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Why doesn't the number of contacts in MailChimp match the number of contacts in my Novi group?
Why doesn't the number of contacts in MailChimp match the number of contacts in my Novi group?

There are a few different reasons MailChimp might not accept some email addresses.

Melisa Smith avatar
Written by Melisa Smith
Updated over a week ago

The number of contacts in Novi vs. MailChimp will likely not be a perfect 1:1 ratio every sync. MailChimp has spam filters implemented to prevent fraudulent emails from going out to mass audiences. 

Reason 1: Duplicate or Missing Email Addresses

The most common reason for an email not being synced is because of duplicates. 

Many times, staff members will share email addresses. The Novi groups pull emails from the "Professional Contact" record, so we recommend encouraging members to always use their own email rather than sharing the main company email. 

How can I tell if my Novi group has duplicates?

To see if your Novi group has duplicates, follow these steps:

  • Go to your group in Novi

  • On the Members tab, click the Filter drop-down and select All for "Show Beneficiaries"

  • Click on the Email column header - this will sort the data in alphabetical order by email addresses and allow you to see if you are dealing with duplicates

Naturally, computers cannot choose who an email should belong to. When duplicates happen, MailChimp will only accept the very first user to be synced with that email address. 

Any users syncing after the first using the same address will fail, causing a discrepancy in numbers. As an association, you can make the decision to go into records with duplicate emails to clean them up.

Additionally, if a record does not have an email address, it will not be synced with MailChimp.


Reason 2: Recipient Server Block

Occasionally, an email recipient's company email server will block MailChimp emails and the emails will bounce back. Sometimes it looks like spam to the company server if a lot of employees get the same marketing email at once. After a hard bounce happens, MailChimp will no longer send emails to the address to protect your reputation as a sender. 

What you'll find is that the email addresses aren't actually missing - they are still in your MailChimp list, they're just not being counted. They are actually what MailChimp calls "cleaned." You can see this label by clicking on the email address in the MailChimp list. What this means is that the email soft bounced a few times and then hard bounced, so MailChimp decided that it wasn't going to send emails to that address anymore to protect your sender reputation. 

If you notice two or more emails that are "cleaned" have the same domains (examples: test1@noviams.com and test2@noviams.com), this is almost certainly the case. 

The solution to this is for the members to work with their tech team to fix it on their end. Members can give their IT department this link to whitelist MailChimp emails.

Whitelisting lets the server know that their emails are okay to receive. If that is not an option, the members will need to use personal email addresses to continue receiving marketing emails from your association. 


Reason 3: Archived Contacts

When you archive a contact in MailChimp, you remove them from the contact table and add them to a separate archived contacts page. As long as a contact remains archived, you won’t be able to edit their profile or send them any marketing communications. However, you’ll retain all of their data, including identifiable information in campaign reports. 

You can unarchive a contact at any time, and they’ll appear back in your audience with the appropriate email marketing status. A contact can also unarchive themselves if they sign up through your MailChimp signup form or interact with your connected online store.


Reason 4: Other Factors

Keep in mind that MailChimp can also remove an email address from their lists for a variety of other reasons: looking like spam, invalid email addresses, un-subscriptions, bounces for other reasons, etc. Check out MailChimp's help center for more information!


Please contact the Novi team if you have questions about a specific email address.

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