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Mailchimp Export Contacts Tutorial: Manual and Automated Options Explained

4 schedule mailchimp export contacts

In most cases, users export contacts from Mailchimp in order to upload this data to another tool or app. You can also export this data to create a backup copy of your contacts. Another possible purpose is to share Mailchimp contacts with stakeholders, of course, providing this is in compliance with GDPR or other rules for personal data protection. 

How can you do this? In this article, we’ll answer the most important questions about Mailchimp export contacts. Let’s go then!

Export contacts from Mailchimp – which options are available?

Option 1: Manual export in Mailchimp

Mailchimp Audience is where all your contacts are collected and managed. It’s also where you can export contact data as CSV files and download them to your device. Contact groups are separated by default (unsubscribed, subscribed, etc.), meaning every export generates multiple files.

The method works well, but it’s a manual option. You’ll have to repeat the above process every single time you need to update your records.

Option 2: Automated export with Coupler.io

Coupler.io is a reporting automation solution designed to turn raw data into actionable reports. It allows you to schedule data flow from Mailchimp (and other platforms) into Google Sheets, Excel, BigQuery, Looker Studio, and Power BI.

By using Coupler.io for Mailchimp contacts export, you can:

We’ll discuss both methods in detail. However, if you already know which option suits you best, feel free to jump right to it.

How to export contacts from Mailchimp on a schedule with Coupler.io

Suppose you want to automate the export of contacts from Mailchimp to Google Sheets. We’ll show you how to do it in three simple steps with Coupler.io.

Click Proceed in the form below with the preselected source and destination apps, Mailchimp and Google Sheets respectively. If you need another destination, feel free to change it right away. Coupler.io allows you to export data from Mailchimp to Excel, BI tools like Looker Studio, and data warehouses like BigQuery.

You’ll be prompted to sign up for Coupler.io for free. No credit card is required.

Step 1. Extract data from Mailchimp

Optionally, you can filter the data to be fetched in the Advanced settings and Columns blocks. Once you’re happy with the configuration, click Finish and Proceed.

Keep in mind, the list of contacts is not the only data entity you can export with Coupler.io. The platform allows you to get information about Audience clients, growth history, and many others.

Step 2. Transform data from Mailchimp 

Before your contacts data lands in Google Sheets (or another destination), you can make some refinements and strategic changes. For example:

Review the finished result – or do nothing, if you have no changes to make – and proceed to the Destinations step.

Step 3. Load data and schedule regular updates

The last step is to actually connect the destination app. In the case of Google Sheets, you need to: 

You may also want to configure the sheet’s cell range or adjust the data import mode before proceeding to the scheduling step. Read the full Google Sheets set-up guide to learn more about the optional features.

If you regularly export contact data from Mailchimp, it’s a good idea to schedule them in advance. That way, you won’t have to perform manual updates or repeat these steps in the future. At the final stage – Flow Settings – simply toggle on the Automatic data refresh button. You can then:

The raw data will appear in Google Sheets where you can build a report and share it with stakeholders. Meanwhile, you can rest assured that the data will be updated automatically according to your chosen schedule.

Note block: It’s important to emphasize that you’ll get much more insights compared to the CSV export. With Coupler.io, your contacts data includes stats and metrics, for example, average click rate and total revenue, location details, last note records, and many more.

Visualize your Mailchimp data with ready-to-use dashboards

In addition to exporting Mailchimp contacts, Coupler.io offers ready-to-use solutions for instant and efficient data analysis. These are pre-built dashboard templates that work seamlessly with your exported Mailchimp data.

Mailchimp analytics dashboard

The Mailchimp analytics dashboard provides an overview of your email marketing performance across all campaigns and audiences. It brings together key metrics in one place. This way, you can track subscriber engagement, campaign effectiveness, and overall strategy performance on one dashboard.

What insights you can get:

How to use this dashboard: The dashboard template is designed in Looker Studio and comes with a Readme tab containing clear instructions. Connect your Mailchimp account using Coupler.io’s integration, select which audience(s) you want to analyze, and the dashboard will automatically populate with your email marketing analytics data.

