Email Marketing Automation: What It Is and How It Works
Email marketing automation has moved beyond simple scheduled newsletters. Modern platforms can monitor customer behavior, segment audiences, trigger personalized messages, manage leads, and coordinate email with channels such as SMS and WhatsApp.
For small businesses and growing brands, the attraction is straightforward: instead of manually deciding who should receive every message, an automation platform can execute predefined workflows based on customer actions and business rules.
Brevo is one platform that brings these capabilities together with email marketing, automation, CRM, transactional messaging, SMS, WhatsApp, and other customer-engagement tools. Its pricing structure is also designed differently from several traditional email platforms, making it particularly relevant to businesses that maintain large contact databases but do not send messages to every contact every month.
This guide explains what email marketing automation is, how it works, what features to evaluate, and where Brevo fits compared with other established platforms.
Quick Verdict
Best for: Small and midsize businesses, ecommerce companies, agencies, and growing brands looking for email automation plus CRM and multi-channel communication without making contact-count pricing the primary cost driver.
Consider alternatives if: You need extremely specialized enterprise automation, highly advanced ecommerce segmentation, or a platform built primarily around a specific CRM or ecommerce ecosystem.
Brevo Scorecard
| Category | Rating |
|---|---|
| Ease of Use | 4.5/5 |
| Deliverability Tools | 4.5/5 |
| Multi-Channel Features | 4.5/5 |
| Marketing Automation | 4.5/5 |
| Value for Money | 4.5/5 |
These scores are editorial assessments rather than independent laboratory measurements. Actual results depend on list quality, authentication, sending practices, content, engagement, and implementation.
What Is Email Marketing Automation?
Email marketing automation is the process of using software to automatically send messages when predefined conditions are met.
Instead of manually sending every email, a marketer creates a workflow such as:
New subscriber → Welcome email → Wait 2 days → Educational email → Product recommendation → Follow-up
The system evaluates customer data and behavior and then determines which action should happen next.
Common automation triggers include:
- A person subscribes to a mailing list.
- A customer purchases a product.
- A visitor abandons a shopping cart.
- A contact clicks a particular link.
- A lead reaches a defined score.
- A customer becomes inactive.
- A date such as a birthday or renewal date arrives.
- A contact enters or leaves a specific segment.
The important distinction is that automation is not simply “sending emails automatically.” Good automation combines data, segmentation, triggers, conditions, timing, and actions to create relevant customer journeys.
How Email Marketing Automation Works
Most automation systems follow a relatively simple logical structure.
1. Collect Customer Data
The platform first needs information about contacts. This can include email addresses, names, purchase information, website activity, subscription preferences, and engagement history.
Data can enter the system through:
- Website forms
- Ecommerce integrations
- CRM records
- API connections
- Manual imports
- Landing pages
- Advertising or lead-generation campaigns
2. Segment the Audience
Not every subscriber should receive the same message.
For example, an ecommerce company might create separate segments for:
- First-time customers
- Repeat customers
- High-value customers
- Prospects who have never purchased
- Customers who have not purchased for six months
Segmentation allows businesses to make automated campaigns more relevant instead of treating the entire database as one audience.
3. Define a Trigger
A trigger starts the workflow.
A simple example is:
Contact joins “Newsletter Subscribers” list → Send welcome email.
More sophisticated workflows can use behavioral triggers such as a purchase, link click, page visit, or change in contact attributes.
4. Add Conditions and Actions
Automation platforms can then apply rules.
For example:
If contact opens email → wait 2 days → send follow-up.
If contact does not open → send an alternative subject line.
If customer purchases → remove them from prospect campaign.
This is where automation becomes substantially more useful than a simple email scheduler.
Core Features to Evaluate
Email Marketing and Drag-and-Drop Editor
The email editor is one of the first features most businesses encounter.
A modern editor should allow marketers to create professional campaigns without requiring HTML expertise. Important capabilities include responsive layouts, reusable templates, images, buttons, text blocks, personalization, and mobile-friendly design.
Brevo provides a drag-and-drop email editor and campaign tools. Its broader platform also allows email campaigns to work alongside customer data and automation rather than operating as an isolated newsletter tool.
