Mailchimp and BBCRM

David Wanless · August 2023

Good morning all,

If your organisation imports data from Mailchimp into BBCRM (especially email sends, bounces, opens, clicks, unsubscribes and spam complaints), we'd love to hear how you do it? Are you using flat files or an API? Are you using Brightvine DataLink, Zuri's Velocity, Omatic Cloud, Power Query, or some other tool? How's your experience been? What volume of records are you processing and how fast does it go?

Kind regards,

David Wanless

david.wanless@wilderness.org.au

Arlette Slachmuylder · August 2023

Hi @David Wanless

I am importing this sort of data from Encompass/ iModules. We are heavy Zuri Velocity users, which I find very useful, but I did not use it for this purpose, because of the limited api - I ended up doing it using SQL Server SSIS. I also ended up importing to custom tables. It is still a bit of a work in progress for me. Happy to jump on a call and discuss, since I am still determining if I have the best method going.

Our email imports range from 20,000 to 100,000 entries per email.

Arlette

slachmuyldera@psuf.org

David Wanless · August 2023

Dear @Arlette Slachmuylder,

Thanks. Can we use SSIS if we are Blackbaud-hosted?

Which API is limiting for Velocity - Mailchimp's?

A call may be useful. Which timezone are you in?

Kind regards,

David.

Oscar E Pena · August 2023

Hi @David Wanless

Oscar here from BC. We don't use Mailchimp

Brightvine Data Link (BVDL) is our official data import to BBCRM. We have been using it since we went live (5 years ago).

We have a number of different files/jobs (file-mapping-based or template-based):

Revenue and Records entry/updates (from online gifts, ad-hoc files, NCOA, internal web form, Cvent, parents/student forms)
Prospect Management Data
CVENT - Registrant
SFMC - Email Bounce Back/SFMC - Email Subscriber Preference/SMFC Process Email Changes
Other Misc Import jobs

Hope that helps

Rick Root · August 2023

@David Wanless Here at UNC-Chapel Hill, we are using the Mailchimp API and some CLR forms to do some integration with Mailchimp for our Events team… essentially for Athletics Hospitality… had to put the mailchimp DLL on the CRM server, and then the CLR forms use it… like when you approve a football or basketball ticket request, the information is automatically sent to mailchimp to be added to a list, and they use mailchimp automations to send the invites.

We do not really pull any information back into CRM except for the names of the various mailchimp lists.

Tim McCleary · August 2023

@David Wanless We use the Brightvine BVDL toolset and use it broadly for much of our data import work. We have import jobs to import email unsubscribes, bounces, etc.. from Mailchimp. We've chosen to do this on a monthly cycle mainly because of the burden to send this data from our field staff.

Arlette Slachmuylder · August 2023

@Tim McCleary
I am curious where you store the information when you import it. I am currently putting it in a custom tables - but looked into trying to get it into the same place BBIS puts it, but that was too complicated. Do you tie the emails with marketing efforts at all, or do all that separately?

Thanks.

David Wanless · August 2023

Dear @Arlette Slachmuylder, @Tim McCleary, @Rick Root, @Oscar E Pena et al,

Thanks everyone for their feedback so far. It's very helpful.

@Arlette Slachmuylder , we can't use SSIS as we're Blackbaud hosted.

We were wondering whether to put the data in the NETCOMMUNITYEMAILJOBRECIPIENT table and linked tables where BBIS puts it, and still may do so, but possible a better option is a similar table dedicated to external emails, with many of the same columns.

I think that Brightvine Data Link already has a pre-defined table for this purpose, and some extensions to the Email Address record to store some of this information.

Kind regards,

David.

David Wanless · August 2023

Thanks, @Tim McCleary. That's very helpful.

With your BVDL implementation, do you connect to the Mailchimp API, or use their flat file exports?

David Wanless · August 2023

Thanks, @Oscar E Pena. That's helpful. Do you connect BVDL to the SFMC via an API? Did you have to write much code to make this connection?

David Wanless · August 2023

Thanks, @Rick Root.

Arlette Slachmuylder · August 2023

@David Wanless, @Tim McCleary
Yes, I looked at NETCOMMUNITYEMAILJOBRECIPIENT table - but it had so many other linkages to other tables related to BBIS, and much of the data was stored in xml format, so I ended up abandoning that option.

Currently, we are still generating marketing efforts for all of our email lists, so I do try and connect the email import to both the marketing effort segment, as well as the constituent appeal entry. My eventual goal would be to show the “open” and “click” in the constituent appeal data view, similar to how a BBIS messages shows up there, but have not tackled that customization yet. For now, I have 3 custom tables - email, emailconstituent, and emailconstituentlink. Email has a foreign key to marketing effort segment, emailconstituent has a foreign key to constituent appeal.

One of the reasons I kept the linkage is that we have entries where the same email is used by multiple people, so where I could make a connection to the constituent appeal, then I knew I was connected to the right record. Given how Encompass works, we are not guaranteed to get a constituent id with our imported entry. That might be different for MailChimp…

David Wanless · September 2023

Thanks, @Arlette Slachmuylder. That all makes sense. We ended up purchasing BrightVine Data Link and it has its own digital marketing table and related items (Query Views, Code Tables etc.) We've only just started the implementation, but it's looking very promising so far. So far, we're not linking email campaigns to Appeals or Direct Marketing Efforts. Re. Constituent IDs (GUIDs), we're storing these as custom fields within MailChimp, so we should get them for all incoming data.

Mailchimp and BBCRM

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