Overview
Setting up triggers to send student data to MailChimp. If your MailChimp campaigns are sent to parents, use a parent/customer trigger.
Article Sections
Trigger Types
Student Triggers are divided into three groups:
- New Student Triggers.
- Updated Student Triggers.
- Deleted Student Triggers.
The New Student Triggers are just that; they take information from a new student record in Oases and place the information in a list in MailChimp. Multiple New Student triggers may fire to do multiple tasks.
Updated Student Triggers are used to change information in a MailChimp record or to create MailChimp records from students that already exist in Oases. Most users find that the update type of trigger is the only one needed as items are saved multiple times during onboarding.
Deleted Student Triggers can be used to unsubscribe from a list in MailChimp.
When creating student triggers you decide whether to send the student name and student email or the parent/customer name and parent/customer email to either your student list or your parent list in Mailchimp. Or create two triggers for a student sending the details to both the student list and parent list in MailChimp.
Start with an update trigger so you can test data transferring to MailChimp from existing records. In fact sometimes you will only need update triggers as usually, multiple updates are made on a new record when added to Oases.
Basic Update Student Trigger
The amount of update triggers you need will depend on your groups in your MailChimp list. Start off with a basic trigger.
1. In the main menu select: SetuUp > Integrations > MailChimp.
2. In the Trigger menu select Update Student any existing triggers will be listed and the Add Trigger button will show.
3. Select Add Trigger and give your trigger a description in the Memo Field.
4. In Action List ID select your MailChimp list.
5. Choose which of the following email addresses you would like to send to the list:
- The student email address
- The parent email address from the linked parent/customer record
- Primary contact email (the parent guardian email from inside the student record)
- Secondary contact email ( the secondary parent guardian email from inside the student record)
If you choose to send an email to MailChimp that is not the student email, this will work only if there is a student email address present in the student record in Oases.
6. Then choose the corresponding first name and last name to match the email address chosen.
7. At this point if you don't have groups in your MailChimp list, this is all you need and you can test your trigger by saving a student with an email address and check your MailChimp log.
MailChimp Groups
8. If you have groups in your MailChimp you can add a student to a group and remove them from other groups.
For this example there is a group in MailChimp called Status, containing the options of:- Prospect
- Active
- Completed
- Abandoned
10. Paste the number into the GROUP ADD field.
11. In case your student is already in MailChimp and to enable this trigger to perform updates on status changes in the future, program the trigger to uncheck the other status options in your MailChimp list.
Press Info again and copy the other status codes to GROUP REMOVE as shown below. They will be comma separated with no spaces.
12. The status in MailChimp will be Subscribed.
Additional Fields
13. If you have added other fields created in your MailChimp list you can Map additional data to any of your MailChimp custom fields. For this example we are sending the birthday, zip and parent name as we use those to trigger campaigns and emails in MailChimp.
In the Additional Fields area select the plus sign as many times as required for each custom field and select the Oases data in the first column.
For Additional Fields, you do not need to send the first name, last name and the email that is featured at the top of the trigger as this has already been set in the trigger. Only send fields that correspond to your MailChimp Custom Fields.
14. The next step is to program the destination field in MailChimp with the MailChimp Merge Tag. Open your MailChimp list in MailChimp and select SETTINGS and LIST FIELDS AND MERGE TAGS.
15. One by one copy the tag from the field in MailChimp to the relevant field in your trigger. The example below shows the Birthday field merge tag highlighted then copied and pasted into Oases.
16. Paste or type into Oases and repeat for any other fields.
You can test your work by saving a student with an email address and data in your chosen Oases Fields. Check the MailChimp log and Audience list in MailChimp to ensure everything is working.
17. Whilst not required, the last step can be to program a conditional action that will fire this trigger. For this situation, as I am adding the student to the active group in MailChimp, logically, a conditional is required as it only applies to active students.
Select the plus sign in Conditionals.
+CONDITIONAL MAP and choose STUDENT ACTIVE STATUS. In the Conditional Value field add an A to indicate Auto.
If using a conditional that a check box is selected - place a 1 in the Merge Tag box.
18. Test your new trigger before moving on. Open a student in Oases and ensure there is an email address in the student email field (or the field you have chosen to add to a list)
19. Check the Student Code is set to AUTO.
20. Check that the other fields you have programmed to transfer are populated with data to test the trigger. If the data is missing (birthday, zip, parent name) then when you add the data later it will be updated in MailChimp by this same trigger.
21. Return to the MailChimp Integration in setup and press Show Interface log. Check the time stamp and press details to see the student and data sent.
22. Login to MailChimp to see your new data in the list. Keep in mind that birthdays in MailChimp never include the year.
23. If required you may find a list of inactive breakdown codes at the end of the SI06 tutorial.
24. Following these simple rules create any other triggers to update students for other items. Multiple triggers can fire when a student is updated in Oases.
Link To
SU26. Set Up Mailchimp Integration