Migrate from Markate to Mailchimp

Markate Customer records map to Mailchimp contacts within an audience. Standard fields migrate directly: First Name to FNAME, Last Name to LNAME, Email to EMAIL ADDRESS, Phone Number to PHONE, Company Name to COMPANY, and full address to the ADDRESS merge tag fields (ADDR1, ADDR2, CITY, STATE, ZIP, COUNTRY). We run email format validation before import and flag any malformed addresses (missing @, missing TLD, role-based domains) as manual-review items. Customers without an email address cannot be imported to Mailchimp and are flagged on the reconciliation report.

Markate does not export an explicit unsubscribe flag, but customers with no email on file, customers who were never contacted, or customers flagged manually as inactive in Markate are candidates for the Mailchimp suppression list. We work with the customer during scoping to define the suppression criteria — for example, customers who have requested no marketing emails or who have had all communication blocked. Suppressed contacts are imported with status 'unsubscribed' to prevent accidental sends during and after migration.

Markate Items and Categories (product and service catalog) do not have a direct Mailchimp equivalent, but we map them to Mailchimp Tags or Segments for segmentation use. Service categories (e.g., Plumbing, HVAC, Electrical) become Mailchimp Tags on each contact record, enabling segment-based campaigns (e.g., 'send HVAC maintenance reminder to all contacts tagged HVAC'). Alternatively, a customer-configured Segment in Mailchimp can filter by tag or merge tag value. The customer chooses tag strategy during scoping based on their campaign segmentation needs.

Markate's custom fields on Customers are not included in the CSV export from the Data Migration tool, so any custom field values (e.g., technician assigned, preferred service time, job location notes) cannot migrate automatically. We document every named custom field the customer has defined in Markate and recommend Mailchimp custom merge tag equivalents. The customer re-enters or re-maps these values manually post-migration, or uses a Zapier connection (if they retain the Zapier add-on) to sync future updates. This limitation is explicit in the scoping report.

Markate Work Orders (job tickets, technician assignments, job status, scheduled dates) have no equivalent object in Mailchimp's data model. We flag Work Orders as destination-only items: the customer uses Mailchimp Customer Journey automations to recreate post-job communication workflows (e.g., 'when Work Order status changes to Completed, trigger post-service email with review request'). We provide a written mapping document listing each Work Order status and the recommended Mailchimp Journey trigger for each.

Markate Invoices (line items, amounts, payment status, due dates) have no equivalent in Mailchimp. Invoice amounts and payment status are not contact-level data in Mailchimp. We flag invoice history as manual-recreate: customers who want automated payment reminders use Mailchimp's post-purchase or subscription-style automation flows with custom date fields for due dates. We provide a written recipe card for a payment reminder Journey that the customer configures post-migration.

Markate Estimates (quotes with line items and status: sent, accepted, declined) have no direct Mailchimp equivalent. We do not migrate Estimates as records. For businesses that want to send estimate follow-up emails (e.g., 'your estimate is ready' or 'accept your estimate online'), we document the recommended Mailchimp Journey triggers and subject line templates as part of the automation handoff document.

Markate Team Members are billable users assigned to Work Orders and Invoices. Mailchimp does not have a user management object for internal staff; Mailchimp is a contact communication platform, not an operational management platform. Team Members are excluded from migration scope entirely. We note this explicitly in the scoping document and recommend the customer maintain a separate internal directory (Google Workspace, Slack directory, or HRIS) for staff records.