How to setup the MailChimp integration with your ProudCity website

MailChimp easily integrates with ProudCity because we think it provides a great, cost effective solution for municipal newsletters. Here’s how to get setup.

You will need to:

1. Create account
2. Prep your list
3. Import list
4. Connect to ProudCity

Steps

Step 1: Create MailChimp account

• Go to MailChimp.com
• Click “Sign Up Free” (top right) to create free account
  • Create and save unique username and password
• Activate account by clicking on “Activate Account” in the welcome message sent to the email account you provided.
  • Confirm sign up
• Finish account sign up
  • First/Last Name
  • Email
  • Organization information
    • Size (ballpark)
    • How old is the organization (ballpark)
    • Do you have a list of emails to important into MailChimp?
      • Yes
    • Are you setting this up for a client?
      • No
  • Details to help build email footer to comply with CAN-SPAM Act and International spam law.
    • Company / organization (name of city)
    • Website URL
      • If your city does not currently have a website you can use your Beta URL: city_state abbreviation.proudcity.com
    • Full address
    • Industry: select government
    • Time zone
    • Profile photo
      • We recommend using your city logo but if you don’t have it you can always update it later.
    • Subscribe to MailChimp Getting Started Emails
      • We recommend checking this box as their starter emails are helpful.
    • Save and get started!

Step 2: Prep list

• Find or export your current newsletter list.
• We recommend organizing your list in a spreadsheet so you can have organized columns for name, email and other contact details you may have. This will set you up for the easiest import option within MailChimp using .xls, .xlsx or .csv formats.
• If your list is not in a spreadsheet, MailChimp has an option for importing .txt files, which .doc and .docx files can be converted to. However, that import feature is not as intuitive as importing a spreadsheet.
• Save your organized list with an obvious title that includes the date.

Step 3: Import your list

• List Name
  • Create a name that explains the group
• Default “from” email
• Default “from” name
• Remind people how they signed up to your list
  • Write a short reminder about how the recipient joined your list. For example: “You are receiving this email from [your city] because you signed up for the newsletter at [yourcity.com].
• Confirm or edit contact information is correct
• Notifications (sent to email account on file)
  • We recommend at the least clicking the Daily summary option to receive a summary of subscribe/unsubscribe activity
• Create List and go to import
  • CSV or tab-delimited text file:
    Import contacts from .csv or .txt files
    • If you have your list saved as a .xls, .xlsx, .doc or .docx file you can convert to .csv or .txt by saving as and changing the file type.
  • Copy/paste from file:
    Copy and paste contacts from .xls or .xlsx files.
  • Integrated service:
    Import contacts from services like Google Contacts, Salesforce, Highrise, Zendesk and more. Additional info.
• If your columns are not properly labeled you will have the opportunity to fix them in the next step:
  
• Review and confirm import meth and columns.
• Import more lists by selecting “Lists” in the top navigation and then click “Create List” to start the process again.

Step 4: Connecting to ProudCity site

• When logged in to MailChimp, select Account from the drop down menu under your name (top right).
• Select API keys from the Extras drop down menu
• Provide ProudCity with your MailChimp API key: https://us12.admin.mailchimp.com/account/api/
  • Your API keys
    • “Create API key”
    • Copy API key and share with your ProudCity contact

Resources

• Add MailChimp newsletter archives to your ProudCity website
• Newsletters