Brevo SMS Marketing: How It Works, Pricing, and Setup

Email is great. But let’s be honest — people don’t always check their inbox. Your carefully crafted message sits there unread while your customer scrolls through social media or goes about their day. Meanwhile, a text message? That gets opened within minutes.

That’s why SMS marketing matters. And Brevo makes it surprisingly easy to add text messaging to your marketing mix. You don’t need a separate tool or complicated setup. It’s built right into the same platform you use for email.

In this guide, I’ll show you how Brevo SMS marketing works. We’ll cover the features, break down the pricing, and walk through setting up your first campaign. Whether you want to send promotional blasts or automated order notifications, this covers everything you need to know.

What Is Brevo SMS Marketing?

Brevo SMS marketing lets you send text messages to your contacts directly from the Brevo platform. It’s part of Brevo’s multichannel marketing approach. You can use email, SMS, and even WhatsApp — all from one dashboard.

Here’s why SMS deserves your attention. Text messages have a 98% open rate. Compare that to email, which averages around 20%. Most people read a text within three minutes of receiving it. For time-sensitive offers or urgent notifications, nothing beats SMS.

Brevo’s SMS feature works on a credit-based system. You buy SMS credits, then use them to send messages. This is separate from your email quota. So if you’re on the free plan with 300 emails per day, you can still send SMS by purchasing credits. They don’t overlap.

The pricing is pay-as-you-go. You only pay for what you send. In the US, it costs about $1.09 per 100 messages. Rates vary by country, but Brevo supports over 100 countries worldwide. For businesses with international customers, that’s a big deal.

What can you actually do with Brevo SMS marketing? Quite a bit.

You can send bulk promotional campaigns to your entire list. Think flash sales, limited-time offers, or event announcements. You can also send transactional messages like order confirmations, shipping updates, and appointment reminders. And you can automate everything using workflows — more on that later.

The messages support personalization too. You can include the recipient’s name or other contact details to make texts feel personal rather than spammy.

For small businesses and e-commerce stores, Brevo SMS marketing fills a gap. Email alone doesn’t always cut it. Adding text messaging increases your chances of actually reaching customers when it matters.

Brevo SMS Marketing Features

Brevo doesn’t just let you send text messages. It gives you real tools to run SMS marketing properly. From campaign creation to automation to analytics, the features cover what most businesses need.

The platform treats SMS as a first-class channel. It’s not an afterthought bolted onto an email tool. You get the same level of control and flexibility you’d expect from dedicated SMS platforms — but integrated with your email and CRM data.

Let me walk you through the key features. We’ll start with campaign tools, then get into automation.

One thing worth mentioning upfront. Brevo includes compliance features for SMS marketing. You can track opt-ins, manage unsubscribes with the STOP keyword, and follow GDPR and TCPA regulations. This matters because SMS marketing has stricter rules than email. Brevo helps you stay compliant without extra work.

Now let’s look at what you can actually build.

Bulk SMS Campaigns and Personalization

Creating an SMS campaign in Brevo feels similar to creating an email. You use a simple editor, pick your audience, write your message, and schedule it. No coding required.

The editor is straightforward. You type your message, add personalization tags if you want, and preview how it looks. SMS messages have character limits, so Brevo shows you the count as you type. Standard SMS is 160 characters. Longer messages split into multiple texts, which uses more credits.

Personalization makes a real difference with SMS. You can insert merge tags like {{FIRSTNAME}} to address recipients by name. A text that says “Hey Sarah, your order shipped!” feels more personal than a generic blast. Brevo pulls this data from your contact records automatically.

You also get SMS templates. If you send similar messages regularly — like appointment reminders or sale announcements — you can save templates and reuse them. This saves time and keeps your messaging consistent.

Scheduling is flexible. You can send immediately or schedule for a specific date and time. This is useful for promotions tied to events or for reaching customers in different time zones. You can also set quiet hours to avoid sending texts too early or too late.

For bulk campaigns, you select your contact list or segment. Brevo lets you filter by attributes like location, purchase history, or engagement level. So you’re not blasting everyone with the same message. You’re targeting the right people.

A/B testing is available on Business plans and above. You can test different message versions to see which gets more clicks. This helps you improve over time.

The campaign dashboard shows delivery reports, click rates (if you include links), and other metrics. You’ll know exactly how your SMS performed.

