Setup Kit with Genesis eNews Extended Plugin
Building an email list can be very beneficial to your blog or business. This allows you to be in front of your audience and keep them updated on what is happening over at your site.
Disclosure: This post contains affiliate links to Kit. If you decide to purchase one of their plans, I’ll receive a small commish at no cost to you… mama’s got to pay the bills so thanks for your support.
I’ve worked with several different email marketing services since I started my site back in 2010. The one I highly recommend is Kit (formally known as ConvertKit). That is who I am using. I wish I would have started using them from the beginning (though I’m not sure if they were around back then ???? ).
If you are using one of our Studio Mommy themes… this tutorial will go over how to setup Kit with the Genesis eNew Extended plugin. This plugin makes it really simple to connect your Kit account to your site.
If you haven’t done so yet, head over to Kit and sign up for an account. They also offer a free plan if you have less than 1,000 subscribers, to help get you started.
1. Create a Form
At the top, click on GROW then LANDING PAGES & FORMS.
From here click on CREATE NEW.
Kit will give you 2 options to choose from. For this tutorial I’m going to chose a FORM.
This doesn’t need to be fancy. Your visitors will not see this form because we will be using your pretty subscribe box from the Genesis eNews Extended Plugin. Next chose an INLINE format shown in the photo below.
To keep it simple let’s chose the CLARE template. Remember, your visitors will not see this template.
Take a look at the picture below. What we need to get is your unique form ID, which is simply a set of numbers. To find this, look in the address bar when editing your form, you’ll see your own ID.
Copy and save this number somewhere. You will need it later.
Now we need to add the “Name” field box to our form. Under Email Address, click on the PLUS ICON.
On the right side under “Custom Field” click on FIRST NAME.
Change the title of the Form then click SAVE.
2. Setup Kit with Genesis eNews Extended Plugin.
If you haven’t done so yet please install and activate the Genesis eNews Extended plugin. After you install the plugin, it’s time to setup Kit with Genesis eNews Extended widget. Click on APPEARANCE >> WIDGETS. Click on GENESIS ENEWS EXTENDED widget and choose the widget section of your choice (like the Primary Sidebar or view your themes tutorial for widget placement).
Look for these 3 fields in the widget. These are the most important to complete. See the image below.
Here’s the format of the Form Action link you’ll use. You’ll simply replace “12345” with your own unique ID that we copied and saved above.
Form Action Field use https://app.convertkit.com/forms/12345/subscriptions
(replace 12345 with your Unique ID)
E-Mail Field use email_address
First Name Field use first_name
All the other fields can be customized as you want or left blank. Click SAVE when done.
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Thank you so much for this! I’ve been going through articles for so long trying to figure this out (mainly where to get the numbers for the link from). This is the first one that was helpful! I’ve done my email form now, thank you!!
You’re welcome.
Hello.
Thank you for your detailed lecture!
I have a question.
Do I have to enter the strings “email_address” and “first_name” in the E-Mail Field and First Name Field?
For example, if I only get an email address, do I have to enter both?
By the way, I’m Japanese, can I enter Japanese characters in the E-Mail Field and First Name Field?
Hi. You’re welcome.
You do not have to use the First Name Field. That’s optional.
I don’t think you can use Japanese characters for the Fields since this needs to connect to ConvertKit’s settings.
But, I believe you can use Japanese characters where it says “Email Input Text”.
I hope this helps.
Thanks!
Thank you very much!
Your advice helped me.
Hi!
I followed these steps exactly as you stated, but when I test it out on my website, it goes through perfectly, but the email addresses I used as a test are not receiving a confirmation message even though I have this set up in concert kit. Thank you in advance,
Hi Tessa. I’m so glad these steps worked for you. I visited your site and subscribed to your newsletter. I received the confirmation email. I’ll forward it to you. Please also check your spam folders. Sometimes those emails will go there. If you continue to have issues… the best person to contact would be ConvertKit. Cheers!
