What Is Brevo and How Does It Help You With Email Marketing?

Think of Brevo as your all-in-one marketing and sales toolkit, with powerful email marketing at its heart. It’s a platform designed specifically to help small businesses grow by communicating with their audience in a professional and effective way. While it has many advanced features, it is built to be incredibly easy for beginners to use. It takes all the complicated, technical parts of email marketing and makes them simple, so you can focus on what you do best: running your business.

As a beginner, you can immediately start doing powerful things with Brevo. You can create and send your first professional-looking email newsletter to your list of subscribers. You can build a simple sign-up form to place on your website to start collecting new email addresses. You can even set up a simple automated “welcome” email that sends to every new subscriber the moment they join your list. Brevo gives you access to a clean dashboard where you can easily see who opened your emails and which links they clicked on, giving you valuable insight into what your audience is interested in.

The best part for beginners is Brevo’s powerful drag-and-drop editor. This tool lets you build a beautiful email without any coding or design skills. It’s like playing with building blocks: you simply choose elements like text boxes, images, or buttons and drag them into your email exactly where you want them. To make it even easier, Brevo comes with dozens of ready-made templates. You don’t have to start from a blank page. You can choose a professionally designed template that looks great, add your own logo, change the text and images, and you’re ready to send. This allows you to create your first basic email campaigns—a single email sent to a specific list—in just a few minutes.

And while you will likely start with email, Brevo is built to grow with you. It’s a true all-in-one platform, which means you have access to other communication channels right from the same dashboard. You can use it for SMS text message marketing, WhatsApp campaigns, and even a live chat box for your website. You may not need these tools today, but having them all included in one place means that as your business grows, your marketing toolkit is already prepared to grow with you.

How Do You Start Your Brevo Account the Correct Way?

Getting your Brevo account set up is a quick and simple process that only takes a few minutes. Following these steps will ensure you get started on the right foot, with your account properly configured to start sending professional emails. The first and most important step is to create your free account.

To begin, you will need to sign up for your free Brevo account. You can do this by clicking the button provided right here on our website, which will take you to the correct sign-up page. Once there, you will be guided through a few simple steps to get your account ready.

First, you’ll be asked to provide some basic information, such as your name, company name, email address, and a password for your new account. Once you fill this out, Brevo will send an automated email to the address you provided. You need to go to your inbox, find this email, and click the confirmation button or link inside. This is a crucial security step that confirms you are the owner of the email address and ensures your account is secure.

After you’ve confirmed your email, the last setup step is to provide your sender information. This includes your “sender name,” which is the name people will see in their inbox (this should be your business name or your personal brand name), and your sender email address. It’s always best to use a professional email address associated with your own website domain (for example, yourname@yourwebsite.com) if you have one, as this improves your credibility and helps your emails land in the inbox. Once you’ve completed this step, your account is officially set up and you are ready to create your first email campaign.

How Do You Add Contacts in Brevo?

Your email list is the foundation of your email marketing efforts. These are the people who have given you permission to contact them, and Brevo gives you several simple ways to manage them. The first step is to get your contacts into your account so you can start building a relationship with them.

The simplest method is to add contacts one by one. This is useful when you just have a few new people to add, like a new client you just signed on or someone you met at a networking event. You simply click “Add a contact,” fill in their information like email address and first name, and choose which list to add them to. It’s a straightforward manual process that takes just a few seconds per contact.

For most people starting out, the more common scenario is having an existing list of contacts stored in a spreadsheet. Brevo makes it incredibly easy to import a CSV file. A CSV is a simple type of spreadsheet file that you can easily save from Excel or Google Sheets. You just need to make sure your columns are organized clearly (e.g., a column for “Email,” a column for “First Name,” etc.). In Brevo, you’ll select your file, and it will guide you through a simple process of “mapping” your columns to the correct fields in your account. In just a few clicks, you can upload hundreds or thousands of contacts at once.

As you add contacts, you’ll organize them into different lists. It’s helpful to create a contact list for each specific group you have. For example, you might have a list called “Newsletter Subscribers” and another called “Past Customers.” This helps you keep your audience organized.

