Migrate from Merlin to Mailchimp

Merlin user account metadata (email address, plan tier, created date) from account settings maps to a Mailchimp Subscriber record. The email address becomes the subscriber EMAIL field; first name and last name from Merlin profile map to FNAME and LNAME merge fields. Account status maps to a custom merge field merlin_plan__c tracking whether the contact originated from a Free or Pro Merlin account. If no first/last name is present in Merlin settings, those merge fields are left blank for the customer to populate during audience hygiene.

Merlin Document Chat uploads contain no native contact fields, but we perform entity extraction during migration to identify person names, email addresses, company names, phone numbers, and job titles within uploaded files. Extracted entities map to Mailchimp merge fields (EMAIL, FNAME, LNAME, COMPANY, PHONE) and group tags (e.g., Tag: 'Source: Merlin Document'). Document-level Q&A pairs are not migrated to Mailchimp because Mailchimp has no conversation or knowledge-base object. The extracted contact list is deduplicated and validated before Mailchimp import.

Merlin conversation threads (chat history with AI models) have no equivalent object in Mailchimp. Mailchimp is an email marketing platform, not a chat or messaging system. Conversation text, Q&A pairs, model attribution, and thread timestamps do not map to any Mailchimp object. We do not migrate conversations. We advise customers to export conversation history as a JSON or PDF archive for internal record-keeping before closing the Merlin account.

Image files generated through Merlin's image generation feature are preserved as binary files during migration. These map to Mailchimp Media Manager where they can be referenced in email campaigns, signup forms, or landing pages. We preserve original creation timestamps and file type metadata. The customer manually embeds these images in Mailchimp campaigns post-migration.

Merlin does not expose a documented tagging system accessible via export, so structured tags cannot be migrated. If customers have informally tagged conversations or documents using Merlin's internal notes or naming conventions, we can parse file names and thread titles for keyword patterns and apply those as Mailchimp Tags during import. The customer confirms the tagging strategy during scoping.

Mailchimp Audiences (lists) must be created manually in the destination account because Merlin has no audience or contact-list object. We create the Audience structure during migration with the extracted contacts and configure default merge fields (FNAME, LNAME, EMAIL, COMPANY, PHONE, merlin_plan__c). The customer sets up audience-specific settings (organization name, from-name, reply-to address) during Mailchimp onboarding, which is outside our migration scope but documented in the handoff inventory.

Merlin has no automation, workflow, or sequence capabilities. Mailchimp Customer Journeys cannot be migrated because there is no source equivalent. We deliver a written inventory of recommended Customer Journeys based on the customer's extracted contact profile (e.g., Welcome series for new subscribers from Merlin document extraction, Re-engagement for contacts with no recent engagement). The customer's marketing team builds these in Mailchimp's Journey Builder post-migration.

Merlin has no email sending or campaign history. Mailchimp campaigns, email templates, and send history do not migrate because there is no source data. We deliver a written template inventory recommending campaign types and send frequency based on the extracted audience size and tags. The customer creates campaigns in Mailchimp post-migration using Mailchimp's templates and content studio.