Using Mailchimp actions in action flows

Before you can include external actions in your action flows, you must connect the action builder to the external system.


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Summary: ◀▼
You can connect action flows to Mailchimp to automate managing contacts and tags. Use actions to create, update, look up, search, and delete contacts, as well as add, remove, or create tags. Connecting with a dedicated service account is recommended for security. These integrations help streamline audience management and improve collaboration across platforms through automated workflows.




By connecting the action builder to external systems, such as Mailchimp,
admins can integrate Zendesk with external systems in automated workflows, improving
collaboration and maintaining a seamless experience across multiple platforms.
Note: The steps associated with external systems in action flows are
referred to collectively as external actions.

This article contains the following topics:
Connecting Mailchimp to action builder
Using Mailchimp actions in action flows




Connecting Mailchimp to action builder

Before you can include external actions in your action flows, you must connect the
action builder to the external system.
When connecting to external systems for use in action flows, the following best practices are recommended:
All external actions performed by an action flow are attributed to the user who connected the
external system. Therefore, it's a best practice to use a dedicated service
account rather than personal credentials when connecting to each external
system.
All integrations request access to necessary scopes. However, it's important that you review and validate the scopes before authorizing the connection to the external system.
When managing credentials for API key-based tools, such as OpenAI, it's best to store keys in a secure vault or credential manager.



To connect action builder to Mailchimp
In Admin Center, click
Apps and integrations in the sidebar, then select Actions > Action
flows.

Create or edit an action flow.
Open the step sidebar.
Under External actions, click Mailchimp.
Click Connect.
Follow Mailchimp's prompts to authenticate and complete the
connection. The Mailchimp connection uses OAuth 2.0 with the
authorization code grant type. When you authorize the connection, you'll
be redirected to Mailchimp to grant permissions to your Zendesk
account.

Note: All external actions performed
by an action flow are attributed to the user who connected the external
system. Therefore, it is a best practice to use a dedicated service
account rather than personal credentials when connecting to each
external system.



After you've connected to the system, you'll see an indicator that it's connected and
details about the instance you're connected to, as well as the actions available for
Mailchimp.



Using Mailchimp actions in action flows

Mailchimp action steps can be used to manage contacts and tags.
The following Mailchimp actions are available:
Create contact
Update contact
Lookup contact
Search contacts
Add tag
Remove tag
Create tag
Delete contact




Creating contacts

Use the Create contact action to add a new contact to an audience.
This action has the following inputs and outputs:










Variables




Inputs
Required: Audience, Email
address, Status Status
options include Subscribed, Pending, or
Transactional.
Optional: First
name, Last name,
Tag, Contact
language, Is
VIP?



Output
Contact details, including ID, email address, unique
email ID, contact ID, full name, status, email type, VIP
status, language, member rating, last changed timestamp,
opt-in timestamp, signup timestamp, list ID, merge fields,
stats, tags, and tags count.








Updating contacts

Use the Update contact action to update an existing contact's
information.
This action has the following inputs and outputs:










Variables




Inputs
Required: Audience, Email
address Optional: Status,
First name, Last
name, Tag, Contact
language, Is
VIP?
Status options include Subscribed,
Unsubscribed, Pending, Cleaned, or
Transactional.



Output
Updated contact details, including ID, email address,
unique email ID, contact ID, full name, status, email type,
VIP status, language, member rating, last changed timestamp,
opt-in timestamp, signup timestamp, list ID, merge fields,
stats, tags, and tags count.








Looking up contacts

Use the Lookup contact action to retrieve information about a contact
using their email address.
This action has the following inputs and outputs:










Variables




Inputs
Required: Audience, Email
address



Output
Contact details, including ID, email address, status,
unique email ID, contact ID, full name, email type, VIP
status, language, member rating, last changed timestamp,
opt-in timestamp, signup timestamp, list ID, merge fields,
stats, tags, and tags count.








Searching for contacts

Use the Search contacts action to find contacts in an audience based on
various criteria.
This action has the following inputs and outputs:










Variables




Inputs
Required: Audience Optional:
Status, Count,
Offset, Since last
changed
Count
specifies the number of records to return (default: 25,
max: 1000). Offset is for pagination
(default: 0). Since last changed should
be in YYYY-MM-DD format.



Output
An array of contacts with ID, email address, unique email
ID, contact ID, full name, status, email type, VIP status,
language, member rating, last changed timestamp, opt-in
timestamp, signup timestamp, merge fields, stats, tags, tags
count, and list ID. Also includes total items count.








Adding a tag to a contact

Use the Add tag action to add a tag to an existing contact.
This action has the following inputs and outputs:










Variables




Inputs
Required: Audience, Email
address, Tag



Output
Success status








Removing a tag from a contact

Use the Remove tag action to remove a tag from an existing contact.
This action has the following inputs and outputs:










Variables




Inputs
Required: Audience, Email
address, Tag



Output
Success status








Creating a tag

Use the Create tag action to create a new tag in an audience.
This action has the following inputs and outputs:










Variables




Inputs
Required: Audience,
Tag



Output
Tag details, including ID, name, member count, type,
creation timestamp, update timestamp, and list ID.








Deleting a contact

Use the Delete contact action to permanently delete a contact from an
audience.

Important: This action permanently deletes the
contact and cannot be undone.
This action has the following inputs and outputs:










Variables




Inputs
Required: Audience, Email
address



Output
Success status








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