From Zero to Sending: How to Get Started with Brevo in 2025

Choosing a new marketing platform is both exciting and a little intimidating. You know you need a powerful tool to grow your business, but the idea of a complex setup process can feel like a major hurdle. The good news? It doesn’t have to be complicated.

This guide is the most practical, step-by-step walkthrough to get you from signing up for Brevo to launching your very first email campaign. We’ll cover everything you need to know to get started successfully, ensuring you go from “zero to sending” in the fastest, most effective way possible.

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Before You Begin: Your 5-Minute Success Checklist

A little preparation goes a long way. Before you even create your account, having these four things ready will make the process incredibly smooth and fast:

• Your Contact List: Have your existing contacts ready in a simple CSV (spreadsheet) file.
• Your Company Logo & Brand Colors: Keep your logo file and a note of your brand’s main color codes handy.
• An Idea for Your First Email: Know what you want to say. A simple welcome message or a special offer for your subscribers is a perfect start.
• Access to Your Domain’s DNS Records: This is for a crucial step called authentication, which we’ll cover later. It helps your emails land in the inbox, not the spam folder.

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Step 1: Creating Your Free Brevo Account

First things first, let’s get you set up.

• Visit the Brevo Website: https://www.brevo.com/ Navigate to the Brevo homepage and click on one of the “Sign up free” buttons.
• Register Your Account: Enter your email address and a password to create your account.

• Verify Your Email: Brevo will send a confirmation email to your inbox. Click the verification link inside to activate your account.

• Complete Your Profile: Fill out your personal and company details. It’s important to complete this step thoroughly, as it helps Brevo verify your account and unlock all features.
• Explore the Dashboard: Welcome to Brevo! You now have access to your all-in-one marketing platform.

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Step 2: Importing Your First Contacts

An email platform is nothing without people to email. Let’s add your audience.

1. From the Brevo dashboard, navigate to the “Contacts” section.
2. Click the “Import contacts” button.
3. Choose to “Upload a file” and select the CSV file you prepared earlier.
4. Map your data. This just means telling Brevo which column in your spreadsheet is the email address, which is the first name, and so on.
5. Confirm and Import. That’s it! Your contacts will now be available in your Brevo account.

You can also create a sign-up form within Brevo to start collecting new subscribers directly from your website.

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Step 3: Designing Your First Email Campaign

Now for the fun part—creating your email.

1. Go to the “Campaigns” tab in the navigation menu.
2. Click the “Create an email campaign” button.
3. Give your campaign a name (this is just for you to see).

Choosing a Template and Using the Drag-and-Drop Editor

Brevo offers a library of professional templates. Choose one that fits your brand, or start from scratch. The drag-and-drop editor is incredibly intuitive. You can easily add text blocks, images, your logo, and buttons without needing any code.

Crafting a Compelling Subject Line & Preview Text

Your subject line is the most important part of your email. Make it clear, concise, and compelling. The preview text is the short snippet of text that appears after the subject line in most inboxes—use it to add more context and encourage opens.

Adding Your Content: Best Practices for Beginners

• Keep it focused: Your first email should have one clear goal.
• Use a clear call-to-action (CTA): What do you want the reader to do? Use a button for your main CTA.
• Personalize it: Use personalization tags like {{ contact.FIRSTNAME }} to address subscribers by their name.

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Common First-Timer Mistakes to Avoid

Avoid these common pitfalls to ensure your first campaign is a success.

• Forgetting to Authenticate Your Domain: This is a crucial step for email deliverability. In your settings, Brevo provides you with a few DNS records to add to your domain host. Taking 10 minutes to do this tells email providers like Gmail that you’re a legitimate sender.
• Not Sending a Test Email: Always send a test version of your email to yourself first. This allows you to check for typos, broken links, and formatting issues before it goes out to your entire list.
• Using a “No-Reply” Sender Address: Always send from an email address that can receive replies. It’s more personal and better for building a relationship with your subscribers.

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Step 4: Sending & Reviewing Your First Campaign

Once your design is perfect and you’ve sent a test, you’re ready to launch.

1. In the final step of the campaign builder, select the contact list you want to send to.
2. You can either “Send it now” or “Schedule for a specific time.”
3. Hit send! Congratulations, you’ve launched your first campaign.

After a few hours, check your reports. Brevo will show you key metrics like your Open Rate (the percentage of people who opened your email) and your Click Rate (the percentage who clicked a link).

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What’s Next? Your Brevo Roadmap

Sending one campaign is just the beginning. To truly leverage Brevo, here’s what to explore next:

• Set Up a Welcome Automation: Create a simple automation that automatically sends a welcome email to every new subscriber.
• Explore the CRM: Start using the built-in CRM to keep track of your customer interactions.
• Build a Landing Page: Create a dedicated landing page for a free guide or resource to attract even more subscribers.

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Conclusion: You’ve Sent Your First Campaign, Now What?

You did it! By following these steps, you’ve gone from a brand new account to a launched email campaign. You’ve taken the first, most important step in building a powerful marketing engine for your business. The best part about Brevo is that it’s a platform that grows with you. The tools you used today are just the foundation for a much larger world of automation and growth.

Ready to take the next step and automate your growth? Explore Brevo’s powerful automation features today.

Common Questions:

1. How long does it take to get a Brevo account approved? Account creation is instant, but Brevo manually validates new accounts before you can send your first campaign, which is a standard industry practice to maintain high deliverability. This process is usually completed within a few hours, but it can take up to 24 hours. Completing your profile fully helps speed this up.

2. Do I need a credit card to sign up for the Brevo free plan? No, you do not need to provide any credit card information to sign up for and use Brevo’s free plan. You can access all the features of the free plan, including sending up to 300 emails per day, without any financial commitment.

3. What is domain authentication and is it hard to do? Domain authentication is how you prove to email services like Gmail and Outlook that you are a legitimate sender. It’s a crucial step for ensuring your emails land in the inbox. While it sounds technical, Brevo provides a simple step-by-step guide, and it usually just involves copying and pasting a few records into your domain host’s settings.

4. Can I build a sign-up form on the free plan? Yes, absolutely. The Brevo free plan allows you to create and customize sign-up forms that you can embed on your website to start collecting new subscribers right away. All new contacts are automatically added to your CRM.

5. How many contacts can I have on the Brevo free plan? You can store an unlimited number of contacts in your Brevo account on the free plan. Unlike many other platforms that charge you more as your list grows, Brevo’s pricing is based on the number of emails you send, not the number of contacts you have.