SparkLoop’s easy 2-click integration lets you connect SparkLoop to your ConvertKit account within seconds, no developer or complicated Zapier hacks required!

This is a first and necessary step in setting up your campaign.

SparkLoop needs to access your email list in order to generate unique referral links and referral codes for each individual subscriber, thus ensuring they’re tracked and rewarded properly for referrals.

Don’t worry, however. This is an entirely seamless process and once you’ve selected your ESP and your list (two clicks!), your job is done.

The steps for ConvertKit integration

When you sign up for SparkLoop, you will be asked to select your ESP.

From here, choose your ESP and follow the steps to import your list.

ConvertKit Pro customers:

As a ConverKit Pro customer, you get access to SparkLoop for no additional cost. Once your ConvertKit Pro account is activated, you will receive a link to sign up.

After you’ve created your SparkLoop account, you’ll be asked to choose your ESP. Select ConvertKit and enter your API key.

From there, you’ll be able to import your list and set up your SparkLoop campaign.

How long will the integration take?

Once you’ve selected your ESP and chosen your list, your work is complete. Go get a coffee. We’ll take it from here.

How long will the import take?

It’s hard to say, but basically, it comes down to the size of your list.

For small lists of up to 50,000 subscribers, it’s unlikely to take more than half an hour, but if you’ve got a million subscribers on your list, then a couple of days (or more) wouldn’t be out of the question.

If it’s been more than 24 hours and your list hasn’t yet finished importing, feel free to contact us on the status. You can do so here.

What happens in ConvertKit after you import your list

After you create a campaign in SparkLoop and import your list, a bunch of custom fields are automatically created in your ConvertKit account.

These include:

Custom field	Merge tag	Description
`RH_SUBID`	{{subscriber.rh_subid}}	Subscriber's ID.
`RH_CODE`	{{subscriber.rh_code}}	Subscriber's referral code.
`RH_REFLINK`	{{subscriber.rh_reflink}}	Subscriber's referral link.
`RH_ISREF`	{{subscriber.rh_isref}}	Whether or not the subscriber has been referred. "YES" or "NO".
`RH_TOTREF`	{{subscriber.rh_totref}}	Subscriber's total number of referrals since last reset.
`RH_GLOBREF`	{{subscriber.rh_globref}}	Subscriber's all-time total number of referrals.
`RH_COUPON`	{{subscriber.rh_coupon}}	Subscriber's most-recently-won coupon code.
`RH_LASTREWARD`	{{subscriber.rh_lastreward}}	The ID of the last reward won by this subscriber.
`RH_SOURCE`	{{subscriber.rh_source}}	The source of the referral, ie: sparkloop-magic or sparkloop-upscribe.
`RH_PARTNER`	{{subscriber.rh_partner}}	The ID of the partner who referred this subscriber. ie: "partner_abc123"
`RH_PARTNER_NAME`	{{subscriber.rh_partner_name}}	The name of the partner who referred this subscriber. i.e. "Send & Grow"

Before launching, we need to ensure that all of your newsletter subscribers have had their referral links generated and stored in the RH_REFLINK custom field in your ESP.

You can do this by filtering or segmenting your subscribers in your ESP to only show subscribers who have an RH_REFLINK custom field with no value (also sometimes called blank or empty).

If everything is set up correctly, there should be at most 1-2 subscribers with an empty RH_REFLINK field.

If your subscribers haven’t synced, check out this guide for the reasons why they haven’t, and what you can do about it.

⚠️ Make sure to wait until the list has finished importing completely before running checks.

What happens when subscribers are deleted or unsubscribe?

SparkLoop syncs with your ESP, which means that any new subscribes and unsubscribes are updated in SparkLoop automatically.

However, deleted and unsubscribed subscribers will continue to show up in SparkLoop.

Unsubscribed contacts don’t count towards pricing, but they’ll still be inside of SparkLoop to preserve historical data and for anti-fraud protection.

⚠️ Only active subscribers count towards your billing.

How to set up email automations in ConvertKit

Once your ConvertKit integration is complete and you've set up your referral program, you'll want to make sure your subscribers know about your ambassador program and engage with it. Keeping subscribers engaged can be the difference between a referral program that’s successful and one that isn’t.

Luckily, you only need to set up a few automated emails to achieve this goal.

(Here’s a rundown of the emails we recommend sending and why.)

⚠️ These emails are recommended for any referral program, regardless of your goal or rewards.

Reward email:

You can import the Reward Email automation into your ConverKit account by clicking here.

Intro email:

You can import the Intro Email automation into your ConverKit account by clicking here.

First Referral email:

You can import the First Referral Email automation into your ConverKit account by clicking here.

Referred email:

You can import the Referred Email automation into your ConverKit account by clicking here.

Segments

SparkLoop makes it easy for you to segment your subscribers and send them targeted messages, for example:

Send a message to all subscribers who have been referred.
Send a message to subscribers who have 3 or more referrals.
Send a message to subscribers who haven't referred anybody in 2 months.

You can set up these segments very easily using SparkLoop-generated custom fields, in particular: RH_ISREF and RH_TOTREF

How to create a segment in ConvertKit

In this example, we are going to create a segment of subscribers who have 3 or more referrals, but the same process can be used to create any custom segment.

Step 1: Go to ConvertKit's dashboard > Subscribers and click on Create a segment.

Step 2: Click the Add filter button. From the dropdown, choose Custom field > RH_TOTREF > Is greater than and enter the number.

⚠️ Note: You can add as many filters as you want. You can use this feature to create more dynamic segments (e.g.: subscribers who have more than 2 referrals AND have been referred).

Step 3: When you've added all your filters, click on Save. ConvertKit will show all the subscribers that currently match your filers.

Using segments in ConvertKit

So you've created a segment in ConvertKit.

Now you can target specific segments with targeted emails and/or automations. For example, you can:

Send a message to a specific segment instead of your entire list.
Trigger an automation for a specific segment

⚠️ Don’t forget to update your email automations when you add, delete, or change rewards.