MailChimp is a tool that helps you design email newsletters, share them on your social networks and track your results. To find out more about how the integration with MailChimp works, check out our Getting started with MailChimp guide.
With this integration, you can automatically sync all of your customers (that have consented to receive email marketing) to your MailChimp account.
In this guide we'll cover how to:
- Sign up for a MailChimp account (if you haven't already).
- Connect Timely to your MailChimp account.
Important information for EU/UK customers
Under the new privacy regulations in the EU ( Privacy at Timely - GDPR), customers based in the EU and the UK will need to explicitly opt-in to be sent email marketing messages.
When MailChimp is connected, we will give customers the option to opt-in to your email marketing when they are booking online. If the customer checks this box, then they will be synced to MailChimp. Check out our How to record marketing consent in Timely guide for more information.
We are also working on making that checkbox available for all customers. This will allow you to manually opt in or out customers that are added to your account, outside of the online booking process. We will update this guide with any developments here.
The best practice would be to manage your subscriber list directly in MailChimp. This will allow you to unsubscribe any customers that haven't explicitly opted-in. You can then manually resubscribe any customers that give their consent directly in MailChimp.
The contents of this guide and other related GDPR guides are for general information purposes only and do not constitute legal advice. We recommend talking with your lawyer, or seeking legal advice, about what your business needs to do to be compliant.
Sign up for MailChimp account
To get started you'll need to have a MailChimp account. If you don't have one of these, you can head over to MailChimp's website to sign up:
- Create a new account with MailChimp: http://mailchimp.com/
- You will also need to setup at least one list, that you can sync your customers from Timely to: https://kb.mailchimp.com/lists/growth/create-a-new-list
Note: Plans are based on the number of subscribers that you have in your MailChimp account, so this is something to be mindful of when selecting a plan. You can use Timely with any of MailChimp's plans, both free and paid.
Connect MailChimp to your Timely account
Once your MailChimp account is set up, you can connect this to Timely.
- In Timely, head to Setup > Add ons and scroll down the list.
- Click Activate next to the MailChimp integration:
- Click the toggle to 'On' to begin setting up your integration:
- This will take you to the MailChimp login screen, where you can enter your MailChimp username and password:
- Click Login. If you have multiple MailChimp accounts, you'll need to select which one you'd like to connect.
- You'll then be prompted to 'Allow' Timely access to your Mailchimp account. Click Allow to proceed.
- Your Timely and MailChimp accounts will then be linked (this may take a few moments). Once you're connceted, you'll ned to select the Mailchimp list you want to sync your customers to, and any segments:
-
Once you're done, click Save to save your settings. All done!
Note: Multiple Timely accounts can be connected to one MailChimp account with the recommendation that a different subscriber list be used for each Timely account.
Getting started with MailChimp
As MailChimp is a separate company, there is limited support we can provide around setting up campaigns and newsletters. MailChimp has a great knowledge base, which covers how to use MailChimp. Here are some recommended guides for getting up and running:
- Creating a new campaign.
- Viewing and exporting lists.
- Getting started with Segmentation.
- Getting started with automation (Use this for birthday messages!)
- Getting started with Merge Tags.