Migrating to Kit from another platform doesn't have to be complicated, and we're here to help! In this guide, we'll cover how to migrate from Aweber to Kit in just a few steps.
Let's dive in!
Exporting and Importing Subscribers
1. Export your list(s) from AWeber
Go to the "Subscribers" page in your AWeber account, under the "Subscribers" tab. You'll see all of the subscribers in your list on this page. You can also search for a subset of the list using the "Search Option" drop-down menu before searching.
Once your list of subscribers appears, scroll to the bottom left corner of the search results, and click the "Export CSV" button to download a spreadsheet with all their information.
☝️Important Note on Exporting with AWeber
Before you export the list, click “Current Subscribers” on the left. AWeber defaults to “Show All”, and you don’t want to start emailing people who have unsubscribed, or pay for them in Kit.
2. Create a tag in Kit
This step is optional, as you can import directly into Kit without selecting an existing tag and we automatically propose creating a new tag with a clear name and date. While optional, we suggest using a tag to track where your subscribers came from. Feel free to use our suggestion, create your own tag, or skip this step entirely—it's up to you.
Inside of Kit, go to your subscribers page by clicking on the Grow tab, and then selecting Subscribers.
Next, click "+ Create a Tag" in the righthand sidebar. Give your tag a name (it can match the AWeber list you just exported).
4. Import your CSV
Once your tag is saved, click "Add Subscribers" in the sidebar and then "Import CSV". From there, select the CSV file you exported from AWeber (click and browse or drag and drop it into the box).
Then select your newly created tag to import into Kit. Please remember this is optional and you can use our suggested tag with the date as well. This is how our tag looks like:
From there, you can also choose 'Add subscribers to existing tags' and select either 'AWeber Imports' or one of the other available options
Need to add custom fields like last name? Skip ahead to step 4a.
Click "Next" and wait.
You'll receive an email once the import has finished. It will usually start within a minute, so if you refresh the page you'll see the subscriber count on your tag start to increase.
NOTE: By default, Kit only imports First Name and Email address. If you want to import additional fields from AWeber, you'll need to set up those fields in Kit before import. Find out how in this tutorial.
5. Repeat the process for each list in AWeber
Once you go through it the first time, it's pretty fast to do again. Just select a tag, export, create the tag in Kit or use our suggested one, and import.
Don't worry about importing duplicate subscribers. Kit will merge duplicates into one subscriber profile.
Importing Automated Emails to Kit Sequences
In AWeber, your automatic emails were called "legacy follow up emails". In Kit, we call them "Sequences". Switching those to Kit is simply a matter of copying and pasting the content from one to the other. It can be laborious, but it's straightforward. Here's how it works!
Formatting
When you paste the email in to Kit, you may see some boxes around the content. This is a result of AWeber's table-heavy formatting with the drag-and-drop builder. Since emails deliver and convert better when they look like emails, you may need to paste the content in section by section. But if it looks clean, it probably is!
Sequence timing
Good news! The timing in Kit acts the same way as you are used to in AWeber. You'll set the email timing to "days since last email". You can even change days to hours for the initial messages or to automate that big launch!
Learn more about sequence timing here.
Updating images
This is a big one. If you simply copy and paste your images into Kit, they're actually still located in AWeber's servers. What you want to do instead is download the image to your computer, and then re-upload it directly to Kit. Images in Kit emails look best when they are no wider than 600 pixels (standard email width).
Comparison of terms between Kit and AWeber
Definition (what you expect to happen) | Kit | AWeber |
Send my weekly newsletter to subscribers | Broadcast | Messages |
Send a series of follow up emails | Sequence | Legacy Follow-up
|
Trigger actions based on subscriber behavior | Automations | Not available |
Organize your subscribers for communications | Tag or Form | List |
A saved search of tags and or forms | Segment | Not available |