Case Study: DMZ @ Toronto Metropolitan University
Migrating from Mailchimp to ActiveCampaign without hiccups
The Challenge: Limited Time and Expertise
DMZ, the startup incubator arm of Toronto Metropolitan University, needed to migrate from Mailchimp to ActiveCampaign as part of a company-wide IT initiative.
Lia, DMZ’s Marketing Director, knew that the University wouldn’t be providing specific support for the ActiveCampaign migration, leaving each department responsible for its own migration.
On our first call, she emphasized:
“I don't want to pull two staff off for the next couple of weeks to try to figure out this platform when we can just have someone teach us.
I want to feel like we have an ActiveCampaign expert in our corner - like an employee whose entire job is to make sure everything is beautifully implemented, lists are clean, drips are set up”
The migration, while a burden on DMZ’s resources, did also present an opportunity to bring the different teams for DMZ together under one email marketing account. Doing so would bring their data into one place, and prevent the embarrassing mistakes they had been suffering from multiple databases.
As ActiveCampaign-certified specialists with more than 5 years of experience, this is where we stepped in to make their migration seamless (as well as leveling up their email marketing systems).
Phase one: migration without disruption
We focused our first efforts on migrating the website forms that collected new subscribers, and the Newsletters that the DMZ teams were sending. With 4 teams each sending 1-8 campaigns per month, we made sure to spend time planning with each team to ensure their sending schedules weren’t affected.
With a carefully laid plan we were able to successfully migrate subscriber forms, contacts, and campaign emails for all teams (totalling ~15,000 contacts) without any hiccups:
no interruption in their sending schedule
no impact on open or click rates
Emily Collins, Marketing Manager at DMZ, said:
“The migration process didn’t require heavy involvement from our broader team, which allowed us to continue focusing on our day-to-day work while transitioning platforms in the background”.
As part of our migration services, we also trained each team on how to use ActiveCampaign. Our training ranged from the basics: like how to send campaigns using the new platform, to advanced strategies: like how the team could work together to manage multiple email lists and audiences all under one account.
Phase two: automating engagement
Next, we took DMZ’s email setup beyond what they had previously in Mailchimp, with custom ActiveCampaign automations to:
Collect new subscribers and send them welcome emails
Collect demographic and preference data
Send upsell email drip sequences to specific interest groups
Automatically import event attendees from Eventbrite and Luma, and send personalized follow-up emails
The end result
In the space of a few months, we were able to seamlessly migrate and consolidate DMZ’s email marketing from Mailchimp to ActiveCampaign, without affecting their operations.
DMZ saved a huge chunk of time not having to learn ActiveCampaign, which meant their teams could focus on delivering great programming.
As Emily Collins said:
“I would recommend Jacob and his team - particularly for those that need an extra set of hands to get over the hurdle of a migration; someone who can keep things moving.”
“Having Jacob’s support for a fairly technical and layered migration from Mailchimp was valuable, and helped us make progress more quickly that we might have on our own”
Emily Collins - Marketing Manager at DMZ
