Connect Mailchimp

Connect Mailchimp to save visitors' answers on their audience records and use them in your follow-up. Once RightMessage identifies someone, you can also use their merge fields, tags, and audience memberships to personalize your website.

Connect Mailchimp

You'll need permission to manage your RightMessage project's integration, a Mailchimp login that can authorize access, and at least one Mailchimp audience. Each project connects to one email platform or CRM at a time. Review where you use an existing connection before replacing it.

1. Open your RightMessage project settings and select Integration.
2. On Email platforms & CRMs, choose Mailchimp.
3. Click Connect to Mailchimp.
4. Sign in to the Mailchimp account you want to use and approve access.
5. Return to Overview in RightMessage and check connection status.

Enlarge

Mailchimp connection controls in RightMessage, with no credentials enteredOriginalOriginal

Mailchimp uses OAuth, so you don't paste an API key, access token, or refresh token into this setup. Use Reconnect to Mailchimp if it needs authorization again.

Your account's Audiences, Tags, and Merge Fields are now available to choose from. You'll still need to choose a signup audience and map your questions. The health check uses Mailchimp's account ping endpoint. You'll test signups, merge-field updates, and tags below.

Prepare a test contact in your audience and a page with the RightMessage snippet installed.

Choose an audience for new signups

New Mailchimp contacts need an audience destination. A field mapping or tag doesn't replace it. If you don't have an audience yet, create one in Mailchimp first.

For an identifying Email question:

1. Open Questions, choose the Email question, and open Setup.
2. Keep Identify the visitor enabled.
3. Under Contact action, choose Add to audience.
4. Select the destination under Audiences.
5. Review consent settings and publish when you're ready.

The integration requests subscribed status for a new audience member, not the pending status used for double opt-in. It doesn't automatically resubscribe an existing unsubscribed member. Set up your signup and consent accordingly. A Mailchimp form's confirmation behavior doesn't automatically carry over to RightMessage.

You don't need a matching Mailchimp hosted form for each RightMessage form. The supported destination is the audience, not a hosted-form submission.

If an email belongs to several audiences, each audience has its own fields and tags for that person. Choose the audience you use, not a similarly named field in another one. RightMessage can read matching memberships across the connected account, but it doesn't merge those records into one audience.

Recognize subscribers from email links

Add rm_mc_id to links to your website. For example, a link to WorkForge (opens in a new tab) could be:

https://workforge.rightmessage.com/solutions.html?rm_mc_id=*|URL:EMAIL|*

Use your own page URL. Mailchimp's *|EMAIL|* merge tag supplies the email, and the URL: version encodes it for a link. Both appear in Mailchimp's merge-tag reference (opens in a new tab). If your URL already has a query string, append &rm_mc_id=*|URL:EMAIL|*.

RightMessage accepts an email or the Mailchimp API's 32-character subscriber hash in rm_mc_id. Don't substitute mc_eid, an audience ID, or *|UNIQID|*. Turning on e-commerce link tracking alone won't identify someone through this connection.

1. Send a recipient-specific email to your test audience member with the identifying link.
2. Open the received link in a fresh browser session on a page with RightMessage installed.
3. Check that RightMessage identifies the intended contact.
4. Revisit without the parameter to check that the browser is remembered.

A template preview with an unresolved merge tag won't work. RightMessage removes the identifying parameter from the displayed URL after reading it, but the original link still contains an email address. Keep personalized links private. Another browser or device needs its own identification.

Choose what to sync

Map an answer to a merge field when you want to save a value, or use tags when each answer should have its own tag.

1. Open Questions and choose a multiple-choice question.
2. Open Sync with Mailchimp.
3. Under Sync mode, choose Merge Fields.
4. Under Destination, select the audience's field in Save answers to Mailchimp.
5. Set each Answer → value mapping to a value the field accepts.
6. Choose Publish when you're ready to make the changes live.

To use tags instead, choose Tags and select an existing destination under Answer → tags. When an identified visitor changes their answers, RightMessage adds the newly selected mapped tags and removes mapped tags for answers that no longer apply. It leaves unrelated tags alone.

The editor offers Merge Fields and Tags, not an audience for each answer. Configure audience additions through the signup action. Multiple-selection questions default to tags when no mode is saved. Check the mode before mapping. Changing it and confirming Switch & Clear removes the previous mappings.

Match the field's format

Field mode saves multiple selections as a comma-separated string. Use a text merge field for that format, or tags for separate selections. Mailchimp's multi-choice interest groups expect individual interest IDs. A combined string can match none of them and clear the intended selections, so don't use it as though it were separate interest updates.

Mailchimp exposes structured Merge Fields, including audience interest-group data, rather than a separate native-field catalog. Save names and other contact details to the appropriate audience merge field. Create new merge fields and tags in Mailchimp. This connector doesn't create their definitions from the mapping control.

Choose the audience-prefixed destination, such as Audience name → Field name, and match its type and allowed values. A field write is skipped if the contact hasn't joined that audience. It doesn't enroll them there.

RightMessage reads merge fields, selected interests, audience membership, and static tags. It doesn't expose Mailchimp's dynamic segments, campaign activity, or purchase history. Data becomes available for website conditions after identification. Existing matching mapped values can also put the contact in the corresponding RightMessage segment without asking the question again.

Follow Map answers to contact fields and tags for shared mapping behavior.

Check the connection

1. Identify your existing test contact's browser and submit one mapped answer.
2. Open that contact in the intended Mailchimp audience and check the exact field or tag.
3. Submit a signup with an email you control that isn't already in that audience.
4. Check that Mailchimp added it to the selected audience, then inspect its subscription status.

If a new field or tag is missing from the picker, use Clear Cache on Overview, then reopen the picker. Check History for failed writes. Clearing cached fields and tags doesn't import old answers or repair a mapping to the wrong audience.

When answers reach the right audience record and new signups join the selected audience, your setup is working. Verify an integration change walks through identification and saved-data checks if something is missing.