Switch email marketing platforms without losing subscribers

The short version

• Export everyone from the old service, including unsubscribed and cleaned contacts.
• Import subscribers as subscribed, and keep unsubscribes suppressed in the new service.
• Add the new service’s authentication records to your domain before the first send.
• Rebuild sign-up forms and the welcome email, and swap the form code on your site.
• Test everything, send once from the new service, then close the old account.

How do I switch, step by step?

1. Export everything from the old service

In Mailchimp, the export guide says to click Audience, choose the audience, click Export audience, then Export CSV. Mailchimp emails you when it’s ready. The download may be a ZIP file with separate CSV files for each contact status, and Mailchimp says exports “can include subscribed, non-subscribed, unsubscribed, and cleaned contacts.”

Keep all of those files. Other services have a similar export under their contacts or audience pages.

Also save, before you close anything:

• Your best email templates (a screenshot or the HTML).
• The wording of your welcome email and any automations.
• Your tags and segment rules, written down.
• A few past reports, if you want to compare later.

2. Clean the file

Open the subscribed file in a spreadsheet. Keep one sheet, an Email Address column, and the name columns you use. Turn tags into a column if you want to bring them across. Save it as CSV. Our help article on sending a newsletter has the format most services expect.

3. Import with the right status

Import the subscribed file as subscribed. Then deal with the unsubscribed and cleaned files: many services let you import contacts as unsubscribed, or add them to a suppression list, so they can never be mailed by mistake. Mailchimp’s import guide asks you to set the marketing status during import; choose Subscribed only for people who gave permission.

This step is the one that matters legally. The FTC’s CAN-SPAM guide says opt-outs must be honored, and that you can’t sell or transfer the addresses of people who opted out except to a company that helps you comply. Moving them into your own new service as unsubscribed is how you keep honoring that request.

4. Authenticate your domain for the new service

The new service will give you DNS records, usually for DKIM, and sometimes a return-path or SPF change. Mailchimp’s authentication guide, for example, asks for two CNAME records and a DMARC record. Add the new records before you send. Remove the old service’s records only after the old account is closed.

Watch SPF: each sending service you add can count toward SPF’s 10-lookup limit. Our guide to adding newsletter tools without breaking SPF shows how to check. If you don’t manage your DNS, send the records to whoever does; see adding DNS records for a new service.

5. Rebuild forms and automations

• Create new sign-up forms and replace the old form code on your website. Old forms keep sending people to the old account.
• Rebuild the welcome email. Constant Contact, for one, notes a welcome email “is not created by default,” so it won’t exist until you make it. See setting up a welcome email.
• Recreate your tags and saved segments.
• Reconnect anything that fed the old list: a booking tool, an online store, a CRM.

6. Test, send, then close the old account

Sign up through the new form with a test address. Check the welcome email arrives and the authentication passes. Send your next newsletter from the new service, watch for bounces and complaints, and keep the old account until that send looks normal. Before you close it, export once more and compare with your first export: anyone who unsubscribed, bounced or signed up through an old form in between needs the same status in the new service. Then download any last reports and close it.

Why do it carefully?

The two things that go wrong are both avoidable: people who unsubscribed start getting email again, and the first send from the new service lands in spam because the domain isn’t authenticated for it. The first breaks the law and annoys people; the second makes the move look like a failure.

What are the common mistakes and edge cases?

• Exporting only subscribed contacts. Unsubscribes get lost and may be re-added later from an old spreadsheet.
• Leaving the old form on the website. New sign-ups keep landing in the account you’re closing.
• Mailing everyone on day one with “We’ve moved!” Send your normal newsletter instead.
• Closing the old account first. You lose the export and your history.
• Two services sending at once for months. Pick a cut-over date.
• Imported contacts getting the welcome email. In Mailchimp, untick imported contacts in the welcome flow’s trigger if your existing subscribers shouldn’t get it.

What if something goes wrong after the move?

• The new service flags your import. Explain where the list came from, and remove anyone without consent.
• The first send goes to spam. Check the new authentication records have published and pass.
• Someone says they unsubscribed before. Unsubscribe them at once and check the unsubscribed file was imported.
• The website form still adds people to the old service. The form code wasn’t replaced everywhere; check the footer, pop-ups and contact page.

How much does it cost, and how long does it take?

Exports and imports are free. A small list moves in an afternoon: an hour for export and import, an hour for authentication and forms, and time for DNS changes to take effect. Rebuilding complex automations takes longer.

How does E-3 handle this?

The parts we usually handle are the import file, the authentication records on your domain and the form code on your website. Website changes are made on a staging copy first. Accounts we set up are in the client’s name, and we don’t need your newsletter service password: you add us as a user instead. If you’re moving to HighLevel for follow-up, that’s part of our leads and follow-up service.

Related questions

• Which email platform should I use?
• What does CAN-SPAM say about unsubscribes?
• How do I add a sign-up form to my website?
• How do I add newsletter tools without breaking SPF?
• Back to the complete email newsletter guide

Sources

1. View or export contacts (Mailchimp Help)
2. Import contacts to Mailchimp (Mailchimp Help)
3. Set up email domain authentication (Mailchimp Help)
4. CAN-SPAM Act: A Compliance Guide for Business (Federal Trade Commission)
5. Create a new welcome email campaign (Constant Contact Knowledge Base)