When someone gives you their email in a DM, Ellipsend can add them to Kit and tag them a second later. Kit builds segments from tags, so the tag is what puts them in your segment. You'll make three requests once, then add two of them to your automation. New to API requests? Start with Send Contact Info to Your Other Tools With API Requests.

In Kit, open Settings → Developer. Under V4 keys, click Add a new key, name it Ellipsend, and copy the key. Kit only shows it once, so paste it somewhere safe until you've finished the next step.

In Ellipsend, go to Settings → Integrations → HTTP requests and click Add request. Name it Find Kit tags, pick Read · GET, and paste https://api.kit.com/v4/tags as the address.

Open Connection and click Add connection:

Save the connection and the request. Every Kit request uses this one connection.

Open the Testing tab and click Send test request. The response lists every tag in your Kit account with its ID. Copy the ID of the tag your segment uses.

Add contact to Kit creates the subscriber, or updates their first name if they're already in Kit:

To fill in Data to send, click Add a field and type email_address as the field name. Then click Insert in the value box and pick Email address. It fills in {{ contact.email }}, a variable Ellipsend swaps for each contact's real email when the request runs. Add a second field named first_name and pick First name the same way. More on variables.

Tag in Kit adds your tag, which puts them in the segment:

Send a test request on each. A 200 or 201 means Kit accepted it.

One Tag in Kit request adds one tag. Most people put every DM lead in the same segment, so one tag request is all they need. If some automations should land contacts in a different segment, save one tag request per tag. Open Tag in Kit, click More, then Duplicate request. Rename the copy after the tag, like Tag in Kit · Meal Plan, swap that tag's ID into the address, and save.

Then pick the matching tag request in each automation. Add contact to Kit stays the same for all of them, and your connection is shared, so you only enter your key once.

In your automation's DM steps, add Ask for Email, then Run API Request with Add contact to Kit, then a second Run API Request with Tag in Kit, then the message that delivers your freebie. Each step waits for the one before it to succeed, so the tag never runs before the contact exists in Kit.

You can run the same pair from a saved response. Add both under After sending, in the same order.