Move to Kenso from another tool

Settings › Import brings your campaigns, sequences, leads, inboxes and email history over from another sending tool in one run. It works with Instantly, Smartlead, EmailBison, Salesforge, lemlist and Apollo. You connect with the other tool's API key, choose what moves, and Kenso imports in the background. Nothing changes in the other tool, and imported campaigns arrive as drafts, so nothing sends until you launch.

Press G then , to open Settings, then click Import under Workspace. When your Campaigns list is empty, its Start an import button opens the same page.

Before you start

• You need the Integrations permission. Admins have it. Without it the page says "Importing needs the Integrations permission".
• Importing inboxes also needs Edit on Delivery in each workspace an account lands in.
• Get an API key from the tool you're leaving. An Instantly key needs the emails:read scope, which Kenso uses to import leads. EmailBison also asks for your instance's address, such as https://mail.youragency.com.

What moves from each tool

Every tool brings its inboxes, campaigns and their steps, leads and where each one is in its sequence, reply threads and sent emails. The rest depends on the tool:

• No blocklist? Export it from the tool and upload the CSV in Settings › Blocklist.
• No inbox passwords? The inboxes wait for a login after the import. See step 4.
• Lifetime totals only? Campaign charts start without daily history.
• Archived campaigns never move.
• Stopped leads stay stopped. A lead who replied, bounced or unsubscribed in the other tool, or that the tool finished or paused, gets no more steps in Kenso.

Step 1: Connect the tool

1. Under Connect a tool, click the tool you're leaving.
2. Paste the key in API key. For Instantly, Where to find your Instantly key opens the right page.
3. For EmailBison, fill in Instance URL.
4. Type a Name (optional) if you connect more than one account of the same tool.
5. Click Connect.

Kenso checks the key with the tool before it saves it, then starts reading the account. Big accounts take a few minutes, and you can leave the page and come back. If reading hasn't started, click Read my account.

Step 2: Choose what moves

1. Under Choose what moves, each account from the tool has its own card. Pick the Kenso workspace it lands in: this workspace, one of your client workspaces, or Create new workspace.
2. Turn Blocklist, Inboxes, Leads and History on or off. A switch is grayed out when the tool can't provide it.
3. Untick any campaign you want to leave behind. Everything except archived campaigns starts ticked.
4. Set Bring email history from. It starts one year back. Sent emails, replies and daily stats from that date on come over.
5. Click Start import.

Create new workspace shows only when you run client workspaces under White-label, and needs an active paid plan. A new client workspace starts with its sending caps at zero, so set them before you launch.

Step 3: Watch the import

The Import step shows a progress bar, the stage Kenso is on and a status for each account. You can leave the page: the import keeps running, and Kenso emails the person who started it when it finishes. Settings › Import opens on a running import, and each connected tool links to View progress or View report.

Big accounts take longer, and Smartlead and Apollo let Kenso read more slowly than the others. When Apollo's daily limit runs out, the import waits, and the page shows when it picks up again.

To stop, click Cancel import, then Stop the import. What already moved stays in Kenso.

Step 4: Read the report and launch

The report counts every record as Moved, Updated, Unchanged, Skipped or Failed, and To do groups what needs you by reason. Then work through Next steps:

1. Reconnect inboxes. An inbox already in Kenso is linked. Kenso adds any other inbox only once its login works: sign in to Google and Microsoft inboxes from Delivery, and upload a CSV of logins for SMTP inboxes under Connect SMTP inboxes (up to 2 MB, template on the page). Smartlead shares SMTP passwords, so its SMTP inboxes sign in on their own.
2. Pause the imported campaigns in the old tool, so no lead hears from both.
3. Click Re-sync. It picks up the last replies, lead progress and new leads, and puts inboxes you just connected on their campaigns. Nothing moves twice.
4. Click Open campaigns. Imported campaigns carry a tag such as Migrated from Instantly. Check each one, then launch it.

What changes on the way in

• Calls, tasks, InMail and other steps Kenso can't run are left out.
• A step keeps at most 4 versions, and a campaign at most 30 email step versions.
• Waits round up to whole days, and Kenso keeps one sending window a day.
• Variables and spintax become Kenso's format. Lead fields Kenso has no field for become custom variables, up to 50 per campaign.
• Kenso always stops a sequence when a lead replies.
• Leads on your Kenso blocklist come in as do not contact. Leads with no valid email stay out.
• A campaign with more than 50,000 emails brings its stats but not its history. One import brings at most 500,000 leads.

Leads imported in the first 30 days after a connection's first import use no lead credits. After that, new leads are charged like leads from a CSV import.

Re-run, replace the key or remove a tool

• Re-sync on the report, or Continue on the tool's row, runs the import again. Records already in Kenso update instead of doubling, and a sequence an import already saved stays as you edited it.
• Replace key takes a new key for the same account. A key for another account needs its own connection.
• Kenso shows only the key's last 4 characters and deletes it 30 days after the last import or key check. The row then says Key expired: replace the key to import again.
• Remove (the trash button) deletes the key and the tool's reports. Imported data stays.

What Ken can do here

Ask Ken (⌘J) how an import is going or why a record failed. Ken can also start, re-run or cancel one, and asks you to approve it first.

If something goes wrong

• "The tool rejected this API key. Check it and paste it again." Copy the key again, or make a new one.
• "This key is missing a permission Kenso needs to import..." Make a key with full access.
• "This plan doesn't include API access..." Upgrade the other tool's plan, or use another key.
• "This key belongs to a different Instantly account. Add it as a new connection instead." Connect it under Connect a tool.
• "This campaign is still importing from Instantly. Launch it after the import finishes." Wait for the report.
• "This campaign's import from Instantly did not finish. Run the import again, then launch it." Click Re-sync.
• "This campaign is still active in Instantly. Pause it there before launching here." A warning, not a block. Pause it there, or both tools email the same leads.
• "You're not an admin of the target workspace." You must be an Admin of each workspace an account lands in.
• Start import reloads without starting. With Inboxes on, you need Edit on Delivery in the target workspace. Ask an admin, or turn Inboxes off.

Related: Send campaigns from an inbox you already have, Keep companies and people off your lists, Run several client workspaces, Launch your first campaign