As you get more comfortable, you can start using beginner-friendly segmentation. Think of segmentation as dividing your main list into smaller, more focused groups based on certain criteria. For example, you could create a segment of everyone who lives in a specific city, or everyone who opened your last email. This allows you to send more relevant content. Brevo also offers a powerful feature called “dynamic lists.” These are smart lists that update themselves automatically. For instance, you could create a dynamic list of your “Most Engaged Subscribers” that automatically includes anyone who has opened one of your emails in the last 30 days. This is a simple yet powerful way to start sending the right message to the right people.

How Do You Create an Email in Brevo?

This is the fun part where you get to be creative. And don’t worry—you don’t need to be a professional designer to create a beautiful, professional-looking email. Brevo provides all the tools you need to build your email visually, without touching a single line of code.

The core of this process is the drag-and-drop editor. It works exactly like it sounds: you see a library of content blocks on the side of your screen, and you simply drag them over to your email canvas to build your message. Want to add a headline? Drag in a text block. Want to add a picture? Drag in an image block. It’s an incredibly intuitive way to design your email, giving you full control over the layout.

To make things even easier, you don’t have to start from a blank page. You can choose a ready-made template from Brevo’s template gallery. These are professionally designed layouts built for different purposes, like newsletters, promotions, or announcements. You can pick a design you like, and then all you have to do is swap out the placeholder text and images with your own content. This is the fastest way to get a great-looking email ready to send. Of course, if you have a specific vision in mind, you can also choose to build from scratch on a blank canvas.

Once you’re in the editor, you can easily add text, images, and buttons. You can customize fonts and colors to match your brand. A “button” is a crucial element, as this is what you’ll use for your main call to action—for example, a button that says “Read More on the Blog” or “Shop Now.”

To make your emails feel more personal, you can add simple personalization. By adding a small tag like {{contact.FIRSTNAME}}, Brevo will automatically insert each subscriber’s first name into the email. A simple “Hi, Sarah,” feels much warmer than a generic “Hi there.”

Finally, once you create a design you love, you can save your email as a template. This is a massive time-saver. If you plan to send a weekly newsletter, you can design it once, save it as your own custom template, and then simply reuse it every week without having to rebuild it from the ground up.

How Do You Build and Send an Email Campaign?

Once your email is designed and your contacts are organized, you’re ready to send your first campaign. In Brevo, a “campaign” is the process of sending a specific email to a specific list of people. The platform walks you through this step-by-step, making it a simple and foolproof process.

First, you’ll navigate to “Campaigns” and create a new campaign. The first thing you’ll do is give it a name. This name is just for your internal records, so you can call it something clear like “Weekly Newsletter – Dec 10, 2025.”

Next, you’ll set up the “envelope”—this is what your subscribers will see in their inbox before they even open the email. This includes your subject line, which is one of the most important parts of your email. Make it clear, interesting, and honest about what’s inside. You will also pick your sender name, which should be the consistent, recognizable name of your business or brand.

After designing your email (or selecting a template you’ve already made), the next step is to choose your recipients. This is where you will select a contact list (or multiple lists) that you want to send the email to. You can also choose to send it to a specific segment you’ve created. This ensures your message only goes to the people you intend to reach.

Before you send it to your entire list, you must always send a test email. Brevo makes this easy with a “Send a test” button. You can send a copy of the email to yourself or a colleague. This allows you to proofread it one last time, check that all your links are working correctly, and see how the email looks on both a computer and a mobile phone. This simple step can save you from an embarrassing typo or a broken link.

Finally, you have two options. You can send the email immediately, or you can schedule your email to be sent at a future date and time. Scheduling is an incredibly powerful feature. It allows you to plan your campaigns in advance and send your email at the perfect time to reach your audience, even if you’re not at your computer. Once it’s scheduled, Brevo takes care of the rest.

What Is Automation in Brevo?

