Migrate from FowCRM to Mailchimp

FowCRM Contacts map to Mailchimp Audience Members. The contact's email address is the primary key for import, with first_name, last_name, phone, and address fields mapped directly. We apply Mailchimp's default CONTAINS email address matching during import to handle any existing duplicate email addresses in the destination. Status in Mailchimp (subscribed, unsubscribed, pending, cleaned) is set based on the FowCRM contact's opt-in status. Contacts without an email address are held in a separate reconciliation file because Mailchimp requires a valid email for every Audience Member.

FowCRM Accounts do not map directly to a Mailchimp object. In Mailchimp, segmentation occurs within a single Audience using Tags and Merge Fields rather than separate account-level records. We use FowCRM Account names to create a Merge Field (ACCOUNTNAME) on the Mailchimp Audience and tag contacts by their parent Account name for segmentation. If the customer operates multiple distinct brands or businesses requiring separate email sender identities, we create multiple Audiences and map contacts by Account-to-Audience assignment during import.

FowCRM Custom Fields on Contact require the two-step API discovery (enumerate Models first, then read Field definitions per Model). We run this discovery before any data export and map each custom field type to a Mailchimp Merge Field type: text fields map to TEXT, picklist to DROPDOWN or RADIO, date to DATE, number to NUMBER. Mailchimp Standard supports 30 Merge Fields per Audience; Mailchimp Premium supports 80. We flag field counts exceeding the tier limit before import so the customer can decide which custom properties are highest priority.

FowCRM does not have a native Tags object on Contact, but tag-like behavior is common via custom multi-select fields or label-based segmentation. We map these to Mailchimp Tags, which are applied at import time and do not count toward Merge Field limits. If the FowCRM data uses a structured tag taxonomy (e.g., product interest, acquisition source, lifecycle stage), we recreate it as Mailchimp Tags during import. Tags do not overwrite on contact update by default; the customer chooses between append and replace during scoping.

FowCRM Owner records map to Mailchimp Users by email address. The migration user account must have Admin-level access in Mailchimp to perform the import. Owner assignments on Contacts are preserved as a Merge Field OWNER_EMAIL for segmentation, but Mailchimp does not have a native Owner field on Audience Members. We do not provision Mailchimp Users beyond the migration admin account.

FowCRM Deals have no native Mailchimp equivalent. We export all Deals as a structured CSV file with stage, amount, close date, owner, and linked Account name, and deliver it to the customer for manual re-entry into any pipeline-tracking tool they choose. If the customer intends to use Mailchimp's native CRM features alongside email, we flag this gap explicitly in the migration inventory.

Cases are only available on FowCRM Professional and Enterprise tiers (10+ and 25+ users respectively). Mailchimp has no case management, ticketing, or request-tracking functionality. If the migration scope includes Case records, we export them as a structured CSV and document the gap for the customer to address with a dedicated helpdesk platform post-migration. We check the FowCRM plan tier during discovery to confirm whether Cases exist in the export scope before running the export.

FowCRM Activity records (calls, emails, meetings, notes) attached to Contacts have no native Mailchimp equivalent. Mailchimp tracks engagement through open, click, and bounce data generated by its own sends rather than by importing historical activity from a source CRM. We export a summary of Activity counts per contact as Merge Field metadata (e.g., TOTAL_CALLS, TOTAL_MEETINGS) for segmentation purposes, but the full activity timeline is not migrated. This is documented in the post-migration inventory.