Kit is a great ESP, but its default template and send behaviour are optimised for creators sending pretty newsletters — which is exactly the pattern that Gmail's classifier reads as Promotions. These are the specific settings and habits that move Kit sends back to Primary.
ConvertKit (now Kit) is the best-in-class ESP for creators, and I recommend it to most solo operators. It also has three defaults that quietly send you to Promotions if you don't override them.
First, the default broadcast template is a wide, centred, template-y layout — logo up top, single column but with lots of padding, big share buttons and unsubscribe footer at the bottom. It renders beautifully in the preview. It looks like a newsletter to Gmail's classifier.
Second, Kit tracks every link by wrapping it in a ck.page redirect URL. That redirect domain is a shared property used by every Kit user, and its reputation reflects the average, not yours. Every wrapped link is a signal to Gmail that this email came from a bulk-mail platform.
Third, the default open-tracking pixel is at the bottom of the email. Combined with wrapped links, wrapped images, and a Kit-hosted unsubscribe URL, your email carries a Kit-shaped fingerprint that filters can identify regardless of what the subject line says.
In your Kit account:
This one change moves the needle more than anything else in this guide.
By default, Kit sends from your-name@convertkit-mail.com or similar. This is another Kit fingerprint. Setting up a custom sending domain is a one-time job that pays off forever.
yourbusiness.com).TXT for SPF, three CNAME records for DKIM. Add all of them to your domain's DNS._dmarc IN TXT "v=DMARC1; p=none; rua=mailto:you@yourbusiness.com;". Move to p=quarantine after two weeks of clean reports.This gives Kit-sent email full alignment with your domain, which mail providers can then build a reputation for — a reputation that belongs to you, not to Kit's shared pool.
Kit's segment feature is powerful and underused. The most valuable segment to build is "engaged in last 30 days" — Kit calls this "active" — and to use it for your default broadcasts.
Set up a segment in Kit that filters subscribers by "opened a broadcast in the last 30 days." For your next three or four broadcasts, send only to that segment. Your open rate on those sends will be dramatically higher (usually 55%+ vs your baseline), and that engagement compound teaches Gmail to trust your domain.
After that reset, you can widen back to full list. Deliverability should measurably shift within two to three sends.
Kit does have an automated "cold subscribers" cleanup feature — I recommend enabling it on any subscriber who hasn't opened in 90 days. Yes, your list will shrink. The remaining list is the real one.
Kit wraps every link through ck.page or a similar tracking domain by default. You can disable link tracking per broadcast in the broadcast settings.
Trade-off: with tracking disabled, you don't see click stats. But you also send a much cleaner-looking email that doesn't fingerprint as bulk mail. My recommendation for coaches and consultants at small-list scale: disable link tracking on your regular broadcasts. You don't need per-broadcast click data — you know your open rate and your reply rate, and those are the signals that matter for a service business.
Enable tracking only on launch-critical sends where you genuinely need to attribute clicks. That's usually one or two campaigns a quarter, not every send.
Kit's defaults are what most Kit users use, so if you make the changes above you'll immediately be sending better than 90% of your peers. That's the whole game for deliverability — you don't need perfect, you need better than the average sender on your platform.
If you'd rather have someone set all of this up and then run it — write your campaigns, format them right, send them on your Kit account, watch placement each week — that's Unbury. I do this for a few Kit-based clients on retainer. Voice-matched writing, Primary-shaped sends, two per week, all through your Kit account (I never move your list).
For a free read on where you stand right now, take the Scorecard. For a written audit of your last Kit broadcast plus your auth stack, request the audit.
Most of the above applies. The specifics differ — Beehiiv wraps links through different domains, MailerLite has different template defaults, Klaviyo has a different auth setup. Book a call and I'll walk you through the platform-specific version.