Importing Contacts from Mailchimp

Learn how to quickly and easily import contacts from Mailchimp to Omnisend

Ira avatar
Written by Ira
Updated over a week ago

Migrate the contacts you have collected in Mailchimp to Omnisend easily, as there's no need to export them first and import them from a file later.

Our built-in integration enables you to bypass the selection of attributes step, select the import paraments, and get continuous sync of contacts.

Contents

Watch this video guide or continue to the detailed steps below.

Before you start

You can import the following fields from your Mailchimp contacts lists to Omnisend:

  • Default fields (First name, Last name, Phone, Address line 1, City, State, Zip code, Country code). These fields will be mapped with the default fields in your Omnisend subscriber profile during the import.

  • We will also transfer your contacts' statuses for the Email channel: Subscribed, Non-subscribed, and Unsubscribed. If that contact was synced from your store to Omnisend with subscribed status but was unsubscribed in Mailchimp, the sync from Mailchimp will update the status. Contact subscription statuses are synced from Mailchimp to Omnisend in real-time. New subscribed contacts are imported from MC to Omnisend in real-time as well.

  • Engagement data (average open rate and average click rate). These fields will be added to the contacts profile as a custom property with the prefix mailchimp_[stats_name]. Average open and click rates show the percentage of open or clicked campaigns.

  • VIP and all other tags - will be imported as contact tags.

  • Language property. It will be imported as a custom property, and it will be named "language" (without the "mailchimp_" prefix).

  • Segments - we will add a tag mc_segment_segment_name to every contact for every segment. So you can easily recreate Mailchimp segments using a tag filter in Omnisend.

Any other contact data additional to default properties and tags will be imported as Custom properties to Omnisend.

The other data may include Birthday, OPTIN_TIME, OPTIN_IP, CONFIRM_TIME, CONFIRM_IP, LATITUDE, LONGITUDE, GMTOFF, and DST OFF, TIMEZONE, CC and REGION, LAST_CHANGED, LEID and EUID, NOTES.

Since the Birthday date (MM/DD) is different from the one from Omnisend (YYYY-MM-DD), it is imported as a custom property. If you want this information to be used for the Birthday automation, you need to change the date format in the file and upload it manually. We suggest adding any year for the date field, as it won't influence the automation performance.

Note that the default date-added field will be set to the date when this contact was added to Omnisend. The date when your contact was added to MailChimp will be transferred as a custom property.
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Setup process

Step 1.

To enable the integration with Mailchimp, click on the profile icon at the top right corner β†’ open the Apps tab:

Step 2.

Find the MailChimp app and click the 'Connect now' button.

Step 3.

You will need to enter the API key generated in your Mailchimp account on the next page. To find your API key, you should:

  1. Sign in to your Mailchimp account

  2. Go to the API Keys section of your Mailchimp account or click this link: Your API Keys.

  3. Copy an existing API key or click the Create A Key button.

Step 4.

In the sync settings stage, you can choose what data you want to be synced to Omnisend. Once selected, this data will be synced and updated regularly; however, you can change the settings later.

Here, you can choose:

  • the audience or audiences that you want to sync;

  • tags that should be passed to Omnisend;

  • tag contacts with source: MailChimp tag;

If you choose to sync the data from a particular Audience only, the engagement data will be synced from the selected audience. If you move the contact to a different audience and keep sending emails to that contact, the engagement data won't update.

Step 5.

Once you set the initial settings, you will see the confirmation banner.

Step 6.

When the integration is complete, you will be able to check its status and the last sync date and will be able to change its settings.

Once you complete the integration with Mailchimp, all of your contacts and their data will be imported immediately. After that, we will be syncing subscription status and new subscribers from Mailchimp to Omnisend in real time. All other contact properties (tags, names, etc.) are synced every 24 hours.

Note! If you're going to archive, remove contacts permanently in Mailchimp or even delete your Mailchimp account, contacts will be unsubscribed in Omnisend. Disable sync in Omnisend to avoid this.

Contacts engagement

When migrating from one Email service provider (ESP) to another, you need to warm up your sending reputation. Start by sending your emails to the most active contacts and increase their number gradually. To help you estimate your contacts' activity, Omnisend is syncing two properties β€” average open rate and click rates.

Next Steps

  • Start working on building an outstanding sender's reputation with Omnisend by following our recommendations regarding the content and following the warm-up plan.

  • Overtake our idea of contacting your customers through the communication channel they prefer.

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