Migrate from The Practice to Mailchimp

The Practice client records map directly to Mailchimp subscribers. Every client with a valid email address becomes a Mailchimp subscriber with that email as the primary identifier. Clients without email addresses are flagged as ineligible for Mailchimp import and reported separately.

The Practice stores first name and last name as separate contact fields. These map directly to Mailchimp's built-in FNAME and LNAME merge fields, which are automatically available in every Mailchimp audience without any custom field creation required. This ensures immediate availability of name data in all Mailchimp campaigns and merge tag personalization.

The Practice email field maps to Mailchimp's subscriber email field, which serves as the required primary identifier for all Mailchimp audiences. Mailchimp validates email format syntax and checks against suppression lists before accepting the subscriber during import to prevent bounced addresses.

The Practice phone number field maps to Mailchimp's PHONE merge field, which supports SMS keyword subscriptions and telephone-based segmentation workflows. This enables future SMS marketing campaigns and phone-based audience filtering within the Mailchimp platform.

The Practice stores structured address fields including street, city, state, postal code, and country. These map to Mailchimp's compound ADDRESS merge field, which consolidates all address components into a single field and supports location-based segmentation and geographic targeting in campaign sends.

The Practice custom fields (coach type, session package, referral source, billing status, etc.) map to Mailchimp merge fields. Each custom property requires creation of a corresponding merge field in the Mailchimp audience with the correct type — text, number, date, or dropdown — before import runs.

The Practice session notes and client annotations do not have a native Mailchimp equivalent field. We migrate the most recent note as a TEXT merge field and optionally tag clients by note keyword patterns for segmentation purposes in Mailchimp campaigns and audience filtering.

Mailchimp sets subscriber creation dates at import time rather than preserving source timestamps. Original client creation dates from The Practice are preserved as a custom datetime merge field (CLIENT_CREATED__c) so reporting reflects historical client onboarding dates within Mailchimp analytics.

The Practice file attachments (session recordings, signed documents, intake forms) do not migrate to Mailchimp, which does not support file storage on subscriber profiles. We provide a file inventory and recommend re-hosting to Google Drive or Dropbox with links stored as text merge fields.

The Practice appointment history and scheduling data have no native Mailchimp equivalent. We tag clients by appointment frequency (e.g., 'high-frequency', 'monthly', 'quarterly') as behavioral proxies for segmentation, but the calendar model must be rebuilt in Mailchimp or a connected scheduling tool.

The Practice assigns each client to a practitioner or owner for accountability and workload distribution. Mailchimp has no native owner field on subscribers, so practitioner assignments are applied as tags (e.g., tag: 'Assigned: Jane Smith') for filtering reports by practitioner in Mailchimp analytics dashboards.

The Practice client status maps to a combination of Mailchimp member status (subscribed for active, unsubscribed for inactive) and a CUSTOM STATUS merge field preserving the original source status value for reporting continuity and audience segmentation.