Brevo Email Automation: A Complete Guide for Beginners
You know that feeling when you send the same email over and over again? Maybe it’s a welcome message. Or a follow-up after someone signs up. It gets old fast. And honestly, it eats up time you don’t have.
That’s exactly why Brevo email automation exists. It lets you set up emails once, and then Brevo sends them automatically based on what your contacts do. Someone signs up? They get a welcome email. Someone abandons their cart? They get a reminder. You don’t lift a finger after the initial setup.
If you’re new to this, don’t worry. This guide breaks everything down in plain English. By the end, you’ll understand how Brevo automation workflows work, what triggers mean, and how to actually set things up yourself.
What Is Brevo Email Automation?
So let’s get straight to it. Brevo email automation is a feature that sends emails to your contacts automatically. You don’t have to hit “send” every time. Instead, you create a workflow once, set your rules, and Brevo handles the rest.
Here’s a simple way to think about it. Imagine you run an online store. Someone visits your site, adds a product to their cart, but leaves without buying. With Brevo automation, you can automatically send them a reminder email an hour later. You didn’t do anything manually. The system recognized the behavior and responded for you.
This is what makes automated email campaigns so useful for small businesses. You’re not chained to your inbox. You can focus on other things while Brevo keeps your audience engaged.
Now, Brevo isn’t just about email. It’s actually a full marketing platform that used to be called Sendinblue. But for this guide, we’re focusing on the email automation side because that’s where most beginners start.
And the good news? You don’t need any coding skills. Brevo uses a visual automation builder with a drag-and-drop workflow editor. It’s pretty intuitive once you get the hang of it. You pick a trigger, add your actions, set some conditions if needed, and you’re done.
Let me give you a few quick examples of what you can automate:
- Welcome emails when someone subscribes to your list
- Follow-up emails after a purchase
- Re-engagement emails for people who haven’t opened your emails in a while
- Abandoned cart reminders to recover lost sales
- Lead nurturing sequences that guide new contacts toward buying
These are all drip email campaigns. They “drip” out emails over time based on specific triggers.
The real power here is personalization. Brevo lets you use contact attributes and custom fields to make each email feel personal. So instead of “Hey there,” your email says “Hey Sarah.” Small touch, but it matters.
For beginners and small business owners, Brevo email automation saves hours every week. Once it’s running, it works 24/7 without you babysitting it.
How Brevo Automation Workflows Work
Alright, so you know what Brevo email automation is. But how does it actually work behind the scenes? Let’s break it down.
Everything starts with something called an automation workflow. Think of it like a flowchart. You’re mapping out what happens when a contact takes a specific action. If this happens, then do that. It’s basically if/then logic, but visual and easy to build.
Brevo gives you a drag-and-drop workflow editor for this. You don’t write code. You just drag elements onto a canvas, connect them, and set your rules. It feels a lot like building with blocks.
Here’s the basic structure of any Brevo automation workflow:
- Entry point — This is where contacts enter the workflow. Usually, it’s a trigger like “someone submitted a form” or “someone made a purchase.”
- Actions — These are the things you want to happen. Sending an email is the most common action. But you can also update contact attributes, add someone to a list, or send an SMS.
- Conditions — These let you split contacts into different paths. For example, if someone opened your email, send them one thing. If they didn’t, send something else.
- Delays — Sometimes you don’t want to send everything at once. You can add a delay of hours or days between steps.
When you put all of this together, you get a complete email sequence that runs on autopilot. And the visual automation builder shows you exactly what’s happening at each step.
One thing I really like about Brevo’s setup is the testing feature. Before you activate your workflow, you can simulate it to see how contacts will move through. This helps you catch mistakes before real emails go out.
Now, let’s talk about the three main building blocks in more detail.
Understanding Triggers, Conditions, and Actions
These three elements are the heart of every Brevo marketing automation workflow. Once you understand them, you can build pretty much anything.
Triggers are what start the whole thing. A trigger is an event that tells Brevo, “Okay, this contact just did something. Let’s begin the workflow.”
Here are some common triggers you’ll use:
- Form submissions (someone fills out a signup form)
- Contact added to a list
- Purchase events (great for ecommerce)
- Website activity (someone visits a specific page)
- Email opens or link clicks
- Abandoned cart events
- Time-based triggers (like birthdays or anniversaries)
- Inactivity triggers (contact hasn’t engaged in 30 days)
You pick the trigger that matches your goal. If you want to send a welcome email, your trigger is “contact joined this list.” If you want to recover abandoned carts, your trigger is “cart abandoned.”
Actions are what happen after the trigger fires. The most common action is sending an email. But Brevo gives you more options:
- Send an email
- Send an SMS
- Send a WhatsApp message
- Update a contact attribute
- Add or remove contact from a list
- Wait for a specific amount of time
- Call a webhook (for advanced integrations)
You can stack multiple actions in one workflow. So after a welcome email, you might wait three days, then send a follow-up. Then wait another week and send a special offer.
Conditions let you branch the workflow based on specific criteria. This is where things get smart.
