Table of Contents
Overview
FieldEdge has partnered with Mailchimp to bring you an integration that gives you the ability to automatically market to your customer base. This can be done through triggers that will email customers about recent service visits, upcoming warranty expirations, service agreement promotions, and much more.
The following article will walk you through how to set up your Mailchimp integration and get started marketing to your customers.
Starting the Integration
Before you can begin marketing to your customers, you'll need to turn on the Mailchimp integration. To do that you'll need to have a Mailchimp account along with having a FieldEdge Premier membership.
- Note: We recommend the Standard Mailchimp membership to get the most out of the integration, but it will work with any type of account. Certain features, such as automatically sending emails when the right conditions are met and importing premade marketing templates, will not be available when using an Essential or Free version of Mailchimp.
Create the Mailchimp API key
It is necessary to generate an API key that FieldEdge can use to integrate with Mailchimp. Follow the steps below to create an API key in Mailchimp.
1. Login to Mailchimp.
2. Click on your Name in the upper right-hand corner.
3. Select Account from the drop-down list.
4. From the top navigation section, click Extras | API Keys.
5. Click the Create A Key button.
6. Click in the Label field on the newly created line and enter FieldEdge.
7. Copy the API Key that is listed in the API Key field. This will be used later.
Setup FieldEdge
Now that you have the API key you can sync FieldEdge to Mailchimp by following the below steps.
1. Login to FieldEdge.
2. Click on Settings and choose Global Settings.
3. Scroll down and click on Connect in the Mailchimp integration box.
4. Enter the API Key you copied from the previous section.
5. Enter a notification email and click Save.
6. Choose the Audience you want the FieldEdge customers to be added to in Mailchimp.
- Note: If you don't already have an audience, you can create one now. This will prompt you for the critical information that Mailchimp requires.
7. Next, decide how you want to synchronize your customers initially. Choose from one of the options below.
- Do Not Sync: This will not import any customers to Mailchimp initially. Customers will be added automatically as certain conditions are met, such as equipment coming out of warranty.
- Sync Primary Contact: This will import the primary email address for each customer. This can be very powerful because it will grant you the ability to send emails to your entire customer base anytime you want.
- Sync All Contacts: This will import the email address for every contact for each customer in FieldEdge. This is great when you really want to make sure your messages get through, but it will most likely increase your monthly expense with Mailchimp.
Configuring Mailchimp
Now that you are integrated there are some things you need to do in Mailchimp before you can send your first email. Follow the steps below to get started creating your first emails.
- Note: You might be able to skip some of these steps if you have already been using Mailchimp prior to integration.
Uploading a logo
Before you can customize your email templates you will first need to upload the files you will want to use in them. Follow these steps to start adding files, such as a logo.
1. Click Content Studio from the top navigation bar.
2. Click My Logo on the left-hand navigation panel.
3. Click the Upload Logo button and select the file you want to use.
- Note: If there are additional files you commonly use in your marketing, you can upload them by click My Files in the left-hand navigation.
4. Click the Upload button to select the files you want to use.
- Note: You can also drag files directly onto this screen to upload files.
5. Click the X in the upper right-hand corner when you are finished. Repeat these steps at any point to add more images.
Testing the Email
When you have an email Journey created you can test it to make sure it's working properly. Use the following steps to test your email.
Test email is not already associated with an audience member in Mailchimp
1. Create a new customer in FieldEdge with the test email address.
- Note: This will tell Mailchimp to send your newly created email to the test email of the customer you just created in FieldEdge.
Email address is already in Mailchimp and associated with an audience member.
1. Click Audience from the top navigation and select All Contacts.
2. Enter your email address and search.
3. Click View Profile.
4. Click the Plus sign in the upper right-hand corner.
5. Add the NewCustomer tag.
- Note: This will trigger the Journey to send you the email from the Journey you just created.
Next Steps
Now it's time to explore some of the ways you can personalize the integration to really engage your customers.
Importing Templates
We have provided you with a series of marketing templates you can use immediately to market to your customer base. To make this happen, ensure you are logged into your MailChimp account then click all the desired templates from our Mailchimp Templates page to import them into your account.
Creating a Journey
Emails are sent through a module in Mailchimp called Journeys. Navigate to our Mailchimp Journeys article to learn how to set up a Journey to automate email messages to your customers based on triggers.
Best Practices
Below are some common best practices that can be used when integrating Mailchimp with FieldEdge.
1. Be sure to look for bounced or rejected emails. If you see those, reach out to the customer via phone to get accurate information. Enter the updated emails into FieldEdge when you get them and they will automatically be sent over to Mailchimp.
2. Adding tags to work orders can be a powerful way to supercharge your communication. Some examples include:
- Add an Apology tag to work orders where your company didn’t perform at 100% so that you can send an apology along with a coupon for future work.
- Add a CleanAir tag to work orders for customers that expressed interest in those products but didn’t purchase while you were there.
- Add an InspectionNeeded tag to let customers know what the next steps are now that your work is done.
3. SubjectLine is a great web site to test out your subject lines to see their impact and deliverability.
4. Although the Mailchimp integration is designed to handle it, we don’t recommend associating the same email address with multiple customers. FieldEdge will show the email address for all parent records on a child record, so even when dealing with a property management company that manages many properties this is not a necessary practice.
Troubleshooting
Below are some common troubleshooting tips that can help you with your Mailchimp integration.
Blank greeting on emails
You can set a default greeting that will be used if your customer does not have anything in the First Name field by following the info on this page.
Footer info is incorrect
If the information in the footer is incorrect you can update it by following these steps.
1. Click the Audience link at the top of the screen in Mailchimp.
- If you have multiple addresses, change the one that is tied to FieldEdge using the Current Audience field.
2. Click the Manage Audience button and select Settings from the resulting drop-down.
3. Click the Required email footer content link.
4. Change the incorrect information and then click Save.
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