An automation is a series of pre-defined steps that include entry points, actions, and conditions. It is used to automatically complete repetitive tasks in areas such as marketing, sales, and contact management. Automations help businesses boost efficiency and productivity while ensuring accuracy.
For example, the following automation lets you send a welcome email to your contacts after they've been added to a specific list in Brevo. You can create it by adding:
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🚪 Entry points
An entry point is a criterion that decides which contacts enter the automation. When a contact meets the entry point's criterion, they enter the automation and start going through the steps.
You can set multiple entry points for an automation. In such cases, if a contact meets the rule of at least one entry point, they enter the automation.
Here's the list of entry points available in our classic automation editor:
Marketing and transactional email activity
Under Email Marketing Activity and Transactional Email Activity, you can choose one of the following entry points:
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Email opened |
Link clicked in an email |
Unsubscribed from an email |
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Use the entry point Email opened to trigger an automation when a contact opens a specific email or any email.
Use the entry point Link clicked in an email to trigger an automation when a contact clicks a specific link or any link in your emails.
Use the entry point Unsubscribed from an email to trigger an automation when a contact unsubscribes from a specific email or any email.
Contact details
Under Contacts details, you can choose one of the following entry points:
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Anniversary |
Contact attributes condition |
A contact is added |
Contact filter conditions |
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Use the entry point Anniversary to trigger an automation based on the birthday of your contact or any other specific date: send a voucher one week before their birthday, send a special offer on the day they subscribed to your newsletter, etc.
➡️ To learn more, check our dedicated article Anniversary Date: send a birthday email to your contacts.
Use the entry point Contact attributes condition to trigger an automation based on the value of a contact attribute after it is updated. You can use the attributes available by default on your account or custom attributes you have created.
Use the entry point A contact is added to a list to trigger an automation when contacts are added to a specific list.
Contacts are considered to be added to the list and will enter the automation under at least one of the following conditions:
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Use the entry point A contact is in a segment at a given time to target unengaged contacts, as well as contacts who are part of a specific segment.
➡️ To learn more, check our dedicated article Launch an automation when a contact matches one of your segments.
A contact submits a form
| A contact submits a form |
Use the entry point A contact submits a form to target contacts after they have submitted one of your Brevo forms. You can then send them welcome or follow-up emails.
➡️ To learn more about forms, check our dedicated article About subscription, unsubscription, and update profile forms.
An event happens
| An event happens |
Use the entry point An event happens to target contacts when a specific event happens. An event can be:
- A built-in event which is automatically generated by Brevo and happens after a contact performs a specific action on a Brevo app, such as when they book a meeting on Meetings, end a conversation on Conversations, etc.
- A purchase event which is automatically generated by a Brevo plugin and happens when a contact adds a product to their cart, updates their cart, or makes a purchase.
- A custom event which is created by you and happens when a contact performs the action defined in the event.
You can track these events and send automated emails, such as abandoned cart or product purchase emails.
Website activity
Under Website activity, you can choose one of the following entry points:
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A contact visits a page |
A contact clicks an external link |
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Use the entry point A contact visits a page to target contacts when they visit specific pages on your website. For this entry point, you can use a specific URL or bits of a URL (start with/contains), as well as a regular expression (regex).
➡️ To learn more, check our dedicated article Page visit: send an email to contacts who visit your website.
Use the entry point A contact clicks an external link to target contacts when they click a link on your website. The page you are referring needs to contain the Brevo tracker. For this entry point, you can use a specific URL or bits of a URL (start with/contains), as well as a regular expression (regex).
🏃 Actions
Actions are the events carried out in an automation when a contact meets an entry point or condition. These encompass a range of tasks, from marketing and sales to contact management, that are executed for the contacts within the automation.
Here's the list of actions available in our classic automation editor:
Send an email, SMS, WhatsApp message or notification
| SMS | Notification | ||
Use the action Send an email to send an automatic email to a contact. You can select an existing email template or create a new one. The email can be personalized, such as for birthday or welcome emails.
➡️ To learn more, check our dedicated articles Anniversary Date: send a birthday email to your contacts and Welcome Message: send a welcome email to your new contacts.
Use the Send an SMS action to send either transactional or marketing SMS messages to a contact.
Use the Send a WhatsApp message to send WhatsApp templates, such as welcome or anniversary messages or abandoned carts, to your contacts.
➡️ To learn more, check our dedicated article Send WhatsApp messages through an automation.
Use the Send a notification action to send notification emails to internal users or teams when a specific event happens, such as when a contact submits a form.
➡️ To learn more, check our dedicated article Receive a notification when a contact submits a form.
Add or remove a contact from a list
| Add contact to a list | Remove contact from a list |
Use the Add contact to a list action to add a contact to a specific list in Brevo.
➡️ To learn more, check our dedicated article Add contacts to your lists using an automation.
Use the Remove contact from a list action to remove a contact from a specific list in Brevo.
Update or blocklist a contact
| Update contact attribute | Blocklist a contact |
Use the Update contact attribute action to update a specific contact attribute with the value of your choice.
