MailChimp is a newsletter service that allows you to collect emails. You can connect the whole site or just a specific giveaway to a MailChimp list and you will see your list being populated with emails of those who subscribes to your giveaways.
Settings
| API Key | MailChimp API key |
| Disable Subscribed Email | In case you have your own welcome email prepared to work with Simple Giveaways, you can disable the default email from this plugin. Read below on how to prepare it. |
| Double Optin | If checked, the subscriber will have to confirm their email to join your MailChimp list. This does not affect their status in the Giveaway. |
| List | Here, you will be able to choose a list from MailChimp once the API Key is entered and saved. |
| List Options | In case you have interests and groups setup, you will be able to choose one where you want your subscribers to join. |
| Need consent? | If checked, the user will have to check it before they can enter the giveaway. |
| Consent Message | The message that will be displayed next to the consent checkbox. |
Preparing the MailChimp Welcome Email for Simple Giveaways
If you are going to use the welcome email from MailChimp instead of the default one, be sure to prepare it so it includes the links that are specific to that subscriber.
When a subscriber signs up to the giveaway, he/she gets a unique reference ID and also a share ID. The reference ID is used so that they can login at any time by visiting the link.
Those IDs are saved to the list and related to the subscriber. In a new list, such IDs or values of them won’t exist (or be the same).
To prepare your email, you will need to enter the link to your giveaway (or where the shortcode is) and then add the links as seen in the picture below.
The example links are:
https://yoursite.com/giveaway/GIVEAWAY-SLUG?ref=*|REFID|*https://yoursite.com/giveaway/GIVEAWAY-SLUG?share=*|SHAREID|*
In both cases, the first part of the link is the same. The only difference are the query parameters ref and share. The tags REFID and SHAREID are unique to each subscriber.
In case you are also using the Activation option, be sure to include the activation link. It is recommend to put the activation link in a button so it catches the eye of the subscriber.
The activation link is the same as the reference link but it contains another query parameter activate=1 so the link looks like this: https://yoursite.com/giveaway/GIVEAWAY-SLUG?ref=*|REFID|*&activate=1.
