How to Set Up Your First Email Campaign in Brevo (Complete Beginner's Guide for 2026)

Go to brevo.com and click 'Sign Up Free' in the top right corner. Enter your name, email address, and a password, then verify your email by clicking the confirmation link Brevo sends you. Once inside the dashboard, Brevo walks you through a short setup wizard. Fill in your company name, website URL, and business type. This takes about two minutes and helps Brevo tailor the interface for you. Next, add your sender details under Settings > Senders & IP. This is the name and email address your subscribers will see — for example, 'Sarah from GreenLeaf Co.' using hello@greenleafco.com. Use a real domain email rather than a Gmail or Outlook address. Sending from a branded domain significantly improves your chances of landing in the inbox rather than the spam folder. Brevo's free plan includes 300 emails per day with unlimited contact storage, which is plenty to get started. If you need more volume, the Starter plan begins at $25 per month for 20,000 emails. You don't need to upgrade today — the free plan is enough for your first campaign.

Domain authentication is the single most important technical step in this guide. It tells email providers like Gmail and Outlook that you are a legitimate sender, which keeps your emails out of spam folders. In Brevo, go to Settings > Senders & IP > Domains and click 'Add a Domain.' Type in your domain name (e.g., yourbusiness.com) and Brevo will generate three DNS records: an SPF record, a DKIM record, and a DMARC record. You need to add these records to your domain's DNS settings. Log into wherever you manage your domain — this is usually GoDaddy, Namecheap, Cloudflare, or your web host. Find the DNS settings section and add each record exactly as Brevo shows you. Once added, return to Brevo and click 'Verify.' DNS changes typically take anywhere from a few minutes to a few hours to propagate. Brevo has a built-in checker that turns green when each record is confirmed. This step protects your sender reputation from day one. Skipping it is the number one reason beginner campaigns end up in spam folders, so take the 10 minutes to complete it before moving forward.

Before you can send a campaign, you need a list of people to send it to. Brevo gives you two main options. Option one is importing an existing list. Click on 'Contacts' in the left menu, then click 'Import Contacts.' You can upload a CSV file directly from your computer. Brevo previews the first 10 rows and asks you to match your CSV columns to Brevo fields — for example, match your 'Email' column to Brevo's EMAIL field, and your 'Name' column to FIRSTNAME. Complete the import and assign the contacts to a list, such as 'Newsletter Subscribers.' Option two is creating a signup form to grow your list fresh. Go to Marketing > Forms > Create Sign-Up Form. Give it a name, choose which fields to collect (at minimum: email; optionally first name), drag and drop your design elements, and link the form to a contact list. Enable double opt-in — this sends a confirmation email to new subscribers before they're added to your list. It keeps your list clean and ensures you're compliant with 2026 email regulations including GDPR. Once your form is ready, copy the embed code and paste it into your website, or share the direct link on social media.

In the left menu, click 'Campaigns,' then click the blue 'Create a Campaign' button and select 'Email.' On the next screen, choose 'Standard Email Campaign.' You'll first see a setup screen asking for internal details. Give your campaign a name you'll recognize later — for example, 'Welcome Newsletter January 2026.' This name is only visible to you, not your subscribers. Next, fill in the email subject line. This is the most important piece of text in your entire campaign because it determines whether people open your email. Aim for something specific and human, like 'Here's what we've been working on this month' or 'Welcome — here's your free guide.' Keep it under 50 characters so it doesn't get cut off on mobile screens. Below the subject line, add preview text — this is the short sentence that appears next to your subject line in the inbox. Use it to add context or curiosity, for example: 'Three tips inside that our best customers swear by.' Finally, confirm your sender name and email address. Brevo lets you save this so you don't have to re-enter it each time. Click 'Next' to move to recipient selection.

On the recipients screen, Brevo asks you to select who receives this email. For your first campaign, click 'Select a List' and choose the contact list you created or imported in Step 3. If you have multiple lists, you can select more than one. You'll see a recipient count update at the bottom of the screen — this confirms how many people will receive your email. As a beginner, sending to your full list is fine. Over time, you'll use segmentation to send more targeted emails. For example, you might create a segment of contacts who opened your last three emails, or contacts located in a specific country. Brevo's segmentation tool lives under the Contacts menu. You can filter by attributes like location, signup date, email activity, or any custom fields you imported. Segments update automatically, so if a contact meets the criteria later, they're added automatically. For now, keep it simple: select your main list and continue. If any of your contacts have previously unsubscribed or bounced, Brevo automatically excludes them from the send — you don't need to clean those manually.

Click 'Design' to enter Brevo's email editor. You'll see a gallery of pre-built templates organized by category — welcome emails, newsletters, promotions, and more. Pick a template that matches your campaign type and click 'Select.' The editor opens with your chosen template. Everything is drag-and-drop: click any block to edit it, drag new blocks from the left panel into your layout, or delete blocks you don't need. Start by replacing the logo placeholder with your own logo image. Then edit the heading text to match your campaign message. Add a short paragraph of body text — keep it to two or three short paragraphs for your first email. Avoid walls of text. Every email needs a clear call-to-action button. Click the button block, change the text to something action-oriented like 'Read the Full Article' or 'Claim Your Discount,' and set the link URL. To personalize your emails, type double curly braces and choose an attribute — for example, type 'Hi {{contact.FIRSTNAME}}' at the top of your email body. Brevo fills in each subscriber's first name automatically at send time. Before finishing, click 'Preview & Test' to see how the email looks on desktop and mobile screens.

Once your design is ready and your test email looks good, click 'Schedule' or 'Send.' You have three options. First, send immediately — Brevo starts delivering your email within minutes. Second, schedule for a specific date and time — click the date picker, choose your preferred send time, and confirm. A good general rule for beginners is to schedule mid-week mornings, typically Tuesday through Thursday between 9am and 11am in your audience's time zone. Third, 'Send at Best Time' is available on the Business plan at $65 per month and uses your audience's historical open data to pick the optimal send window per subscriber. For your first campaign, immediate send or a manually scheduled time works perfectly. After confirming recipients and doing a final preview check, click the confirmation button. Brevo shows you a summary screen — review the recipient count, subject line, and sender details one last time. Then confirm the send. You'll receive a confirmation email from Brevo, and your campaign will show as 'Sending' in the Campaigns dashboard within seconds.

After your campaign sends, go to Campaigns in the left menu and click on your campaign name to see the performance report. Brevo tracks four key metrics beginners should focus on. Open rate is the percentage of recipients who opened your email — a healthy open rate in 2026 is between 20% and 35% for most industries. Click rate is the percentage who clicked a link inside your email — above 2% to 3% is a solid starting point. Bounce rate shows emails that couldn't be delivered — above 2% signals list quality issues. Unsubscribe rate tells you how many people opted out — above 0.5% suggests your content or targeting needs adjustment. Review these numbers 24 to 48 hours after sending, when most opens have occurred. Use this data to improve your next campaign. For example, if your open rate is low, test a different subject line next time. If your click rate is low, try a more prominent call-to-action button or a more specific offer. Over time, even small improvements compound into significantly better campaign performance.