Use the Blocklist a contact action to automatically blocklist a contact from:
- Transactional emails sent by one or more specific senders.
- Email campaigns sent from all senders.
➡️ To learn more, check our dedicated article Automatically blocklist contacts from both your email campaigns and transactional emails.
Perform a CRM action on a contact
Under Perform a CRM action on a contact, you can choose one of the following actions:
| Create a deal | Create a task | Assign a user to the contact |
Use the Create a deal action to automatically create a deal with a specific name, pipeline, stage, and assignment. For example, you can automatically create a deal when a contact submits a form, when their subscription or contract renewal date is near, or when someone books a meeting with you.
➡️ To learn more, check our dedicated article Create an automation to automatically create deals.
Use the Create a task action to automatically create a task with a specific category, title, due date, and assignment.
➡️ To learn more, check our dedicated article Create an automation to automatically create tasks.
Use the Assign a user to the contact action to automatically assign a specific or ramdom user to contact.
➡️ To learn more, check our dedicated article Assign an owner to your contacts manually or automatically.
Move to another step or automation
| Start another workflow | Go to another step |
Use the Start another workflow action to move a contact to another automation. For example, you may want your contacts to move directly to another automation after they receive a welcome email through your Welcome Message automation. This action is often added after If/Else conditions.
- You can add up to 15 Start another workflow actions in an automation.
- After a contact goes through the Start another workflow action, the next automation will start from the first step after the entry point.
- To prevent the creation of endless loops, a contact can only be sent from automation A to automation B a maximum of 15 times within a 30-day period, starting from the day they first go through the Start another workflow action. However, if the contact enters the destination automation (B) directly from the entry point, the limit counter for that contact will be reset to zero.
- A contact will not be sent to an automation using the Start another workflow action if they have already entered it once and the automation does not allow for multiple entries.
- A contact will not be sent to an automation that is inactive or paused using the Start another workflow action.
Use the Go to another step action to move a contact to another step in the same automation or another automation. This action is often added after If/Else conditions.
- You can add up to five Go to another step actions in an automation.
- To prevent the creation of endless loops, a contact can only be sent from automation A to automation B a maximum of 15 times within a 30-day period, starting from the day they first go through the Go to another step action. However, if the contact enters the destination automation (B) directly from the entry point, the limit counter for that contact will be reset to zero.
- A contact will not be sent to an automation using the Go to another step action if they have already entered it once and the automation does not allow for multiple entries.
- A contact will not be sent to an automation that is inactive or paused using the Go to another step action.
Call a webhook
| Call a webhook |
Use the Call a webhook action to receive a notification that includes the details of the contact who triggered the event.
➡️ To learn more, check our dedicated article Create webhooks to receive real-time updates about your emails and contacts.
Record a conversion
| Record a conversion |
Use the Record a conversion action to evaluate the effectiveness of your email campaigns in achieving a specific goal.
➡️ To learn more, check our dedicated article Set up conversions to measure your email marketing ROI.
✋ Conditions
Conditions are rules your contacts have to meet in order to continue going through the next steps of your automation. They allow you to adapt your actions according to specific events, behaviors, or contact details.
Here's the list of conditions available in our classic automation editor:
Delay conditions
| Add a delay | Wait until |
Use the Add a delay condition to specify how long a contact will wait before proceeding to the next step of the automation. You can add this condition before any action and add a time delay of # minutes/hours/days/weeks/months to make it seem less automatic and more personalized.
To ensure optimum performance, the minimum delay is 1 minute.
➡️ To learn more, check our dedicated article What's the difference between Wait until and Add a delay?.
Use the Wait until condition to add a delay according to an event, rather than a period of time. Contacts will go to the next steps until after a specific event has been performed:
- Website activity (visits a specific page, clicks a specific link, etc.)
- Contact submits a form
- Email marketing activity (opens, clicks, or unsubscribes from an email campaign)
- Transactional email activity (opens, clicks, or unsubscribes from a transactional email)
➡️ To learn more, check our dedicated article What's the difference between Wait until and Add a delay?.
Paths conditions
| If/Else conditions | A/B split |
Use the If/Else conditions condition to guide your contacts down different paths in your automation. You can set it up based on specific events, behaviors, or contact details. Depending on whether they meet the condition or not, your contacts will be directed to different paths and go through different steps.
➡️ To learn more, check our dedicated article How do the if/else conditions work?.
Use the A/B split condition to divide your contacts into a 50:50 ratio for path A or path B. This condition can be used to test and enhance your automation results.
➡️ To learn more, check our dedicated article A/B test an Automation workflow to optimize its performance.
Exit and restart conditions
| Exit | Restart |
Use the Exit condition to immediately remove a contact from an automation when specific conditions are met, no matter which step the contact is at when these conditions are met.
➡️ To learn more, check our dedicated article What are the exit and restart conditions in an automation?.
Use the Restart condition to immediately cause a contact to restart an automation when specific conditions are met, no matter which step the contact is at when these conditions are met.
➡️ To learn more, check our dedicated article What are the exit and restart conditions in an automation?.
🤔 Have a question?
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