Email campaigns, also called newsletters, are emails sent to a group of recipients to promote products and services or share useful content to build and maintain good relationships with your contacts. With Brevo, create engaging and effective email campaigns thanks to an easy and visual email campaign setup flow where you can choose your recipients, subject line, and create your email design.
Before you start
- Ensure you have imported the contacts you want to send your email campaign to into Brevo.
- Read our Best practices guide for email campaigns to ensure you know all the necessary steps to take before sending out your first email campaigns.
- Starting in February 2024, Gmail and Yahoo plan to enforce new sender requirements. Ensure you comply with these new requirements to keep reaching your recipients' inboxes. To learn more, check our dedicated article Prepare for Gmail and Yahoo's new sender requirements.
- Brevo strictly prohibits the sending of passwords in readable format or methods that allow recipients to access password-protected content or content requiring authentication such as auto-login links.
✍️ Create an email campaign
To create an email campaign:
- Go to Campaigns > Email.
- Click Create an email campaign.
- Choose the type of email campaign you want to create. In this case, we want to create a Regular email campaign.
💡 Good to knowChoose A/B Test email campaign to test two different versions of your email campaign on a test group of recipients. To learn more, check our dedicated article Create an A/B Test campaign.
- Name your email campaign to easily find it in the list of your email campaigns. This name will only be visible to you.
- Click Create campaign.
The email campaign setup page opens to choose the sender, recipients, subject line, and design for your email campaign ⬇️.
🗣️ Sender: choose a sender
The sender is the email address and name that will appear in your recipients' mailbox when they receive your campaign. The Sender step is usually automatically filled with the default Campaign sender you defined, or the name and email address used to create your Brevo account.
However, if the Sender step is not automatically filled or if you want to use a different sender for this specific campaign you can ⬇️:
- Click Select sender or Manage sender.
- In the Email address drop-down, choose a sender from your existing ones or create a new one. We may apply priority rules if you define a list custom sender. To learn more, check our dedicated article Choose the sender for your email campaigns.
- By default, the sender name is the one linked to the sender email address you chose above. You can override it by entering another name in the Name field and customize it with contact attributes. For example, if your company assigns an account manager to each contact, you can insert their name as the sender of the email instead of your company's name.
- Click Save.
👥 Recipients: select recipients
Choose who you want to send your email campaign to:
- Click Add recipients.
- From the Send to drop-down, select in the different tabs the lists and segments containing the contacts you want to send your email campaign to. You can select multiple lists and segments.
To learn more about lists and segments, check our dedicated article Understanding the difference between lists and segments. - Optional: Click Don't send to unengaged contacts to exclude recipients who show a lack of interest in your content. You can specify your own unengagement criteria in your Contacts settings.
- Optional: By default, if you have enabled the frequency cap, this email campaign is automatically skipped for recipients who have already received emails from your brand during the defined cap.
Uncheck the Include this email in the frequency cap box to ignore the cap and send this campaign anyway to all your selected recipients. To learn more, check our dedicated article Limit your marketing pressure with sending cadence. - Optional: Click Advanced options to choose lists or segments to exclude from your recipients and add conditions to filter your recipients. To learn more, check our dedicated article Exclude and filter recipients from your email campaigns.
- Click Save.
📣 Subject: add a subject line
Add a subject to your email campaign to allow your recipients to quickly know what your email is about:
- Click Add subject.
- In the Subject line field, enter a description of your email content in a few words. The subject line is the first content that your recipients will see in their inboxes. Use our Brevo AI assistant to help you generate a catchy subject line in a few seconds.
- Optional: In the Preview text field, enter a short and attractive text that gives an overview of your email content. It will be displayed below the subject line in your recipients' inbox and is supported by most email clients. A preview of what your recipients will receive in their inbox is displayed on the right.
- Optional: Customize your Subject line and Preview text with:
-
Contact attributes using the silhouette
icon. To learn more, check our dedicated article Personalize your emails using contact attributes.
-
Emojis using the smiley
icon.
-
Contact attributes using the silhouette
- Once done, click Save.
🧑🎨 Design: design your email content
After setting up your email campaign settings, you can now design its content. This step requires the most work and creativity but has the biggest payoff!
Click Start designing and search for the email template design you need in the different tabs. Hover your mouse over each template and click Preview to see what they look like. You can either choose to:
-
Use the Drag & Drop Editor to customize:
- Prebuilt email templates in Layouts and Template gallery,
- Your own email templates in My templates, or
- Templates from your previous email campaigns in Campaigns.
-
Code your own email using:
- Rich text editor for basic text-only emails, or
- Pasting your code to upload an HTML file created by a design professional.
Once you have found the email template design you need for your campaign, click Use template. The chosen email template design opens in the Drag & Drop editor where you can drag and drop the desired blocks into your design, such as text, images, or buttons.
To learn more on how to use the Drag & Drop Editor, check our dedicated section in the Help Center.
🕹️ Additional settings (Optional)
Additional Settings are at the very bottom of your campaign setup page and allow you to bring your email campaign design to another level. For example, you can add an attachment to your campaign, embed images, or customize the mirror link.
Click Edit settings to show the additional settings categories and set them up:
You can personalize the information your recipients will see regarding the addressee field.
