Best Practices for Switching to Mailchimp

Switching marketing platforms can seem overwhelming, but it doesn’t have to be. Before you switch, download your contacts from your email service provider (ESP) or customer relationship manager (CRM) so you can add them to your Mailchimp account.

In this article, you’ll learn some of the best practices for switching to Mailchimp.

Getting started with Mailchimp

Mailchimp provides a number of tools to help you speak to your audience, and we’re constantly evolving our platform with you in mind. Check out our guides to see how we can fit into your marketing strategy.

Mailchimp Resources
Getting Started with Mailchimp
What’s New in Mailchimp

You can easily switch from any platform to Mailchimp. We have resources and onboarding professionals to help you get started.

Sign up for Mailchimp

To get started, sign up for a Mailchimp account. All new accounts start on the Free plan. After signup, you can import your contacts right away. Audiences with 500 contacts or less can remain on the Free plan. Upgrade to a paid plan when you reach more than 500 contacts.

Sign up for Mailchimp
About Mailchimp Pricing Plans
Upgrade Your Account

Manage your audience

At Mailchimp, we store your contacts’ data in an audience. You can work in 1 audience or multiple audiences, depending on your plan. We recommend 1 main audience that uses groups, tags, and segments to organize contacts. This will allow you to send to all contacts at once, or send targeted content to specific segments of your contacts.

Consider more than 1 audience if you manage multiple clients or need to advertise different brands to specific sets of contacts. But keep in mind that separate Mailchimp audiences are independent of one another, even if they’re in the same account. Audiences don't share contact data or campaign statistics, and duplicate contacts across audiences will be counted more than once.

Create a Mailchimp Audience

Import your contacts

If you import contacts from another email or marketing service, you may need to reorganize or reconfirm your email addresses. When you download contacts from your previous provider, keep subscribed, unsubscribed, and cleaned contacts in separate categories for importing. This will help prevent any compliance or delivery issues, reduce abuse complaints and bounces, and may increase your engagement.

Import Contacts to Mailchimp
Reconfirm Contacts
About Your Contacts