What are Mailchimp Groups?

Mailchimp Groups are a special kind of audience field designed for organizing contacts by interests and preferences. Think of them as named options inside a category, like:

• Group Category: “Hobbies”
• Group Names (options): “Cooking”, “Running”, “Photography”

Groups are often used when you want subscribers to choose what they want—like newsletter topics, product interests, or communication preferences.

Groups vs Tags vs Segments (don’t mix these up)

• Groups = structured preferences inside categories (great for “let the subscriber choose”).
• Tags = flexible labels you apply (great for internal organization and events/behavior).
• Segments = saved filters that pull contacts based on rules (can use tags, groups, fields, activity, etc.).

Practical rule: if the data is a preference center type of choice, use Groups. If it’s an internal label or event marker, use Tags. Use Segments to target combinations of either.

How Chimpmatic maps CF7 fields to Mailchimp Groups

Chimpmatic’s “Groups” screen is built specifically for mapping your form’s checkboxes and radio buttons to Mailchimp’s Group Categories.

What you see on the “Groups for [Form]” screen

• Each row represents a Mailchimp Group Category (example: “Colors”, “Hobbies”, “Preferences”).
• Chimpmatic shows the category’s internal ID and the category type (checkboxes or radio).
• You choose which CF7 field should populate that category using the dropdown labeled “Choose…”.

What the mapping actually does

When a visitor submits your CF7 form:

1. The visitor selects options in a checkbox or radio field on the front end.
2. Chimpmatic reads those selected values.
3. Chimpmatic sends those selections to Mailchimp as Group selections inside the mapped Group Category.

In other words, the visitor is effectively setting their Mailchimp “preferences” via your WordPress form.

The Replace Groups toggle (same behavior concept as Sync Tags)

The Replace Groups toggle controls whether Chimpmatic should replace a contact’s group selections with the new submission, or simply add selections without removing older ones.

Replace Groups = ON (replace)

Chimpmatic treats the submission as the new source of truth and replaces the contact’s group selections for the mapped Group Categories with the submission’s current choices.

Use this when group choices represent a current preference (newsletter topics, content interests, contact preferences).

Replace Groups = OFF (add)

Chimpmatic adds the selected group options but does not remove previous selections. This is less common for preference centers, but can make sense when you want “ever-selected” style accumulation.

Use this only when you understand the long-term effect: contacts may end up belonging to many group options over time.

Quick rule: Preferences → Replace ON. Accumulating history → Replace OFF.

Real examples (WordPress + CF7 → Mailchimp Groups)

Example 1: Newsletter topics (checkbox groups)

Mailchimp Group Category: “Topics” (type: checkboxes)

Group Names: “WooCommerce”, “Contact Form 7”, “Email Deliverability”, “Automation”

CF7 field: [checkbox topics "WooCommerce" "Contact Form 7" "Email Deliverability" "Automation"]

Mapping: Topics → CF7 “topics” checkbox field

Replace Groups: ON (subscribers update their topics)

Example 2: Preferred contact method (radio groups)

Mailchimp Group Category: “Preferences” (type: radio)

Group Names: “Email”, “SMS”, “Phone”

CF7 field: [radio contact-method use_label_element "Email" "SMS" "Phone"]

Mapping: Preferences → CF7 “contact-method” radio field

Replace Groups: ON (radio implies one active choice)

Example 3: Hobby list (checkbox groups)

Mailchimp Group Category: “Hobbies” (type: checkboxes)

CF7 field: [checkbox hobbies "Cooking" "Running" "Photography"]

Replace Groups: ON (user can change selections later)

Best practices (so Groups stay useful)

• Keep Group Categories limited. Groups are for structured preferences, not everything.
• Use groups for subscriber choices. If the subscriber should control it, groups are a great fit.
• Match the Group Category type to the CF7 field type.
  • Checkbox category ↔ CF7 checkbox field
  • Radio category ↔ CF7 radio field
• Don’t use Groups for personal data. Names, phone, address belong in fields, not groups.
• Prefer Replace Groups ON for preference-center behavior to avoid “sticky” old preferences.

FAQ

Can contacts choose Mailchimp Groups themselves?

Yes. Groups are designed for self-categorization (preferences/interests) and often appear on signup or preference forms. Chimpmatic lets you collect those choices in WordPress via CF7 and send them to Mailchimp.

Why not just use tags instead of groups?

Tags are flexible labels (often internal). Groups are structured choices under categories and are commonly used as a preference center. If you want subscribers to select interests, Groups are usually the cleaner model.

What does Replace Groups do in Chimpmatic?

ON replaces group selections for the mapped categories with the latest submission. OFF adds selections without removing previous ones.

Can I segment campaigns by Groups?

Yes. In Mailchimp, group preferences can be used to build segments and target sends to specific interests.

Next step

1. Create your Group Categories and Group Names in Mailchimp (example: Topics → WooCommerce, CF7, Automations).
2. Build matching CF7 checkbox/radio fields with the same option names.
3. In Chimpmatic, map each Mailchimp Group Category to the correct CF7 field.
4. Set Replace Groups ON for preference-center behavior.
5. Submit a test form and verify the contact’s Groups in Mailchimp.