Migrating from Mailchimp to ConvertKit

An overview of how to migrate your Mailchimp setup to ConvertKit.

Updated over a week ago

It's time to move to the platform made by creators for creators.

Switching from Mailchimp to ConvertKit? You’ve made a great choice.

Let’s get into how to migrate your entire Mailchimp setup to ConvertKit so you can start using our powerful features for creators as soon as possible:

Keep this guide handy—you’ll find it a useful checklist as we delve into the details of doing a thorough Mailchimp migration!

Familiarize yourself with ConvertKit’s terminology

We refer to certain things differently from Mailchimp. Here’s a quick overview of the similarities and differences in our terminology:

Definition / Feature

Mailchimp terminology

ConvertKit terminology

A person who joins your email list

Contact

Subscriber

Your collection of email addresses

Audience

List

NOTE: While you can have multiple Audiences in Mailchimp, you’ll have only one list for all subscribers in your ConvertKit account. Learn more about our subscriber-centric approach here.

Collecting subscribers

Form / Landing page

Design the look and contents of your emails

Template

Send a one-off email

Regular email campaign

Send an automated series of emails

Campaign (in a customer journey or classic automation)

Trigger actions based on subscriber behavior

Customer journey / Classic automation

"Label" subscribers with specific characteristics

Tag / Group

Filter subscribers based on shared characteristics

Segment

Take the time to get the hang of our terminology. You’ll be using it a lot after you’ve switched to our platform!

Import your Mailchimp contacts into ConvertKit

We’ve built a handy Mailchimp importer that makes bringing over your Mailchimp contacts to ConvertKit a breeze.

To access the Mailchimp importer, go to the Subscribers page and click the Add Subscribers button, followed by Import from another provider.

Provide your Mailchimp API key and we’ll automatically sync over your Mailchimp contacts—and their associated data—for you.

Alternatively, you can also import your Mailchimp contacts via a CSV file.

This approach gives you more control over the contact details you bring over to ConvertKit. However, you won’t be able to import certain data such as geolocation and contact rating.

Recreate your Mailchimp forms and landing pages in ConvertKit

Click Landing Pages & Forms under the Grow tab in the top navigation to create a new ConvertKit Form or Landing Page.

Pick a Form or Landing Page template that matches your existing Mailchimp form or landing page the most closely.

After that, use our Form or Landing Page builder to customize the look of your ConvertKit Form or Landing Page (as relevant).

Due to the differences between our and Mailchimp’s builders, you may not be able to achieve a 100% design resemblance. But use this as an opportunity to make your Forms and Landing Pages look even better ✨

Also, don’t forget to replace your Mailchimp forms and landing pages with your ConvertKit ones!

Learn more about recreating your Mailchimp forms and landing pages in ConvertKit here:

Recreate your Mailchimp email templates in ConvertKit

To create a fresh new ConvertKit email template, go to Email Templates under the Send tab in the top navigation.

Select an email template that resembles your Mailchimp one the most closely, then use our visual email template editor to customize it.

In particular, add the elements of your Mailchimp email template that don’t change from email to email. These elements include your logo, newsletter section headings, and font settings for your email’s body text.

Recreate your Mailchimp campaigns in ConvertKit

NOTE: For our purposes, “Mailchimp campaign” refers to the automated emails that are part of a Mailchimp customer journey or classic automation.

If you want to send one-off emails to your subscribers (also known as sending a “regular email campaign” in Mailchimp), check out our guide to Broadcasts.

To recreate your Mailchimp campaigns, you’d need to set up a “Sequence” in ConvertKit. Sequences are sets of automated emails that are sent according to preset send schedules.

You can create a new ConvertKit Sequence by clicking Send in the top navigation, followed by Sequences. After that, recreate your Mailchimp campaign by:

  1. Copy/pasting the contents of your Mailchimp email campaigns over to ConvertKit Sequence emails, and

  2. Setting up your Mailchimp email campaigns’ send schedules in your ConvertKit Sequence.

Recreate your Mailchimp automations in ConvertKit

After recreating your Mailchimp campaigns, you’re in a good position to recreate your Mailchimp automations as ConvertKit Visual Automations.

To create a new ConvertKit Visual Automation, go to Visual Automations under the Automate tab in the top navigation.

Regardless of whether you’re recreating a Mailchimp customer journey or classic automation, the approach is roughly the same.

First, you’ll recreate the starting point or trigger of your customer journey or classic automation (as relevant) as entry points of your new ConvertKit Visual Automation.

Subsequently, you’ll add steps in your Visual Automation that correspond to the:

  • Rules and actions in your Mailchimp customer journey, or

  • Emails and post-send actions in your Mailchimp classic automation.

For example, your Mailchimp customer journey may have an action that involves sending a Mailchimp campaign to your contacts.

If so, you’d add a step in your ConvertKit Visual Automation to send a ConvertKit sequence—which you’ll have recreated earlier!—to your subscribers.

Learn more about recreating your Mailchimp customer journeys and classic automations in ConvertKit here:

Test your migrated Mailchimp setup

Once you’ve recreated your Mailchimp setup in ConvertKit, the last step is to test it to ensure that it works!

To do so, preview your Forms and Landing Pages (on your website, if possible) to confirm that you’re happy with their appearance.

In addition, preview your Sequence emails from the Sequence editor or by sending yourself a test email.

It’s also a good idea to test your Visual Automations. You can do so by entering your Visual Automation from one of its entry points (such as subscribing to your own Form) and seeing what happens when you do so.

Need a hand with any aspect of your Mailchimp migration? Our incredible Mailchimp migrations team would love to help. You can get in touch with them here.

Once you’ve completed your Mailchimp migration, you might want to start sending one-off emails to your subscribers.

As mentioned, we call such emails “Broadcasts”—and you can learn how to create them here 👇

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