Migrating From Mailchimp to ActiveCampaign: A Complete Guide

Switching from one email marketing platform to another used to mean weeks of manual work. Teams would export spreadsheets, rebuild templates, recreate automations one trigger at a time, and hope nothing broke in transition.

That friction is reason enough for most teams to put off a move they know would serve them better.

Luckily, it no longer has to be that way. In this guide, we cover two different ways you can migrate your Mailchimp data over to ActiveCampaign. First we’ll review the automated migration solution for teams short on time, then go over the complete manual process for those looking to stay in control of every asset.

For a deeper feature-by-feature look at why teams make the switch, check out our ActiveCampaign vs. Mailchimp comparison article.

How to use this guide: This isn’t meant to be read top to bottom. Pick and choose which method works best for you, and jump to the relevant guide sections using the content menu or by scrolling on mobile.

ActiveCampaign’s migration solution automates the platform switch for you. Working with our preferred partner Quazzlient, the migration solution pulls your Mailchimp data through a secure API connection and Active Intelligence transforms and imports it to match ActiveCampaign’s structure. What previously took weeks now only takes hours, causing minimum disruption to your campaigns and delivering value right away.

What the migration solution brings over

When you automate your migration, Active Intelligence automatically brings over the core of your Mailchimp setup, including:

• Contacts and contact data, mapped to ActiveCampaign’s fields
• Lists, tags, and custom fields that match ActiveCampaign’s data model
• Email campaigns all reformatted for ActiveCampaign’s editor
• Automations with logic and triggers converted into ActiveCampaign workflows
• Forms that align with ActiveCampaign’s unique forms

Built-in quality checks catch errors before anything launches, so what you get in your account is clean and ready to send. The migration solution is ideal for teams that not only want to move over their contact list but contacts and all related assets together.

How to start your migration

To get started with the migration solution:

1. Open the migration solution card. After logging into your ActiveCampaign account, find the migration solution card on the Active Intelligence homepage and click Connect my account.
2. Review and accept Quazzlient’s terms & conditions to ensure Quazzlient securely pulls in your marketing data from Mailchimp.
3. Enter your Mailchimp API key when prompted and Active Intelligence prepares your transformed assets. Review all imported items before completing the import, and you’ll find your contacts organized, automations ready to activate, and emails ready to send in ActiveCampaign.

Note: The migration solution is currently only available for teams switching from Mailchimp.

If you prefer moving everything over yourself, or you want to bring over inputs the migration solution doesn’t currently handle, this section is for you. We’ve broken the manual migration into three distinct phases: exporting from Mailchimp, setting up ActiveCampaign, and rebuilding advanced elements.

Phase 1. Exporting your data from Mailchimp

The first thing you’ll need to do is export and save all of your data from Mailchimp so it’s ready to import into ActiveCampaign.

Step 1. Log into Mailchimp

Log into your Mailchimp account and navigate to the Lists section at the top of the page. This is where you’ll export your lists and segments.

Step 2. Export lists, segments, and tags

In Mailchimp, a list is called an audience. To export your audience:

1. Click on Audience and then All contacts
2. Select the list you want to save under Current audience
3. Find and click the Export Audience button
4. Click Export as CSV to download your contacts
5. Repeat for other audiences you have

Note: Segments can’t be directly imported into ActiveCampaign, but they’re worth saving for reference and backup so you can rebuild them later.

Step 3. Export reports and templates

Reports and templates won’t import directly to ActiveCampaign, but you can export campaign data and HTML from your templates. This gives you access to the data you need to reference back to previous campaigns and offers an easy way to add new HTML templates once you’re in ActiveCampaign.

1. Navigate to the Analytics tab in your Mailchimp account
2. Select the audience you want to export tags from
3. Click Download All Reports or download individual reports by clicking the dropdown button next to the report and clicking Download

You can also use the filters to export reports by status, type, or within self-created folders. For templates, export the HTML file to paste into ActiveCampaign.

Step 4. Forms, surveys, and automations

While you can’t directly import forms and automations into ActiveCampaign, it’s good practice to save them for future reference when it’s time to recreate them in ActiveCampaign. Before migrating, document all your automation flows, triggers, conditions, and actions. Understanding that logic now makes rebuilding them faster and accurate later.

