Migrate from Highrise to Mailchimp

Highrise People records map to Mailchimp Audience Members. First name, last name, email, phone, and address fields map directly to Mailchimp's standard member fields. Highrise contact status (active/inactive) maps to Member Status in Mailchimp. We validate each email address for syntax compliance (no UTF-8 in the local part, valid domain, no missing TLD) before import per Mailchimp's contact import requirements. Duplicate email addresses are flagged and deduplicated against the destination audience before insert.

Highrise Company records do not have a direct Mailchimp equivalent because Mailchimp has no Company or Account object. We extract the company name from each Highrise Company and merge it as a custom TEXT merge field (ORGANIZATION or COMPANY_NAME) on the linked Member record. The association between Highrise Person and Company is preserved by applying the company name to the Person's Member record. Teams that need full company-level reporting should consider Mailchimp's Organization feature (Premium tier) as a secondary segmentation layer.

Highrise tags are flat labels applied to People, Companies, Deals, and Cases. We export all distinct tag values across all record types and re-apply them as Mailchimp Tags on the corresponding Member records. Tags that were applied to Deals or Cases become Member Tags with a prefix (e.g., deal-stage-qualified or case-open) to preserve the context of which record type the tag originated from. Mailchimp Tags are not scoped per object type so the prefix convention keeps the taxonomy legible.

Highrise custom fields on People and Companies map to Mailchimp Merge Fields scoped per Audience. We detect all custom field definitions via the Highrise custom_field_subjects API, identify the field type (text, number, date, phone, address), and create equivalent Mailchimp merge field definitions (TEXT, NUMBER, DATE, PHONE, ADDRESS) before import. Mailchimp's 40-merge-field limit per audience requires us to prioritize the highest-value custom fields; lower-priority fields are exported as a supplementary CSV for manual reference rather than loaded into the account.

Highrise recordings (notes and emails) attached to People or Companies migrate as Member Notes in Mailchimp. Highrise exports these as plain text (.txt) only, stripping HTML formatting from emails. We preserve the recording date, author, and full text content as a Mailchimp Member Note entry. Long recordings are split into multiple note entries if they exceed Mailchimp's note length limit. The author name becomes the note attribution in Mailchimp. Email attachments and inline images cannot transfer.

Highrise Deals map to Member Notes in Mailchimp because Mailchimp has no deal or opportunity object. We parse the TXT-format deal export to extract deal name, stage, value, responsible user, and created date, then convert each deal to a dated note on the linked Member record (e.g., 'Deal: $4,200 [Negotiation] assigned to [email protected]'). The deal pipeline stage and value are not queryable in Mailchimp; they become plain-text note content. We flag this limitation explicitly and deliver the parsed deal data as a supplementary CSV for the customer's admin to reference or load into a separate tracking tool.

Highrise Cases export only as TXT and have no Mailchimp equivalent. We parse case title, status, linked contact, and created date from the TXT export and append them as dated Member Notes on the linked contact's record. Case priority and assignee are preserved in note text. Customers with active case volumes above 500 should plan to rebuild case tracking in a dedicated helpdesk tool (Zendesk, HubSpot Service Hub, or similar) post-migration.

Highrise Tasks (completed and open) have no Mailchimp equivalent. We export task data including due date, assignee, status, and related party as a supplementary CSV. Open tasks are flagged for the customer to rebuild in their chosen task management tool (Asana, Trello, or a dedicated CRM). Completed task history is preserved in the supplementary CSV only; it does not enter Mailchimp as an active record type.

Highrise Users who own records and are assigned to Deals are extracted as a roster. We match Highrise Users by email against existing Mailchimp Audience Members and, where a match exists, apply the owner's email or name as a merge field (OWNER_EMAIL or OWNER_NAME) on the linked Member record. Where no match exists, the owner data is added to the supplementary owner CSV. Mailchimp does not have a User or team-member object, so owner attribution is informational rather than functional.