How to Use the MailChimp API

[MUSIC] 0:00 Hi, I'm Nate, and I work with the MailChimp API team. 0:04 MailChimp is an email marketing platform that offers simple tools to make it 0:08 easy to design and 0:12 share email campaigns, manage your subscriber list, and track your results. 0:13 Our open API gives all users access to our directory of integrations, 0:18 which connect MailChimp to hundreds of third-party add-ons, plugins and 0:23 other useful services. 0:27 Our API also means that our users are free to create their own 0:29 connections between MailChimp and other services. 0:32 More than 200,000 customers use our API daily for 0:35 a variety of tasks, from streamlining campaign creation to 0:38 adding new subscribers to their email list, which we will be doing today. 0:41 Typically, the MailChimp API is used to automate specific routine jobs that you 0:46 can do within the application. 0:50 These jobs include keeping your external email database in sync with 0:52 a MailChimp subscriber list, like our MailChamp for Salesforce app, or 0:56 you can also automatically build campaigns that use dynamically-generated content, 1:00 or even add data about the products your subscribers have 1:05 purchased with our e-commerce methods, like Chimpified, our Shopify integration. 1:08 You can also use the API to accomplish simpler objectives without logging into 1:14 the MailChimp interface. 1:17 With the API, you can pull a report data for a sent campaign, create a segment of 1:19 your list for later use, or add a new subscriber to your MailChimp list. 1:23 That being said, 1:28 the MailChimp API doesn't offer 100% of the functionality that our website does. 1:29 For example, billing information has to be updated within the app. 1:34 You can't purchase credits, change a monthly plan, or 1:38 downgrade your account via the API. 1:42 New MailChimp accounts also need to be created manually. 1:46 You'll need access to an account to continue with this course. 1:49 So if you don't already have one, visit mailchimp.com and register. 1:53 It's free to sign up and get started. 1:56 Like most web apps, logging into MailChimp requires you to identify yourself and 1:59 your account with a user name and password. 2:03 Since the MailChimp API doesn't necessarily have an interface, 2:05 you'll identify yourself in another way. 2:09 Each MailChimp account has its own set of unique API keys that tell 2:11 MailChimp who you are and 2:15 ensure that you have permission to access the requested information. 2:17 To find your API key, log in to your MailChimp account, and 2:21 from the menu on the left, click on your name. 2:24 From the slide-out menu, choose Account. 2:26 [BLANK_AUDIO] 2:31 From the account page, click on Extras and then choose API keys from the drop-down. 2:34 The API keys page will list all of your available API keys. 2:42 To create a new key, scroll down to the bottom and click Create A Key. 2:46 [BLANK_AUDIO] 2:50 The page will refresh, and then you'll get a confirmation message that you've just 2:55 created a brand new API key. 2:58 Copy the key to your clipboard so we can use it later. 3:00 You can do this with Cmd+C, or by right-clicking and choosing Copy. 3:03 In order to keep things organized, each time you connect with a new service or 3:08 create a new project, we recommend generating a new API key and labeling it. 3:12 We'll call this one Treehouse. 3:17 Reusing an API key isn't necessarily bad, but if you have to disable it for 3:20 any reason, reconnecting all those services could be a headache. 3:24 Since your API key acts like a user name and 3:28 password for your account, you'll wanna keep it safe. 3:30 Just like you wouldn't post your user name and password on GitHub or 3:33 anywhere else online for that matter, please don't post your API key. 3:37 These keys give full access to a MailChimp account, 3:41 and you don't want a bad apple creating and sending campaigns to your list. 3:43

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