MailChimp Design Overview
Product Overview
The MailChimp integration allows users of Maximizer and MailChimp to synchronize contact databases between the two applications and increase the functionality of their email marketing campaigns. MailChimp integration will help you carry out email campaigns successfully and ensure a return on your investment.
Supported Features
- Two-way synchronization of contact information between Maximizer CRM and MailChimp
- Visibility into marketing campaign statistics, including successful deliveries, opens, clicks and bounces from within Maximizer CRM
- Mapping of custom contact fields between Maximizer CRM and MailChimp for enhanced personalization
- Customisable sync timeframe and closed loop reporting, to see which campaigns generated new customers
Additional Information
On-Premise Support: Maximizer CRM 2017 R2 and above
CRM Live Support: Yes
Availability: CAN & UK Data Centers
Design Overview
The purpose of this document is to describe how the Maximizer / Mailchimp integration works and some of the scenarios that you should be aware of when using this connector.
Matching Criteria
In order to identify that one contact in MailChimp is the same person in Maximizer (and vice versa), we use the following fields:
Maximizer | MailChimp |
Mailchimp ID (UDF) | Record ID |
Email address (Use this if Mailchimp ID is not filled or not found) | Email address |
Preconditions
For a Maximizer contact or individual to be synchronized to MailChimp, “Sync with MailChimp” must be set to “Yes” in Maximizer.
In addition, there must be an email filled into the Address Book Entry. The email must not be duplicated with another Address Book entry that is already linked to a Mailchimp record. (If email is duplicated, since we cannot have 2 AB Entry linked to the same Mailchimp record, the “Sync with MailChimp” field of the entry may get set to “No” by the sync service.)
Synchronization Logic
Synchronizing records between Maximizer and MailChimp is based on a cycle that runs once every fixed period to check changes on both sides and perform updates as necessary. The sync frequency can be set to 1 ,2 ,4, 8, 12, 24 hours in the Mailchimp Integration settings dialog.
Maximizer --> MailChimp | MailChimp --> Maximizer | |
Add New Contact | • Creates a new Contact entry in MailChimp list | • Creates a new Individual entry into Maximizer with all basic + UDFs updated |
Add Contact that already exists[1] | • Only possible if contact is added in both Maximizer and MailChimp in one Sync cycle, otherwise follows same rule as the scenario above • Conflict resolution override settings will decide on whether Maximizer Entry will override the MailChimp records (default) or vice versa • In some cases, if adding a duplicate contact into Maximizer, the “Sync with MailChimp” field gets set to “No” and will cause synchronization with MailChimp to stop for this Ab Entry | • Only possible if contact is added in both Maximizer and MailChimp in one Sync cycle, otherwise follows same rule as the scenario above • Conflict resolution override settings will decide on whether Maximizer Entry will override the MailChimp records (default) or vice versa • If the data override settings are set to “Maximizer to MailChimp” then this will take two synchronization cycles to complete |
Edit Contact | • Updates the corresponding contact entry in MailChimp • If both Maximizer and MailChimp are updated within one synchronization cycle, then the last modified time will decide on whether Maximizer Individual will override the MailChimp entry (default) or vice versa | • Updates the corresponding individual in Maximizer • If both Maximizer and MailChimp are updated within one synchronization cycle, then the last modified time will decide on whether Maximizer Individual will override the MailChimp entry (default) or vice versa |
Delete Contact | • Contact will NOT be deleted in MailChimp • New individual will be added back to Maximizer in the next synchronization cycle | • Individual will NOT be deleted in Maximizer • There will be message in log indicating “The contact was permanently deleted and cannot be re-imported. The contact must re-subscribe to get back on the list.”. It is Mailchimp’s policy that deleted records cannot be easily added back programmatically. One may follow this procedure to resubscribe: |
Update / Renaming UDFs | • See “Procedure for Altering UDF choices when dealing with Maximizer Connect for Use with MailChimp.” | N/A |
1 Maximizer -> MailChimp: Add an individual in Maximizer that already exists in MailChimp
MailChimp -> Maximizer: Add a contact in MailChimp that already exists in Maximizer
Procedure for Altering User Defined field choices when dealing with Maximizer Connect for Use with MailChimp
Maximizer Connect for Use with MailChimp is a useful tool to synchronize Maximizer Entries with MailChimp. This is done by mapping fields from Maximizer against similar fields in MailChimp.
In MailChimp there are three types of fields in particular that all map against the Maximizer Table User-Defined field type where there are pre-defined choices of what goes in the field. Those are the Drop Down, Radio Buttons and Groups fields.
Because we are trying to keep the Maximizer and MailChimp systems synchronized there are certain steps that need to be taken if you need to delete or rename one of those pre-defined choices in order for the change to be successful. These procedures are given here.
