Migrate from Market Leader to Mailchimp

Market Leader contacts and leads map 1:1 to Mailchimp audience members. Each record's email address becomes the member's primary identifier. Subscription status (active, unsubscribed, cleaned) is preserved as the Mailchimp member status field. We perform case‑insensitive email deduplication, keeping one member per address and preserving the most recent subscription status. First‑name and last‑name capitalization is retained in the corresponding merge fields.

Market Leader contact groups map to Mailchimp Groups within the audience. Groups are category-based (e.g., Neighborhood, Property Type) and members can belong to multiple groups. We preserve group names and member assignments during import. If a contact belongs to multiple groups in Market Leader, each membership is reflected as a separate group subscription in Mailchimp, preserving category labels.

Market Leader tags map to Mailchimp Tags — a flat label system on members. Unlike Groups, Tags are not mutually exclusive; a member can have any number of tags. We import all tags and apply them to the corresponding members.

Market Leader custom property fields (e.g., Lead Source, Neighborhood Preference, Property Type Interest) require Mailchimp merge fields to be created before import. Text fields under 255 characters map directly; longer fields are truncated at 255 characters since Mailchimp merge fields have a hard limit.

Mailchimp does not have a native phone field on members. We create a phone merge field (labeled PHONE) and import Market Leader contact phone numbers. SMS marketing in Mailchimp requires a separate phone-based audience setup. If a phone number is missing or invalid, the merge field is left blank; SMS opt‑in must be managed separately in Mailchimp's audience settings.

Email is the primary key for Mailchimp members and maps directly from Market Leader. We deduplicate by email — if the same address appears multiple times in Market Leader, only one member is created in Mailchimp. We also handle email case normalization, converting all addresses to lowercase before import to avoid duplicate detection issues.

Market Leader drip campaigns are pre-written email sequences tied to lead actions. Mailchimp has no equivalent campaign structure to import. We export the campaign names, step order, delay intervals, and email subject lines as a rebuild reference document for your Mailchimp admin.

Market Leader tracks lead product purchases (Lead Stream credits, Network Boost, Leads Direct) against contacts. These are Market Leader billing constructs with no equivalent in Mailchimp's audience model. They are documented as a reference field but do not map to any Mailchimp object.

Market Leader assigns leads to agents and tracks which user owns each record. Mailchimp has no per-member owner field. Owner assignments are preserved as a merge field (ORIGINAL_OWNER) for reference but do not create any Mailchimp access or permission structure.

Market Leader's integrations with Zillow Tech Connect, Realtor.com profiles, and Craigslist posting tools are platform-specific connections that cannot transfer to Mailchimp. These must be set up independently in Mailchimp or identified as replaced by alternative integrations. We document the specific integration endpoints and credentials in the migration workbook so your team can recreate them in Mailchimp or replace them with alternative services.