Thank you so much for this tutorial! You explained it so well! I did it in minutes!! What a relief! Thank you, again! 🙂
You’re welcome. I’m so glad it helped.
Wow! Thankyou.. you made it so easy!! I was thinking it would require a long process.. thank you for your guide
You’re welcome. I’m so glad that helped and that it was easy. 🙂
Thank you so very very much for this!!
You’re welcome 🙂
Hi April,
I had no problem setting up my newsletters through ConvertKit but for the life of me, I couldn’t figure out how to use the E-new extended plug-in and when I searched google your post came up! It was so easy with visuals and a step by step process to follow. Thanks for writing this post! It was very helpful!
Chelsea
Hey Chelsea. You’re very welcome 🙂
This was so much help. Thank you!
I’m so glad it helped. ?
First I am LOVING my new template. Your tutorials are the best. I have a hopefully easy one to fix… I followed the steps exactly as you stated (3 times lol), when I test it out on my website, it goes through, but the email addresses I used as a test are not receiving a confirmation message. I’m also not showing new subscribers in convertkit via “subscribers’ help!
Hi Ashley. Sometimes the confirmation email may go to the spam folder. Please check there. If you still don’t receive the confirmation email. Could you send me a message here https://studiomommy.com/support-ticket/ . I can login to your account and see if I can find the issue. Subscribers will not show on your ConvertKit account until they receive and accept the confirmation email. Thanks.
Thank you for the guide! It has been super helpful! Loved it
Your themes have been a life-savior in my blogging journey! So glad I discovered you
Hey Harshita. You’re welcome. I’m so glad it could help you.
Hi, thank you for your tutorial! I followed the steps exactly as you stated but when I test it out on my website, it goes through, but the email addresses I used as a test are not receiving a confirmation message. Thank you for your help.
Hi Zara! Hmmm, I would recommend checking your spam folder and see if the emails are going there. There is also a setting in Kit for “Auto Confirm New Subscribers”. You’ll want to make sure this is not chosen. To do this, go to your form in Kit then click on “Settings”. Next, click on “Incentive” and be sure “Send Incentive Email” is checked and not “Auto Confirm…”. If this still does not work, you may want to get help from Kit and see if they have any suggestions.
Hi, thank you for response. I double-checked and I have those settings in place. The emails are also not going to the spam folder. I will message the Kit team to get help, if they are able to offer any. Thank you.
I’m having a similar issue. I will get the “subscription success” webpage after submitting an email address to test the form, but won’t get an email confirmation or notification on Convertkit’s end about a new subscriber. Wondering if you have any updated information on this at this time.
Hey Katelyn! Yes, there is a setting in Kit to turn on/off notifications when there is a new subscriber. Here’s how:
1. After you login to Kit… click on your name at the top right corner.
2. Then click on “Settings”.
3. Click on “Notifications” under “My Profile”.
4. Please be sure “Subscribes” is checked to receive these notifications.
I hope this helps. If you still do not receive these notifications, I would recommend reaching out to Kit next.
This was super helpful to me twice now, lol. Had to stop to say thank you!
You’re welcome. ?
Honestly, I don’t think any form integrations, ActiveCampaign or Kit, work correctly with the Magnolia theme. You can get a basic email entry to show up, but everything else breaks. The “display after all posts” option doesn’t actually display after posts, the CAPTCHA doesn’t resize on the main form or sidebar (which is critical, I got hit with 6,000 bot signups and it tanked my domain email), and the “Text to Show After Form” never shows after the form or centered like it should. It smooshes right up against the CTA button.
I’m only trying to use text because the “Display link to privacy policy?” in the Genesis plugin doesn’t work either. I’ve tried two CRMs now, and it’s always the same story: nothing integrates cleanly, HTML embeds misformat because of the 3 columns, and block tests come out with mismatched fonts and all-caps text.
At this point, it’s pretty frustrating that “integration” support is considered an “extra” charge when the advertised functionality doesn’t actually work out of the box. After a year of trying to make a simple, secure, on-brand subscription form, I still don’t have one that works or looks professional.