form system to your ConvertKit account using ConvertKit's API. When a visitor submits an email form on your UniLink page, UniLink sends the subscriber data to ConvertKit via the API, where the contact is added to the form or sequence you've configured. This triggers any automations you've built in ConvertKit — welcome sequences, tag-based automations, visual workflow automations — exactly as if the subscriber had signed up directly through a ConvertKit-hosted form.

Beyond basic email capture, the integration supports two ConvertKit-specific features that make it particularly useful: tags and custom fields. Tags allow you to label subscribers at the point of signup — for example, tagging everyone who signs up from your UniLink page with "unilink-page" or "free-guide-download." This makes it easy to segment and target these subscribers with ConvertKit's tag-based automations without any additional steps. Custom fields let you pass additional subscriber data (name, location, a specific answer from a form dropdown) into ConvertKit's subscriber record, making personalization and segmentation more precise.

The connection authenticates via API key rather than OAuth. ConvertKit's API key is a long string you copy from your ConvertKit account settings and paste into UniLink's integration configuration. This is less seamless than OAuth but equally secure — the API key authorizes read/write access to your ConvertKit subscriber data, and you can revoke it from ConvertKit at any time without affecting other parts of your account. The integration supports both Forms and Sequences as the signup destination, giving you flexibility to route subscribers directly into an onboarding sequence if you prefer that over the standard confirmation + welcome flow.

How to Get Started

1. Find your ConvertKit API key: Log in to your ConvertKit (Kit) account, go to Settings → Advanced, and copy your API Key. Keep this tab open — you'll need to paste it into UniLink.
2. Open UniLink Integrations: In your UniLink Dashboard at app.unilink.us, navigate to Integrations and find ConvertKit.
3. Paste your API key: Enter your ConvertKit API key in the designated field and click Verify or Connect. UniLink will validate the key against the ConvertKit API.
4. Select your destination: Choose whether new subscribers should be added to a ConvertKit Form or a Sequence. Select the specific form or sequence from the dropdown — UniLink will load these from your ConvertKit account automatically.
5. Map fields and save: Map the UniLink form fields (Email, First Name, Last Name, and any custom fields) to ConvertKit's corresponding fields. Configure any tags you want applied at signup, then click Save.

How to Use the ConvertKit Integration

1. Add an email form to your page: In the page editor, add a Form block or Email Signup block. Include at minimum an email field; add a first name field if your ConvertKit sequences use subscriber name personalization.
2. Confirm integration is active: In the form block settings, verify ConvertKit is selected as the destination integration and the correct ConvertKit form or sequence is shown.
3. Test with a real email: Submit the form using a real email address you control. Open ConvertKit, navigate to your subscribers list, and confirm the test subscriber appears with the correct tags and field values.
4. Trigger your welcome sequence: If you're routing subscribers to a ConvertKit Form (rather than a Sequence), confirm your welcome automation is connected to that form in ConvertKit's Automations section. The automation should fire for every new subscriber UniLink sends over.
5. Monitor subscriber additions: In ConvertKit, use the subscriber filter to show contacts tagged with your UniLink source tag. This lets you track exactly how many subscribers your UniLink page is generating over any time period.

Key Settings

Get the Most Out Of ConvertKit

Route subscribers to a ConvertKit Form rather than directly to a Sequence if you have any tag-based or visual automations in ConvertKit. When a subscriber is added to a Form, ConvertKit fires all automations whose triggers include "subscribes to form: [form name]." This is the standard ConvertKit pattern for kicking off multi-step workflows. If you route them directly to a Sequence, they enter only that sequence and bypass any broader automations — useful for focused onboarding, but limiting if you want your full funnel to run.

Use ConvertKit's subscriber tagging in combination with UniLink's form logic. If you have a form with a dropdown (e.g., "I'm interested in: Fitness / Nutrition / Mental Health"), you can pass the selected value through a custom field to ConvertKit and use a ConvertKit automation to apply the corresponding tag when the subscriber arrives. This lets you segment immediately at signup without requiring the subscriber to do anything extra, and gives you audience segments for targeted broadcasts from day one rather than building them retroactively.

Consider creating a dedicated ConvertKit Form for each significant lead magnet or offer on your UniLink page. ConvertKit Forms are free to create and allow you to connect distinct automations to each. If you have a free guide, a webinar registration, and a course waitlist all on one UniLink page, each can route to its own ConvertKit Form and trigger its own welcome sequence. This keeps your subscriber journey clean: someone who downloaded the guide gets guide-relevant emails, not the webinar follow-up sequence meant for a different audience segment.

Keep your ConvertKit API key secure. The API key in UniLink's integration settings has full write access to your subscriber data. Don't share it publicly or commit it to any public repository. If you ever suspect the key has been compromised, generate a new one in ConvertKit Settings → Advanced and update it in UniLink's Integrations panel. The old key becomes invalid immediately on regeneration.

Troubleshooting

Frequently Asked Questions