Migrate from FranConnect to Mailchimp

Discovery and audience scoping

We audit the source FranConnect account across Leads, Contacts, custom contact properties, drip campaign count, and any CSV exports available for modules without API endpoints. We pair this with a Mailchimp audience audit: existing audience structure, merge fields in use, tag taxonomy, and active automations. We identify which FranConnect contact properties map to merge fields (max 40), which become tags, and which are excluded. The discovery output is a written scope document with record counts, merge field mapping plan, and a list of excluded franchise-specific objects with their record counts.

Mailchimp audience setup and merge field provisioning

We create or identify the target Mailchimp audience and provision the merge fields required for the migration mapping. This includes standard fields (FNAME, LNAME, EMAIL, PHONE, ADDRESS) plus custom merge fields for franchise-specific properties. We configure any required tags in the Mailchimp tag taxonomy (franchisee_tag, unit_location_tag, lead_tag, drip_campaign tags). Tag grouping is coordinated with the customer to ensure the taxonomy aligns with how the marketing team plans to segment the audience.

Source data extraction and transformation

We extract Contacts and Leads from FranConnect via the REST API, preserving all mapped fields and franchise relationship references (franchisee_id, unit_id, territory_code). FranConnect's 12-hour OAuth token expiry requires scheduling the extraction within a single token window or implementing proactive refresh. We transform the extracted data into Mailchimp Marketing API subscriber payloads, applying date format normalization (FranConnect may use MM/DD/YYYY in exports) and character restrictions per Mailchimp's subscriber format requirements. Any contacts without valid email addresses are logged and excluded.

Drip campaign inventory and rebuild documentation

We inventory every active FranConnect drip campaign: name, trigger type, trigger conditions, all sequence steps with step names and delay durations, conditional branching logic, and enrollment criteria. We capture current enrollment status for each subscriber in each campaign (which step they are on, last activity date). We deliver this as a written campaign rebuild document formatted as Mailchimp Customer Journey templates, with a step-by-step guide for the customer's marketing team to recreate each sequence. This document is handed off before or immediately after contact migration.

Bulk import into Mailchimp with reconciliation

We import subscriber records into Mailchimp using the bulk import endpoint with batch chunking (500 records per batch). We apply tags at import time based on the drip campaign inventory. After each batch, we reconcile imported record counts against source record counts and flag any failures (invalid email, rate limit 429, duplicate email conflicts). Failed records are retried with corrected payloads; permanently failed records are logged with reason codes for the customer to resolve manually or suppress.

Cutover, validation, and handoff

We freeze FranConnect contact writes during the final delta migration window, extract any new or modified contacts since the initial extraction, and import the delta into Mailchimp. We run a final reconciliation report comparing total audience members in Mailchimp against Contacts and Leads in FranConnect. We deliver the drip campaign rebuild document to the customer's marketing team and schedule a handoff call. We do not rebuild FranConnect drip campaigns as Mailchimp automations within the migration scope; that work requires the marketing team's creative input and is outside standard migration scope.