Mailchimp

Audience: Low-code Engineers

Skill Prerequisites: Actions, Tokens, Mailchimp account

The Mailchimp add-on adds people to a Mailchimp audience (list) and records their marketing permissions. Use it to send newsletter sign-ups from a form to Mailchimp, keep merge fields such as names up to date, and save the GDPR consent a user gives. The actions use the Mailchimp Marketing API v3.0.

note

This add-on is the DnnSharp.Mailchimp package. It's installed separately and needs the MAILCHIMP feature in your license. If it isn't licensed, the actions fail with a "not licensed" error. If you don't see the Mailchimp actions in the Email group of the action list, the add-on isn't installed.

Choosing an action

Action	What it does	Use it to
Subscribe to Mailchimp	Adds an address to a Mailchimp audience, or updates it, with merge fields and interest groups. New members can be added with double opt-in.	Add newsletter sign-ups from a form, or keep a subscriber's name and interests up to date.
Update Mailchimp Member	Sets the GDPR marketing permissions of a member of a Mailchimp audience.	Save the preferences a user chooses on a consent or preferences form.

API key and audience

• No connector. The actions don't use a connector. You pass your Mailchimp API key to each action. Keep it in a token, so you don't type it into every action. Anyone with the key can manage your Mailchimp account.
• Data center. The API key ends with the data center, for example -us21. The actions use it to find the Mailchimp server. A key without it fails with API Key is invalid - could not determine endpoint.
• Audience. List Name or Id takes the audience ID or its exact name. Name matching is case-sensitive. The ID is safer, because a renamed audience isn't found by its old name.

Order and consent

• Subscribe first. Run Subscribe to Mailchimp first, then Update Mailchimp Member. Update adds a missing address as subscribed, without any permissions.
• Both actions subscribe. They always save the member as subscribed, and resubscribe people who unsubscribed. Make sure you have the person's consent. There's no action to unsubscribe someone.
• Double opt-in. Turn on Double Optin in Subscribe to Mailchimp unless you have consent another way. Mailchimp then sends a confirmation email, and the member stays pending until they confirm.
• One address per run. Each action sends one address. For bulk loads, use Mailchimp's import tools. To subscribe several addresses from a list, run the action inside Execute Actions for each List Entry.

For other email marketing, see Constant Contact. To send email from your application, see Email.

Revised 10/02/2026