Mailchimp Integration
Sync contacts and tags to Mailchimp audiences and groups for targeted email campaigns.
OnCloudWine syncs your contacts and tags into Mailchimp so you can run marketing campaigns against the same data without exporting CSVs every week. Sync is one-way: OnCloudWine → Mailchimp.
What syncs
| OnCloudWine | Mailchimp |
|---|---|
| Contact | Audience member (in the audience you select). |
| Contact email + status | Member email + subscribe status (subscribed, unsubscribed, etc.). |
| Tag | Group within a Group Category. |
| Club membership | Group within a "Clubs" Group Category. |
Prerequisites
- Mailchimp account
Free or paid; free tier limits the audience size.
- An audience
The Mailchimp audience you want OnCloudWine contacts to land in. Create it in Mailchimp first.
- API key
Found under Mailchimp → Account → Extras → API keys. Generate a new key for OnCloudWine.
Connect
Open integrations
Settings → Organization → Integrations → Mailchimp.
Click Connect Mailchimp
Enter your API key. OnCloudWine validates it and lists the audiences on your Mailchimp account.
Pick the target audience
Choose which audience contacts should sync into. You can change this later.
Run setup
Click Run Mailchimp setup. This triggers
MAILCHIMP_SETUPwhich creates the Group Categories OnCloudWine uses (Tags and Clubs) and pre-populates them with your existing tags and clubs.
Initial contact sync
After setup, kick off the first full sync:
Click Sync contacts
Triggers
MAILCHIMP_CONTACT_SYNC. Each contact is upserted into the audience.Review subscribe statuses
By default, contacts go into Mailchimp as
SUBSCRIBED. Honor your own opt-in policy — if you have unsubscribed contacts, mark them in OnCloudWine first so the sync respects that.Verify in Mailchimp
Open your audience in Mailchimp. Member count should match your OnCloudWine active contact count.
Subscribe statuses
OnCloudWine maps to Mailchimp's standard statuses:
| Status | Meaning |
|---|---|
| SUBSCRIBED | Receiving campaigns. Default for new contacts. |
| UNSUBSCRIBED | Opted out. Set automatically when a member clicks unsubscribe in any Mailchimp email. |
| PENDING | Awaiting confirmation (only if you have double opt-in enabled in Mailchimp). |
| CLEANED | Mailchimp couldn't deliver to the address (hard bounce). Won't be retried. |
When a member unsubscribes via a Mailchimp email, that status syncs back to OnCloudWine on the next sync. The contact's marketing email preferences are updated automatically — they won't receive any marketing emails from OnCloudWine either.
Tag sync
Tags sync as Mailchimp Groups within the "Tags" Group Category. Useful for segmenting campaigns:
- Send a "VIP-only" email by targeting the VIP group
- Exclude "Trade" contacts from price-sensitive campaigns
- Build dynamic content based on club membership
To trigger an immediate tag sync click Sync tags — runs
MAILCHIMP_TAG_SYNC.
Group sync
Club memberships sync as Mailchimp Groups within the "Clubs" Group Category. Each club becomes a group; contacts are added to the groups matching their memberships.
Trigger via Sync groups — runs MAILCHIMP_GROUP_SYNC.
Sync cadence
After the initial sync, OnCloudWine sends incremental updates whenever a contact, tag, or membership changes. The job batches these every few minutes to avoid hitting Mailchimp rate limits.
Common issues
| Problem | Resolution |
|---|---|
| API key invalid | Regenerate in Mailchimp and reconnect. |
| Audience full | Free Mailchimp tier caps audience size. Upgrade or pick a different audience. |
| Member missing | Check the contact's email — Mailchimp normalizes (lowercase, strip whitespace) before matching. |
| Unsubscribed not respected | Confirm Mailchimp sync is running. Re-check the contact preferences page. |
| Slow sync | Mailchimp rate-limits API calls. Large initial syncs (10k+ contacts) can take 15–30 minutes. |
Disconnect
To disconnect, click Disconnect on the integration page. The audience in Mailchimp stays as-is (members are not removed). To re-enable later, reconnect with the same API key.