How to Create a Course Waitlist Using Kit

In your Kit dashboard, go to Grow and select Landing Pages & Forms. Choose a landing page template — Kit offers several minimal designs that work well for a single-purpose page. You want a headline, a short description, and an email signup field. Nothing else.

Your headline should name the course and set expectations. Something like "Join the Waitlist: Breathwork Foundations for Therapists" is clear. Avoid vague headlines that could apply to anything. Below the headline, write two to three sentences explaining what the course will cover, who it's for, and when you plan to launch. If you don't have an exact date yet, say "launching spring 2026" rather than leaving it open-ended. People want to know they're waiting for something with a timeline, not an indefinite maybe.

Before publishing your landing page, create a tag in Kit — something descriptive like "waitlist-breathwork-course" — and configure the landing page to apply this tag automatically when someone subscribes. You do this in the landing page settings under Incentive > Tag.

This tag is what separates your waitlist from everything else. It lets you send emails only to these subscribers, exclude them from unrelated campaigns, and track how many people move from waitlist to purchase. If you skip the tag and dump everyone into your general list, you lose the ability to communicate with this group specifically — and that specificity is the entire point of a waitlist.

Go to Send > Sequences in Kit and create a new email sequence. This is the core of your waitlist strategy: three to four emails sent over two to three weeks that keep subscribers engaged and move them toward a buying decision.

Here's a practical structure:

• Email 1 (immediately after signup) — Welcome and confirm. Thank them for joining, restate what the course will cover, and share your timeline. Give them one concrete detail about the course that they wouldn't find on the landing page — a module topic, a guest expert, or the format (live cohort, self-paced, hybrid).
• Email 2 (5–7 days later) — Behind the scenes. Share something from your course development process. A lesson you're writing, a challenge you encountered while structuring the curriculum, a student question that shaped your approach. This email builds connection and signals that the course is real and in progress, not vaporware.
• Email 3 (5–7 days later) — Value preview. Teach something useful from the course material. Not the full lesson — a key insight, a framework, a quick exercise. This demonstrates the quality of what you're building and gives subscribers a reason to stay on the list.
• Email 4 (3–5 days later, just before launch) — Early-bird announcement. Let them know the course is opening soon and that waitlist subscribers get first access, a discount, a bonus, or some combination. Be specific about the offer and the deadline.

In Kit's sequence editor, set the delay between emails using the timing controls above each email. Then connect this sequence to your waitlist tag using a visual automation: trigger is "subscriber added to tag [waitlist-breathwork-course]," action is "add to sequence [Breathwork Waitlist]."

When your course is ready, send a broadcast (not part of the sequence) to everyone with your waitlist tag. This is the moment the waitlist was built for. Give them 48 to 72 hours of exclusive access before you announce the course publicly. The offer can be a discount, a bonus resource, or simply first access to limited spots if you're running a cohort.

The early-bird window rewards people for their patience and creates a genuine reason to act quickly. It's not artificial urgency — they literally signed up to hear about this first, and you're delivering on that promise.

After the early-bird window closes and you open enrollment publicly, remove the waitlist tag from subscribers who purchased (Kit can do this via automation rules or a manual tag removal after you cross-reference purchases). Send a final email to the remaining waitlist subscribers letting them know enrollment is now open to everyone — and that the early-bird terms are ending.

For those who still don't purchase, keep them on your general list. They expressed interest in this topic, which makes them candidates for future courses, a free resource, or a re-launch down the road. Don't delete them — just remove the waitlist tag so they stop receiving waitlist-specific emails.

A waitlist that only promises "we'll let you know when it's ready" gives people no reason to stay engaged. Attach value to the waitlist itself: exclusive preview content, a planning worksheet, or input into the course design (a survey asking what they most want to learn). When subscribers feel like they're getting something during the wait, they stay subscribed and they pay attention when the launch email arrives.

Three to four emails is enough. Each one should share something real — progress, a useful insight, a decision you made about the curriculum. If you find yourself padding emails with filler, you're sending too many. Subscribers can tell the difference between an update that matters and one that exists to fill a slot in your automation. Respect their inbox.

An open-ended waitlist with no timeline erodes trust. People sign up expecting a course in the near future, not six months from now. If you're not ready to commit to a launch date, you're not ready for a waitlist. Finish your course outline, set a realistic date, and then start collecting names.

Kit's landing pages are functional but not highly customizable. If you need a visually rich page with testimonials, video embeds, and multiple sections, you'll want to build the page elsewhere (Carrd, your website, or your course platform) and embed a Kit form on it. The Kit-hosted landing page works well for a clean, minimal waitlist signup — headline, description, form — but it wasn't designed for long-form sales pages.

The free plan limits you to one automation, which means you can set up either the waitlist sequence or another automation, but not both simultaneously. If you're already using your free automation for a welcome sequence, you'll need to upgrade to the Creator plan ($25/month) to add the waitlist automation alongside it.

Kit doesn't handle payments or course delivery. Once a waitlist subscriber is ready to enroll, you need a course platform to process the purchase and host the content. Kit gets people to the door — something else needs to be on the other side.