Hello @Doubleo,

Great question! Having a single list is highly beneficial and great practice!

As mentioned in the How to Migrate from MailChimp article, the setting of Create Klaviyo lists from MailChimp lists is meant to sync all your existing MailChimp lists to Klaviyo as they are and would not sync them to an existing Klaviyo list. To import a MailChimp list to an existing Klaviyo list, I would suggest manually exporting the MailChimp list and importing it into your desired Klaviyo list. 

After exporting your list from MailChimp, you can import it into your desired Klaviyo list by following the instructions found in the How to Add Subscribers to an Existing List article. If you were having trouble in your import, I would also recommend taking a look at our How To Troubleshoot List Imports article. 

Thanks for being a member of the Klaviyo Community!

David

Hi @david.to. Thanks for the response.  Would there be any difference between the two methods in terms of the data coming from Mailchimp? I don’t want to lose any profile information that exists on Mailchimp. 
 

thanks, -oo

Hey @Doubleo,

There wouldn’t be any different between the data. The only difference is that with the MailChimp integration method, the data is being synced to Klaviyo automatically. Whereas with the export and import method, you’re performing the sync process manually to share this information with Klaviyo. If there were any differences in terms of the data, it would all depend on the data points you are exporting from MailChimp to be shared with Klaviyo. 

David

Hi @Doubleo,

In addition to the helpful points made by @david.to, I have a few other recommendations:

•  If you do decide to import the MailChimp contacts manually, I’d recommend making sure that you bring over “last open date” (this will sync automatically if you run the MailChimp integration). You’ll need to make sure that when you do this that the last open date is in the accepted date format. You’ll want to use this information to create high engagement segments for the warming process as you get started with Klaviyo to ensure long term inboxing success!
• Another point to mention is that it is recommended to do a manual import for any tags that you may have stored in MailChimp since this information will not sync automatically with the integration. By manually exporting this data from MailChimp and importing this data into Klaviyo, it will be stored as profile properties in Klaviyo which can then be used to filter your flows and segments. 

Hope you have a nice weekend!

Julie

Thanks @julie.accardo and @david.to. Very helpful. But I feel like exporting and importing all this data is going to be very risky for us. It feels like it’s not worth the trouble JUST to have a single list in Klaviyo, would you agree?

I might just give up and bring the Mailchimp list using the integration, then either live with multiple lists, or combine them using the segment method outlined here. What would be your recommendation?

Thanks,

-oo

Hey @Doubleo,

The choice of either using a singular list versus multiple lists is really up to you and how you want to organize your Klaviyo account and your own business decisions. 

There really is not right or wrong direction for this and all falls down to what you prefer. Using the segmentation method to combine more than one list is certainly a viable option if you wish to have multiple lists within the account!

David

Hey @david.to ,

When I said “segment method”, I was talking about the second option in the doc, about converting the resulting combined segment to an actual list. There were a few things not clear to me in the article:

• When converting a segment to a list, are there any watch outs to make sure all the data is preserved in the resulting list?
• What happens to the existing lists, once a merged list is created?
• What happens if I then delete the existing lists? Is there a risk of losing any data?

The whole thing sounds very risky and stressful, since it cannot be undone. I wish the doc was a bit more clear.

Thanks, -oo

Hey @Doubleo,

Some things to keep in mind is that the data of your contacts are not actually stored within the list itself but rather in the profiles of each of your contacts within your Klaviyo account. Because of this when converting a segment to a list, you wouldn’t be losing any of the data pertaining to your contacts. As stated within the How to Combine Two or More Lists in Klaviyo article you highlighted:

You don't need to export and re-import any fields other that email, as all events and custom properties exist within the profile and are independent from the lists a profile is associated with. 

When you convert a segment to a list, that segment would be converted to a static list. You can learn the difference between a segment and a list from the Understanding The Difference Between Segments and Lists article. Essentially once converted to a list, this grouping of customers would now be considered a static list and would lose its dynamic aspect of automatically adding users to this grouping unless you either manually add customers to this list or if they have subscribed to this list through a form.

Once again, since data is not stored in lists or segments themselves, but rather in the profiles of your contacts, deleting lists would not cause the deletion of any data. Only deleting a list of contacts within your account’s Profile Maintenance tool will fully delete the contacts from your Klaviyo account and thus remove all data pertaining to those contacts. 

Some articles I would recommend taking a look at to further understand lists, segments, and profiles within Klaviyo are the following:

• Guide to Profiles in Klaviyo
• Understanding Who Is in Your Account
• Understanding The Difference Between Segments and Lists
• Getting Started with Segments

Have a great day!

David

Hi @david.to. Thanks for the clarification, this is very helpful. Just to make sure I understand, could you confirm the following please?

• The only thing a “list” holds is a list of email addresses. For example, if I import an audience from Mailchimp, all that data is actually imported as profiles, AND a list with emails that are associated with those profiles is also created. So if I then delete that list, all those profiles remain intact. The only thing I’d be deleting is a list of emails.

Thanks! -oo

Hey @Doubleo,

That is correct! A list or segment is simply a grouping of your contacts/profiles within your Klaviyo account. Deleting a list will not delete the profiles themselves as they would still remain contacts in your Klaviyo account.

David

To import a Mailchimp list into an existing Klaviyo list, Skyvia can be a practical solution. It allows for data import and synchronization between Mailchimp and Klaviyo. You can map the Mailchimp list data to your existing Klaviyo list, ensuring seamless integration and avoiding the creation of a new list. Skyvia's intuitive interface facilitates this process, making it easy to maintain a single, consolidated list in Klaviyo without manual merging.