Moving a Mailchimp audience to SendRaven.

Connect SendRaven's MCP server to an agent that can read files, such as Claude Code or Cursor, point it at the unzipped export, and ask. It works through the same tools and the same limits as the API key it holds, so an agent on a key with approval turned on can prepare the migration and cannot send the campaign.

The agent can add and verify the sending domain (add_sending_domain, verify_sending_domain), import contacts with their status and tags (import_contacts, up to 5,000 per call), size the result (count_segment), and draft and preview the first campaign (create_broadcast, preview_broadcast).

My Mailchimp export is unzipped in ./mailchimp-export.

1. Import subscribed_members_export.csv into the SendRaven
   audience "Newsletter" with names, tags and merge fields.
   Tag anyone with MEMBER_RATING 4 or 5 as mc-engaged.
2. Import unsubscribed_members_export.csv with status
   unsubscribed, and cleaned_members_export.csv with status
   bounced. Use source "Mailchimp". Skip the non-subscribed file.
3. Report the counts from every import, and compare the
   suppressed total with the number of rows in those two files.
4. Draft a campaign from news.example.com to the saved segment
   "mc-engaged", preview it, and do not send it.

• Opt-outs go in before any campaign exists. The import never resubscribes someone who opted out, so asking the agent to run it again is safe.
• The audience and the saved segment on the mc-engaged tag are created in the dashboard, or with POST /v1/audiences and POST /v1/segments; the MCP server has no tool for either.
• Every contact passed to import_contacts goes through the model's context. That is fine for a few thousand. For a larger list, ask the agent to write a short script that posts the same rows to POST /v1/audiences/{id}/contacts in batches of 5,000, or use the dashboard's CSV import: the result is the same.
• Publishing the DNS records is still yours. The Domains page lists each record with a guide for your DNS provider.

Connect the SendRaven MCP server to your client, then paste the prompt with your own audience, segment and domain names.

Every file has the same columns: "Email Address", "First Name", "Last Name", "Address", "Phone Number", "TAGS", then Mailchimp's housekeeping (MEMBER_RATING, OPTIN_TIME, OPTIN_IP, CONFIRM_TIME, LATITUDE, TIMEZONE, LAST_CHANGED, EUID, NOTES and so on), and one column per merge field and per group.

The unsubscribed file adds UNSUB_TIME, UNSUB_CAMPAIGN_TITLE and UNSUB_REASON; the cleaned file adds the time it was cleaned. Those are how the import recognises which file it is looking at.

"Address" is the postal address. The import knows the difference from "Email Address", but if you ever rename headers, keep the word email in the address column.

Mailchimp's unsubscribed members and cleaned members are the list you must not lose. Cleaned means the address hard bounced; Mailchimp stopped sending to it and so should you. Import the unsubscribed file with the status "everyone in this file is unsubscribed" and the cleaned file with "…bounced". The first suppresses each address for marketing, the second for everything.

Do this before the first campaign, not after. If you only import the subscribed file, SendRaven has no way of knowing those people exist, let alone that they opted out.

Mailchimp templates export as HTML: Campaigns → Templates, the dropdown next to the template, Export as HTML. Paste the HTML into a SendRaven template and replace the merge tags: *|FNAME|* becomes {{first_name}}, *|EMAIL|* becomes {{email}}, and a custom merge field becomes {{its_key}}. Remove *|UNSUB|* and the footer around it. SendRaven adds the unsubscribe link and the List-Unsubscribe headers to every marketing send itself.

The drag-and-drop layouts do not survive the trip as editable blocks, only as the HTML they produced. That is fine for a newsletter; it is the reason to keep the design simple.

Mandrill, if you used it for transactional mail, is a separate migration: it is an API, and the switch is the same as from any sending API: verify the domain, replace the send call, keep the old key alive for a day.

# The same import, from the API. One file at a time, with its status.
curl -X POST https://api.sendraven.ai/v1/audiences/aud_123/contacts?source=Mailchimp \
  -H "Authorization: Bearer sk_live_..." \
  -H "Content-Type: application/json" \
  -d '[
    { "email": "ana@example.com", "first_name": "Ana", "tags": ["vip"], "status": "subscribed" },
    { "email": "bo@example.com", "status": "unsubscribed" },
    { "email": "cy@example.com", "status": "bounced" }
  ]'

• Keep the Mailchimp account and plan for one billing cycle. Importing into SendRaven changes nothing there, so going back is sending the next campaign from Mailchimp.
• Split the list; never double it. Send the first SendRaven campaigns to the engaged segment and keep mailing everyone else from Mailchimp, then move the rest across as the new domain's warm-up allows. Nobody should get the same campaign from both.
• While both are live, opt-outs have to travel both ways. Before each SendRaven campaign, export Mailchimp's unsubscribed and cleaned members again and re-import them. Before each Mailchimp campaign, add the people who unsubscribed at SendRaven (the Suppressions page, or GET /v1/suppressions) to Mailchimp.
• Cut over once the whole list has had a SendRaven campaign and its bounce and complaint figures look like Mailchimp's did. Then downgrade Mailchimp, after one last export of its unsubscribes.