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Switching to Hollerpost from Mailchimp: what transfers and what you rebuild.

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This guide is for small business owners deciding whether to move their email list from Mailchimp to Hollerpost. It starts with an honest Stay-or-Switch worksheet, then walks through what imports in one upload and what you need to rebuild.

Start with the Stay-or-Switch worksheet.

Switching email tools takes real work because templates and signup forms never transfer automatically between providers. Before you export anything, check whether Mailchimp or Hollerpost fits how your business actually runs.

When you should stay on Mailchimp.

  • You rely on deep e-commerce catalog blocks. Mailchimp connects directly to online stores to pull live product blocks, order-history segmentation, and automated abandoned-cart product grids into drag-and-drop layouts.
  • You run complex multi-branch automations. If your sequences split across dozens of conditional if/else branches based on store purchases and custom events, Mailchimp’s visual builder is built for that complexity.
  • You depend on a specific native third-party integration. Mailchimp connects to hundreds of niche point-of-sale and booking tools out of the box.

When switching to Hollerpost makes sense.

  • Your list is growing faster than how often you send. Mailchimp bills by contact count, including unsubscribed or quiet contacts on many plans. Hollerpost charges by what you send, so keeping seasonal customers on your list costs nothing extra.
  • You send straightforward newsletters, welcome sequences, and text updates. You want clean emails, simple tag-triggered sequences, and optional SMS in one place without digging through enterprise menus.
  • You want a real person to check your import. On Hollerpost, you can upload your Mailchimp ZIP yourself or click Move it for me so Josh imports your list into your workspace and emails you when it is done.

Know what transfers in the ZIP and what you rebuild.

Mailchimp exports your contacts as a single ZIP archive containing separate CSV spreadsheets for subscribed, unsubscribed, cleaned, and non-subscribed people. Hollerpost reads that ZIP directly.

Transfers automatically vs. needs a rebuild.

  • Transfers in one upload: Subscribed email addresses, first and last names, phone numbers, tags, and original opt-in dates.
  • Kept as do-not-email automatically: Unsubscribed and cleaned (bounced) addresses from your Mailchimp ZIP are imported straight into your suppression list so you never accidentally email someone who opted out.
  • Left out on purpose: Non-subscribed contacts (people who bought something once or filled out a contact form without opting into marketing) are skipped so your list stays permission-based.
  • What you rebuild in Hollerpost: Website signup forms, saved email templates, and active automated sequences. Most small businesses only have one active signup form, one newsletter layout, and one welcome sequence to recreate.

Part 1: Export your full contacts ZIP from Mailchimp.

Always export the full contact archive from Mailchimp rather than a filtered segment so your unsubscribed and cleaned suppression files are included in the ZIP.

  1. Open your full contact list in Mailchimp. Sign in to Mailchimp, open the contacts menu in the left sidebar, and select All contacts. [screenshot: Mailchimp left sidebar highlighting the All contacts menu item]
  2. Clear any active tag or segment filters. Make sure you are viewing every contact in your list, not just subscribed people, so your export includes unsubscribed and cleaned addresses. [screenshot: Mailchimp contacts toolbar with filters cleared and Export button visible]
  3. Start the full export. Click the export button above the contact table to generate a complete archive of your list. [screenshot: Mailchimp export confirmation banner leading to Exports history]
  4. Download the ZIP archive. On the export history screen, click Export as CSV next to your newly generated archive to save the .zip file to your computer. [screenshot: Mailchimp Exports table showing the Export as CSV download button]
  5. Confirm the CSV files inside. Keep the .zip file intact (or peek inside to confirm you see separate CSV files for subscribed, unsubscribed, and cleaned contacts). [screenshot: Downloaded Mailchimp ZIP contents showing subscribed, unsubscribed, and cleaned CSV files]

Part 2: Upload your ZIP to Hollerpost and verify suppressions.

Importing contacts into Hollerpost is free and does not use any of your monthly email sends.

