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2-way Copper-Mailchimp sync

This integration automates syncing contacts from Copper to Mailchimp and email engagement back to Copper. ​

Updated over 2 months ago

While Copper’s native Mailchimp integration allows you to add Copper contacts to Mailchimp, it does not allow you to select only a segment of contacts. There is only an "All Leads/People" option that can cause your Mailchimp account to be bloated with unwanted contacts. The data about opens and clicks also does not fully loop back to Copper. It's presented on a side panel but can't be acted upon.

One of the things Outfunnel allows you to do is to “complete the loop” and make sure that your Copper account is automatically updated when Mailchimp is (and vice versa).

Mailchimp email engagement in Copper

How it works

  • Make all Copper contacts or subset(s) you define with Contact tags, Lead status, or Contact type available in a Mailchimp Audience, along with your custom fields.

  • Keep the two databases in sync going forward. E.g. if a field is updated in Copper, this is recorded in Mailchimp automatically.

  • When people open or click on email campaigns, this data will be recorded in Copper People or Leads. Outfunnel supports Mailchimp single email campaigns, automations, email journeys and A/B tests.

  • New Mailchimp subscribers can be copied to Copper as Contacts. Alternatively, new contacts can be copied to Copper only when they open or click on an email campaign.


Set up contact sync

Watch this quick integration how-to video or follow the steps below.

1. Authenticate your apps. Head to Outfunnel > App connector, select Copper and Mailchimp, and authenticate as per on-screen instructions if you haven't done so already.

Please note that an API Key is necessary to create an Outfunnel account. Make sure your Copper plan allows you to generate API Keys.

2. Select the connection type. Click on Connect and choose Contact sync as the connection type

3. Set up contact sync rules. You can set up the contact sync from Copper to Mailchimp or Mailchimp to Copper.

  • Sync contacts from Copper to Mailchimp

    Choose whether to sync all Copper contacts or only contacts you’ve defined with a Contact tag, Lead Status, or Contact Type. Learn more about Copper segmenting options. Then select the Mailchimp audience you'd like to sync them to. You can sync different Copper segments to different Mailchimp Audiences (eg. separate tags for different regions or pipeline stages) or you can sync multiple Copper segments to the same Mailchimp Audience.

  • Sync leads from Mailchimp to Copper
    Choose an audience that you'd like to record new subscribers to Copper as leads and specify the owner. Once the lead is created in Copper, a "Contact Created" activity is added under the lead profile.

    • Outfunnel creates new contacts as Leads in Copper. If the Leads functionality is turned off, Persons are created instead

    • Contact import functionality in Mailchimp is not supported and does not trigger the contact sync

4. Set up field mapping. Navigate to the field mapping step to select which fields or custom fields you’d like the sync to consider. You can choose up to 30 fields from all your Lead, Person, and Organization fields and custom fields.

5. Activate the connection.

⏱️ Sync frequency

  • The first sync can take up to 15 minutes based on the number of contacts in the sync.

  • From there Outfunnel syncs field changes instantly but checks for new contacts/removed contacts every 2 hours. You can trigger an immediate sync if you click on the “Sync now” button (it might take up to 15 minutes for the data to appear)

🏁 Initial sync

  • Contacts are linked based on the email address. Existing Mailchimp fields are overwritten with Copper values.

  • A new contact is created if a contact with the same email address is not found.

  • Manually unsubscribed and archived contacts are resubscribed. To avoid resubscribing these contacts, delete them from Mailchimp or remove them from the Copper segment.

  • Bounced and opted-out contacts are not resubscribed.

  • Contacts are linked based on the email address. If multiple contacts are found with the same email address then the link is made with the oldest contact.

↔️ Continuous sync

  • When a contact stops matching the rules all updates will stop and they will be unsubscribed but they will not be deleted from Mailchimp.

  • Outfunnel only updates Mailchimp if any details change for the contact that is in sync.

    • Example 1: if any contacts are archived in Mailchimp after the initial sync but nothing changes in the CRM then they will not be resubscribed.

    • Example 2: if any fields are changed in Mailchimp after the initial sync but nothing changes in the CRM then this field will not change to the CRM value in Mailchimp

  • Contacts do not get unsubscribed from Mailchimp if you remove the contact sync rule or change the target segment.


Set up engagement sync

Outfunnel supports recording engagement from Mailchimp single email campaigns, automation, email journeys, and A/B tests. If you've already set up a connection, skip to the second step.


1. Authenticate your apps. Head to Outfunnel > App connector, select Copper and Mailchimp, and authenticate as per on-screen instructions if you haven't done so already.

2. Select the connection type. Click on Connect and choose Engagement sync as the connection type

3. Choose the audience. Choose the Mailchimp audiences for which you’d like to record email engagement (opens, clicks, unsubscribes, etc).

4. Define how engagement gets recorded. Then define how you’d like email activities like opens, clicks, bounces, or unsubscribes recorded in Copper – or simply use our default settings.

5. Set up field mapping. When Outfunnel syncs an engagement for a contact that does not yet exist in Copper, a new contact is created with the defined field mapping. Navigate to the field mapping step to select which fields or custom fields you’d like the sync to consider.

6. Activate. Activate the connection. By default, Outfunnel records engagement from emails that have been sent after activating the connection but you can also choose to sync engagement events from the last 30 days when activating the connection.

💡 Sync frequency. The sync runs every 2 hours automatically or you can trigger an instant sync anytime by clicking on Sync now.

💡 Unsubscribe recording. Outfunnel only records end-user initiated unsubscribes in Copper and manual unsubscribes in Mailchimp are not recorded. When a contact is unsubscribed manually but they still match a segment in Copper that is targeted by a connection, then Outfunnel will resubscribe them in Mailchimp. If you'd like to manually remove a contact in Mailchimp, they need to be permanently deleted under the contact profile in Mailchimp

💡 Notifications. If you’d like to receive email notifications about people opening and/or clicking your newsletters, you’ll need to turn on Email notifications feature in Copper. (See how).


Monitor synced contacts and engagements

Once the connection is live, navigate to the Status tab to see key information about the connection, such as when the last sync ran and which events have been synced.


Tips, observations, and useful definitions

💡 Pre-create field values. Single and multiple option fields need to have the options pre-created in Mailchimp and Copper (case insensitive)

💡 Best results with a new Audience. We recommend setting up a brand new Mailchimp Audience to ensure everything works flawlessly, but syncing data to an already existing Audience works as well in most cases.

💡 Duplicate contacts. If you have duplicate contacts in Copper, then Outfunnel only syncs the first instance of the contact to Mailchimp. This is because Mailchimp only accepts one unique email per audience.

💡 Merging contacts. Outfunnel supports merging contacts with the same email. After you've merged a contact you may see the contact getting unsubscribed from Mailchimp if the contact you merged to was not in sync but they will get resubscribed in the next sync given that the email address is the same.

💡 Contacts with multiple emails. Outfunnel only syncs the first email address of the contact to Mailchimp. Other addresses will be ignored.

💡 Single source of truth is Copper. Outfunnel currently treats Copper as the “single source of truth”, and any changes you make in Copper will be reflected in Mailchimp. This doesn’t work the other way around. If you’d like to edit the contents of a field in Mailchimp, please make the changes in Copper and let Outfunnel take care of syncing this to Mailchimp.


Start syncing data between Mailchimp and Copper.

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Do you grow your lists with the help of web forms? See the following integrations to automate lead capture sync to Copper:

Don't see your preferred web forms listed above? Browse the upcoming connections and sign up for early access.

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