Migrate from Act-On to Mailchimp

Discovery and data audit

We audit the source Act-On account to confirm the exact product (Act-On marketing automation, not the unrelated ACT! desktop CRM), count Contacts and Companies, enumerate all Lists and their membership rules, document Program names and step sequences, identify Custom Data Schema fields and their types, and extract engagement score values. We also flag any hard-deleted contacts and identify role-based email addresses to exclude from the migration scope. The output is a written migration scope document with record counts per object and a data quality assessment.

Mailchimp audience and field schema setup

We create the destination Mailchimp Audience and configure all custom merge fields before any contact data imports. This includes fields for Act-On lifecycle stage, engagement score, form submission date, and any Custom Data Schema properties from Act-On. If dynamic List rebuild is planned as Mailchimp Segments, we document the Segment filter logic during this phase. Tags are pre-created in Mailchimp for each Act-On List so they are ready to apply during import.

Contact and Company export and transformation

We export all Contacts with their standard fields, Custom Data Schema values, engagement scores, and lifecycle stage. Companies export separately with their address and company-level custom fields. We run a transformation pass to filter role-based email addresses, sanitize tag names, and format dates as ISO 8601. The Contact-to-Company relationship resolves at import time by matching the company name in the Contact record to the COMPANY merge field on the Member.

Audience import with List-to-Tag mapping

We import transformed contact records into the Mailchimp Audience via the Mailchimp API, chunking to stay within rate limits. Each Act-On List membership translates to a Mailchimp Tag applied to the relevant Member. Static Lists produce immediate Tag assignments; dynamic Lists are noted for Segment reconstruction. We run a reconciliation pass comparing imported Member count to exported Contact count, and validate merge field values against the Act-On source.

Engagement history and Program participation reference export

We export the engagement history (email opens, clicks, form submissions, page visits) as a timestamped log linked to contact email addresses. This data is delivered as a CSV reference file for the customer to use in Mailchimp reporting or to import into a connected analytics tool. Program participation logs (which contacts entered which Programs and their path) export separately as a Program reference document for rebuilding in Mailchimp Customer Journeys.

Cutover and validation

We freeze writes in Act-On, run a final delta export of any contacts modified during the migration window, import the delta into Mailchimp, then decommission the Act-On integration points. We validate the final Mailchimp Audience count against the original Act-On contact count and deliver the Program reference document, Form field schema documentation, and Segment rebuild guide to the customer's admin team. We support a five-business-day hypercare window for post-cutover reconciliation. Mailchimp Customer Journeys rebuild, Form re-implementation, and Segment logic recreation remain with the customer's team or a Mailchimp partner as a separate engagement.