The default value is [DEFAULT_TO] which is your recipient's email address. However, you can override it for this specific campaign and personalize it with contact attributes. For example, you can personalize it with your recipients' first name, so that instead of receiving an email addressed to 'john.smith@example.com', your contact will receive an email addressed to 'John'. To learn more, check our dedicated section in the article Personalize your emails using contact attributes.
You can personalize the information your recipients will see regarding your reply-to email address:
The default value is [DEFAULT_REPLY_TO] which is the email address of the selected sender. However, you can override it by putting another email address where you want to receive your contacts' replies. To learn more, check our dedicated section in the article Where are reply emails sent to?.
Activate Google Analytics tracking to identify and monitor the email campaigns that refer traffic to your website. By default, the UTM Campaign value is the campaign name that you defined earlier but you can override it to Customize UTM Campaign Value if needed. To learn more, check our dedicated articleIntegrating Google Analytics with your Brevo account.
Check this box to ignore the list custom settings you defined and instead use the settings you defined in this campaign set up. To learn more on priority rules for senders, check our dedicated article Choose the sender for your email campaigns.
We do not recommend using this feature for campaigns with multiple images, as it may be unsupported by some email clients and could exceed the 5MB size limit, preventing scheduling.
Check this box only if you need to insert your images as attachments rather than directly within the email content.
Check this box and click Select a file to browse your computer files and add an attachment to your email. You can only add one attachment of less than 4 MB.
Add a descriptive tag to your campaign and use it in Contacts to filter the contacts who have received this campaign. For example, add the Discount tag to email campaigns containing discounts to easily find the contacts who received those emails.
The Set an expiration date option is a Brevo Green 🍃 feature to help you better manage your carbon emissions.
Reduce your carbon footprint by checking the Set an expiration date box and choosing an expiration date for your email:
When supported by your recipients' email provider, emails with a set expiration date will automatically be deleted from their mailbox on the set date. It could be useful for emails that contain promotions that are only valid for a few days such as 24-hour discounts, or seasonal deals.
When clicking on the unsubscribe link in your email campaign, recipients are redirected to an unsubscribe page. By default, the Brevo unsubscribe page is available to your recipients but you can check this box to select a customized one from the list. You can also create one by clicking Create a new unsubscribe page from the list. To learn more, check our dedicated article Customize an unsubscribe page to integrate into your email campaigns.
If you added an update profile link in your email campaign, recipients can update their profile information by clicking it. By default, the Brevo update profile form is available to your recipients but you can check this box to select a customized one from the list. You can also create one by clicking Create a new update profile form from the list. To learn more, check our dedicated article Update your subscribers' details and preferences (Update Profile form).
By default, the page header and footer contain the mirror link (to display the email in a web browser) and the unsubscribe link, respectively. Update this field to override your default header or footer with a custom one.
This setting is recommended if you don't have a mirror link in your message content. A mirror link allows visitors to view the campaign in their web browser.
To learn more on how to customize these items, check our dedicated articles Insert a View in browser (mirror) link in your campaigns and Insert an unsubscribe link in your campaigns.
🧪 Preview & Test
We highly recommend you Preview & Test your campaign before scheduling it. Preview your campaign directly in Brevo or receive it in your inbox or the ones of your colleagues. This will allow you to review your email campaign and have an idea of what it will look like in your recipients' inboxes and spot possible errors before sending it. To learn more, check our dedicated article Preview and send a test email.
🗓️ Schedule
Once you have reviewed your campaign details one last time and are ready to send it, you can click Schedule.
There are four schedule options:
If your campaign is ready and you don't want to wait, choose the Send now option and click Send Now.
Schedule your campaign at a precise date and time. Choose the Schedule option and select from the drop-down lists an appropriate Date and Time to send your campaign. Click Schedule to queue your campaign.
Choose the Best time option and select a date from the drop-down list. Brevo will use data science to determine when your contacts are most likely to engage and will send your emails at that time. Click Send at the best time to queue your campaign.
For more information on how to send your campaign at the best time, see Send Time Optimization.
The Send in batches option allows you to send your email campaign in multiple batches and at a specific interval of time. By pacing the delivery of your email campaigns, you can strategically control traffic spikes and prevent potential overload on your website.
To send your campaign in batches:
- Select the Send in batches option and select a date from the drop-down list.
- Choose a Time at which you want to send the first batch of email campaigns.
- From the Send in drop-down list, choose in how many batches you want to send your email campaign. You can send a maximum of 10 batches.
- From the Time between two batches drop-down list, select the desired time interval between the sending of each email campaign batch. You can set a maximum of 24 hours of interval between each batch. Your campaign will be paused during this interval.
➡️ For exampleIf you schedule your email campaign tomorrow at 2 p.m. and choose to send in 3 batches every 2 hours, the last batch will be sent tomorrow at 6 p.m. All your selected segments and lists of recipients will have received your campaign.
Congratulations! 🎉 You have successfully created and sent your email campaign!
⏭️ What's next?
- Running a successful email campaign
- Reviewing your campaign reports
- Design your emails: Drag & Drop Editor articles
- Personalize your email with contact attributes
- Insert a View in browser (mirror) link in your campaigns
- Insert an unsubscribe link in your campaigns
- Requeue, duplicate, and archive email campaigns
🤔 Have a question?
If you have a question, feel free to contact our support team by creating a ticket from your account. If you don't have an account yet, you can contact us here.
If you’re looking for help with a project using Brevo, we can match you with the right certified Brevo expert partner.