Email marketing analytics dashboard for Mailchimp

This specialized dashboard combines data from Mailchimp and Google Analytics 4 to provide insights into how your email campaigns impact website traffic and conversions. It helps you understand the customer journey from email open to purchase completion.

What insights you can get:

How to use this dashboard: Simply connect your Mailchimp account to the Looker Studio template using Coupler.io’s connector. The Readme tab provides step-by-step instructions to get you started quickly.

Mailchimp email campaign performance dashboard for Shopify store

This report can be simply called Mailchimp & Shopify dashboard as it bridges the gap between your email marketing efforts and e-commerce performance. It shows you exactly how your Mailchimp campaigns translate into Shopify sales and revenue, providing a clear ROI picture of your email marketing.

What insights you can get:

How to use this dashboard: Follow the instructions in the Readme tab to connect both your Mailchimp and Shopify accounts. The dashboard template in Looker Studio will automatically populate with your integrated data.

These dashboard templates provide valuable visualizations that go far beyond what’s possible with basic CSV exports. They offer a comprehensive view of your email marketing performance and integrate perfectly with the automated data export methods described in this article.

How to export all contacts from Mailchimp manually

Why is it a ZIP file with multiple CSVs? Because Mailchimp’s export ‘all contacts’ option groups data by the email marketing status: Subscribed, Nonsubscribed, Unsubscribed, and Cleaned.

If you’d rather download the ZIP file without logging in to your email, go to the Manage Audience drop-down menu on the All Contacts page.

Mailchimp export group contacts

If you want to export Mailchimp contacts of a specific group, you can do the following:

Note: The number of contacts displayed for each group on this page corresponds to the number of contacts with the Subscribed status.

Limitations of exporting contacts as CSV from Mailchimp

The manual method for the Mailchimp export contacts is a good solution if you need to load Mailchimp contacts to another app. However, you should be aware of certain limitations or drawbacks associated with this method:

It’s not the ideal option if you need to export data on a regular basis, for example, for reporting or analytics. Besides, you can’t change the file format to export Mailchimp contacts to Excel. This is why we recommend you automate this workflow on a schedule with Coupler.io.

Export contacts in Mailchimp: subscribed, unsubscribed, and cleaned

You might be looking for the best way to export Mailchimp contacts grouped by their email marketing status: subscribed, unsubscribed, and cleaned. 

It’s easy to do when using Coupler.io for Mailchimp data export. At the Transform step of the data flow set-up, filter contacts by their status. Here’s how it looks in practice:

The native manual functionality also provides this sort of grouping by default. However, without Coupler.io, you’ll have to specify the group each time you want to export contact data.

How to export unsubscribed contacts from Mailchimp manually

First, follow all the steps we’ve covered in the section: How to export all contacts from Mailchimp manually. The final action is to download a ZIP file to your device, which will contain several CSVs with Mailchimp contacts data grouped by status – including the unsubscribed contacts.

If you export contacts from Mailchimp using Coupler.io, then you can just filter the data by the status Unsubscribed. For example, if you used Google Sheets as a data destination:

Filter the status column by the value Unsubscribed and click OK to save changes.

Here’s what the sheet will look once filtered:

How to export subscribed contacts from Mailchimp manually

If you manually export Mailchimp contacts, you’ll get subscribed contacts grouped into a separate CSV file as described above. If you use Coupler.io, filter your exported records by the status ‘Subscribed‘ similar to how we did this in the previous section.

How to do the Mailchimp export of cleaned contacts

If you manually export contacts as CSV, you’ll get a separate CSV file containing data about the cleaned contacts. With Coupler.io, you can simply filter the necessary records.

What else can you export from Mailchimp?

So, we’ve introduced two methods to export contacts from Mailchimp: manual and automated ones. Now you can decide which of these is the best fit for your needs. And if you choose to go with Coupler.io, you’ll be pleasantly surprised.

The thing is that as well as contacts, Coupler.io also allows you to export data about campaigns, clients, activities, and other entities. This can be extremely useful for your analytical or reporting purposes, especially if you need to export your data from Mailchimp to BigQuery. We hope you found this useful and good luck with your data!

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