Sync a Campaign to Mailchimp

After you have created a marketing, event, fundraising, or historical campaign, you can sync it to Mailchimp if your CommunitySuite site has been integrated with Mailchimp. Syncing a campaign creates a Mailchimp tag that is pushed to Mailchimp along with the campaign's profiles.

Who: Development, communications, or marketing staff who manage donor communications and email campaigns using Mailchimp.

When to Use Mailchimp Sync

Use Mailchimp sync when:

• Pushing campaign profiles directly to Mailchimp is preferable to exporting and uploading a report manually.
• Targeted email campaigns in Mailchimp need to be tied to specific CommunitySuite campaigns using tags. 

Link a Campaign to Mailchimp

To link a campaign to Mailchimp, navigate to the campaign and create a Mailchimp tag that will be used to identify the campaign's profiles in Mailchimp. 

1. Navigate to the Communications page and click Campaigns. 
2. Click the campaign ID that needs to sync with Mailchimp.
    
3. Click Link Mailchimp in the left-side menu.
4. Enter a name in the Mailchimp Tag Name field, and then click Link.
   • The tag name must be unique per campaign
   • If a profile's email address already exists in Mailchimp, the tag is added to that contact. A new contact is not created.
     
      

The Mailchimp tag is now created and linked to the campaign. The next steps cover how to sync a campaign to Mailchimp. 

Sync a Campaign to Mailchimp

Before syncing a campaign to Mailchimp, ensure that CommunitySuite is integrated with Mailchimp and a Mailchimp tag has been added to the campaign. 

1. Navigate to the Details tab of a campaign and click the Mailchimp tag.
    
2. Click Sync in the left-side menu.
   • CommunitySuite creates a background job to push profiles. Refresh the page to confirm the sync is complete.
3. Click Event Log in the left-side menu to review sync activity, including a log of the profiles synced to Mailchimp and any errors that occurred.

CommunitySuite verifies every hour that all email addresses in campaigns synced to Mailchimp are in Mailchimp.

Resync a Campaign After Adding Profiles

Profiles can be added to a campaign individually or in bulk through a report. When new profiles are added to a campaign after the initial sync, return to the Mailchimp tag and sync again to push the new profiles to Mailchimp. 

The following articles include information on how to add profiles to a campaign:

• Create and Manage Marketing Campaigns
• Create and Manage Event Campaigns
• Fundraising Campaigns

Refer to the Sync a Campaign to Mailchimp section for instructions on how to sync a campaign to Mailchimp.

Only the newly added profiles are pushed. Existing contacts in Mailchimp are not duplicated.

Unlink a Campaign from Mailchimp

When a campaign is no longer needed in Mailchimp, unlink it from CommunitySuite to stop syncing. A campaign that remains linked continues to sync even after the list has been archived in Mailchimp. To unlink a campaign from Mailchimp in CommunitySuite:

1. Navigate to the Communications page and click Campaigns. 
2. Click the campaign ID you want to unlink.
    
3. Click Unlink in the left-side menu. 

Once unlinked, CommunitySuite stops syncing the campaign's profiles to Mailchimp. 

Considerations for Managing Mailchimp Integration

The following considerations help ensure profile data in CommunitySuite stays accurate after syncing campaigns to Mailchimp. More information about these fields can be found in the Campaign Mailing Labels and Lists article.

Managing Unsubscribes and Bounces

Because the Mailchimp integration is one-way, unsubscribes, bounces, and opt-outs are tracked in Mailchimp only and do not report back to CommunitySuite. Periodically reviewing Mailchimp activity and manually updating the corresponding profiles in CommunitySuite is recommended. 

When identifying profiles to update in CommunitySuite, use the email address from the Mailchimp report as the lookup value. Email address is the unique identifier in Mailchimp and can be used to locate the corresponding profile in CommunitySuite.

Sync a Campaign to Mailchimp Video

This video demonstrates how to sync a campaign to Mailchimp, including how to create a Mailchimp tag, push profiles, and verify the results on the Mailchimp side using tags and contact records.

• Link a Campaign to Mailchimp (:36) - Navigate to a campaign and create a unique Mailchimp tag to connect it to Mailchimp. 
• Sync Campaign Profiles (1:25) - Push campaign profiles to Mailchimp and confirm the sync is complete using the background job status. 
• View the Event Log (1:45) - Review a log of profiles synced to Mailchimp and any errors that occurred. 
• Resync After Adding Profiles (4:42) - Return to the Mailchimp tag and sync again after new profiles are added to the campaign.