Mailchimp Integration

Purpose: Link LegalServer and Mailchimp to allow for use of the Mailchimp platform to synchronize recipients or send emails via Mailchimp. 

There are three aspects of this integration:

  1. Synchronizing Mailchimp Audiences with new recipients from LegalServer clients, users, and contacts.
  2. Use of the Mailchimp transactional API (Mandrill) to send emails from Mailchimp instead of LegalServer’s SMTP server. 
  3. Sending templates to Mailchimp with Pro Bono Opportunity lists to send to an audience. 

Cost: TBD. This feature is in Beta. 

Sections in this article:

General Configuration

Mailchimp Configuration

You’ll need to Register an App in Mailchimp to connect Mailchimp to LegalServer. From your account page, go to Extras and then Registered Apps. You can also get there by going to https://us5.admin.mailchimp.com/account/oauth2/. You’ll want to Register a New App:

Required responses are:

The other fields are up to you. Once the record is saved, it will give you a Client ID and a Client Secret. Do not lose these values. You’ll need them in the next step.

Authorize Mailchimp From LegalServer

To turn on the Authentication between LegalServer and Mailchimp, go to the Mailchimp Settings page – Admin -> Mailchimp Setup and Debug.

This is where you’ll need to enter the Mailchimp Client ID and Client Secret. Once you’ve done that, click the link to then Login to Mailchimp. You’ll have to Login to Mailchimp and be redirected back to this page. If you click Continue, the page is reloaded and you should see a message that the ping status says “Everything’s Chimpy!”.

You’ve also got the ability to Disconnect the API here as well.

LegalServer Permissions

Mailchimp has seven permission settings in LegalServer:

  • Mailchimp - Add to Mailchimp as Subscribed: Allows the user to add a user/client/contact to a Mailchimp Audience as subscribed instead of pending. Pending would send them a confirmation email first.
  • Mailchimp - Add/Remove Mailing List Members: Allows the user to add a user/client/contact to a Mailchimp Audience as pending or to unsubscribe them.
  • Mailchimp - Administer: Allows for Administration of the Mailchimp integration
  • Mailchimp - Draft/Send Email Campaign: Allows the user to draft and potentially send out a campaign to an Audience.
  • Mailchimp - Edit Expressions: Allows for editing expressions that will automatically add a new user/client/contact to a Mailchimp Audience
  • Mailchimp - Send Email via Matter Transactional Block: Allows the user to send an email to the user/client/contact via a transactional block.
  • Mailchimp - View Audience/Campaign Details: Allows the user to see details about a Mailchimp Audience/Campaign.

Marketing Audiences and Campaigns

The second Mailchimp Admin Page “Mailchimp Audience, Campaign and Template Lists” has additional information on Mailchimp.

Audience Lists

This is a list of all Audiences (mailing lists) on the Mailchimp account. If you click Details, a Profile page opens for the Audience. If you click on Merge Fields, you’ll eventually be able to set specific fields for specific Mailchimp fields to populate fields in the mailings. You'll notice that the Mailing List Merge Fields page does not have a Continue button:

That is because Merge Fields are currently hardcoded into the system. Future tickets will grant end users the ability to add additional merge fields, but that is not currently possible. The Merge Fields that are hardcoded include:


 User Contact Matter
ADDRESS work_address work_address full_address
FNAME first first first
LNAME last last last
PHONE phone_business phone_business phone_home

Merge fields need to be mapped for each potential type of person linked to the Mailchimp records. If the field lacks those values it skips over it to process the next record that it can. Merge fields are updated once per day.

When you click on Details from the Audience List, you get additional information:

This lists the audience members and their status on the Audience.

Below the Audience Members listview is a separate listview for Audience Auto-Populate Expressions.

These allow you to use the expressions editor to identify users, contacts, or clients that should automatically be added to this audience.

The expressions will run automatically once each day, but you can force them to run on demand as well. When you click Run, it will tell you the results of the run.

Campaign Lists

You can also track Mailchimp Campaigns in LegalServer. 

Campaigns are collections of emails sent to a particular Audience.

When you open the Campaign for Details, You can see details about the Campaign as well as individual open reports.

User/Contact/Matter Connections

On the User/Contact/Matter profiles, a new Listview for Mailchimp Mailing List(s) is available.

If you click the Plus button in the corner, it will bring you to a process to add them to a specific Mailchimp Audience.

If you do not check the box, they will be added in a Pending status meaning that they will get sent a confirmation email. If you check the box (and have the permission to subscribe individuals), then they will be added as Subscribed.

Pro Bono Opportunity Lists

At the bottom of the Mailchimp Audience, Campaign, and Template Lists page is a listview for Pro Bono Opportunity Lists. You can define multiple types of Pro Bono Opportunity Lists for use in a Campaign template.

If you click the Plus button, you’ll have the ability to create a new list.

As noted in the instruction, there are default filters automatically limiting the contents of the list to Pro Bono Opportunity Status = “Yes: Available Opportunity” and Case Disposition of “Open” or “Pending”. You can use the expression editor here to define other case related values to filter for, whether those are features of the case (Family Law, Bankruptcy, etc.) or details about the client (veteran, elderly individuals, etc.).

Once defined, the list is saved and available for use in a Campaign.

Sending a Campaign

The ability to kick off a campaign with a Pro Bono Opportunity list is kept behind a separate User Role Permission (Mailchimp - Draft/Send Email Campaign) and on a separate Admin Page (Mailchimp Send Email Campaign).

You have the ability to pick the Mailchimp Audience, the Mailchimp Template, define the subject and then preview the email itself. Mailchimp templates need to have {PB_OPPORTUNITY_LIST} in them to identify where the Pro Bono Opportunity list will be replaced.

Pro Bono Opportunity lists are added as unordered (bulleted) lists with the following format:

  • 14-0000005
    • Legal Problem Code: 01 Bankruptcy/Debtor Relief
    • County of PB Opportunity: Harris
    • Level of Expertise: Novice
    • Pro Bono Opportunity Summary: Here’s a summary of the case.

Note that the case number is a URL to the case itself which is useful if your pro bono volunteers can log in.

Transactional Emails

This is enabled in the same place as the Mailchimp Audience Integration: Admin -> Mailchimp Setup and Debug. The API key can be entered and tested there before switching the sending method over to Mandrill instead of LegalServer’s SMTP server.

Authorization

If sending as the client, they need to authorize mandrill to do the sending. That is all detailed here: https://mailchimp.com/developer/transactional/docs/authentication-delivery/. LegalServer has already set up SPF and DKIM records for legalserver.org. You’ll want to configure that for your domain.

Usage

The majority of locations in LegalServer will use the transactional API by default when that is enabled. Note that Mailchimp transactional emails have their own separate monthly pricing from the Marketing audiences.

Known Bugs

  • LS-98380 - The hyperlink in the Pro Bono Opportunity List is not a valid url.
  • LS-101145 - Merge Fields are hardcoded.
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