Measure
Mailchimp connector
Connect Mailchimp with an API key. Campaign sends, opens, clicks and unsubscribes join each customer, and Sporetag writes back merge fields and tags.
The Mailchimp connector works in two directions:
- In: campaign sends, opens, clicks and unsubscribes join each customer profile.
- Out: Sporetag writes each customer's first and last source, lifetime value, orders and best send hour into merge fields. Segments you pick become tags.
It is on paid plans: Solo, Studio, Agency and Custom. Free does not include it.
Connect
- In Sporetag, open your site, then Integrations. Under Email and texts, click Connect next to Mailchimp.
- In Mailchimp, click your profile icon, then Profile. Open Extras, then API keys.
- Click Create A Key and name it
Sporetag. - Copy the whole key. It ends with a dash and your server, like
-us6. - Paste it into Sporetag and click Connect Mailchimp.
Sporetag reads your server from the end of the key, so you never type it.
Mailchimp keys cannot be limited to some data. Any key can read and change the whole account. Sporetag only reads campaign reports and writes its own merge fields and tags. If that is too much access for you, use the Events API from a tool such as Zapier instead.
The key is stored encrypted. It is never shown again, and it never appears in logs.
What comes in
Sporetag reads Mailchimp's campaign reports:
| Mailchimp report | On the customer |
|---|---|
| Sent to | Email sent |
| Email activity: open | Email opened |
| Email activity: click | Email clicked, with the link (without its query string) |
| Unsubscribes | Unsubscribed from email |
Each item shows the campaign's subject line.
- The first import reads campaigns sent in the last 90 days, up to 100 campaigns.
- After that, every 15 minutes, Sporetag reads opens, clicks and unsubscribes for campaigns sent in the last 30 days, and sends for new campaigns.
- Automated emails (Customer Journeys) have no campaign report in Mailchimp's API, so they are not read. Their clicks still show up as visits when the links carry UTM tags.
Who the customer is
Sporetag finds the customer by the member's email (hashed with SHA-256) and by Mailchimp's member id in each audience.
- A click or an unsubscribe can add a new customer.
- A send or an open only joins a customer Sporetag already knows.
What goes back
Mailchimp merge tags are at most 10 characters, so the names are short. Sporetag makes these fields in each audience the first time, hidden from signup forms:
| Merge tag | Field name | What it holds |
|---|---|---|
STFIRST | Sporetag first source | Where they first came from |
STLAST | Sporetag last source | Where they came from last |
STLTV | Sporetag lifetime value | Lifetime value |
STORDERS | Sporetag orders | Number of orders |
STBESTHR | Sporetag best send hour | Their best hour, 0 to 23, in their time zone |
STTZ | Sporetag time zone | The time zone that hour is in |
- Sporetag only updates members Mailchimp already has. It never adds members and never changes their status.
- A member is sent again only when one of the values changed.
- Your plan limits how many merge fields an audience can have. If an audience is full, those fields are not made.
- To stop, click Stop sending back on the connector's page.
Segments as tags
Each segment you send to Mailchimp becomes a tag named Sporetag: and the segment's name. Sporetag adds the tag to members who match and takes it off members who stop matching, every 15 minutes.
If something goes wrong
- Mailchimp did not accept the key. It was turned off or deleted. Make a new key and paste it.
- Mailchimp is busy right now. Nothing to do. Sporetag tries again in 15 minutes.
- Paused. Connectors are on paid plans. The plan changed to Free.
Disconnect
Click Disconnect on the connector's page. The key is deleted at once. Items already imported stay on your customers, and the fields and tags stay in Mailchimp. Delete the key in Mailchimp too.
Something missing or wrong? Email hello@sporetag.com.