For example, let’s say you sent an email. You can add a condition that checks: “Did they open it?” If yes, send a different follow-up. If no, try sending the same email again with a new subject line.
Conditions can check things like:
- Email engagement (opens, clicks)
- Contact attributes (location, purchase history)
- List membership
- Custom fields you’ve set up
This is what makes Brevo automation workflows feel personal. You’re not blasting the same message to everyone. You’re responding to what each contact actually does.
And here’s a tip. Don’t overcomplicate your first workflow. Start simple. One trigger, one or two emails, maybe a delay in between. Get that working. Then add conditions and branches as you get comfortable.
The visual builder makes it easy to see the whole picture. You can literally see the paths contacts will take. And if something looks off, you just drag and rearrange.
That’s really all there is to it. Triggers start things. Actions do things. Conditions decide things. Put them together, and you’ve got a full automated email campaign running inside Brevo.
How to Set Up Automated Emails in Brevo
Okay, so you understand how automation workflows work. Now let’s actually build one. And honestly, this is where things get fun. Because once you set up your first automated email, you’ll realize how much time you’ve been wasting doing things manually.
The good news is Brevo makes this pretty straightforward. You don’t need to be a tech person. If you can drag and drop, you can do this.
Before you start building, though, there are a few things you’ll want to have ready. First, make sure you have at least one contact list set up. Your automation needs people to send emails to. Second, have your email content ready. You can create it inside Brevo, but it helps to know what you want to say beforehand.
Also, think about your goal. What do you want this automation to accomplish? Are you welcoming new subscribers? Following up after a purchase? Trying to bring back inactive contacts? Your goal determines which trigger you’ll use and what emails you’ll send.
Brevo gives you two ways to start. You can build a workflow from scratch using the visual automation builder. Or you can pick from pre-built templates. For beginners, I’d suggest starting with a template. Brevo has templates for common use cases like welcome emails, abandoned cart recovery, and lead nurturing sequences. You can customize these instead of starting with a blank canvas.
Once you’re inside the workflow editor, you’ll see a simple interface. There’s usually a starting point already placed for you. That’s your trigger. From there, you add actions like sending emails, adding delays, or setting conditions.
The drag-and-drop workflow editor makes it visual. You literally see the path your contacts will take. And if something doesn’t look right, you just click on it and adjust.
One thing to keep in mind: always test before you activate. Brevo has a testing feature that simulates how contacts move through your workflow. Use it. It catches mistakes before real emails go out to real people.
Alright, let’s walk through the actual steps.
Building Your First Brevo Marketing Automation Workflow
Here’s a step-by-step walkthrough to create your first Brevo automation workflow. We’ll keep it simple: a welcome email that sends automatically when someone joins your list.
Step 1: Open the Automation Section
Log into your Brevo account. On the left sidebar, look for “Automations” or “Marketing Automation.” Click on it. You’ll see any existing workflows here, plus a button to create a new one.
Step 2: Choose a Template or Start Blank
For your first workflow, pick the “Welcome Message” template. It’s already set up with the basics. You can customize it to fit your needs. If you prefer starting from scratch, that works too. Just click “Create a workflow” and choose the blank option.
Step 3: Set Your Trigger
The trigger is what starts the automation. For a welcome email, you’ll use something like “Contact added to a list” or “Form submitted.” Click on the trigger block and select the specific list or form you want to connect.
Step 4: Add Your Email Action
Next, add an action. Click the plus sign below your trigger and select “Send an email.” Brevo will prompt you to either create a new email or choose an existing one. Design your welcome email here. Keep it short, friendly, and helpful. Use the contact’s first name if you’ve collected it — personalization makes a difference.
Step 5: Add a Delay (Optional)
If you want to send a follow-up email later, add a delay. Click the plus sign again, choose “Delay,” and set the time. Maybe wait two days before your next message. Then add another email action after the delay.
Step 6: Test Your Workflow
Before going live, test everything. Brevo lets you run a simulation to see how contacts flow through. Check that emails look right and triggers work as expected.
Step 7: Activate Your Workflow
Once you’re happy with it, hit the activate button. Your Brevo email automation is now live. Every time someone joins that list, they’ll automatically receive your welcome email.
And that’s it. You just built your first automated email campaign. It wasn’t that hard, right?
From here, you can add more complexity. Include conditions to send different emails based on behavior. Add more steps to create a full drip email campaign. But start simple. Get comfortable. Then build from there.
Brevo Email Automation Use Cases and Examples
So you know how to set up a workflow. But what should you actually use it for? That’s where use cases come in. And this is where Brevo email automation really starts to pay off.
The truth is, there are dozens of ways to use automated emails. But some work better than others, especially if you’re a small business or just getting started with email marketing. Let me share the most common ones that actually get results.
First, let’s talk about why this matters. Automated email campaigns aren’t just convenient. They perform better than manual emails. Why? Because they’re triggered by specific actions. The timing is relevant. The content matches what the contact just did. That relevance leads to higher open rates and more clicks.
