How do I set up the Nexternal & Mailchimp Email Marketing Integration?
Response:
Nexternal’s integration with Mailchimp makes it easier than ever to leverage one of the most powerful email marketing services available.
If you activate the autosynch feature, every 10 minutes, Nexternal's ecommerce platform will automatically push updated customer and affiliate information into predefined Mailchimp Lists. This precludes your having to manually export the customer data from Nexternal and then import into Mailchimp. When you’re ready to send an email campaign, you can rest assured that your primary Mailchimp list is up to date.
You will also have the option to push segmented customers lists to Mailchimp for targeted email marketing.
To begin, you’ll first need to set up a Mailchimp Account by going to: www.nexternal.com/Mailchimp and clicking the Sign Up Now link. You’ll need to follow the steps to set up your account and complete the verification process required by Mailchimp. After you’re set up and verified, you’ll want to login to your Mailchimp account to get the information needed for the Nexternal integration.
- Create Customer & Affiliate Lists:
After logging into Mailchimp, from the Dashboard screen, you can click step one “Create a Subscriber List" or this can also be done by clicking the Lists tab and hitting the “Create List” button. You’ll then name the list, fill in any of the list details and click Save. You may want to fill out 2 lists; one for your Customers and if you’re using Affiliates you may want to set up a list for them as well.
- Add & Copy API Key:
We’re going to need the Mailchimp API Key which you can find by clicking your Name > then Account Settings in the left hand menu > Next click the drop down menu for Extras and Select API Keys > here you can then Click “Add a Key”. You'll then copy the 37 character long API Key as we are going to need to enter this into the Nexternal OMS to get the two programs to communicate with one another.
- Enter API Key and Sync Lists:
You will now need to login to your Nexternal OMS. Once you’re logged in simply click on Guided Tutorials in the left navigation of your OMS, search for Chimp in the pop up menu, and follow the guided steps for set up.
Or, you can follow these directions: navigate to Settings -> Compatible Software -> Mailchimp. Enter the Mailchimp API Key and hit Validate API Key.
Once your key is validated you can choose which of your Lists you’ve set up in Mailchimp apply to your Nexternal customers and your Nexternal affiliates. Once you choose your lists you can then hit the Sync Mailchimp Lists option and hit Finish. If you choose to sync your lists, this will automatically add all of the customers and affiliates currently in the Nexternal OMS to your respective Mailchimp lists.
This customer data push can take up to 10 minutes before it’s visible in Mailchimp but once it’s complete, your Mailchimp Lists will be current for future mailings. Any new customers that purchase from your online store or partners that sign up to become affiliates will be automatically added to their respective list during the next data push.
At this point you’ve completed the basic Nexternal Mailchimp integration set up. You’re now ready to start sending some marketing emails.
Nexternal’s integration with Mailchimp gives you the opportunity to combine the powerful ecommerce tools provided by Nexternal with the advanced Email Marketing and Email List Management features offered by Mailchimp.
- Sending eCommerce Order Data to Mailchimp (formerly Mailchimp's eCommerce 360 program)
To push your eCommerce order data into Mailchimp, select the "Sync orders with Mailchimp" box. Enter the earliest date of the orders you would like to sync over, as the Sync Start Date. You have the option to include or exclude orders that were placed usign the Bulk/Wine Club Order feature or Subscription Orders with their respective check boxes.
In Store ID, enter the exact name of your Nexternal account (what you use when you log into the system at www.nexternal.com/myYOURACCOUNTNAME).
In the Store List Name, enter the name of your Customer List you selected above in Customer List Name. Click finish.
Please also check out our video regardign the eCommerce 360 by Mailchimp feature. Although Mailchimp has recently changed the name and some aspects of this feature, this video will still give you some good ideas.
IMPORTANT!!!
In order for this integration to work, the field names and field types of your Nexternal customer data must not be adjusted in Mailchimp. Note that if you have multiple sources (such as additional newsletter signup forms, and other marketing sources) pushing subscribers into the same Mailchimp List that you are pushing your Nexternal subscriber data into, you must not set any data fields as "Required" on the Mailchimp side, with the exception of Email (Mailchimp does this by default). Setting additional fields as required will cause your list syncing to fail.
Each list has a maximum of 30 fields of data available for that list in Mailchimp. Mailchimp's Pro level accounts allow 80 fields.
