All-in-one email marketing platform with automation, landing pages, and audience management for businesses of all sizes.
Full ReviewA comprehensive CRM platform offering sales automation, analytics, and multichannel communication at competitive pricing.
Full ReviewZoho CRM is a cost-effective, feature-rich CRM popular with small-to-mid-sized businesses. Mailchimp is the go-to email marketing platform for millions of businesses worldwide. Connecting them makes sense when your sales team manages leads and deals in Zoho CRM while your marketing team runs email campaigns and automations in Mailchimp. The integration keeps subscriber lists in sync with CRM data, so marketing never works with stale contact information and sales reps can see how leads are engaging with email campaigns.
This pairing is especially common among cost-conscious businesses that chose Zoho CRM for its competitive pricing and Mailchimp for its free tier and intuitive email builder. It is also useful for organizations that need Mailchimp's specific features — like its landing page builder, creative assistant, or content optimizer — while maintaining Zoho CRM as their sales and customer management system.
When connected, Zoho CRM and Mailchimp can share the following data:
Zoho offers Zoho Campaigns as its own email marketing tool, which integrates natively with Zoho CRM. However, there is no native integration built by either Zoho or Mailchimp to connect Zoho CRM directly to Mailchimp. If you want Mailchimp specifically, you need a third-party connector.
Integration options include:
The recommended approach for most users is Zoho Flow, since it is included with your Zoho subscription and does not require an additional paid tool.
Log in to your Zoho account and navigate to Zoho Flow (flow.zoho.com). If you have not used it before, you may need to enable it from your Zoho admin panel. Zoho Flow is available on most Zoho One and Zoho CRM paid plans.
Click Create Flow and give it a descriptive name like "Zoho CRM to Mailchimp Contact Sync." You can start from scratch or browse the Zoho Flow gallery for pre-built templates with Mailchimp.
Select Zoho CRM as the trigger app. Choose a trigger event such as:
Authorize Zoho Flow to access your Zoho CRM data if prompted. Select the specific module (Leads, Contacts, or a custom module) and configure any filter criteria.
Add an action step and select Mailchimp as the action app. Click Connect and log in to your Mailchimp account to authorize access. Select the action — typically Add or Update Subscriber.
In the action configuration:
To sync Mailchimp subscribers back to Zoho CRM, create a second Flow with Mailchimp as the trigger and Zoho CRM as the action. Use the New Subscriber trigger in Mailchimp and the Create Record action in Zoho CRM. Map fields in the reverse direction.
Use the Test function to run the Flow with a sample record. Verify the contact appears in Mailchimp with correct field values. Once confirmed, activate the Flow. Monitor the execution history for the first few days to catch any errors.
| Data | Direction | Sync Method | Notes |
|---|---|---|---|
| Leads / Contacts | Zoho CRM to Mailchimp | Event-triggered (Zoho Flow or Zapier) | Matched by email address |
| Subscribers | Mailchimp to Zoho CRM | Event-triggered (separate flow) | Creates new Leads or Contacts in Zoho CRM |
| Custom / Merge fields | Configurable | Mapped per flow/zap | Fields must exist in both platforms; type compatibility matters |
| Tags | Zoho CRM to Mailchimp | Set during sync action | CRM field values can be converted to Mailchimp tags |
| Unsubscribe status | Mailchimp to Zoho CRM | Event-triggered | Updates Email Opt Out field in Zoho CRM |
| Campaign engagement | Mailchimp to Zoho CRM | Requires custom setup | Not available natively; requires API or Zapier with webhooks |
Sync timing depends on the integration tool. Zoho Flow and Zapier trigger-based flows execute within seconds to minutes of the triggering event. Scheduled flows can be set to hourly, daily, or custom intervals. For bulk historical sync, you may need to use Mailchimp's import feature with a CSV export from Zoho CRM for the initial load, then use the integration for ongoing sync.
Zoho CRM enforces API rate limits based on your plan (typically 5,000-25,000 API calls per day per organization). Bulk syncing large contact lists or running multiple flows simultaneously can hit these limits. Solution: Stagger flow executions, use bulk API operations where possible, and monitor API usage in Zoho CRM > Setup > Developer Space > APIs > API Usage.
If a contact exists in Zoho CRM as both a Lead and a Contact (before lead conversion), the integration may try to add them to Mailchimp twice. Mailchimp handles this gracefully by deduplicating on email address, but the sync may generate error logs. Solution: Add a filter in your flow to exclude Leads that have already been converted to Contacts, or only sync from the Contacts module.
Zoho CRM date fields, phone number formats, and multi-select picklists may not translate cleanly to Mailchimp merge fields. For example, a Zoho CRM multi-select field sends a comma-separated string that Mailchimp treats as plain text. Solution: Use a formatter step in your flow to transform data before sending it to Mailchimp. Convert dates to a consistent format, and consider using Mailchimp groups instead of merge fields for multi-select data.
If you modify field names, remove fields, or change layouts in Zoho CRM, existing flows may break because they reference fields that no longer exist or have been renamed. Solution: After making CRM customization changes, review and update your integration flows. Test with a sample record to confirm everything still works.
These platforms can help you connect Mailchimp and Zoho CRM without writing code:
