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Best answer

Mailchimp > New Row in AirTable ONLY if Email Doesn't Exist?

  • 23 July 2020
  • 8 replies
  • 155 views
Brandi
Userlevel 4
Badge

Hey, y’all. Does anyone know if it’s possible to configure a zap where a new row gets added to an AirTable when someone signs up for a list in Mailchimp, but only if the email address doesn’t already exist? 

We’re trying to create a system where our data entry person only has to enter a new subscriber in one app (either Mailchimp OR AirTable), but so that the data is replicated in whichever app she didn’t originally enter the new user into first. I originally set it up so that if she entered someone onto our list in Mailchimp, they’d be added to a new row in AirTable. And so that it would work the opposite way, too. But, of course, that creates duplicates because they’re both running at the same time.

Thanks!

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Best answer by Danvers 29 July 2020, 18:02

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This post has been closed for comments. Please create a new post if you need help or have a question about this topic.

8 replies

steph.n
Userlevel 7
Badge +8

Hey, y’all. Does anyone know if it’s possible to configure a zap where a new row gets added to an AirTable when someone signs up for a list in Mailchimp, but only if the email address doesn’t already exist? 

We’re trying to create a system where our data entry person only has to enter a new subscriber in one app (either Mailchimp OR AirTable), but so that the data is replicated in whichever app she didn’t originally enter the new user into first. I originally set it up so that if she entered someone onto our list in Mailchimp, they’d be added to a new row in AirTable. And so that it would work the opposite way, too. But, of course, that creates duplicates because they’re both running at the same time.

Thanks!

 

Hi @Brandi - Thanks for asking this question. Where are you checking for the email address at? I know the popular option is to put an email address into Google Sheets but I’m thinking that Airtable maybe a good option too. If you do use Airtable, check out the Find Record action to find an existing record, and if it exists, use Filter by Zapier to allow the Zap to proceed if the record if there’s no match. Hope this helps!

Brandi
Userlevel 4
Badge

Hey, @steph.n. Yes—my OP was specifically about Airtable, as that’s what we’re trying to do (when someone adds a person in our Airtable spreadsheet, we’d like them also added in Mailchimp; and, vice versa—when someone instead gets added to Mailchimp, we’d like them added to a new row in Airtable). But, we don’t want duplicates created. We are, however, on a free account, so adding in a multi-step zap where either our Mailchimp list or our Airtable list is first searched to see if the record already exists and then stops if it does (so that a duplicate isn’t created), isn’t possible for us. We’re a nonprofit, so trying to create some automations but can’t yet afford to get a paid account for that kind of functionality.

Danvers
Userlevel 7
Badge +12

Hmm, I don’t think that this will be possible without a multi-step Zap, sorry about that! You need a step to check the data and then another one or two to act on that info. 

 

You may already be aware of this, and/or it might not be helpful in this case, but we do offer non-profit orgs a 15% discount on paid plans, you can learn more about that here: Zapier for non-profit

Brandi
Userlevel 4
Badge

Got it. And, great to know, @Danvers. Thanks so much!

Davidh88
Userlevel 3
Badge +2

Hi Brandi,

If you make entering in Mailchimp always the first operation, it does a dedup check for you.  What is the scenario that would precipitate entering in AirTable and having the Zap push to Mailchimp?

I understand the non-profit part.  Truly I do.  $13.75 per month is 0.45c per task or 9c per hour.  

Brandi
Userlevel 4
Badge

Hey @Davidh88! Basically, our fields in Airtable are FAR more robust than the form fields we have on each individual record in Mailchimp. It’s far easier—and, again, more robust—for us to be able to fill out a record in AirTable and then have that record push to Mailchimp. But the goal was really to make sure that anyone could enter anywhere and all records would be updated. This is especially helpful because, for instance, not everyone will have access to AirTable (as the records have more info that we don’t want some folks to see, but need to keep), but might have access to update our email list in Mailchimp.

Easy enough to just make sure the main point of contact at our org is always entering in one place first and then we don’t have to worry about it. In this case, that’s AirTable. But, as another example, our website funnels people who sign up for our newsletter straight to our list in Mailchimp. So, in that scenario, we’d want to make sure that entry was automatically, also then, added to AirTable. Of course, we could always switch that functionality on our site to first funnel to AirTable and, again, solve the issue if ALL entries were only ever first starting by entering in one place (like AT). 

But anyway, it would just be nice to know that someone could be entered anywhere and they’d be updated everywhere, also just saving us time from doing our own manual double entry.

Davidh88
Userlevel 3
Badge +2

The forms in AT are not good enough to display for customer to fill in.  It isn’t a form builder.  The forms are rustic and internal use only (unfortunately).

But you could make a single form in say TypeForm or JotForm et al. that customers and internal use.  That becomes to the single point of entry.  Form their it goes into AT and them out to Mailchimp.

You would need to do a “Find or Create” action in Airtable.  That would take care of dupes.

 

 

Brandi
Userlevel 4
Badge

@Davidh88 Yeah, that’s unfortunately not what we’re going for—there’s far more internal info that we collect on people than what we’d ask them to provide. Thanks for all of your help, but I think we now know that we can’t do what we need without a paid account and the system we have already works for the time being. That being the case, I’ve already marked this as solved and I think we’re fine for now!

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