How do I send mass emails using Mail Chimp?

To send mass emails, we connect to Mail Chimp (mailchimp.com) which allows extensive functionality for building professional email content and run campaigns from there.

Create a Mail Chimp Account and get API Key

You will first need to create a mail chimp account based on how many customers or emails you already have. Once you have a plan selected and you have created your account, click on your account on the top right and select Profile.

Then go to Extras > API Keys

Here you will create a new key.

Once you have obtained a key, copy the key in your Tan-Link General Settings by looking for 'mail chimp' and adding this under the Mail Chimp API Key.

Import a list of emails

You can import the list of emails from TL. Go to Mangement > Marketing > Export Customer Emails. Once you have saved the file, view the mail chimp instructions on how to import the file.

https://mailchimp.com/help/import-contacts-mailchimp/

How to connect TL to the Audience list

Audience is the list of customers you imported. Click on Audience on top in Mail Chimp and select the contacts you imported.

Under the Audience, go to Settings > Audience fields and *|MERGE|* tags as shown below.

If you only need the name and email exported from TL when a new customer signs up, then the following is sufficient as shown below.

If you need TL to export additional details, the following tags can be added by clicking on Add a Field. 

• CLUB: Your store location/name. Text type field
• JOINED: Date account was created. Date type field
• BDAY: Birthday. Birthday type Field
• CELL: Cellphone Number. Phone type field

To connect this list to Tan-Link, you will need the Audience ID or List ID.

Under Audience, go to Settings > Audience name and defaults

From here you will copy the id as shown below.

Copy this option into Tan-Link option Mail Chimp List ID

As new customer accounts are created, they will show up on this list automatically. Verify this by creating a new customer account and ensuring that the name appears in your audience on Mail Chimp.

If the emails for any existing customers change in Tan-Link, those emails do not automatically update in Mail Chimp. The best way to update the emails is to do another import from Tan-Link. When the new list is imported in Mailchimp into an existing campaign, Mailchimp displays the duplicate emails and give an option to skip those.