All-in-one email marketing platform with automation, landing pages, and audience management for businesses of all sizes.
Full ReviewThe Salesforce and Mailchimp integration connects your CRM with your email marketing platform, enabling you to sync contacts between both systems and use Salesforce lead and opportunity data to drive targeted Mailchimp campaigns. Mailchimp offers an official Salesforce integration available in the Salesforce AppExchange, making this a first-party, supported connection.
Once connected, you can sync Salesforce leads, contacts, and their associated data to Mailchimp audiences. This allows your marketing team to send targeted email campaigns based on CRM data — such as deal stage, lead source, industry, or custom fields — while your sales team continues working in Salesforce. Campaign engagement data (opens, clicks, bounces) flows back to Salesforce, giving sales reps visibility into how leads interact with marketing emails.
The end result is alignment between sales and marketing. Marketing sends more relevant campaigns using CRM data, sales gets engagement intelligence to prioritize follow-ups, and both teams work from synchronized contact records without manual data imports or exports.
Go to the Salesforce AppExchange (appexchange.salesforce.com) and search for "Mailchimp." Find the official Mailchimp for Salesforce package and click Get It Now. Choose whether to install in Production or Sandbox. Select Install for All Users (or limit to specific profiles if needed) and click Install. The package installs custom objects, fields, and a managed package in your Salesforce org.
After installation, go to the Mailchimp for Salesforce app in Salesforce (use the App Launcher to find it). Click Mailchimp Setup, then click Connect to Mailchimp. Log in with your Mailchimp credentials and authorize the connection. Salesforce and Mailchimp will exchange API credentials and confirm the link.
In the Mailchimp for Salesforce setup, go to the Sync Settings tab. Choose which Salesforce objects to sync: Leads, Contacts, or both. Select the Mailchimp audience where these records should be synced. Map Salesforce fields to Mailchimp merge fields — for example, map Salesforce "Company" to Mailchimp "COMPANY" merge field, and "Lead Source" to a custom Mailchimp merge field.
Configure which Salesforce records should sync to Mailchimp. You can sync all leads and contacts, or filter by criteria such as: leads with a specific status (e.g., only "Marketing Qualified" leads), contacts associated with active opportunities, or records with a specific record type. Use Salesforce report-based filters for complex criteria.
Turn on Campaign Sync to link Mailchimp campaigns with Salesforce Campaigns. When enabled, each Mailchimp email campaign creates a corresponding Salesforce Campaign. Campaign members are added to the Salesforce Campaign with their engagement status (sent, opened, clicked, bounced). This allows sales reps to see email engagement on lead and contact records.
To give sales reps visibility into Mailchimp data, add the Mailchimp components to Salesforce page layouts. Go to Setup > Object Manager > Lead (or Contact) > Page Layouts. Edit the layout and drag the Mailchimp Activity related list onto the page. This shows each lead's or contact's Mailchimp subscription status and recent email engagement directly on their Salesforce record.
Create a test lead in Salesforce that matches your sync filter criteria. Wait for the next sync cycle (typically runs every 15-30 minutes) and verify the record appears in your Mailchimp audience. Send a test campaign to the synced contact and verify the campaign data flows back to the Salesforce Campaign and the contact's Mailchimp Activity section.
The integration supports configurable sync frequency (from every 15 minutes to daily), field mapping customization (map any standard or custom Salesforce field to Mailchimp merge fields), and bidirectional opt-out syncing (when someone unsubscribes in Mailchimp, their Salesforce record can be updated, and vice versa). You can also configure which Mailchimp tags are applied to Salesforce-sourced contacts for segmentation purposes.
| Data | Direction | Frequency |
|---|---|---|
| Leads and contacts | Salesforce to Mailchimp | Every 15-30 minutes |
| Custom field data | Salesforce to Mailchimp | Every 15-30 minutes |
| Campaign engagement (opens, clicks) | Mailchimp to Salesforce | After campaign send |
| Unsubscribe/opt-out status | Two-way | On change |
| Campaign membership | Mailchimp to Salesforce | After campaign send |
Verify the records match your sync filter criteria. Check the Mailchimp for Salesforce sync log for errors — common causes include missing required Mailchimp merge fields, invalid email addresses, or API rate limit errors during large syncs.
Campaign sync requires the Campaign Sync feature to be enabled in the integration settings. Also verify that the Mailchimp Campaign has been sent (draft campaigns do not create Salesforce Campaigns). Check that the Salesforce user has permission to view Campaign records.
The integration matches records by email address. If a contact exists in both Salesforce and Mailchimp with different email addresses, duplicates will be created. Clean up duplicates in Mailchimp using the audience management tools, and ensure email addresses are consistent across both platforms.
For advanced use cases, combine the Mailchimp integration with Salesforce Flows or Process Builder to automate marketing workflows. For example, create a Flow that automatically adds leads to specific Mailchimp segments when they reach a certain lead score, or trigger a Mailchimp automation when an opportunity reaches "Proposal" stage. You can also use the Mailchimp API alongside Salesforce's outbound messaging to build real-time event-driven integrations beyond what the standard package supports.
