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Emailing track/album codes with Mailchimp

Mailchimp lets you manage email communications with your fans. Using Bandcamp’s track/album code export feature, and Mailchimp’s import feature, you can send your fans personalized emails that contain unique codes for them to redeem.

Mailchimp’s custom fields allow you to assign arbitrary (and unique) data to each email contact. You can assign a code to each email address, then use Merge Tags to add the code to your email campaign.

Reminders:

  • Track/album codes are one-time use, and any single code should only be given out to one single fan. It’s OK to send the same code again to the same fan, for example as a reminder about the code in a follow-up email.
  • In your emails, remember to include the URL for your fans to enter their code: {{yum_url}}

Ahem! These instructions assume you are generally familiar with the concept of CSV (comma separated values) files, and have a Mailchimp account. If you aren’t comfortable with any part of the instructions below, please call upon a knowledgeable friend to assist.

Instructions

  1. If needed, create a new track/album code set.

    If you’ve come here after already creating a code set, go to the next step.

    Otherwise, visit your Bandcamp Tools page and generate a new set of codes. In the quantity field, specify the number of recipients in your mailing audience.

  2. Export the codes as a CSV file.

    On your Tools page is a table showing all the track/album code sets you’ve created. Click “export” next to the code set you wish to send. This will prompt you to save a CSV file with the codes in the first column.

  3. Create a custom field for your track/album codes

    For detailed instructions, check Mailchimp's Help article, Manage Audience and Signup Form Fields.

  4. Export your mailing list as a CSV file.

    You find instructions in the View or Export Your Contacts Help article on Mailchimp.

  5. Merge the code list with your email address list.

    For this step you’ll need a spreadsheet program like Excel or Numbers. The spreadsheet app in Google Docs also works well.

    1. Import the codes CSV from Bandcamp as a new spreadsheet.
    2. Select the entire column of unredeemed codes, without the column header; copy this to the clipboard.
    3. Import the mailing list CSV from MailChimp as another new spreadsheet.
    4. Delete all columns apart from Email Address and Track/album code (it makes life a lot simpler later).
    5. Select the first empty cell under the “Track/album codes” heading, and paste the codes in.
    6. You should now have a column of unique codes assigned one each per entry in your mailing list.
    7. Save or Export your mailing list spreadsheet as a CSV file.

  6. Import the merged CSV data into MailChimp.

    Back in your MailChimp account, go to Import and choose Upload From File. Click Browse and select your updated mailing list CSV.

    Make sure Auto-Update My Existing List is checked. If not, MailChimp will ignore any emails it already knows about, and all this work will be for nothing. Click the Import List button.

    MailChimp will now ask you which columns in your CSV correspond to which fields. Make sure that your track/album code column is mapped to the “Track/album code” field and click OK. Click the Complete Import button to finish the import.

  7. Embed the custom field into your email.

    When you’re editing the content for your email campaign, click the Merge Tags button at the far left of the formatting toolbar and select Download code to insert a special tag (*|DL|*):

    The tag will be replaced by the recipient’s unique code when the email is sent. Be sure to send yourself a test email to make sure it works, and don’t forget to tell people where to go to redeem their code: {{yum_url}}

Frequently Asked Questions

Also see our general Help pages.

What if I don’t want the Custom Field data in my contacts any more?

If you want to replace the codes with new ones, simply upload another CSV with new custom field data. If you just want to clear out the data because you’re as much of a neat freak as we are, go back to the List Fields And *|MERGE|* Tags page and delete the Track/album code field.

Why doesn’t my email Preview show the actual code? All it says is “<< Test Track/album code >>”.

At the bottom of the HTML Preview window there’s a View Live Merge Info button. Click it, then you can use the Back and Next buttons to preview the email as each of your recipients will see it (complete with code!).

I must know more! Where can I read MORE!?

MailChimp’s Merge Tags Overview is a great place to start.

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