Feedframer

Mailchimp RSS-to-Email Integration

Send your latest Instagram posts to a Mailchimp audience automatically. Mailchimp reads your Feedframer RSS feed on a schedule you choose and emails any posts it hasn't sent before.

The Mailchimp steps below follow Mailchimp's own help articles, linked in each section. Mailchimp changes its interface from time to time; if a label doesn't match, their article is the reference.

Before you start

You need:

  1. A Feedframer account with a connected Instagram account.

  2. A Mailchimp account with an audience to send to.

  3. Your feed URL, from the RSS Feed page in Feedframer. It looks like this:

    https://feedframer.com/api/v1/rss?api_key=YOUR_API_KEY

The feed holds the 6 most recent posts on the Free plan and up to 100 on Premium. Feedframer checks Instagram for new posts daily on Free and hourly on Premium.

Keep the URL private: it contains your API key. If you regenerate the key on the Dashboard, update the URL in Mailchimp too, or the automation stops finding new posts.

Step 1: Create the RSS automation

Mailchimp's guide: Share Your Blog Posts With Mailchimp.

  1. In Mailchimp, click Automations, then Flow templates.
  2. In the Nurture leads section, click Share blog updates via RSS.
  3. Paste your Feedframer feed URL into RSS Feed URL.
  4. Choose how often to send: Every day, Every week or Every month, and pick the days and time.
  5. Optionally tick Resize RSS feed images to fit template. This keeps large Instagram images from stretching the email.

Mailchimp only sends when the feed has something new. From Mailchimp's guide:

  • The first send includes posts from the last 24 hours (daily), 7 days (weekly) or 30 days (monthly).
  • Each later send includes all posts added to the feed since the previous send.
  • Posts need to be published at least 3 hours before the send.
  • An RSS automation sends at most once a day.

Step 2: Choose recipients and set up the email

  1. Choose the audience, or a segment of it.
  2. Enter the subject line and From name. You can use *|RSSFEED:TITLE|* in the subject; for Feedframer it becomes @your_username - Instagram Feed.

Step 3: Design the email with RSS merge tags

Mailchimp's reference: RSS Merge Tags.

Put this block where you want the posts to appear, for example in a text or code block:

*|RSSITEMS:|*
<div style="margin: 0 0 32px 0;">
  *|RSSITEM:CONTENT|*
  <p style="color: #666666; font-size: 12px;">Posted *|RSSITEM:DATE:F j, Y|*</p>
</div>
*|END:RSSITEMS|*

*|RSSITEMS:|* ... *|END:RSSITEMS|* repeats its contents once for each new post.

What each tag gives you from the Feedframer feed

Merge tag From the feed What you get
*|RSSITEM:CONTENT|* <description> The post image, the full caption and a "View on Instagram" link, as HTML. For videos the image is the video's thumbnail.
*|RSSITEM:TITLE|* <title> The caption on one line, cut to 100 characters. Posts without a caption get @your_username - Image, - Video or - Carousel.
*|RSSITEM:URL|* <link> The post's Instagram URL
*|RSSITEM:DATE|* <pubDate> When the post was published on Instagram. Add a PHP-style date format after a colon, e.g. *|RSSITEM:DATE:F j, Y|*.
*|RSSFEED:TITLE|* channel <title> @your_username - Instagram Feed
*|RSSFEED:DESCRIPTION|* channel <description> Your Instagram bio, or Instagram posts from @your_username
*|RSSFEED:URL|* channel <link> Your Instagram profile URL

Notes:

  • Use *|RSSITEM:CONTENT|* for the image. It already includes the right image for every post type.

  • Avoid *|RSSITEM:IMAGE|*. Mailchimp takes it from <media:content>, which for most video posts is an MP4 file. Email clients can't show that as an image.

  • *|RSSITEM:CONTENT_FULL|* gives the same result as *|RSSITEM:CONTENT|*. It reads <content:encoded>, which the Feedframer feed doesn't have, so Mailchimp falls back to <description>.

  • If you'd rather show only the title and a link, use *|RSSITEM:TITLE|* with *|RSSITEM:URL|*:

    *|RSSITEMS:|*
<p><a href="*|RSSITEM:URL|*">*|RSSITEM:TITLE|*</a></p>
*|END:RSSITEMS|*

Step 4: Test and start

  1. Send a test email to yourself. Check the images, the captions and the "View on Instagram" links.
  2. Review Mailchimp's pre-delivery checklist and start the automation.

Things to know

New posts can take time to reach the feed

Feedframer checks Instagram daily on Free and hourly on Premium, and your post is only in the feed after that check. The item keeps its Instagram publish time.

On the Free plan this can matter. Mailchimp picks posts by their date, and "since the last send" means posts dated after the last send. A post that reaches the feed after a send, but was published on Instagram before that send, may never be emailed. Weekly or monthly sends make this much less likely than daily ones. The Premium plan's hourly checks shorten the gap. You can also click Refresh Posts on the Feedframer Dashboard after posting.

How many posts an email can include

An email can only include posts that are in the feed: 6 on Free and up to 100 on Premium. If you post more than 6 times between monthly sends on the Free plan, the older posts will have left the feed before Mailchimp reads it.

Filtering by post type isn't possible

The feed doesn't state the post type in the title or description, so a merge-tag condition can't separate photos from videos. Mailchimp sends every new post in the feed.

Troubleshooting

Mailchimp won't accept the feed URL

  1. Copy the URL again from the RSS Feed page. If the key was regenerated, or the account disconnected and reconnected, the old URL returns 401 INVALID_API_KEY.
  2. Open the URL in a browser. You should see XML. If you see a JSON error, the error's code tells you what's wrong (see Errors).

No emails are being sent

  1. Mailchimp only sends when there are new posts since the last send.
  2. Check when Feedframer last checked Instagram: it's shown on the account's card on the Dashboard.
  3. Read Mailchimp's Troubleshooting RSS in Campaigns.

Images don't show

  1. Many email clients block remote images until the reader allows them.
  2. Check you're using *|RSSITEM:CONTENT|*, not *|RSSITEM:IMAGE|*.

Help