Mailchimp to Beehiiv

In Mailchimp, go to Audience → All contacts. Click the Export Audience button in the top right. Mailchimp will email you a link to download a ZIP file containing a CSV with all your subscriber data.

The CSV includes email addresses, names, subscription dates, tags, and engagement data. Keep this file - you'll need it in step 3.

If you have multiple audiences (lists) in Mailchimp, repeat this for each one. In Beehiiv, you'll import them all into a single publication and use segments to organize them.

Head to beehiiv.com and create a free account. You'll be prompted to set up your publication:

Publication name: Your newsletter name (e.g., "The Monday Dispatch").
Subdomain: Choose a clean URL like yourbrand.beehiiv.com (you'll add a custom domain later).
Branding: Upload your logo, set your brand colors, and write a short publication description.

Beehiiv's setup wizard walks you through this in a few minutes. Don't overthink it - everything can be changed later.

In Beehiiv, navigate to Audience → Import. Upload your Mailchimp CSV file. Beehiiv will auto-detect most fields, but double-check the mapping:

Email Address: Should map automatically.
First Name / Last Name: Map to the corresponding Beehiiv fields.
Subscribe Date: Beehiiv preserves this so your subscriber history stays accurate.

Beehiiv will show you a preview of how many subscribers will be imported and flag any duplicates or invalid emails. Click confirm and wait for the import to complete - usually under a minute for lists under 10K.

Mailchimp templates don't transfer to Beehiiv, but the good news is that Beehiiv's editor is much simpler. Most successful newsletters use a clean, minimal design anyway.

Open Beehiiv's email editor and build your template using blocks: header image, text blocks, dividers, buttons, and image blocks. You can save this as a reusable template for future sends.

Pro tip: Keep it simple. The best-performing newsletters are mostly text with one or two images. Beehiiv's default styling already looks professional.

If you're using a custom domain for your newsletter (e.g., newsletter.yourbrand.com), set it up in Beehiiv under Settings → Website → Custom Domain.

You'll need to add a CNAME record in your DNS provider:

Type: CNAME
Name: newsletter (or your subdomain)
Value: custom.beehiiv.com

DNS propagation takes 5 minutes to a few hours. Beehiiv will verify the domain automatically and provision an SSL certificate. Much simpler than Mailchimp's domain authentication setup.

Find every place on your website where you have a Mailchimp signup form or embed. Replace them with Beehiiv's embed code.

In Beehiiv, go to Grow → Subscribe Forms. Choose from inline embeds, pop-ups, or full-page signup forms. Copy the embed code and paste it into your website where the old Mailchimp form was.

Don't forget to check: your website footer, blog sidebar, pop-ups, landing pages, and any link-in-bio tools that point to Mailchimp signup pages.

If you had welcome sequences or drip campaigns in Mailchimp, rebuild them in Beehiiv under Automations.

Beehiiv's automation builder is visual and straightforward. Create a new automation, set the trigger (e.g., "New subscriber"), and add your email sequence with delays between each message.

Copy the content from your Mailchimp automations. You don't need to rewrite everything - just paste the content into Beehiiv's editor and adjust formatting as needed.

Before going live, send a test email to yourself (and ideally a few friends). Check:

Formatting: Does the email look good on desktop and mobile?
Links: Do all links work correctly?
Images: Are they loading and properly sized?
Unsubscribe link: Is it present and functional?

Once you're satisfied, you're ready to send your first newsletter from Beehiiv. Consider sending a short "We've moved!" announcement so subscribers know about the change (and to verify deliverability).