This is one of the most powerful features inside Brevo, and it’s much simpler than it sounds. Think of automation as setting up a friendly robot assistant for your marketing. You can teach this assistant to perform specific tasks automatically so you don’t have to do them manually every single time. It saves you an incredible amount of time and ensures your subscribers get the right information at the right moment, even while you’re busy with other things. It’s the secret to putting your marketing on autopilot.

The way you teach your robot assistant is by setting up triggers. A trigger is simply a specific event that tells the automation to start working. It’s an “if this happens, then do that” instruction. For example, a trigger could be when a new person subscribes to your email list, when someone clicks a specific link in your email, or when it’s a contact’s birthday. Once the trigger event occurs, the automation workflow begins and carries out the actions you’ve assigned to it.

Brevo allows you to build very advanced automations, but for beginners, it’s best to start with a few simple and highly effective examples:

• Welcome Email: This is the most important automation for any business. You can set it up so that the moment someone new subscribes to your list, Brevo automatically sends them a beautiful welcome email. This email can thank them for joining, tell them what to expect from your newsletters, and maybe even offer a special welcome gift. It makes a fantastic first impression.
• Thank-You Email: You can set up an automation to send a thank-you email after someone makes a purchase or fills out a specific form on your website. It’s a simple, polite touch that shows your customers you appreciate them.
• Birthday Email: If you collect birthday information from your subscribers, you can set up an automation that automatically sends them a “Happy Birthday” email on their special day. You could even include a special discount code as a gift. It’s a wonderful way to build a personal connection with your audience.

You are always in complete control of your automations. Inside your Brevo dashboard, you can see all your workflows at a glance. You can easily turn a workflow on or off with a single click. This means you can build and test your automations without any risk, and only activate them when you are perfectly happy with how they work.

How Do You Create a Welcome Email Automation?

Setting up an automated welcome email is the first thing every new Brevo user should do. It ensures that every single new subscriber gets a warm welcome and a great first impression of your brand, all without you having to lift a finger. Here’s how to set it up, step-by-step.

First, from your main Brevo dashboard, you’ll navigate to the “Automation” section. This is where all your automated workflows will live. Here, you’ll click a button to create a new workflow. Brevo even provides pre-made templates for common automations like the welcome series, which you can use to get started even faster.

The very first step in building your workflow is to set the entry point, or the trigger. In this case, you will add a trigger and select the option for when a “contact signs up” to a specific list. For example, you can tell Brevo, “Start this automation whenever someone is added to my ‘Newsletter Subscribers’ list.” This is the event that will kick off your entire welcome sequence.

Immediately after the trigger, you have the option to add a delay. While you can send the email instantly, a good practice is to add a short delay of a minute or two. This makes the email feel a bit more natural. After the delay, you will add an email step. This is where you tell the automation which email to send.

You’ll be prompted to create the email you want to send. The great news is that you get to edit with the drag-and-drop editor—the exact same easy-to-use editor you use for your regular campaigns. You can create a beautiful welcome email from scratch or use a template. This email should thank the person for subscribing, confirm what they signed up for, and let them know what kind of great content they can expect from you in the future.

Once your email is designed and saved, your simple workflow is complete. It will look like this: Contact subscribes to list → Wait 1 minute → Send welcome email. The final, satisfying step is to activate the workflow. Once you turn it on, your automated assistant is officially on the job, and every new subscriber from that moment on will get a perfect welcome.

How Do You Segment Your Audience in Brevo?

Segmentation is a simple but powerful idea: instead of always sending the same email to your entire list, you divide your audience into smaller, more focused groups and send them messages that are more relevant to their specific interests. Think of it like sorting mail. You wouldn’t send a birthday card to every single person on your street; you send it only to the person whose birthday it is. Segmentation works the same way and is one of the easiest ways to make your subscribers feel like you are talking directly to them.

There are two main ways to segment your audience in Brevo. The first is to segment by tags. A tag is just a simple label you can manually apply to a contact. For example, if you meet someone at a conference, you could add a “Conference 2025” tag to their contact profile. Later, you could send a follow-up email only to the people with that specific tag. You can also segment by behaviors. Brevo automatically tracks how your contacts interact with your emails. This allows you to create segments based on actions, such as “people who opened the last three emails” or “people who clicked the link about Product X.”

