Mailchimp is a marketing automation platform and an email marketing service (it's a system for sending your email newsletter - and much more). Sheep connects directly to Mailchimp to keep your database and email lists in sync.
Mailchimp Setup in Sheep
Log into Sheep
Select ‘Settings’ from the left hand menu (If you can’t see Settings as an option then you don’t have Admin permissions)
Scroll down to 'API Keys', find the Mailchimp card
Click the connect button (If you are already connected the card will tell you)
Configuration
You can choose how data is synchronised between Sheep and Mailchimp. The recommended approach is to have one list in Mailchimp for all your contacts (and to use segmentation to define your audiences).
From the Sheep settings find the Mailchimp Config card
Expand the card to show your lists in Mailchimp
Add the list name in the form field 'Mailchimp List Name' if you want Sheep to automatically add new contacts to Mailchimp
Sheep will display the lists that you have within Mailchimp. Select which lists you want to import contacts from using the on/off slider.
Automatic Synchronisation
Sheep checks every night for new subscribers to your mailing lists and pushes new contacts up to Mailchimp every couple of hours. If you don't want to wait you can subscribe and remove a single contact from a Mailchimp list under the journal section of the contacts page.
Synchronisation Issues
There are several reasons why the number of subscribers in Mailchimp doesn't match the number in Sheep.
Timing delay
Contacts in Sheep with no email address
Contacts that have opted out of email
Contact that haven't given consent (or have withdrawn it)
Contact that doesn't have another GDPR legal basis for processing
Contacts rejected by MailChimp: (we get errors like
xxxx@yyyy.zz has signed up to a lot of lists very recently; we're not allowing more signups for now)
What gets synchronised?
A normal configuration has data flowing both ways but you have full control through the settings in Sheep.
All contacts with a valid GDPR reason will be synchronised. The recommended Mailchimp setup is to have a single 'Master' list will all subscribers. Sheep will pull data down from multiple lists but only one list can be designated for new subscribers.
You may have used multiple lists in Mailchimp or may have come from another mailing system with multiple lists. The approach we use with Mailchimp is for a single master list "Audience" of all contacts and dynamic segments to divide that into the groups that you want to send to.
If you are membership organisation then All Members will be a common segment. The following screenshot shows a typical segment with one rule to only include members.
What does "not synchronising (no GDPR)" mean?
This message is shown in the summary card of a person when MailChimp has been configured but the person doesn't have any active GDPR records. To help keep you on the right side of the GDPR line Sheep won't synchronise with MailChimp when GDPR records are missing. If the contact has already subscribed then Sheep won't unsubscribe. You can use the "Sync with MailChimp" button on the about card to over-ride and perform a one-off sync.
The Mailchimp synchronisation process
Audience Compatibility
The Sheep system will not be able to push new contacts to your list if you have setup custom required fields.
Sheep expects the following "merge tags" or fields to be used,
FNAME - first name
LNAME - last name
EMAIL - email
For example if you are using LAST_NAME as a required field for surname then new subscriptions will be rejected because Sheep is sending LNAME.