What it does
Tokei connects directly to the Mailchimp API. When someone enters your giveaway — submits their email, completes a social action, refers a friend — their contact details are pushed to your Mailchimp audience in real time.
That means your email list grows while the promotion is live. Not after. Not when you remember to export. While people are still engaged.
How contacts sync
- 1Someone enters your promotion and provides their email address.
- 2Tokei sends their details to Mailchimp via the API — email, first name, last name, and source tags.
- 3If they already exist in your audience, their record is updated — no duplicates.
- 4Tags are applied automatically so you can segment these contacts in Mailchimp later.
How it works
The setup takes about two minutes. You need three things from your Mailchimp account: an API key, the server prefix from that key, and the Audience ID for the list you want to sync to.
Paste those into the Email Integration section of your Tokei promotion, hit save, and you're done. Every future entrant hits your Mailchimp audience automatically.
API Key
Found under Account → Extras → API Keys in Mailchimp. Looks like xxxxxxx-us1
Server Prefix
The suffix in your API key. If the key ends with -us1, your server prefix is us1
Audience ID
In Mailchimp: Audience → Manage Audience → Settings → Audience name and defaults.
For the full step-by-step walkthrough with screenshots, check the Mailchimp setup docs.
Why it matters
A giveaway generates attention. But attention without capture is a leak. Every entrant who doesn't make it into your email list is a contact you'll never reach again.
Manual exports solve that — eventually. But the gap between “someone entered your promotion” and “you added them to Mailchimp” is where engagement drops off. An automated sync closes that gap.
Without the integration
- Export a CSV after the promotion ends
- Clean up the data manually
- Import into Mailchimp
- Hope you remember to do it before the leads go cold
With the integration
- Contacts sync in real time as they enter
- Tags are applied automatically
- Existing subscribers are updated, not duplicated
- Your welcome sequence can fire while they still remember you
That last point matters more than people think. A welcome email that arrives 30 seconds after someone enters a giveaway gets opened. One that arrives three days later — after a CSV import — gets ignored.
Tagging & segmentation
Dumping contacts into a single list without context makes them hard to use. Tokei tags every synced contact automatically so you can segment them in Mailchimp from day one.
tokeicontest-your-contest-namecontest-entryFNAME / LNAME when availableThis means you can create a Mailchimp segment for “everyone who entered my summer giveaway” and send them a targeted follow-up campaign — without touching a spreadsheet.
Double opt-in
If your Mailchimp audience uses double opt-in, entrants will receive a confirmation email before they appear as full subscribers. This is controlled entirely in your Mailchimp audience settings — Tokei respects whatever you have configured.
Worth noting: some entrants will confirm immediately. Some will take hours. Some will never confirm at all. That's standard behavior for any double opt-in list, not a Tokei issue.
Running a giveaway with double opt-in?
If you're picking winners from entrants, check that winners have actually confirmed their subscription in Mailchimp. An unconfirmed subscriber won't receive your emails — including prize notifications.
Common questions
My entrants aren't showing up in Mailchimp
Check three things: your API key is correct and active, the Audience ID matches the list you're targeting, and the server prefix in your key matches your Mailchimp data center. If you have double opt-in enabled, contacts won't appear until they confirm.
Will it create duplicate contacts?
No. Mailchimp uses email address as a unique identifier. If someone enters multiple promotions with the same email, their existing record is updated with new tags — not duplicated.
Can I sync to different audiences for different promotions?
Yes. Each promotion has its own email integration settings. You can point different promotions at different Mailchimp audiences or use tags to segment within a single audience.
What fields are synced?
Email address is always synced. First name (FNAME) and last name (LNAME) are included when available. Source and contest tags are applied automatically. For the full field mapping, see the setup documentation.
Do I need a paid Mailchimp plan?
The integration works with any Mailchimp plan that supports API access — including the free tier. The limitation is on Mailchimp's side: free plans cap your audience size at 500 contacts.