Brevo, which used to be called Sendinblue, is a popular email marketing tool, especially for people who want a free plan with room to grow. It also does SMS, WhatsApp campaigns and transactional emails like order receipts, but this guide focuses on getting your email marketing set up right.
Take your time with the steps in order. The two most important ones are setting up your sender and authenticating your domain.
Before you start
- An email address on your own domain, such as hello@yourbrand.com. Brevo, like most tools, works best when you do not send from a free Gmail or Yahoo address.
- Your business address. Email laws in many countries require a postal address in your email footer.
- Access to your domain settings, wherever you bought your domain.
- Your contacts as a CSV file, if you already have people who agreed to hear from you.
Step 1: Create your account
Sign up on the Brevo website and confirm your email. Brevo will ask about your business, your website and your address. Fill these in accurately. Your address appears in your email footer and new accounts are sometimes reviewed before they can send campaigns.
Check the current plan limits before you plan your sending. At the time of writing, the free plan lets you send up to 300 emails per day and adds a small Brevo logo to your emails. Paid plans raise the sending limit and remove the logo.
Step 2: Add your sender
In your account settings, find the section for senders and domains. Add the name and email address you want people to see in their inbox. Use a real name or your brand name, and an address people can reply to. Brevo will send a code to confirm you own that address.
A good sender name is one people recognise straight away. "Ada from Bloom Bakery" often gets more opens than "Bloom Bakery Marketing".
Step 3: Authenticate your domain
In the same senders and domains area, add your domain and choose to authenticate it. Brevo will show you a few DNS records to add. These usually include:
- A Brevo code record that proves you own the domain.
- A DKIM record, which adds a digital signature to your emails.
- A DMARC record, if you do not already have one.
Copy each record into your domain's DNS settings exactly as shown, save them, then come back and click verify. DNS changes can take a little while to show up, so if it does not verify straight away, wait an hour and try again.
This step matters because Gmail, Yahoo and Outlook now expect senders to prove who they are. Skipping it is one of the most common reasons emails land in spam.
Step 4: Import your contacts
Go to the contacts area and choose to import. Upload your CSV file, then match each column to a Brevo field, such as email, first name and last name.
Brevo organises people into lists. Create one main list to start with, for example "Newsletter". You can add more detail later with contact attributes, like where they signed up.
Only import people who agreed to receive your emails. Never upload a bought or copied list. It will hurt your sending reputation and can get your account suspended.
Step 5: Create a signup form
In the forms area, create a subscription form. Keep it short: email and first name are enough. Turn on double opt in, which sends new subscribers a confirmation email first. It keeps your list clean and protects you from fake signups.
Brevo gives you a link to a hosted form and code you can paste on your website. Our guide to adding a signup form to your website explains the embedding part in detail.
Step 6: Build your first campaign
Open the campaigns area and create an email campaign. Then:
- Give it a clear subject line and fill in the preview text, the short line shown next to the subject in most inboxes.
- Pick your sender and the list you want to send to.
- Choose a simple template. One column layouts read best on phones.
- Write one clear message with one main button.
Step 7: Test, then send
Send a test email to yourself. Open it on your phone and on a computer, click every link and check your footer. When it looks right, send it or schedule it for later.
After you send
Look at your campaign report over the next few days. Focus on clicks, unsubscribes and complaints rather than opens, because some email apps open messages automatically and make open rates look higher than they are.
That is it. With your sender added, your domain authenticated and a clean list, Brevo is ready for regular sending.
Email tools change their plans and screens often. If something here no longer matches what you see,let us know and we will check it.