In this guide you will learn how to integrate your Pico dashboard contact data to sync with Mailchimp.
- Leverage your Pico-Mailchimp integration
- Integrating Mailchimp
- Syncing your lists
- Preparing to merge
- Merging lists into a master list
- How to edit Pico-Mailchimp merge fields
- The syncing of data from Pico to Mailchimp
Leverage your Pico-Mailchimp integration
If you use Mailchimp as your email service provider (ESP), you can use all the data in your Pico CRM to manage email newsletters as well as create audience segments for email marketing campaigns. For example, you can leverage your Pico-Mailchimp integration to:
- target paying readers who haven't visited your site in a while to reduce churn
- tailor content newsletters based on what content category a reader consumes most or where they're reading from
- target donors by total gift size or frequency of gift
- send an email to readers whose trials are about to expire
- manage exclusive email lists for paid subscribers or members
Integrating Mailchimp:
Navigate to the Apps page in the Pico Dashboard: https://dashboard.trypico.com/apps
Click "Install**"** under Mailchimp.
Follow the in-window prompt to login to your Mailchimp account:
And then click on your account:
Once you select your account, the window will redirect back to the Pico Dashboard. To see your newly synced Pico list in Mailchimp, log in to Mailchimp and navigate to Audiences. You'll see a newly created Audience called "Pico"
If you open that Audience and click on the Toggle Columns button...
We strongly recommend you use Pico as your master list. This means you should import all other email lists into the 'Pico' list. Using one master list:
- allows Pico to update those readers who create accounts via Pico (allowing you to keep their preferences up to date)
- gives you one place to send all email campaigns, even if that campaign has no Pico-validated readers
- prevents duplicate correspondence
…you'll notice that most of the available columns you can add to your table view are custom for Pico, such as "Paying", "Total Paid", and "Days Left on Trial."
⚠️ NOTE: If you do not see the information automatically syncing to your newly create audience list make sure that you do not have merge fields marked as required. With the exception of email, it's possible that Pico won't have other contact information, so the attempts to create these records in your Mailchimp audience will fail if you have required fields enabled.
Syncing your Lists
When Pico syncs with the 'Pico' list, columns are only added or updated, not subtracted. This applies to records that you have imported into the 'Pico' list from a non-Pico source as well. If such a non-Pico reader registers on your site with Pico, Pico will match records so as not to create a duplicate record.
For example, here is your 'Pico' list after you've merged a preexisting list of two readers into the Pico list, which has no readers to start:
Now you sync your lists. User A has not registered on your site via Pico, but User B has. User C is a new user who also registered via Pico.
Preparing to merge
We recommend exporting/backing up any existing list you have to keep its contents safe in case something happens during the merge.
You should also try to clean up your existing merge fields as best as you can to match Pico's (e.g., splitting a 'full name' field into separate first and last name fields).
For an updated list of Pico's merge fields, please click here.
For instructions on splitting text in a column into multiple columns, click here.
Merging lists into a master list
Rather than use Mailchimp's tools to merge existing lists, we recommend exporting all the lists that you want to import, cleaning them up in Excel or another spreadsheet editor, and then adding them directly to the Pico master list. This way, any mistakes are completely reversible. Mailchimp has extensive instructions on this process here.
Before you start sending emails from your Pico list in Mailchimp
Update your default Mailchimp footer as described https://help.trypico.com/en/articles/2906094-essential-changes-to-your-mailchimp-templates-when-using-pico
How to edit Pico-Mailchimp merge fields
From the Pico dashboard, navigate to the Apps page.
Then select the Manage option under Mailchimp:
In the Synced Audience section, you will see the current Mailchimp Audience that your Merge Tags are syncing to.
It is recommended to merge any existing audience list into one master called "Pico" so you can easily manage from one audience list. (If you need additional help on how to merge list, Mailchimp has extensive instructions on this process here.)
In the Synced Merge Tags section, you will see a list of all merge fields available. You can toggle which merge tags you want to sync to your selected Mailchimp audience list by checking the box to the left of the tag.
The syncing of data from Pico to Mailchimp is one direction.
For example, when a new user registers an email from your signup popups or landing pages, you will see a new record populate in your Pico CRM. Then, based on the following merge fields you have selected within this Pico-Mailchimp app page, the selected merge field data will automatically sync and populate in the audience list you have designated. To verify, try testing your registration rule and sign in with a test email account. Then log into to your Mailchimp account and view the audience list, you should see the newly created contact with corresponding merge field data available for that contact.
Changing values in Mailchimp will not sync to your Pico CRM automatically.
If you need have values in your existing Mailchimp, for example, "Newsletters" that need to be updated to your Pico CRM, and you update the contact value in Mailchimp, you will not see the change in your Pico CRM. If you need to update a group of contacts from Mailchimp, please contact support@trypico.com and email us your request.