Migrate from Kartra to Mailchimp

Kartra Contacts map to Mailchimp Subscribers within a designated Audience. Standard fields (first name, last name, email, phone, address) map to Mailchimp's native subscriber fields. We export Kartra contacts in oldest-to-newest creation order to preserve the lead date as a custom merge field signup_date__c. Any Kartra contact with status bounced, unsubscribed, or spam-reported is mapped to the corresponding Mailchimp subscribed status to maintain suppression list hygiene before import.

Kartra custom fields of type input_field map to Mailchimp TEXT merge fields, drop_down maps to DROPdown merge fields, radio_button maps to RADIO merge fields, checkbox maps to EMAIL merge fields (as boolean 0/1). We read the Kartra field schema via the Kartra API during scoping to determine field types before designing the Mailchimp merge field schema. Required fields in Kartra become required merge fields in Mailchimp during import. Merge field character limits in Mailchimp (255 chars for standard TEXT fields) may truncate longer Kartra text_area values; we flag any truncation risk during scoping.

Kartra tags export as comma-separated strings per contact. We parse and split them into individual Mailchimp Tag records. Tags applied retroactively for behavioral events (form completed, page viewed, membership accessed) carry forward as static tags at the destination; this is the only path to preserving Kartra behavioral metadata since the standard export does not include engagement history. Tags with identical names across contacts consolidate into a shared tag object in Mailchimp.

Kartra Lists are exported as comma-separated values per contact. For customers with fewer than three Kartra Lists, we recommend splitting into separate Mailchimp Audiences (one per Kartra List) to preserve the native audience structure. For customers with more than three Lists, we recommend a single Mailchimp Audience with tag-based segments mirroring the Kartra List structure, as managing multiple Audiences above five increases operational overhead in Mailchimp. The customer chooses the strategy during scoping.

Mailchimp has no native transaction or purchase history object. Kartra Transactions (amount, product, date, payment method) migrate as a contact note appended per transaction, or as structured merge fields (last_purchase_date, total_spend_bucket) if the transaction volume is under 50 per contact. We flag the absence of a native purchase object during scoping and recommend whether note-style or merge-field-style migration suits the customer's reporting needs. 'Total spend' is explicitly not exported by Kartra and cannot be reconstructed.

Kartra Subscription records (active, cancelled, paused, associated product/membership) export separately from contacts. We map subscription status to Mailchimp subscriber status (subscribed, unsubscribed, pending) and use Mailchimp Groups to represent the associated product or membership name. Group-based segmentation allows the customer to build audience segments in Mailchimp based on their product access. Subscription revenue figures are not exported by Kartra and do not migrate.

The Kartra GDPR Status and GDPR Status Date fields per contact map to Mailchimp's Marketing Permissions (GDPR fields) for EU compliance. We preserve the original Kartra consent value (consented, not consented, pending) as a merge field and set the corresponding Mailchimp GDPR marketing consent flag. The customer should verify that the Kartra consent basis (e.g., legitimate interest, consent) aligns with their legal obligations under the destination jurisdiction, as Mailchimp interprets consent states by its own compliance framework.

Kartra Sequences are multi-step email automation flows with conditional branching, delays, and action triggers. They do not export as structured data. Mailchimp Customer Journeys provide a visual automation builder but use a different trigger-action model from Kartra Sequences. We do not migrate sequence logic. We deliver a written inventory of every active Kartra Sequence with its trigger conditions, email steps, delays, and tags applied, so the customer's marketing team can rebuild each sequence in Mailchimp Customer Journeys using the migrated contacts and tags as the audience base.