SMS Automation and Multichannel Workflows

This is where Brevo SMS marketing gets powerful. You can automate text messages based on triggers and behaviors. And you can combine SMS with email in the same workflow.

Let me give you an example. Say someone abandons their cart on your WooCommerce store. You can set up a workflow that sends an email reminder after one hour. If they don’t open that email within 24 hours, the workflow automatically sends an SMS instead. That’s multichannel automation.

Brevo’s visual workflow builder handles this. You add triggers, actions, conditions, and delays — just like with email automation. SMS is simply another action you can add.

Common triggers for SMS automation include:

• Purchase completed (send order confirmation)
• Cart abandoned (send recovery reminder)
• Appointment scheduled (send reminder)
• Birthday or anniversary (send special offer)
• Email not opened (follow up with SMS)
• Contact inactivity (re-engagement text)

The event-based triggers work great for ecommerce. If you’re integrated with Shopify or WooCommerce, purchase and cart events flow into Brevo automatically. You can trigger SMS based on real customer actions.

You can also add delays. Maybe you want to wait 30 minutes after an order before sending a confirmation text. Or wait a day before following up on an abandoned cart. The workflow builder lets you set precise timing.

Conditions let you branch the workflow. If a contact clicked your last email, send one SMS. If they didn’t engage, send a different message. This makes your campaigns smarter.

The multichannel approach is really the key benefit here. Email and SMS work better together. SMS has higher open rates but costs money per message. Email is cheaper but gets ignored more often. Combining them gives you the best of both.

For businesses serious about customer engagement, automated SMS workflows are a must. And Brevo makes setting them up pretty simple.

Brevo SMS Pricing: How Credits Work

Brevo uses a pay-as-you-go model for SMS. You don’t pay a monthly subscription just for SMS access. Instead, you buy credits upfront and use them when you send messages.

This is different from email pricing. With email, you pay based on monthly volume or your plan tier. With SMS, you pay per message. The costs are separate.

Here’s how it works in the US and Canada. You pay about $1.09 per 100 SMS messages. So 1,000 messages costs around $10.90. And 10,000 messages runs about $109. Pretty straightforward math.

Pricing varies by country. Brevo supports over 100 countries, and rates depend on local carrier costs. Some examples:

These rates can change, so check Brevo’s pricing page for current numbers. But the pattern is clear — costs depend on where you’re sending.

When you buy credits, you need to purchase at least 100. There’s no expiry on unused credits. They stay in your account until you use them. That’s nice because you don’t lose money if you don’t send as much as expected.

Volume discounts kick in automatically as you buy more. Higher volumes mean lower per-message costs. If you’re sending thousands of texts monthly, this adds up.

One thing to note. The free Brevo plan includes SMS access. You’re not locked out just because you’re on free. But you still need to buy credits to send texts. The 300 emails per day limit on the free plan doesn’t apply to SMS — that’s a separate quota entirely.

WhatsApp pricing works similarly. The first 1,000 WhatsApp messages per month are free on paid plans. After that, it’s pay-as-you-go. In 2025, Brevo reduced WhatsApp pricing by 15% for high-volume senders.

For budgeting purposes, estimate your monthly SMS volume and multiply by the per-message rate. That’s your cost. No hidden fees or surprise charges.

How to Set Up Brevo SMS Campaigns

Let’s walk through creating your first SMS campaign. The process is straightforward, even if you’ve never sent a marketing text before.

Step 1: Access the SMS Campaign Section

Log into your Brevo account. From the main dashboard, look for “Campaigns” in the menu. Click on it, then select “SMS” instead of email. This takes you to the SMS campaign area.

Step 2: Create a New Campaign

Click the button to create a new SMS campaign. Brevo will ask you to name the campaign — pick something descriptive so you can find it later. Then you’ll move to the editor.

Step 3: Write Your Message

Type your SMS content in the editor. Keep it short and clear. You have 160 characters for a standard single SMS. Longer messages split into multiple texts and use more credits.

Add personalization if you want. Click the personalization button and insert tags like {{FIRSTNAME}}. Preview the message to see how it looks with real data.

Step 4: Choose Your Recipients

Select which contacts receive the SMS. You can pick an entire list or use segments to target specific groups. Make sure your contacts have opted in to receive SMS — this is legally required in most countries.

Brevo tracks opt-in status for you. Contacts who haven’t consented won’t receive messages.

