Switching from Mailchimp to Holder

The export is a single click. The part that matters is what comes out of it: four separate files, one per marketing status, and you need all four. Consent is the whole point of this move, and it lives in the files most people leave behind.

What comes with you

• Contacts: yes. Email addresses, names, your audience fields, tags and notes.
• Consent status: yes. Unsubscribed stays unsubscribed. Holder keeps a permanent suppression list and checks it at every send, so someone who left your list in 2021 cannot be emailed by accident in 2027.
• History: no. Opens, clicks and send history stay in Mailchimp. They aren't in the export.

Export from Mailchimp

• Only Owners and Admins can export an audience, so check your own access first
• Click Audience, and pick the right one from the drop-down if you have more than one
• Click Export audience, then Export CSV in the Export all contacts? pop-up
• Mailchimp emails you when it's ready. You can also collect it from Audience > More options > Export history, where exports stay available for 30 days
• Archived contacts export separately, from the archived contacts view. Do that too while you're there

What you get is a ZIP containing separate CSVs for subscribed, unsubscribed, non-subscribed and cleaned contacts. The status is in the filename, not in a column inside the file, which is why people take the subscribed file and stop. Don't: the people you must never email again are in the file you left behind.

Inside, you'll find your audience fields, marketing permissions if you had GDPR-friendly forms switched on, opt-in and confirmation timestamps and IP addresses, member rating, last changed date, notes and tags.

Import to Holder

• Upload all four files. A CSV is all we need, and date formats are normalised on import
• Read the column mapping check slowly. Mailchimp merge tags are rarely named the way you remember
• Combining this with a booking list or another audience: the merge preview matches on email address and shows you the difference field by field before anything is written
• Duplicates are flagged side by side. If one record says unsubscribed and the other says subscribed, the person stays unsubscribed

What Holder rebuilds rather than imports

• Sign-up forms and sequences
• Booking pages, session types, availability and packs, which Mailchimp never had
• Under an hour for a working sign-up form and a welcome sequence

What doesn't come with you

• Segment definitions. The rules don't export, only the contacts. Open each saved segment and write down the logic before you close the account
• Engagement data. No opens, no clicks. If you segment by engagement, export those segments as separate CSVs now and use them as tags in Holder
• Automations and customer journeys. No export at all. Screenshot them
• Templates. These come out as HTML through a full account export, not the audience export, and won't drop into Holder as designs
• SMS consent. It arrives in its own folder with its own timestamps. Send that to us rather than assuming it moves with the email consent

The last step

• Repoint every sign-up form and list link: website footer, link in bio, anything embedded in a landing page
• Send a test to yourself
• Take one address you know unsubscribed in Mailchimp and confirm Holder is suppressing it. Do this before your first real send, not after

Deep history imports are a paid one-off service, not part of a trial or a plan. If you want one, send us your export before you start a trial: we'll quote you for it, and tell you honestly what will and won't come with you either way.