Email data moves from PatronManager to MailChimp via static segments, which you'll create based on reports in PatronManager, and then upload to MailChimp by clicking a button. Read this article for detailed step-by-step instructions.

MailChimp uses the word Audience to mean a specific way of grouping patrons in their system. The PatronChimp integration is only compatible with a single MailChimp Audience. Instead of using different Audiences to segment your patrons in MailChimp, you'll use multiple static segments, known as Tags in MailChimp, within one Audience. Read more about that here.

We recommend using a PatronManager signup form rather than a MailChimp signup form.

New signups from a MailChimp form will not cross over into PatronManager automatically, so it's better to use PatronManager to collect and store all of your patron data, and use MailChimp specifically for email outreach.

If the patron opts out by clicking the "unsubscribe" link in a MailChimp email, they'll be marked as Opt Out in MailChimp, and MailChimp will not send them any further emails. If they unsubscribe within 30 days of the campaign send date, the "Email Status" field on their Contact record in PatronManager will also automatically update to "Opt-Out." 

If the patron opts out by calling your office and asking to be removed from your mailing list, you can go to their Contact page in PatronManager and change the "Email Status" field to "Opt-Out." Because the reports you use for your static segments in PatronManager should be filtering out Contacts with the "Bounced" or "Opt-Out" Email Status, that should exclude them from your mailings.

Make sure your static segment is up-to-date by refreshing it with the "upload" button in PatronManager before sending your MailChimp campaigns.

MailChimp respects patrons' wishes when they opt out, and requires action on the patron's part to be opted back in. 

For step-by-step instructions, check out this article!

Yes! You can include up to five static segments, known as Tags in MailChimp, on a single MailChimp campaign.

MailChimp dedupes within the campaign, too! Even if an email address appears in more than one of those Tags, MailChimp will only send the campaign to that email address once.

Reports in PatronManager are not static (unless the report is based on a CRM Snapshot), which means they'll update automatically each time they're run -- anyone who no longer meets the criteria of the report WILL NOT appear and anyone who newly meets the criteria of the report WILL appear.

Each time you click the "Upload" button on a static segment in PatronManager, we completely clear out the corresponding Tag in MailChimp and replace it with the latest version of the report in PatronManager.

In other words, each time you want to send a MailChimp campaign to a specific report that you've used before (your regular newsletter list, for example), you don't need to recreate the report or make a new static segment, you just need to click the "Upload" button on the static segment in PatronManager.

To avoid hitting your data storage limit in PatronManager, you will want to occasionally have a manual archive of old PatronChimp campaign done.

Our team can handle this for you with a record archive Data Project.

MailChimp's Salesforce integration is not compatible with PatronManager (and it's duplicative of the PatronChimp functionality, so you don't need it). Click here to read more about MailChimp's version (and why you should never activate it).

Great question! Here's a detailed explanation.

Yes. We don't automatically update your static segments from PatronManager to MailChimp. This means that if your report changes between the time that you created the static segment and the time that you're sending the campaign, you'll need to click the "Upload" button on the static segment in PatronManager to update the contents in MailChimp.

Uploading a static segment from PatronManager to MailChimp will add any new email addresses to MailChimp. If you're re-uploading a static segment that already exists in MailChimp as a Tag, the upload will refresh the contents of that Tag in MailChimp to match the newest results in the report that's connected to the static segment in PatronManager. That means it will both add new email addresses to the Tag, and remove email addresses belonging to Contacts that no longer meet your report criteria.

Note that we aren't able to re-add anyone back to your email list via PatronChimp if they've unsubscribed via MailChimp. Even if they appear in the report you're uploading, they won't be added to the Tag in MailChimp. After you upload the static segment, we provide you with a list of any contacts that failed to upload because they previously opted out or bounced. You may want to check on the "Email Status" for those Contacts in PatronManager (and/or make sure your report filters are excluding folks with an Email Status of "Opt-Out" or "Bounced") to keep things tidy.

Nope! Think of Tags in MailChimp like checkboxes on Contact records in PatronManager. In MailChimp, an email address is stored as a "subscriber" record (equivalent to a Contact). Picture a series of Tag checkboxes on every subscriber record in MailChimp. When someone is part of a static segment in PatronManager and you upload that segment to MailChimp, we're finding their subscriber record in MailChimp and checking the box for that particular Tag. If there is no subscriber record for them in MailChimp, we'll add one (and also check the box).