Step 5: Buy SMS Credits

If you haven’t already, purchase SMS credits. Go to the billing section and buy a credit pack. Start small if you’re testing — 100 credits is the minimum. Credits appear in your account immediately.

Step 6: Schedule or Send

Choose when to send. You can send immediately or schedule for a specific date and time. Consider your audience’s timezone and avoid early morning or late night sends.

Step 7: Test Before Sending

Send a test SMS to your own phone first. Make sure personalization works, links are correct, and the message reads well. It only uses one credit and prevents embarrassing mistakes.

Step 8: Launch and Monitor

Hit send. Then watch the dashboard for delivery reports. You’ll see how many messages were delivered, any failures, and click rates if you included links.

That’s it. Your first Brevo SMS campaign is live. The whole process takes maybe 10 minutes once you have credits and a contact list ready.

Brevo SMS Compliance and Best Practices

SMS marketing has stricter rules than email. You can’t just text anyone you want. There are real legal requirements, and ignoring them leads to fines and blocked numbers. The good news is Brevo builds compliance tools right into the platform.

Let’s start with the big regulations.

GDPR applies if you’re sending SMS to people in the European Union. You need explicit consent before texting someone. They have to actively opt in — not just fail to opt out. You also need to tell them what kind of messages they’ll receive and give them an easy way to unsubscribe.

TCPA is the US regulation. Similar deal. You need prior express written consent for marketing texts. Transactional messages like order confirmations have slightly looser rules, but promotional SMS requires clear permission.

Brevo helps you manage this. The platform tracks opt-in status for each contact. When someone subscribes through your forms, Brevo records that consent. Contacts without SMS consent won’t receive your campaigns.

The STOP keyword is essential. When someone replies STOP to your text, they’re unsubscribing. Brevo handles this automatically. The contact gets removed from future SMS sends without you doing anything. This is legally required, so don’t try to work around it.

Quiet hours matter too. Sending texts at 3 AM is a bad look — and illegal in some places. Many regulations restrict what hours you can send marketing messages. Brevo lets you set quiet hours so messages only go out during appropriate times. Respect people’s sleep.

Here are some best practices beyond legal compliance:

• Always get clear consent before texting
• Tell subscribers what to expect (frequency, content type)
• Keep messages short and valuable
• Include your business name so people know who’s texting
• Don’t overdo it — too many texts leads to unsubscribes
• Make opting out easy and immediate
• Test messages before sending to your full list

SMS feels more personal than email. That’s its strength, but also why you need to be careful. Abuse it and people will block you. Respect it and you’ll build real engagement.

Best Use Cases for Brevo SMS Marketing

Not everything belongs in a text message. But some things work better as SMS than any other channel. Here are the use cases where Brevo SMS marketing really shines.

Abandoned Cart Recovery

Someone adds products to their cart but doesn’t buy. An email reminder helps, but SMS often works better. Text messages get 98% open rates compared to 20% for email. And people read them within minutes, not hours.

Brevo lets you trigger SMS automatically when a cart is abandoned. The data shows SMS abandoned cart messages recover 20-30% of lost sales. That’s significant revenue you’d otherwise miss.

Flash Sales and Limited-Time Offers

Time-sensitive promotions need instant delivery. Email might sit unread until the sale ends. SMS arrives immediately and gets opened fast.

If you’re running a 24-hour sale or a limited inventory deal, text your subscribers. They’ll see it right away. This works especially well for retail and ecommerce businesses.

Order Confirmations and Shipping Updates

These are transactional messages, and customers expect them. When someone buys from your store, send an SMS confirmation. When their order ships, text them the tracking info.

Brevo integrates with Shopify and WooCommerce to automate these. No manual work required. Customers appreciate the updates, and it reduces “where’s my order?” support requests.

Appointment Reminders

Service businesses — salons, clinics, consultants, repair shops — lose money on no-shows. A reminder text the day before drastically cuts missed appointments.

Set up an automated workflow in Brevo. When someone books, they get a confirmation. The day before, they get a reminder. Simple and effective.

Re-engagement Campaigns

Have contacts who stopped opening your emails? Hit them with an SMS. The data shows re-engagement texts get 5x higher click rates than email.

A quick “We miss you” message with a special offer can bring inactive subscribers back. Since SMS cuts through inbox clutter, it reaches people email can’t.

These use cases share something in common. They’re all time-sensitive or high-priority. That’s where SMS beats email every time.

FAQs About Brevo SMS Marketing