Tips to ensure data integrity during migration

• Double-check your exports: Confirm your contacts, tags, segments, reports, and templates export completely and accurately, ensuring all required fields are present and match what you had in Mailchimp.
• Verify file formats: Files should be compatible with ActiveCampaign. For example, contacts should export as a CSV and double check the code for HTML templates is intact.
• Keep a backup: Save a copy of your Mailchimp data before you begin so you have a fallback option just in case something goes wrong during the export process.

Phase 2. Setting up your ActiveCampaign account

Step 1. Create your ActiveCampaign account

To get started, select the plan that best fits your needs from the ActiveCampaign pricing page. ActiveCampaign offers a variety of options for different sizes and types of businesses, each coming with a unique set of features and capabilities.

If this is your first time using ActiveCampaign, we offer a free 14-day trial so you can explore all of our products and features.

Step 2. Import your contacts

1. Review your Mailchimp CSV files. Ensure data including your contacts, tags, segments, and any other relevant data is accurate.
2. In ActiveCampaign, navigate to Contacts and then Lists.
3. Click Add a list to create a new list that corresponds to your Mailchimp audience.
4. Import your CSV and map each column to the appropriate ActiveCampaign field.
   1. If a field doesn’t exist, you can create it during the import process

Step 3. Rebuild your segments

While Mailchimp segments don’t directly transfer, they are straightforward to recreate in ActiveCampaign.

• Dynamic segments: In your imported list, click Create a Segment and rebuild your conditions. ActiveCampaign’s segments update automatically as contacts meet your criteria.
• Static segments: You can recreate these in ActiveCampaign using tags. As you import contacts from Mailchimp, add a tag that corresponds to each of your static segments.
• Test as you go: As you set up segments in ActiveCampaign, don’t forget to test and validate against the original ones and adjust any criteria that don't line up.

Step 4. Recreate your email templates

If you’ve downloaded your Mailchimp email templates as an HTML file, recreating them in ActiveCampaign is simple:

1. In ActiveCampaign, navigate to Campaigns > click Campaign Templates and Create a Template.
2. If you have your Mailchimp HTML file, click Custom HTML and paste in the HTML text into the field box.
3. Adjust and customize the design using ActiveCampaign’s editor, fine-tuning the layout, colors, and fonts.
4. Use the ActiveCampaign email designer to add elements like buttons, social media links, or personalized content blocks.
5. Send a test email to ensure your email renders correctly across different email clients and devices, then save the template in ActiveCampaign.

Phase 3: Rebuild forms, surveys, and automations

These elements require additional configuration, so they can’t be directly imported and instead require manual or more complex configurations.

Forms and surveys

1. Review your Mailchimp forms and take note of their structure, questions, and types of responses they gather
2. In ActiveCampaign, navigate to Website and click Create a new form to rebuild each form
3. For more complex forms, ActiveCampaign integrates with several third-party form tools to assist you
4. Test your forms before going live to ensure data is accurately captured

Automations

1. Use ActiveCampaign’s robust automation features to rebuild your workflows, referencing your original Mailchimp automations or documentation
2. Improve or enhance your original automations using ActiveCampaign’s advanced automation options like triggers and conditional logic
3. Test and optimize your automations in ActiveCampaign to ensure they trigger and function as intended

Before you begin migration, it’s helpful to know what Mailchimp terminology maps to in ActiveCampaign. A few of the most common differences include:

• Audience vs. List: Mailchimp’s “Audience” is your full contact database. ActiveCampaign’s “List” is a specific set of contacts within your database.
• Group vs. Tag: Adding a contact to a “group” in Mailchimp is the equivalent of applying a “tag” in ActiveCampaign.
• Campaigns: In Mailchimp, “Campaigns” can be emails, ads, or social posts. In ActiveCampaign, a “Campaign” refers specifically to email campaigns.
• Automation: Both platforms have “automations”. ActiveCampaign offers more intricate triggers and conditional logic for personalization.

Migrating to ActiveCampaign represents the start of a new chapter in your email marketing efforts, with advanced automation, sharper segmentation, and personalization that Active Intelligence can handle for you. Whether you let the migration solution handle the switch entirely for you or work through it manually, the goal remains the same: your campaigns and contacts live and ready, without the setup slog of old.

Ready to make the move? Start your 14-day free trial or request a demo to see what your marketing looks like when Active Intelligence handles all the busywork.