If a person who was previously part of the static segment and Tag no longer meets the report criteria in PatronManager, then the next time you upload that static segment from PatronManager to MailChimp, we uncheck the corresponding box on their subscriber record in MailChimp. We do not delete them from the MailChimp list, so they still count toward your overall MailChimp subscriber count, but they're no longer included in that Tag.

You don't need to! MailChimp counts an email address as one "subscriber" for each Audience that it's in. Since PatronChimp only syncs with a single MailChimp Audience, each email address is only counted as one MailChimp subscriber, regardless of how many Tags it's connected to within that list. See also "Can I have more than one Audience in MailChimp?".

We store and update campaign statistics in PatronManager, so it is possible to report on them there. It's even easier to do so right within MailChimp, though! Read their instructions here.

Your campaign will appear in PatronManager about an hour after it's sent. Stats for MailChimp campaigns will continue to update in PatronManager every hour for the first 24 hours after sending, and every 24 hours after that for 30 days.

Good question! You can do all of that within MailChimp, and the new campaign will feed back into PatronManager. We'll even match up the recipients with the correct Contacts in PatronManager if we can. Click here for instructions from MailChimp.

1. As per The Hitchhiker's Guide to the Galaxy, Don't Panic! Large static segments can take a few minutes to sync, especially during high-volume times. Give it ten minutes or so, then move on to step 2.
2. Submit a Support Case in the Client Community. Be sure to tell us the name of the static segment and be clear about your deadline. After you've submitted the case, move on to step 3.
3. Double-check the report that's connected to your static segment. Make sure it contains columns for the email address and the Contact ID.

This is normal, and doesn't usually indicate a problem. It's typically due to one or more of the following:

1. Duplicate email addresses in your report, because of duplicate Contacts in the system.
   • Click here for info on merging duplicates.
2. Duplicate email addresses in your report, because of separate humans that share the same email address.
3. Duplicate email addresses in your report, because your report is based on something other than Contacts, such as a door list (one Contact might have five tickets and therefore be listed in the report five times).
4. Missing filters in your report (for example, your report contains Contacts that don't have email addresses).
   • Make sure your report has filters for "Email not equal to [blank]" and "Email Status equals Collected, Confirmed Opt-In".

The email address might be attached to more than one Contact in PatronManager (because of duplicates or because of patrons sharing an email address).

• Search for the email address in PatronManager: the campaign record is likely to be attached to another Contact record that shares the same email.
• If the two Contacts are the same person, click here for info on merging duplicates.

It's also possible that the patron's email address in MailChimp contains capital letters - because email addresses in Salesforce can only contain lowercase letters, this mismatch can cause the sync to fail. To fix this, edit the patron's email address in MailChimp to ensure that it's lowercase.

1. The email address might be in PatronManager more than once (and the Opt-Out or Bounced status might be on another Contact record).
   • Search for the email address in PatronManager.
   • If the email is also on another Contact record, and if the two Contacts are the same person, click here for info on merging duplicates.
2. The patron may have opted out in MailChimp, and it may not have synced back to PatronManager (for example, if the campaign sync failed or if the patron clicked the "unsubscribe" link more than 30 days after they received the campaign).
   • Log in to MailChimp and search for the email address there
   • Update the Email Status in PatronManager to match what you find in MailChimp
3. MailChimp has information on email deliverability and further troubleshooting steps here.

MailChimp has excellent resources for this:

• Click here for reasons why valid email addresses can bounce.
• Click here to learn how a patron can be unsubscribed from your list without clicking the "unsubscribe" link in an email.

First, make sure that the report linked to your static segment meets the following criteria:

• It includes the Contact ID and Email Address as columns
• It contains at least one Contact with a valid email address

If both those things are true and you still see this error message, make sure the report does not use unique counts on any of the columns. Here's how to check:

This error happens if the user for PatronManager in your MailChimp account is removed or deactivated. The PatronManager user in MailChimp must remain active in order for your static segments to sync with PatronChimp.

If you're receiving these errors, you'll need to recreate the PatronManager MailChimp user for the integration and send our team the invitation to your account again.