Mailchimp: Communicate with players, parents and volunteers

Applicable to: Association and Club Administrators
Application(s): Admin Portal > Settings > General > Integrations

This article will cover the following:

1. Understanding the PlayHQ x Mailchimp integration
2. Connecting your PlayHQ organisation to Mailchimp
3. How contacts synchronise between PlayHQ and Mailchimp
4. Understanding Mailchimp tags
5. Monitoring synchronisation status
6. Disconnecting from Mailchimp

Related articles:

• Creating and managing Posts in PlayHQ

Introduction to Mailchimp

Mailchimp is an external email marketing platform that enables administrators to easily communicate with participants registered to their organisation through PlayHQ. This integration allows you to send targeted communications about upcoming events, programs and competitions using your external Mailchimp account.

Connecting to Mailchimp

Creating a connection to Mailchimp is the first step in enabling PlayHQ to send data to Mailchimp. You'll need to authenticate the connection and select the Mailchimp audience that will receive your PlayHQ participant data.

1. Access Integrations

   Navigate to Settings > General in the Admin Portal, and select the Integrations tab.

2. Start the Connection process

   Click Connect in the Mailchimp section.

   

3. Log in to Mailchimp

   Click Log in to Mailchimp

   

4. Enter Mailchimp Credentials

   Enter your Mailchimp Username and Password, and click Log In. Alternatively, you can Create an Account from this step.

   

5. Authorise the Connection

   Click Allow to grant PlayHQ access to your Mailchimp account

   

6. Select your Audience

   Once logged in, you'll need to select a Primary Audience in Mailchimp. This is where your PlayHQ contacts will be synchronised.

   

7. Complete the Connection

   Click Save & Connect. PlayHQ will immediately begin synchronising your contacts.

How contact synchronisation works

Once connected, PlayHQ will start synchronising your organisation's contacts to Mailchimp. After the initial synchronisation, updates occur automatically every night.

What gets synchronised?

It's important to note that only the primary account holder details are synchronised. Individual participants or additional parent/guardian contact details are not synchronised.

• New Contacts: If a contact does not exist in Mailchimp, PlayHQ will create one.
• Existing Contacts: If a contact already exists in Mailchimp, their details will be updated with the latest information from PlayHQ.

The following participant details are synchronised to Mailchimp:

• Contact Information: First Name, Last Name, Email, Mobile, Address, Suburb, State, Postcode, Country
• Registration Data: Date first registered
• Tags: PlayHQ creates Mailchimp tags for participants based on their competition and program registrations

Understanding Mailchimp Tags

PlayHQ assigns tags in Mailchimp for every participant, which synchronise with Mailchimp to help you organise and target your communications effectively.

Tags are based on participant registrations, so all participants registered to the same competition or program will share common tags. These tags are only visible within Mailchimp itself.

Tag Format

The number of tags created and their format depend on the participant registration and the organisation type. Clubs, Associations and Administrative Body organisations synchronise different tag formats as detailed below:

Registration Type	Tag Format	Example	Tag Synchronisation with Mailchimp
			Club	Association	Admin Body (Self)	Admin Body (Child)
Competition	Season, association and competition	2025 - Melbourne Association - Senior Domestic	Yes	No	No	No
	Season, association, competition and role	2025 - Melbourne Association - Senior Domestic - Player	Yes	No	No	No
	Season and competition	2025 - Senior Domestic	No	Yes	Yes	No
	Season, competition and role	2025 - Senior Domestic - Player	No	Yes	Yes	No
	Season, competition and club	2025 - Senior Domestic - Blackburn Basketball Club	No	Yes	Yes	No
Local program	Season and local program	2025 - Holiday Program	Yes	Yes	Yes	No
	Season, local program and role	2025 - Holiday Program - Player	Yes	Yes	Yes	No
	Season, local program and group	2025 - Holiday Program - Morning Group	Yes	Yes	Yes	No
Shared program	Season and shared program	2025 - Auskick Community	Yes	Yes	No	Yes
	Season, shared program and volunteer	2025 - Auskick Community - Volunteer	Yes	Yes	No	Yes
	Season, shared program and group	2025 - Auskick Community - Sunday Afternoon	Yes	Yes	No	No

 

Monitoring Synchronisation Status

You can check the status of your Mailchimp synchronisation at any time by visiting the Integrations tab in Settings.

Sync Status Indicators

The Mailchimp integration screen displays a Sync Status that provides information about the current state of synchronisation.

• IN PROGRESS - Displayed when the synchronisation is still in progress. No action is required, please allow the process to complete.
• COMPLETED - Displayed when there has been successful synchronisation.
• FAILED - Displayed when there are logic or timeout issues with the synchronisation. Action is required: 
  • Try refreshing the webpage to trigger synchronisation again
  • If refreshing doesn't work, try disconnecting and reconnecting to Mailchimp
  • If problems persist, contact your sport's support team

Last Synchronisation Timestamp

The Last Synced date/time indicates when synchronisation was last successful. Your Mailchimp contacts, subscription status, and tags will be accurate as of this date/time.

Disconnecting from Mailchimp

If you need to disconnect your PlayHQ organisation from Mailchimp, you'll need to complete steps in both PlayHQ and Mailchimp for a full disconnection.

Support with using Mailchimp

Once you've successfully connected Mailchimp and your contacts have synchronised, you can use Mailchimp's platform to create and send targeted communications to your participants.

Refer to Mailchimp's Help Center for guidance on:

• Creating email campaigns
• Using tags to segment your audience
• Setting up automated email workflows
• Designing effective email templates
• Analyzing email performance metrics