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Mailchimp Integration

Connect Somiti to Mailchimp so your email list stays current without manual exports. When a member joins or their status changes, Somiti updates your Mailchimp audience automatically.

The sync is one-way: Somiti sends data to Mailchimp. Changes made directly in Mailchimp don’t come back to Somiti.

Connect Mailchimp

You’ll need a Mailchimp API key and the ID of the audience you want to sync members into. Both come from your Mailchimp account.

Get your Mailchimp API key:

  1. Log in to Mailchimp and go to Account > Extras > API keys.
  2. Click Create A Key and copy the key.

Get your Audience ID:

  1. In Mailchimp, go to Audience > All contacts.
  2. Click Settings > Audience name and defaults.
  3. Copy the Audience ID shown on that page.

Connect in Somiti:

  1. Go to Settings > Integrations.
  2. Find Mailchimp and click Connect.
  3. Enter your API Key.
  4. Enter your Audience ID.
  5. Choose whether to sync members automatically when they join or when their profile is updated (both are on by default).
  6. Optionally, add Default Tags as a comma-separated list (for example: Community Member, 2024). Somiti will apply these tags to every member it syncs.
  7. Click Save.

After saving, click Test Connection to confirm Somiti can reach your Mailchimp account. You’ll see the audience name if the connection works.

Note: Each Somiti community can connect to one Mailchimp audience. If you want to split members across multiple audiences, you’d need to do that in Mailchimp using segments after the sync.

Sync members to Mailchimp

How automatic sync works

Once connected, Somiti syncs members to Mailchimp in three situations:

  • A new member joins your community
  • A member’s profile is updated (if you left “Sync member updates” enabled)
  • A member’s status changes (active, suspended, or inactive)

Members with active status are added to Mailchimp as subscribed. Members who become suspended or inactive are marked as unsubscribed in Mailchimp.

Somiti only syncs active members in a full sync. The data sent for each member is their email address, first name, and last name.

See Members for how member statuses work and how to change them.

Run a manual sync

To push all current active members to Mailchimp at once:

  1. Go to Settings > Integrations.
  2. Click View next to your Mailchimp integration.
  3. Click Full Sync.

Somiti will show you how many members synced and how many failed when it’s done.

Note: If a member’s email address is malformed or was previously unsubscribed in Mailchimp, that member will fail to sync. Mailchimp won’t re-add someone who unsubscribed on their own. Fix invalid emails in Members before re-syncing.

What Mailchimp receives

Field Where it comes from
Email address Member’s email in Somiti
First name First word of the member’s name
Last name Remaining words of the member’s name
Tags Default tags you set in the integration settings
Subscription status Active = subscribed; Suspended/Inactive = unsubscribed

Somiti doesn’t sync phone numbers, join dates, membership tiers, or other profile fields. If you need those in Mailchimp, export your member list from the Members page and import it manually into Mailchimp.

Disconnect Mailchimp

  1. Go to Settings > Integrations.
  2. Click View next to your Mailchimp integration.
  3. Click Delete (or find the delete option in settings).
  4. Confirm the deletion.

Warning: Disconnecting stops all future syncs. Your existing Mailchimp subscribers aren’t affected. Nobody gets removed from your audience.

Troubleshooting

Test connection fails

  • Check that you copied the full API key including the datacenter suffix (for example, xxxxxxxx-us1).
  • Check that the Audience ID matches the audience in your Mailchimp account.
  • Make sure the API key hasn’t been disabled or deleted in Mailchimp.

Members aren’t syncing automatically

  • Check that the integration is active (go to Settings > Integrations and look for the green “Connected” badge).
  • Check that “Sync new members automatically” is enabled in the integration settings.
  • Run a manual sync and check the results for errors.

A member failed to sync

  • Check that their email address is valid. You can edit it from the Members page.
  • If they previously unsubscribed in Mailchimp, Mailchimp won’t re-add them. That’s by design.
  • Members - View and manage your member list, including statuses
  • Notifications - Somiti’s built-in email notifications to members (separate from Mailchimp)