Note: Before starting either of these procedures, make sure both the MailChimp and Maximizer Field setup is the same
Deleting pre-defined choices:
- If using the On Premise version of Maximizer CRM you need to stop the MailChimp Synchronization service. If you are using CRM Live skip this step. You can stop the service by:
a) Right-click the Windows Start Button and choose “Run”
b) In the box provided type services.msc and click “OK”
c) Find the “Maximizer MailChimp Integration Service” right-click on it and choose “Stop”. The service should stop. - You will need to delete the pre-defined choice from the Drop Down, Radio Buttons or Group field from the MailChimp account. Please see MailChimp documentation for information on how to do this.
- You will need to delete the pre-defined choice from the Maximizer. Do this by:
a) In your Maximizer Address Book click Administration>Setup User-Defined fields.
b) Find the table User-Defined field with which you will want to delete the item from and click the line it’s on to highlight it
c) Click “Items” at the top of the screen.
d) Select the item you want to remove and click “Delete” and then “OK” when asked to confirm. - If you had to stop the MailChimp Synchronization service in step one you should start it again now by:
a) Right-click the Windows Start Button and choose “Run”
b) In the box provided type services.msc and click “OK”
c) Find the “Maximizer MailChimp Integration Service” right-click on it and choose “Start”. The service should start and synchronization will continue.
Renaming pre-defined choices:
- You will need to rename the pre-defined choice from Maximizer. Do this by:
a) In your Maximizer Address Book click Administration>Setup User-Defined fields.
b) Find the table User-Defined field with which you will want to rename the item from and click the line it’s on to highlight it
c) Click “Items” at the top of the screen.
d) Click on the name of the item you want to rename and in the box that comes up type the new name for the item and then click “save” - After the item is renamed you need to update the Maximizer Records that had that item in order to cause them to sync with the new value to MailChimp. You can accomplish this by:
a) In your Maximizer Address Book from the Address Book window Click Search>Advanced Search
b) In the Advanced Search Dialog click “Add”
c) Expand the User-Defined Fields tree and the MailChimp folder and select the “Sync with MailChimp” field and the Table User-Defined field you renamed the item on and click “OK”
d) For the “Sync with MailChimp” field choose “Yes” and for the Table User-Defined field select the renamed item.
e) Back in the Advanced Search dialog make sure “Must match all” is selected and click “OK”
f) After the search completes, Click Edit>Select All
g) Click Edit>Global edit
h) Select to either update some field or add a note and click “OK”. Wait for the update to complete. - Wait for the next MailChimp synchronization session to complete. The new item will now be on the MailChimp side; however the old item will be back on the Maximizer side.
- You will need to now delete the old item. If using the On Premise version of Maximizer CRM you need to stop the MailChimp Synchronization service. If you are using CRM Live skip this step. You can stop the service by:
a) Right-click the Windows Start Button and choose “Run”
b) In the box provided type services.msc and click “OK”
c) Find the “Maximizer MailChimp Integration Service” right-click on it and choose “Stop”. The service should stop. - You will need to delete the pre-defined choice from the Drop Down, Radio Buttons or Group field from the MailChimp account. Please see MailChimp documentation for information on how to do this.
- You will need to delete the pre-defined choice from the Maximizer. Do this by:
a) In your Maximizer Address Book click Administration>Setup User-Defined fields.
b) Find the table User-Defined field with which you will want to delete the item from and click the line it’s on to highlight it
c) Click “Items” at the top of the screen.
d) Select the item you want to remove and click “Delete” and then “OK” when asked to confirm. - If you had to stop the MailChimp Synchronization service in step four you should start it again now by:
a) Right-click the Windows Start Button and choose “Run”
b) In the box provided type services.msc and click “OK”
c) Find the “Maximizer MailChimp Integration Service” right-click on it and choose “Start”. The service should start and synchronization will continue.
Conflict Resolution
Maximizer entries and Mailchimp subscribers updates are normally synchronized following the rule that more recent updates will be copied to the record on the opposite side.
There are 4 situations under which the Conflict Resolution Override setting in the setup dialog will be used to determine the sync direction instead:
- The very first synchronization cycle after Mailchimp integration is initially setup.
- After Field Mapping changed, the entire Maximizer database will be re-sync’ed
- After “Sync Entire List” button pressed, the entire Maximizer database will be re-sync’ed
- When new record pair appears on both sides (which were not previously linked before) at the same time. In such case, the new record pair will be sync’ed following the conflict resolution rule. An example of such situation can be reproduced by the following procedure:
It is important to note that for scenario B where one want to make field mapping changes, one should take care to pay attention to these:
- Make sure the two sides (Maximizer and Mailchimp) are in sync. After that, do not make any changes to records on either side until the entire procedure is finished.
- Make the field mapping change.
- Wait for two synchronization cycles to complete.
Similarly, before one uses the “Sync Entire List” button, he should also make sure the two sides are in sync first.
