Mailchimp integration without code: contacts, tags and Mandrill emails

The Mailchimp integration in nana800 adds and updates contacts in an audience (the contact list of Mailchimp), sets and removes tags, and sends event emails through Mandrill, the transactional email service of Mailchimp. So a website lead lands in the audience with the right tag at once. A block run costs $0.002, and your balance is topped up to $3.50 for free every month.

Build it in the builder
  • Block run: $0.002
  • Free every month: $3.50
  • No card needed

What you can do

  • Add a new subscriber to an audience or update an existing one: first name, last name, phone, birthday
  • Add tags to a contact, remove them or set the full list of tags
  • Send an email from a ready Mandrill template and fill it with your data: name, order number, link
  • Send an email with your own HTML and no template, with open and click tracking
  • See in the result whether Mandrill accepted the email: status sent, queued or scheduled and the message number

Blocks in the builder

  • Mailchimp: contacts, tags and emails

    Action · $0.002 per run

    One operation per run: send_template and send_html send an email through Mandrill, upsert_member creates or updates an audience contact, set_tags, add_tags and remove_tags change its tags.

How to set it up

  1. 1

    Get the Mailchimp and Mandrill keys

    For contacts and tags you need a Mailchimp key: Account, Extras, API keys. The server code is the last part of that key after the dash, for example us14. For emails you need a Mandrill key: in Mandrill open Settings, SMTP & API Info.

  2. 2

    Find the audience ID

    In Mailchimp open Audience, Settings, Audience name and defaults and copy the Audience ID, for example a1b2c3d4e5. All contact and tag operations need it.

  3. 3

    Add a contact from a lead

    Create a scheme with a trigger that brings an email address, for example webhook from a website form. Add the Mailchimp: email + tags block, choose upsert_member and fill in the key, server code, audience ID and email, plus the name and phone if you have them.

  4. 4

    Add a tag and send an email

    Add one more Mailchimp: email + tags block with add_tags and put the tag name into the tags to add, for example website, with the value 1. For the email add a block with send_template: the Mandrill key, the template name, subject, sender email and variables to fill the template.

  5. 5

    Turn the scheme on and test it

    To test, temporarily add the button trigger, put your own address into the Email field, turn the scheme on and press the button. In the block result success is true when Mailchimp or Mandrill accepted the request, otherwise the reason is in error_message. Then keep the scheme on. While it is on, it costs $0.0042 per hour.

Frequently asked questions

A block run costs $0.002. If the service refuses the request, the run is not charged. Mandrill emails and the Mailchimp audience are billed under your Mailchimp plan. An enabled scheme costs $0.0042 per hour. Your balance is topped up to $3.50 for free every month, no card needed. A scheme kept on around the clock for a month spends most of that on scheme hours.

Contacts and tags need a Mailchimp key and the server code, for example us14. The send_template and send_html emails need a Mandrill key. Mandrill is the Mailchimp service for event emails, and its key is in Mandrill under Settings, SMTP & API Info.

Most often the domain of the sender address is not verified in Mandrill, so the email is rejected. Then success is false and the reason is in error_message. An email counts as accepted when its status is sent, queued or scheduled.

add_tags adds the listed tags and leaves the rest alone. set_tags keeps only the listed tags on the contact and turns off all others. remove_tags removes the listed ones. The contact with this email must already be in the audience, otherwise Mailchimp answers that it was not found.

A new contact joins the audience as subscribed. For an existing contact the first name, last name, phone and birthday are updated. If the contact unsubscribed earlier, the block returns success false and the contact status in error_message. Write the birthday as 1990-05-17.

Build your first scheme for free

Sign-up is free and needs no card. Every month the balance is topped up to $3.50 for free, enough for about 3,500 runs of basic blocks.

Build it in the builder