This helps beginners tremendously because it immediately makes your marketing more effective. For example, imagine you run a local business and are hosting an in-person event. Instead of emailing your entire global audience, you can create a segment of only the people who live in your city and send the invitation just to them. This instantly makes your email more relevant, which leads to higher open rates, fewer unsubscribes, and a much happier audience.

You should use dynamic lists when you want to create a segment that updates itself automatically based on behaviors. For instance, if you want to reward your most loyal readers, you could create a dynamic list called “Super Fans” that automatically adds anyone who opens more than 75% of your emails. You don’t have to manually update it; Brevo does the work for you. This allows you to easily identify and communicate with your most engaged subscribers without any extra effort.

How Do You Read Email Reports in Brevo?

Once you send an email campaign, your job isn’t quite done. The next step is to look at the report to see how it performed. This might sound intimidating, but Brevo makes it very simple. You don’t need to be a data expert to understand what’s working. You just need to know where to look and what the most important numbers mean.

To start, you can find a campaign report by going to the “Campaigns” section of your dashboard and clicking on the name of the campaign you just sent. This will take you to a clean, easy-to-read report with all the key statistics. For a beginner, there are only two numbers you should focus on at first.

The first and most important metric is your Open Rate. Explained simply, this is the percentage of people who opened your email. If you sent your email to 100 people and 25 of them opened it, your open rate is 25%. This number is a direct reflection of how effective your subject line was and how much your audience trusts you as a sender. A good open rate tells you that your subscribers were curious enough to see what was inside.

The second number to focus on is your Click Rate (often called the Click-Through Rate or CTR). This is the percentage of people who opened your email and then clicked on at least one link inside it. This number tells you how engaging your actual email content was. A good click rate means your message was interesting, your images were compelling, and your call-to-action button was clear and convincing.

As a beginner, what numbers you should focus on first are these two: Open Rate and Click Rate. Don’t get overwhelmed by all the other data. If your open rate is low, you know you need to work on writing better, more interesting subject lines. If your click rate is low, you know you need to work on making your email content more valuable and your calls to action clearer. By focusing on just these two numbers, you can learn a huge amount about what your audience responds to and improve with every email you send.

What Extra Channels Can You Use With Brevo?

One of the biggest advantages of choosing Brevo is that it is a true all-in-one platform. While email marketing will likely be your primary focus as a beginner, your account comes equipped with several other powerful communication channels that you can grow into over time. This means you won’t have to find and pay for separate tools as your business needs become more advanced.

The first extra channel is SMS marketing. This allows you to send marketing text messages directly to your subscribers’ phones. Because text messages have an incredibly high open rate, this is a very powerful tool for time-sensitive announcements or special promotions.

The second is WhatsApp campaigns. Similar to SMS, this channel allows you to communicate with your customers through the world’s most popular messaging app. This can be a great way to offer customer support or have more conversational interactions with your audience, especially if your customers are international.

The third powerful channel is Chat on your site. Brevo provides you with a live chat tool that you can easily install on your own website. This allows you to talk to your website visitors in real-time, answer their questions, and guide them toward making a purchase or signing up for your list. All the conversations you have through the chat tool are automatically saved in your Brevo account, giving you a complete history of every interaction.

So, when should beginners use them? The best advice is to focus on mastering email marketing first. Build your list, get comfortable with the editor, and set up your first welcome automation. Once you have a solid email strategy in place, you can start to explore these other channels. For example, once your website starts getting consistent traffic, adding the free Chat tool is a great next step. Or, once you have a specific, time-sensitive sale to announce, you could try your first SMS campaign. These tools are there for you when you’re ready, making Brevo a platform you won’t outgrow.

How Do You Connect Brevo With Other Tools?

While Brevo is an incredibly powerful all-in-one platform, its true strength is magnified when you connect it to the other tools you already use to run your business. Think of these connections, or “integrations,” as building bridges between your different software so they can share information automatically. This saves you an enormous amount of time and helps you create a smarter, more automated business. Brevo has hundreds of official integrations, but for most small businesses, a few key connections make all the difference.

