Migrate from PHP CRM to Mailchimp

PHP CRM Contact records map to Mailchimp Audience members. Each Contact's email address becomes the subscriber key, first name maps to FNAME merge field, last name to LNAME, phone to PHONE, and address fields to standard Mailchimp address merge fields. We resolve duplicate email addresses during import using Mailchimp's built-in deduplication on subscriber key and flag records with invalid email formats for customer review.

PHP CRM Company records have no direct Mailchimp equivalent. We map Company association to a tag on the Contact (format: company:{CompanyName}) so that contacts from the same company are filterable via segment. If the customer prefers, we create a COMPANY_NAME custom merge field and populate it with the parent company name resolved via the Contact's company_id foreign key. The customer chooses the strategy during scoping.

PHP CRM Deal records (stage, value, expected close date, owner) have no Mailchimp equivalent. We extract deal data and populate custom contact merge fields on the associated Contact record: DEAL_STAGE (text), DEAL_VALUE (number), DEAL_CLOSE_DATE (date), DEAL_OWNER (email). Deals without a linked Contact are held in a reconciliation report for the customer to resolve manually. Mailchimp's automation features cannot trigger on deal stage changes since Mailchimp has no deal object.

PHP CRM tags map directly to Mailchimp tags on the Contact record. The tag vocabulary (per-instance, varying by deployment) is extracted in full during discovery. Tags with no semantic meaning (system-generated IDs) are filtered out. We create tags using the Mailchimp Tags API and apply them to contacts during the contact import phase. Tag count per contact is preserved without limit.

PHP CRM custom fields on Contact are enumerated during discovery (field name, data type, valid values). We create corresponding Mailchimp merge fields via the Mailchimp Merge Fields API, mapping PHP CRM field types to Mailchimp types: text strings to text, dates to date, picklist values to dropdown or radio, and boolean flags to text (Yes/No). Merge fields are created per Audience before contact import begins. Mailchimp's default merge field limit is 40 per Audience on Standard and below; Premium allows more.

PHP CRM Owner (assigned user on Deals, Tasks, Contacts) has no direct Mailchimp equivalent. We map owner assignment to a tag on each contact (format: owner:{OwnerEmail}) or to a OWNER_EMAIL merge field, depending on the customer's preference. This preserves assignment context without creating a Mailchimp user structure that does not exist in the platform.

PHP CRM pipeline definitions (multiple sales processes) have no Mailchimp equivalent. We extract the pipeline name associated with each Deal and map it to a DEAL_PIPELINE tag or merge field on the linked Contact. Pipeline stages map to DEAL_STAGE as described above. Mailchimp segments can filter by pipeline if tags are used, enabling marketing teams to target contacts in specific pipeline stages.

PHP CRM Activity records (calls, emails, meetings, tasks) cannot map to Mailchimp's engagement tracking because Mailchimp only tracks email-specific opens, clicks, and unsubscribes. We flag Activity as a no-migratable object and document it in the handoff report. If the customer has a meaningful subset of activity data (e.g., last contacted date) they want preserved, we extract a summary date field per contact and map it to a LAST_ACTIVITY_DATE merge field. Full activity history requires manual review or a third-party note-taking system.