Personalization can make automated emails more useful. Instead of sending:
“Hello customer,”
a campaign can potentially use available contact information to produce a more relevant greeting or recommendation.
However, personalization should be used carefully. Poor-quality customer data can result in awkward messages, so businesses should test dynamic fields before launching campaigns.
Multi-Channel Campaigns
Modern customer engagement increasingly involves multiple channels.
Brevo positions itself as an all-in-one customer-engagement platform covering email, SMS, WhatsApp, chat, CRM, and transactional communication.
This matters because a customer journey does not necessarily begin and end with email.
For example:
Email: Product announcement
↓
SMS: Time-sensitive reminder
↓
Website/chat: Customer asks a question
↓
CRM: Sales representative follows up
Using multiple channels can make a customer journey more coordinated, although businesses should avoid excessive messaging.
Channel selection should depend on the purpose of the communication, customer preferences, consent requirements, and urgency.
Marketing Automation and Workflows
Automation workflows are the core of an advanced email marketing strategy.
Typical workflows include:
Welcome Series
A subscriber joins a list and automatically receives a sequence introducing the company, explaining its products, and eventually presenting an offer.
Abandoned Cart
A shopper leaves items in a cart without completing checkout. An automated workflow can send a reminder after an appropriate delay.
Lead Nurturing
A prospective customer downloads a guide and enters a sequence designed to educate them before presenting a sales offer.
Re-Engagement
A customer who has stopped interacting with campaigns can receive a carefully designed re-engagement sequence.
Post-Purchase
After a purchase, automation can deliver confirmation-related communication, educational content, product guidance, review requests, or relevant recommendations.
The quality of these workflows depends more on strategy than the number of available automation features. A complicated workflow is not necessarily a better workflow.
Sales CRM and Pipeline Management
Email automation becomes more powerful when customer engagement data connects with sales information.
A built-in CRM can allow businesses to maintain contact records, track deals, manage sales stages, and coordinate marketing with sales activities.
For example:
Lead captured → Qualification → Sales contact → Proposal → Won/Lost
Instead of keeping marketing contacts in one system and sales information in another, an integrated platform can reduce data fragmentation.
Brevo includes CRM functionality within its broader customer-engagement platform, making it relevant to businesses that want marketing and basic sales management in the same environment.
Businesses with extremely complex sales operations may still prefer a dedicated enterprise CRM, particularly when they require advanced forecasting, extensive customization, or sophisticated account-management capabilities.
Transactional Email
Marketing emails and transactional emails serve different purposes.
Marketing emails might include:
- Promotions
- Newsletters
- Product announcements
- Educational campaigns
Transactional emails are typically triggered by a specific customer action or system event, such as:
- Account verification
- Password reset
- Order confirmation
- Shipping notification
- Invoice
- Application notification
Brevo provides transactional email capabilities alongside its marketing products, including SMTP and API-oriented functionality.
For businesses sending transactional messages programmatically, the technical integration and sender authentication are particularly important.
Why Domain Authentication Matters
Email automation cannot compensate for poor deliverability practices.
Before sending campaigns, businesses should properly authenticate their sending domain.
Brevo’s current authentication process uses DNS records including a Brevo verification code, DKIM, and DMARC. Brevo explains that authentication helps providers verify legitimate senders and can improve the likelihood of messages reaching recipients rather than being filtered or rejected.
The exact DNS configuration depends on the account and domain setup. Brevo’s current documentation notes that SPF and MX records are not required for its standard domain authentication flow, although they can be relevant in other configurations such as dedicated IP setups.
Authentication should therefore be treated as a basic part of email infrastructure rather than an optional optimization.
Brevo Pricing Model
One of Brevo’s notable differences is that its pricing is structured around email sending volume rather than simply charging according to the number of stored contacts.
This can be advantageous for a company with a large database but relatively low monthly sending frequency.
Brevo’s current plans include Free, Starter, Standard, Professional, and Enterprise. The current published starting prices are $0/month for Free, $9/month for Starter, $18/month for Standard, $499/month for Professional, and custom pricing for Enterprise. Pricing and included features can change, so businesses should verify the current plan details before purchasing.