For anyone running an e-commerce store, the Shopify integration is essential. When you connect Brevo to your Shopify store, every new customer is automatically added to your Brevo email list. More powerfully, it can track your customers’ purchase behavior. This allows you to create highly targeted email campaigns, such as sending a special offer to repeat customers, or sending an automated “abandoned cart” email to someone who left items in their cart without checking out. This is a simple way to recover lost sales automatically.

If your website is built on WordPress, Brevo’s official plugin is a must-have. Once installed, this plugin allows you to easily embed Brevo sign-up forms anywhere on your site without touching any code. You can place a form in your blog’s sidebar, at the end of every post, or in your website’s footer. It creates a seamless bridge between your website content and your email list, making it incredibly easy for your website visitors to subscribe.

If you sell services or products using a payment processor like Stripe, connecting it to Brevo can streamline your follow-up process. When a customer makes a purchase through Stripe, their contact information can be automatically sent to Brevo and added to a specific “Customers” list. You can then trigger an automated welcome sequence or a thank-you email, ensuring your new customers feel valued from the moment they pay.

Finally, for everything else, there is Zapier. Think of Zapier as a universal translator that helps thousands of different apps talk to each other. If Brevo doesn’t have a direct, official integration with a specific tool you use—whether it’s a course platform, a booking calendar, or a project management tool—you can almost certainly connect them using Zapier. It allows you to create simple “if this, then that” rules to automate countless tasks.

These integrations help small businesses by putting their growth on autopilot. They eliminate mind-numbing manual data entry, ensure your customer data is always up-to-date across all your systems, and, most importantly, allow you to send smarter, more personalized emails based on real customer actions.

What Simple Email Marketing Tips Should Beginners Follow?

Now that you have a powerful tool like Brevo, the final step is to learn the strategy behind sending great emails. You don’t need to be a marketing genius. Success in email marketing comes from mastering a few simple fundamentals that show respect for your audience and their time. By focusing on these four tips, you will be ahead of 90% of other email senders.

First, send short emails. People are busy and are most often reading emails on their phones while doing something else. Long, dense blocks of text are intimidating and will almost always be skipped. Get to the point quickly. Use short sentences and short paragraphs. Break up your text with headings, bolded phrases, and images to make it easy to scan. Your goal is to deliver your message as clearly and efficiently as possible. Respecting your reader’s time is the best way to keep them subscribed.

Second, use clear subject lines. Your subject line has one job: to get the reader to open the email. Clever, tricky, or vague subject lines often get ignored or sent to spam. The best subject lines are clear, honest, and maybe a little bit intriguing. Instead of a generic “Our Weekly Update,” try something more specific like “3 Easy Tips for a Healthier Garden.” This tells the reader exactly what value they will get by opening the email. Honesty in the subject line builds trust with your audience.

Third, keep your list clean. This might sound strange, but you should regularly remove subscribers who never open your emails. This is called “list hygiene.” Why? Because email providers like Gmail track how engaged your audience is. If you are sending to a lot of people who never open, it signals that your content might not be valuable, which can hurt your ability to land in the inbox for everyone else. Focus on quality over quantity. An engaged list of 500 people is far more valuable than an unengaged list of 5,000.

Finally, every email you send should add one clear call to action (CTA). Your CTA is the single, most important next step you want your reader to take. It could be a button that says “Read the New Blog Post,” “Shop the Sale,” or “Watch the Tutorial.” Don’t confuse your readers by giving them five different things to do. Decide on the one action that matters most for that specific email and make it obvious with a bold, clickable button.

FAQs: Common Questions

How Do You Start With Brevo Today?

You now have all the essential knowledge to start using Brevo for your email marketing. You understand how to set up your account, manage your contacts, design beautiful emails, and even put your marketing on autopilot with simple automations. The best way to truly learn is by doing. You can start exploring all these features for yourself by creating your free Brevo account.

To get started, simply look for the sign-up button in the hero section of our website. This will ensure you get set up correctly so you can begin building your audience today.