Think about it from the customer’s perspective. You sign up for a newsletter and immediately get a friendly welcome email. It feels responsive. It feels personal. Compare that to signing up and hearing nothing for a week. By then, you’ve probably forgotten who they are.
The same applies to purchases. If someone buys something from your store and gets an automated thank-you email right away, that builds trust. Add a follow-up a week later asking for feedback or offering a related product, and you’ve got a customer who feels taken care of.
Brevo’s visual automation builder makes all of this possible without writing a single line of code. You set up the trigger, add your emails, and let the system run.
Here are the use cases we’ll cover:
- Welcome email sequences for new subscribers
- Abandoned cart recovery for ecommerce
- Lead nurturing campaigns for turning contacts into customers
Let’s get into the specifics.
Welcome Emails, Abandoned Cart, and Lead Nurturing
These three use cases are the bread and butter of Brevo email automation. If you only set up three workflows, make it these.
Welcome Emails
A welcome email is the first message someone gets after joining your list. And it matters more than you might think. Studies show that welcome emails get about 3x higher engagement than regular promotional emails. People actually expect them. They just signed up, so they’re paying attention.
Your welcome email should do a few things. Say thanks. Introduce yourself or your brand. Tell them what to expect from your emails. And maybe include a small offer or helpful resource. Keep it short and genuine.
With Brevo, you set the trigger as “contact added to list” and send the email immediately. You can even build a welcome series. One email on day one. Another on day three. Maybe a third on day seven. This keeps new subscribers engaged during that critical first week.
Abandoned Cart Recovery
This one’s huge for ecommerce. Someone adds a product to their cart but leaves without buying. It happens all the time. But here’s the thing — a well-timed reminder email can recover 15-20% of those lost sales.
Brevo lets you trigger an email when a cart is abandoned. The email goes out an hour or two later. It reminds them what they left behind. Maybe it includes a small discount code to push them over the edge.
If you’re using Shopify or WooCommerce, Brevo integrates with both. That means purchase events and cart data flow into your automation without extra work.
Lead Nurturing
Not everyone is ready to buy right away. Some people need time. They’re researching. Comparing options. Thinking it over. Lead nurturing emails keep your brand in their mind during this period.
A typical lead nurturing sequence might include educational content, case studies, testimonials, and eventually a soft pitch. You’re building trust over time. And when they’re ready to buy, you’re the obvious choice.
Brevo’s drip email campaigns are perfect for this. Set up a sequence with delays between each email. Use conditions to adjust based on engagement. If someone clicks a link, maybe move them to a faster sales track. If they don’t engage, try a different angle.
These three workflows cover the biggest opportunities: new subscribers, lost sales, and long-term leads. Set them up, and your Brevo email automation will work around the clock for you.
Brevo Multichannel Automation: SMS and WhatsApp
Here’s something a lot of people miss about Brevo. It’s not just email. You can automate SMS messages and WhatsApp messages too. And sometimes, these channels work even better than email.
Think about your own inbox for a second. It’s probably crowded. Promotional emails pile up. It’s easy to miss things or just ignore them. But a text message? Most people check those within minutes.
That’s why multichannel automation is so valuable. You’re not limited to one way of reaching people. You can meet them where they actually pay attention.
With Brevo, you build multichannel campaigns inside the same workflow editor you use for email. The process is almost identical. You add an action, but instead of “Send an email,” you choose “Send an SMS” or “Send a WhatsApp message.” Everything else works the same — triggers, delays, conditions.
Let me give you a real example. Say someone abandons their cart. Your first step might be an email reminder. But if they don’t open it within 24 hours, your next step could be an SMS. Now you’ve reached them in two places. The chances of getting their attention go way up.
Or think about appointment reminders. An email sent three days before is helpful. An SMS sent the morning of? That’s what actually gets people to show up.
WhatsApp is especially useful if your audience uses it heavily. In many countries, WhatsApp is more popular than email for everyday communication. Brevo’s WhatsApp automation lets you send updates, confirmations, and reminders through a channel people already trust.
Now, there are a few things to keep in mind with SMS and WhatsApp. First, you need permission. Just like email, you can’t message people who haven’t opted in. Brevo helps you manage this with proper contact management and consent tracking.
Second, keep messages short. SMS has character limits. WhatsApp is more flexible, but people still expect quick, clear messages. Get to the point.
Third, be mindful of frequency. Text messages feel more personal. Sending too many can feel intrusive. Use them strategically for high-impact moments like abandoned carts, confirmations, or time-sensitive offers.
The real power comes from combining channels in a single workflow. Brevo calls this omnichannel marketing. Your customer journey doesn’t live in just one inbox. So your automation shouldn’t either.
With Brevo’s multichannel automation, you can create flows that start with email, follow up with SMS if needed, and even include WhatsApp for global audiences. All in one visual builder. All running automatically.
For small businesses in 2026, this is a major advantage. You’re not blasting one channel and hoping for the best. You’re meeting customers wherever they are.
