Start a Mailchimp flow when a form lead says yes

Starting a Mailchimp automation from a form lead works like this. Each lead who says yes to email arrives in your Mailchimp audience with a tag, and you build a flow that starts on that tag. These steps work for anyone with a Qualiform form and a Mailchimp account on Essentials or above.

Qualiform sends no marketing email itself. It adds the lead to your Mailchimp audience and tags them by priority. Your Mailchimp flow sends the email.

What do you need before you start?#

You need three things:

1. A Mailchimp plan that runs flows. Mailchimp's plan comparison page lists Marketing Automation Flows as "Not included" on Free. Essentials allows flows of up to 4 steps. Standard and Premium allow up to 200 flows. One older Mailchimp features page still says Free has "basic automation flows." The comparison page and the help center both say it does not, so plan on Essentials or above.
2. An Admin in Qualiform. Only Admins connect tools.
3. A live form. The pill in the form header must say active. If it does not, visitors are told the form is unavailable.

You also need one Mailchimp audience for these leads. Mailchimp's help recommends one main audience, sorted with tags or segments. It says this also keeps the same person from being counted twice toward your contact total. So do not make an audience for each priority. Qualiform gives each priority a tag instead.

Before you start, decide who should get email at all. The post on whether every inquiry belongs on your Mailchimp list helps with that choice.

How do you add OK to email them to your form?#

Only leads who say yes to OK to email them are added to Mailchimp. A form without this question sends nobody.

1. Open the form and go to its Questions tab.
2. Press Add a question to open the library.
3. Pick OK to email them. It sits beside Email and Phone. The line under it reads: "Asks if you may email them. Only a yes goes to your email tool."
4. Make sure the form also asks for an email address. If it does not, you see: "Add the Email question too. Without an email address, nobody can be added."
5. Press Save at the top of the page to keep your changes.

The AI asks it once, near the end, after the email address: "Can we email you now and then?" It takes yes or no and moves on. It never asks twice, and it never pushes after a no. You can edit these instructions to the AI.

The question is never scored, so a no does not lower a lead's score. On the lead page, the CSV, and Notion, the answer shows as "OK to email: Yes" or "OK to email: No." It is blank when the question was not asked.

How do you connect Mailchimp to Qualiform?#

First, make the key in Mailchimp. These are the clicks from Mailchimp's own help page on API keys:

1. Click your profile icon and choose Profile.
2. Click the Extras drop-down, then choose API keys.
3. In the Your API Keys section, click Create A Key.
4. Name the key and click Generate Key.
5. Click Copy Key to Clipboard, then click Done.

Then connect it in Qualiform:

1. In the Qualiform app, open the Integrations page and find Mailchimp under Email marketing.
2. Press Mailchimp. Paste the key into the API key box. It is stored encrypted, and never shown again.
3. Pick the Audience leads join. The line under it says: "The audience leads join. They join as Subscribed, because they said yes."

If Mailchimp refuses the key, you see: "Mailchimp did not accept that key. Copy it again and paste the whole thing." Nothing is saved until Mailchimp accepts the key.

Any Mailchimp key made on or after June 22, 2026 stops working one year after it is made. Put a reminder in your calendar. When the year is up, make a new key the same way and paste it into the same Mailchimp card in Qualiform.

What does each priority get in Mailchimp?#

Under By priority, the line reads: "Each lead gets the tag for their priority. Start your automation on that tag."

There is one row for each priority. Each row has a box with a tag already filled in, and a switch.

Not a fit has a row too, and it starts switched off. A row that is switched off reads Not sent. Leads with that priority are not added.

Each lead also gets a second tag with the form's name, written Qualiform form: <form name>. For a form named Website inquiry, that tag is "Qualiform form: Website inquiry." Use it when a flow should start only for one form's leads.

A lead's priority comes from the rule it lands in on the form's Routing tab. Each form can have its own score ranges, but every lead still ends up Hot, Warm, Cool, Cold, or Not a fit. That is why one connection serves every form. The guide to lead routing rules explains how to set those ranges, and hot, warm, and cold leads explains the names.

To send only some forms, use Choose forms on the connection. A form that does not ask the question shows "Does not ask OK to email them" beside it. If none of your chosen forms asks it, you see: "None of these forms asks OK to email them yet, so nobody is sent. Add it on a form's Questions tab."

How do you build the flow in Mailchimp?#

Mailchimp calls its automations Marketing Automation Flows, a name it has used since June 2025. What it used to call a starting point is now called a trigger. These steps come from Mailchimp's help on creating a flow and its list of triggers:

1. Click the Automations icon.
2. Click Build from scratch.
3. Type a Name for your flow, such as "Hot inquiry welcome." Then pick the Audience from the drop-down. Pick the same audience you chose in Qualiform.
4. Click Choose a trigger.
5. Pick Tag added. It is listed under Contact activity triggers.
6. Choose the tag, such as Qualiform Hot.
7. (Optional) Click Filter who can enter this flow to narrow who enters.
8. Click Save Trigger.
9. Add a Send email step and write your email. Mailchimp's help lists Send email as a step you can add, but it does not list the clicks for it.
10. When the flow is ready, click Continue.
11. Click Turn flow on.

Mailchimp says contacts begin the flow as they meet the trigger. So turn the flow on before you send your test lead.

Build one flow for each tag you want to email. For example, build a Hot flow on Qualiform Hot and a Warm flow on Qualiform Warm. On Essentials, each flow can have up to 4 steps.

How do you test it with one real lead?#

Send one real lead through your own live form. Nothing else shows the whole path.

• Check connection proves the key and reads your audiences again. It adds nobody, because a test contact could set off your real flow. Its answer is "Connected to Mailchimp. Nothing was added."
• Preview sends nothing to Mailchimp or any other tool.
• No Mailchimp page says outright that a contact tagged by another app starts a Tag added flow. One real lead is how you find out on your own account.

To run the test:

1. Make sure the flow is on and the form is active.
2. Open the form on your own site, or from its direct link.
3. Answer as a visitor would. Use an email address you can read, because your flow may email it.
4. Say yes when the AI asks "Can we email you now and then?"
5. In Mailchimp, open your audience and find the contact.

Check three things on the contact:

1. Their status is Subscribed.
2. They have two tags: their priority tag, such as Qualiform Hot, and the form's tag, such as Qualiform form: Website inquiry.
3. The source shows they came through the API from Qualiform.

That is what a real Qualiform test lead showed in Mailchimp on 2026-10-29. Then look in that inbox, and in the flow, to see if your email went out.

What does Recent sends tell you?#

Under Recent sends, each lead has one line that says what happened. These are the lines, in the app's words:

If a lead was added but got no email, look in Mailchimp. Check that the flow is on, that its trigger uses the exact tag, and that it uses the same audience.

Which Mailchimp rules still apply?#

Your Mailchimp account's own rules still apply to every lead Qualiform adds:

• No confirmation email. Mailchimp's signup preferences help says an audience's opt-in settings apply only to Mailchimp's own signup forms. So a lead Qualiform adds joins as Subscribed and is not sent a confirmation email.
• Unsubscribes stay unsubscribed. Qualiform looks up the contact first and never adds back someone who unsubscribed in Mailchimp.
• Every contact counts. Mailchimp counts subscribed, non-subscribed, and unsubscribed contacts toward your contact limit. Archived, cleaned, and deleted contacts do not count.
• Keys run out. A key made on or after June 22, 2026 stops working a year after it is made. Paste a new one into the same Mailchimp card.

To check it all again later, send one real lead through your form. Then look for the same three things on the contact: Subscribed, both tags, and a source showing it came through the API from Qualiform.