Help with Email Marketing with Airtable... #NotMailChimp?

[M_L]

Hello,

I work for a growing nonprofit that needs *help* in the area of Email Marketing. 

We use Airtable to manage our various lists of people and their contact information, but I need a good Email Marketing App that will integrate well with Airtable. We're using MailChimp right now, but it's a mess because it's not integrated with our Airtable contact lists. Can anyone recommend a setup for using Airtable as the CRM, integrated with another Email Marketing App that can:

1. Automatically sync contact lists "two ways" with Airtable.
   • Meaning, if someone updates the Airtable list then the Email App's List will be updated, or if someone Subscribes using an Email App SignUp Form then Airtable's Lists will be updated. (FYI, MailChimp doesn't do this natively, neither does Outfunnel which integrates Airtable and MailChimp.)
2. Manage the Contact Lists, tags, groups, etc. in Airtable, and
3. Design & send no-code marketing emails using the Mail App, pulling from my Airtable lists.

I was looking at doing this with MailChimp originally, but it doesn't have two-way sync. Then I thought SendGrid would be a great Airtable-friendly option, but it appears I would still need to setup semi-complex integrations with Zapier/Make/etc. 

I feel like this should be simple, but I've yet to find a solution that does this. Your input is much appreciated.

TIA,

(I would reference a previous post I made about this, but I can't find it since Airtable upgraded their community forum.)

[IliyanSlavov]

Unfortunately, I think there's no built-in method or extension in Airtable that covers this scenario. I found a tool and resource that might help you achieve it: https://unito.io/integrations/mailchimp-airtable/ 

[M_L]

Hi @IliyanSlavov, thank you for sending this over. I haven't looked at it closely, but if it does what it says then the Unito tool is the first one I've seen to do two-way sync between Airtable and MailChimp! Unfortunately, it's expensive for for my use case to pay $90/month to keep 1000 records in sync. That gets expensive for something like a mailing list that could eventually be in the thousands of records/contacts. 

I will keep looking for now, but knowing that Unito probably has it makes me think other companies may soon as well.

[chrisbyrne]

this post shows the airtable automation to send email field to any email platform that supports webhooks.  No 3 is not advisable -though technically possible- as you will want to manage all unsubscribes from the platform. Doing that via Mail app is tricky to say the least in terms of scale & inboxing.

[M_L]

Hey @chrisbyrne, thanks so much for the reply. Unfortunately, I would need a no-code solution if at all possible 😬. We're a small nonprofit and don't have programmers at this point.

[wiscoenviro]

@M_L did you ever find a solution to this? We are looking for the exact same thing. 

[M_L]

Hello,

We did find an interim solution using zzBots (https://www.zzbots.com/) to perform a two-way sync between Airtable and MailChimp. And zzBots was a much more affordable two-way sync solution compared to the others I've seen. 

Overall it has been great, but we are experiencing some glitches. Part of this has to do with low bandwidth to develop the solution further (see "no code solution") above :). 

I think zzBots could be great if you have a clear vision for the MailChimp architecture / structure you want.

-ML

[syncgrip]

Sounds like Syncgrip might be just what you’re looking for?! We recently launched a two-way sync between Airtable and Mailchimp, so any updates in Airtable will automatically reflect in Mailchimp and vice versa—even if someone subscribes through a Mailchimp form.

No complex setups needed, just a few clicks to keep your contact lists aligned between the two services.

Happy to help if you have any questions or want to give it a try!