Moving from Mailchimp to pplCRM
Mailchimp holds an audience; pplCRM holds the people behind it, with newsletters built in. The audience export comes across in one CSV. One thing does not copy over — subscription status — and this guide explains exactly what to do about it.
First, get your file out of Mailchimp.
In Mailchimp, open your audience and export it as a CSV. Export only subscribed contacts — leave unsubscribed and cleaned addresses out of the file entirely. pplCRM cannot import an unsubscribe flag, so the safe, compliant move is to never import those rows at all.
Keep the header row. Email Address, First Name, Last Name, Phone Number and Tags are matched to pplCRM fields automatically.
A very large audience export can be split into smaller files and imported one after another.
Menus move. If an export step has drifted, Mailchimp’s own help docs will have the current path — the CSV the export produces is what matters here.
What maps to what.
Where each part of a Mailchimp export lands — including the parts that have nowhere to land.
| In Mailchimp | Lands in pplCRM as | Worth knowing |
|---|---|---|
| Email Address | The person’s email address | Also the duplicate key: a row matching an existing person can merge into their record instead of duplicating it. |
| First Name / Last Name | The person’s name | Matched automatically. |
| Phone Number | The person’s mobile number | |
| Address | The street line of a household | Mailchimp keeps the whole address in one column, so it lands on the street line unsplit. Separate city, state and zip columns, if your export has them, map cleanly. |
| Tags | Tags on each person | Comma-separated values become individual tags. |
| Subscription status, opt-in dates, member ratings | No matching field | Status is the honest limit of this move — see below. Ratings and dates can go into a Notes column if you want to keep them. |
Then import it, in four steps.
A CSV with a header row — Excel’s save-as-CSV is fine. A very large list can be split into smaller files and imported one after another.
Every column gets a best-guess match you can correct with a dropdown. Unmapped columns are left out — nothing imports by accident.
Rows matching an existing person by email can merge (fills blanks, never overwrites), be skipped, or import as new. You can also tag everyone in the file and add them to a list, so the import stays findable afterwards.
Runs in the background and reports back how many rows landed — with skipped rows downloadable as a CSV that names the reason for each.
Every people import also runs a quiet check on each email address — whether its domain can actually receive mail, and whether it belongs to a throwaway-address provider. Failing addresses stay on the record but are suppressed from sending, so dead addresses from an old export are never sent to.
What does not come across.
Stated here, on the page — not discovered halfway through your move.
The import creates contacts, not subscribers. pplCRM records newsletter consent on each person separately, and no import writes it, so freshly imported people are not yet sendable. Today that means subscribing each person from their record — there is no one-click bulk subscribe — or inviting people to confirm through one of your pplCRM signup forms. Do this before your first send.
There is no way to load an unsubscribe or suppression list, which is why step one says to leave those rows out of the file entirely. Once people are subscribed here, every unsubscribe is recorded and honored automatically.
Past campaigns, opens and clicks stay in Mailchimp — keep the account export as your archive. Going forward, every newsletter here runs a deliverability check before it can send.
Mailchimp is a trademark of its owner. pplCRM is independent and not affiliated with or endorsed by them. Also moving from Breeze, Planning Center, NationBuilder?
Run your Mailchimp file on a free workspace.
Start free, import a test file, and see your own people on the screen before you commit to anything. No card required. Stuck on a column? Email us your header row and we’ll reply with what maps.