Start a Mailchimp journey when someone registers for a webinar
A registration applies a dated tag, and that tag is what starts the Mailchimp journey sending the confirmation and the reminders.
New submission on an event or webinar registration form
Add the registrant to an audience and apply a webinar-june tag that starts a Mailchimp customer journey
One-directional. A submission triggers the action — nothing is written back into your form.
Webinar registration has a fixed shape: a confirmation now, a reminder the day before, a recording afterwards. Mailchimp journeys already do all three. What they need is a reliable signal that somebody signed up, and a tag applied at the moment of registration is that signal.
Teams running a monthly session use this so nobody has to remember to export registrants on the morning of the event. The presenter gets the questions, the registrant gets the join link, and the sequence runs on its own.
Setting it up
- 1
Publish the webinar registration form in formformform, one per session, and put the session date in the form name so you can pick the right one in Zapier.
- 2
Create the tag in Mailchimp first — webinar-june, or whatever names this session — and build the customer journey with that tag as its starting point.
- 3
Point formformform's New Submission trigger at this session's form, not at a general events form.
- 4
Add Mailchimp's Add/Update Subscriber action, choose the audience the journey runs on, and map Work Email, First Name and Last Name.
- 5
Type webinar-june into the tags field as a fixed value rather than mapping an answer, so a journey can never fire from a typo.
- 6
Add a second Mailchimp action writing Anything you'd like us to cover? as a note, so the presenter can read the questions from the contact record.
- 7
Switch the journey on in Mailchimp before you switch the Zap on. A tag applied while the journey is paused does not replay when you start it.
- 8
Register yourself through the live form, wait for the confirmation email to arrive, then open registration properly.
What maps where
Using the Webinar Registration Form as the starting point. These are its real fields — swap in your own and the mapping works the same way.
| Form field | Mailchimp |
|---|---|
| Work Email | Subscriber email address, and the inbox the journey sends the join link to |
| First Name | FNAME merge field, used in the confirmation and reminder emails |
| Last Name | LNAME merge field |
| Company | A COMPANY merge field, so the host can see who is in the room |
| Anything you'd like us to cover? | A note on the subscriber, read by the presenter before the session |
| Email Updates | Decides whether your general newsletter tag is applied on top of the session tag |
Variations worth knowing
Once the live date passes, point the same form at the recording and change the fixed tag to webinar-june-replay. Late registrants drop into a journey that sends the recording rather than a reminder for an event that already happened.
Instead of a journey per date, key one journey on a generic tag such as webinar-registered and hold the session detail in merge fields the emails read from. You then edit dates and join links in Mailchimp rather than rebuilding the sequence each month.
If something isn't arriving
A Mailchimp journey only picks up tags applied after it was switched on, and only for contacts subscribed to that audience. Turn the journey on, then re-apply the tag by hand to anyone who registered during the gap; the Zap will not send them again.
Look at the journey's own timing rules before blaming the Zap, since a wait step of any length delays the first send. Zapier polling adds a short gap on some plans too, so allow a few minutes between the submission and the tag appearing.
Frequently asked questions
Do I need a separate Mailchimp audience for every webinar?
No, and separate audiences cost more, because a contact sitting on two audiences is counted twice. Keep one audience and give each session its own tag. Segments, journeys and reporting can all key on that tag.
Can registrants pick which session time they want?
Yes. Offer the dates as a dropdown, and conditional logic can show only the fields relevant to the option chosen. Map the answer to a merge field the journey's emails read, or split the Zap into one path per session.
Will Mailchimp mark who actually attended?
Not from this flow. Attendance comes from your webinar platform, and nothing is written back into the registration form. If you want an attended tag, add a second Zap from that platform into the same Mailchimp audience.
Related automations
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A signup on your site becomes a subscribed Mailchimp contact straight away, topics and all, with no list maintenance between campaigns.
- Attach survey scores to the subscriber as a note
The score and the comment land on the contact record in Mailchimp, where whoever writes the next campaign will actually see them.
- Build a launch list from pre-orders with merge fields filled in
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- Tag new leads with the offer they came from
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- Unsubscribe people who ask to stop hearing from you
An opt-out request reaches Mailchimp on its own, so the member stops receiving the mail they asked to leave behind.
- Add buyers to a customers list after each order
Each order form submission adds the buyer to a Customers list in Constant Contact for updates and repeat-purchase emails.
Build the form first
The automation needs somewhere to fire from. Publish a form, connect it once, and every submission from then on runs this flow.
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