Moving from Mailchimp

This guide brings your Mailchimp audience into Wakio and sends your first campaign to it. Everyone who opted out in Mailchimp stays opted out here.

What you'll end up with

Every contact from your Mailchimp export in Wakio, with each opt-out kept as a suppressed address, a record of how each person consented, and a first campaign on its way to the people who are still subscribed.

How long it takes depends on the size of your audience. The import runs in the background, so you can leave the page while it works. Your first campaign then goes out in warm-up stages, which the last step explains.

You need these before you start:

• An owner or admin login. Only owners and admins can start an import and send a campaign.
• A verified sending domain. Wakio will not open a new campaign without one. Sending domains walks you through it.
• A plan. Nothing sends without one, unless Wakio manages your allowance directly. Team, API keys and billing explains plans.
• A list, if you want one. Your subscribed contacts can go straight into a list, but the upload only offers lists that already exist. Create it under Lists first.
• A "First name" field, if you want first names. Wakio brings first names over only when you have a contact field called "First name". Add it under Contact fields before you upload.

1. Export your audience from Mailchimp

Export your audience from Mailchimp as CSV files, which are spreadsheets saved as plain text. Wakio expects what Mailchimp gives you: each file has a header row naming its columns, and each holds people of one subscriber status. Wakio understands Subscribed, Unsubscribed, Cleaned, and Non-subscribed.

Keep the files as they are. Wakio reads four columns by their exact names to record how each person consented: CONFIRM_TIME and OPTIN_TIME for when, and CONFIRM_IP and OPTIN_IP for where from. If you open a file in a spreadsheet and rename those columns, that record is lost.

What you should see: one CSV file for each subscriber status in your audience.

2. Upload the files

Under Imports, choose Import contacts.

1. Pick the list your subscribed contacts join, or leave it on No list.
2. Pick every file from the export at once.

Choose the list, pick every file, and choose Upload and choose columns. Nothing is imported yet.

What you should see: a page with one card for each file you uploaded, headed by the file's name.

3. Say what each column holds

1. Choose the subscriber status this file holds.
2. Set the Email Address column to Email address.
3. Leave the consent columns on Do not import. Wakio reads them anyway.

Nothing is chosen for you, so go through each card:

1. Under Everyone in this file is, choose the file's subscriber status.
2. Set the column that holds the email address to Email address.
3. If you added a "First name" field, set the first name column to it. Set any other column you want to keep to one of your contact fields, and leave the rest on Do not import.

Check each file's status before you start. A status set too strict, such as Unsubscribed on your subscribed file, cannot be undone by importing again.

Choose Start import. What you should see: "Import started." and the import's page, saying the import is running.

4. Read the report

When the import finishes, its page says so and shows how many rows were accepted and rejected. Below that, the report shows what Wakio did with each subscriber status.

1. Your subscribers, now in the list you chose.
2. People who unsubscribed. They are kept as opt-outs.
3. Addresses that bounced. Nothing is sent to them.
4. People who never opted in. They are imported but sent no campaigns.

Every accepted row became a contact, but only your subscribers can receive a campaign. People who unsubscribed still get receipts and password resets from your app. Addresses that bounced get nothing at all.

1. How many opt-outs this import added to your suppressed addresses, and how many of those Wakio also added to the sending service's list.
2. How each contact consented, going by what the export recorded.

The consent table counts each contact under Double opt in, Single opt in or Controller assertion, depending on whether the export carried a confirmation time, only a signup time, or neither. If any rows were rejected, Rejected rows lists them with the reason.

What you should see: "This import has finished." and a count for every subscriber status. Imports explains every part of the report.

5. Send your first campaign

Under Campaigns, choose New campaign, give it a name, and choose Create campaign. In the composer, write a Subject and a Body, choose Save, then Publish. Campaigns explains the composer and sending yourself a test.

1. Send to every subscriber you have.
2. Send only to the subscribers in one list, such as the one you imported into.

Under Who receives this, choose Every active contact, or choose One list and pick the list you imported into. Choose Save audience.

Choose See progress and send, then Send this campaign under Before you send. What you should see: "Sending has started. This page shows the progress."

A new account does not send to everyone at once. Campaigns warm up in stages of 500, 2,500, 10,000, and 50,000 recipients, so a large first send goes out over several stages. Warm-up stages explains how a send moves through them.

If the campaign page shows a note where the button should be, the note says what to fix. The likeliest ones on a first send:

• "Publish the campaign before sending it."
• "Choose an audience before sending."
• "There is nobody on this audience yet. Add active contacts, or choose a different audience." Check that the list you chose is the one you imported into.
• "This send was refused: " and a reason from your plan. Only the account's owner can change the plan.

If something's off

• First names did not come over. Wakio fills in first names only from a column you set to a "First name" contact field. Add the field, then start a new import of the same files: contacts already here are updated, not duplicated. Wakio cannot bring last names into a contact's name. A "Last name" field keeps them as an ordinary field on each contact.
• Rows were rejected because a value did not fit. A column set to one of your contact fields has to hold values that fit that field. A date has to be written year, month, day, and "Yes" does not fit a yes or no field. Each row that does not fit is rejected and listed. If it was an opt-out, its address is still added to your suppressed addresses. Set that column to Do not import, or fix the values, and start a new import.
• Rows say "unknown status: pending". Wakio has no Pending status. If you set a column to Subscriber status and a row in it says pending, that row is rejected and listed with that reason. Every other row in the file is still imported.
• Every row says "missing email". The email column was left on Do not import. Start a new import of the same files and set it to Email address.
• Your welcome flow did not start. That is on purpose. Importing never starts a flow, even into a list that a flow starts on.
• The report says a file could not be read as CSV. The import stopped at that point, and what it applied before is kept. Export the audience from Mailchimp again and start a new import. Contacts already here are updated, not duplicated.

Next

Read Campaigns to test, follow and pause a send.