  1. Open the contact import screen in Hollerpost. Log in to Hollerpost, select Audience in the left sidebar, and click the Add & Import tab to open the Import contacts from another platform card. [screenshot: Hollerpost Audience screen with the Add & Import tab selected]
  2. Upload your Mailchimp export .zip as-is. Click Choose a CSV or .zip and select the .zip archive you downloaded from Mailchimp (or click Move it for me right below it to send the file to Josh so he can import it into your workspace for you). [screenshot: Import contacts from another platform card showing Choose a CSV or .zip and Move it for me buttons]
  3. Review the Mailchimp export recognized summary. When you upload a Mailchimp archive, Hollerpost skips manual column mapping and displays Mailchimp export recognized with the count of subscribed contacts ready to import, the number of tags found, and each CSV file detected inside the ZIP. [screenshot: Hollerpost Mailchimp export recognized preview showing subscribed contact and tag counts]
  4. Check the automatic suppression counts. In that same summary box, review the counts of unsubscribes and cleaned (bounced) addresses marked kept as do-not-email, along with any non-subscribed people left out. There are no suppression checkboxes to toggle; unsubscribed and cleaned addresses are always kept on your do-not-email list. [screenshot: Mailchimp export recognized summary showing unsubscribes and cleaned addresses kept as do-not-email]
  5. Confirm permission and import your contacts. Check the permission box confirming your contacts opted in, click Import contacts, and review the finished summary banner (such as Imported 2,412 contacts, 3 tags, 311 unsubscribes kept as do-not-email.). [screenshot: Hollerpost completed Mailchimp import banner showing contacts, tags, and unsubscribes kept as do-not-email]

Part 3: Swap forms and sequences before changing your Mailchimp plan.

Do not close or delete your Mailchimp account the moment your contacts finish importing. Follow this order so new subscribers never fall into a gap between tools.

  1. Authenticate your sending domain first. Set up SPF, DKIM, and DMARC for your domain in Hollerpost so your very first send lands in the inbox. [screenshot: Hollerpost Sending Domains screen showing verified SPF and DKIM status]
  2. Rebuild your active welcome sequence. Recreate your welcome email series in Hollerpost and set it to trigger when a new signup form contact arrives. [screenshot: Hollerpost automation builder showing an active welcome sequence]
  3. Replace the signup form on your website. Swap your old Mailchimp form embed on Squarespace, Shopify, WordPress, or your bio page with your new Hollerpost form so new signups flow straight into Hollerpost. [screenshot: Website editor showing Mailchimp embed replaced with Hollerpost signup form]
  4. Submit a live test signup and check your inbox. Enter your own personal email address into your website’s live signup form and confirm that the contact, tag, and first welcome email arrive as expected. [screenshot: Test inbox showing the first welcome email delivered from Hollerpost]
  5. Downgrade Mailchimp to its free plan, or export your reports before closing the account. Once your forms and sequences are live on Hollerpost, follow Mailchimp’s help page on changing or pausing your plan so you stop paying for two tools while keeping your historical reports. [screenshot: Mailchimp account billing and plan overview page]
Pre-switch migration checklist 
[ ] 1. Export full contacts ZIP from Mailchimp (including unsubscribed and cleaned CSVs)
[ ] 2. Upload Mailchimp ZIP to Hollerpost and verify Do-not-email suppression counts
[ ] 3. Verify SPF, DKIM, and DMARC DNS records for your sending domain in Hollerpost
[ ] 4. Recreate your active welcome sequence and newsletter header/footer in Hollerpost
[ ] 5. Replace every live website signup form embed and run one end-to-end test signup
[ ] 6. Downgrade Mailchimp to its free plan, or export your reports before closing the account

Honest limits: what never transfers between email tools.

Three things to plan for before you switch.

  • Historical per-contact open and click logs stay in Mailchimp. Mailchimp’s export includes summary rating fields, not a full log of every past email a subscriber opened. If you want to tag people who opened an email recently, create and apply a tag like active-reader inside Mailchimp right before you export your ZIP.
  • Old Mailchimp unsubscribe links in past emails. People who click the unsubscribe link in an email you sent last month from Mailchimp will unsubscribe inside Mailchimp, not Hollerpost. Before your first send in Hollerpost, do one quick catch-up export of your Mailchimp unsubscribed CSV if you sent from Mailchimp recently.
  • Drag-and-drop templates do not convert cleanly across platforms. Mailchimp’s proprietary layout blocks only work inside Mailchimp. Exporting raw HTML from Mailchimp produces nested table code that is hard to edit cleanly elsewhere; rebuilding a clean layout in Hollerpost is much more reliable.

Ready to see how the Mailchimp import works?

Check the side-by-side cost comparison and upload your Mailchimp ZIP yourself, or let Josh move it for you on the import screen.

See the switching checklist

Free includes 1,000 emails a month, no card. Paid plans from $8/mo.

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