Mailchimp integration

Email marketing: campaigns, audiences, subscribers, templates, automations, reports

Help CentreConnectors

Overview

Mailchimp is an email-marketing platform with strong list + campaign primitives. The Automize Mailchimp connector covers audiences (lists), subscribers, campaigns, templates, segments, and the merge fields needed to power personalised sends.

  • Regions: Mailchimp uses a data centre suffix in the API URL (e.g. us19, eu1). The connector derives this from your API key (key always ends in -dcXX). No manual region selection needed.
  • Plans: Free, Essentials, Standard, Premium – all expose the API. Advanced features (Customer Journeys API, transactional email via Mandrill) need higher plans or separate products.

Setting up the connection

Auth type: HTTP Basic.

  1. Sign in to Mailchimp → Account → Extras → API keys.
  2. Create a new key (or reuse one). Format: long-alphanumeric-dcXX where dcXX is the data center.
  3. In Automize, open Settings → Connectors → Mailchimp → Add connection. Use any non-empty username (commonly 'anystring') and paste the API key as the password.

Find your credentials at https://us19.admin.mailchimp.com/account/api/.


Rate limits

Mailchimp enforces 10 concurrent connections per user (note: concurrent, not per-second). The connector pools its connection use to stay below this. For bulk subscriber loads use Batch Subscribe (one call accepts 500 members).


Data model

Mailchimp's primitives:

    Audience (List) ─┬─ Members (subscribers, identified by md5(lowercase(email)))
                     ├─ Merge Fields (custom columns)
                     ├─ Tags
                     ├─ Segments
                     └─ Interest Categories ── Interests
    Campaigns ─── Reports
    Templates

The 'subscriber_hash' for any member is md5(lowercase(email)). Used to
look up / update a member without needing their internal ID.

Available operations

18 operations available. Click any row to jump to its detail.

OperationCategoryWhat it does
Add MemberGeneralAdd a subscriber to an audience
Add TagGeneralAdd tags to a subscriber
Create CampaignGeneralCreate a new campaign
Create segmentGeneralCreate a segment in a Mailchimp list.
Delete memberGeneralDelete a member from a Mailchimp list.
Get CampaignGeneralGet campaign details
Get memberGeneralGet a Mailchimp list member by email.
Get Campaign ReportGeneralGet campaign performance report
List automationsGeneralList Mailchimp automations.
List CampaignsGeneralList all campaigns
List AudiencesGeneralList all audiences/lists
List MembersGeneralList members of an audience
List ReportsGeneralList all campaign reports
List segmentsGeneralList segments for a Mailchimp list.
List tagsGeneralList tags for a Mailchimp list.
List TemplatesGeneralList email templates
Send CampaignGeneralSend a campaign
Update MemberGeneralUpdate a subscriber

Operations

Add Member

Add a subscriber to an audience

ParameterRequiredTypeDescription
List Id list_idYestext
Email Address email_addressYestext
Status statusYestext
Merge Fields merge_fieldsYestextarea
Tags tagsYestext

Tips

  • email_address + status (subscribed for opt-in, pending for double opt-in).
  • merge_fields: {FNAME: 'Alice', LNAME: 'Smith', ...}.
  • tags: [{name: 'New Lead', status: 'active'}].

Errors

  • Member Exists – Email already on the list (in any status). Use Upsert (PUT instead of POST) – connector exposes that as Update Member.

Add Tag

Add tags to a subscriber

ParameterRequiredTypeDescription
List Id list_idYestext
Subscriber Hash subscriber_hashYestext
Tags tagsNotext

Create Campaign

Create a new campaign

ParameterRequiredTypeDescription
Type typeYestext
Recipients recipientsYestext
Settings settingsYestext

Tips

  • type: regular, plaintext, absplit, rss, variate.
  • recipients: {list_id} or {list_id, segment_opts}.
  • settings: {subject_line, from_name, reply_to}.

Create segment

Create a segment in a Mailchimp list.

ParameterRequiredTypeDescription
List Id list_idYestext
Name nameYestext
Static Segment static_segmentNotext
Options optionsNotextarea

Delete member

Delete a member from a Mailchimp list.

ParameterRequiredTypeDescription
List Id list_idYestext
Subscriber Hash subscriber_hashYestext

Get Campaign

Get campaign details

ParameterRequiredTypeDescription
Campaign Id campaign_idYestext

Tips

  • Returns campaign + content + recipients summary.

Get member

Get a Mailchimp list member by email.

ParameterRequiredTypeDescription
List Id list_idYestext
Subscriber Hash subscriber_hashYestext

Tips

  • subscriber_hash = md5(lowercase(email)). The connector accepts the email directly and computes the hash.

Get Campaign Report

Get campaign performance report

ParameterRequiredTypeDescription
Campaign Id campaign_idYestext

List automations

List Mailchimp automations.

No input parameters.


List Campaigns

List all campaigns

No input parameters.

Tips

  • Filter by status (save, paused, schedule, sending, sent).

List Audiences

List all audiences/lists

No input parameters.


List Members

List members of an audience

ParameterRequiredTypeDescription
List Id list_idYestext

Tips

  • list_id required.
  • status filter: subscribed, unsubscribed, pending, cleaned, transactional, archived.
  • Pages via count + offset (max count=1000).

List Reports

List all campaign reports

No input parameters.


List segments

List segments for a Mailchimp list.

ParameterRequiredTypeDescription
List Id list_idYestext

Tips

  • Saved segments + 'static' lists (manually managed).

List tags

List tags for a Mailchimp list.

ParameterRequiredTypeDescription
List Id list_idYestext

Tips

  • Tags applied to members in this list.

List Templates

List email templates

No input parameters.

Tips

  • Both Mailchimp's built-in templates and your custom user templates.

Send Campaign

Send a campaign

ParameterRequiredTypeDescription
Campaign Id campaign_idYestext

Tips

  • Sends a campaign that's already been created + content set + scheduled or saved. Use Schedule Campaign for future delivery.

Update Member

Update a subscriber

ParameterRequiredTypeDescription
List Id list_idYestext
Subscriber Hash subscriber_hashYestext

Tips

  • PUT-style – upsert behaviour. Pass status_if_new to control what status new emails get.

FAQ

What's a subscriber_hash and why?
Mailchimp's identifier for a subscriber is md5(lowercase(email)). The connector accepts the raw email and computes the hash – but if you're constructing URLs manually you'll see this hash.
Why does Add Member fail with 'Member Exists' when I want upsert?
POST is strict-create. Use Update Member (PUT) – it's idempotent and creates if not exists, updates if it does. status_if_new controls what status new emails get.
Multiple audiences – should I have one or many?
Mailchimp's pricing is per-contact, deduplicated across audiences only on Premium. For most accounts, one audience with segments + tags works better than multiple audiences.
Transactional email – does this connector send?
No – Mailchimp's marketing API doesn't do transactional sends. Use Mandrill (separate Mailchimp product) or SendGrid / SES via their own connectors for transactional email.

Related connectors

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