Free
The Free plan is designed for users testing the platform or running relatively small campaigns. Brevo currently lists 300 email sends per day and storage for up to 100,000 contacts, along with features such as email and SMS campaigns, transactional messaging, and the drag-and-drop editor.
Starter
Starter is intended for businesses that need more sending capacity and fewer restrictions than the free offering. It starts at $9/month according to Brevo’s current pricing documentation.
Standard
Standard expands the platform’s marketing capabilities and currently starts at $18/month. This tier is more appropriate for businesses that are moving beyond basic campaigns and need broader automation and campaign functionality.
Professional
Professional is aimed at more advanced marketing requirements and currently starts at $499/month. This represents a substantial jump from the lower tiers, so smaller businesses should evaluate whether the additional capabilities justify the cost.
Enterprise
Enterprise pricing is customized. Larger organizations can discuss requirements and pricing directly with Brevo rather than selecting a standard public monthly price.
Important: Brevo’s plan names and pricing have changed over time. Older articles may refer to “Business” rather than the current “Standard” and “Professional” structure. Always check the current pricing page before making a purchasing decision.
Pros and Cons
Pros
1. Flexible contact storage
The platform’s current Free plan supports up to 100,000 contacts, which is useful for businesses whose database size would otherwise drive software costs.
2. Multi-channel functionality
Email, SMS, WhatsApp, CRM, chat, and transactional communication can be managed within the broader platform.
3. Strong transactional email use case
Businesses that need both marketing campaigns and application-generated transactional messages can potentially consolidate those requirements.
4. Accessible entry point
A free plan and relatively low starting price make it possible to evaluate the platform before committing to a larger subscription.
5. Domain authentication support
Brevo provides dedicated tools and documentation for configuring sender-domain authentication and related DNS records.
Cons
1. Free-plan sending restrictions
The Free plan’s 300-email-per-day limit can become restrictive for businesses with larger campaigns.
2. Advanced functionality can become expensive
The jump to higher-tier plans is significant, particularly for businesses that need advanced capabilities.
3. Not necessarily the best specialist platform
Businesses with highly specialized ecommerce automation, enterprise CRM requirements, or exceptionally complex customer journeys may find a specialist platform better suited to their needs.
Brevo vs Competitors
| Feature | Brevo | Mailchimp | ActiveCampaign | Klaviyo |
|---|---|---|---|---|
| Pricing approach | Primarily email/send volume-oriented | Primarily contact/audience-oriented | Primarily contact/feature-oriented | Contact/profile and usage-based structure |
| Contact storage | High allowance on current Free plan | Plan-dependent | Plan-dependent | Plan-dependent |
| Email automation | Yes | Yes | Yes | Yes |
| SMS / additional channels | Yes | Yes, depending on market/plan | Yes, depending on plan | Strong SMS/ecommerce focus |
| Built-in CRM | Yes | Sales/marketing tools | Strong CRM | More marketing/ecommerce focused |
| Transactional email | Yes | Available through dedicated products/features | Available | Available |
| Ecommerce focus | Broad | Broad | Broad | Particularly strong |
| Best suited to | SMBs needing broad functionality | General marketing teams | Advanced automation users | Ecommerce and lifecycle marketing |
This comparison should be viewed as a high-level positioning guide rather than a substitute for checking current plans. Competitor pricing, included features, contact limits, and channel availability change frequently.
How to Set Up Email Marketing Automation
Step 1: Create Your Account and Sending Domain
Start by creating an account and adding the domain you intend to use for sending campaigns.
Use a professional business email address rather than relying on a free consumer email address.
Step 2: Authenticate Your Domain
Open your domain settings and follow the platform’s authentication instructions.
With Brevo, the current process can involve adding a verification TXT record, DKIM record, and DMARC record. Brevo recommends automatic authentication when available, while manual DNS configuration is available when automatic setup cannot be used.
DNS changes can take time to propagate. Brevo notes that authentication can sometimes take up to 48 hours to appear as completed.
Step 3: Import and Segment Contacts
Import contacts using a supported method and ensure you have the appropriate permission to email them.
Then create meaningful segments such as:
- New subscribers
- Existing customers
- High-value customers
- Leads
- Inactive subscribers
Avoid purchasing email lists. Permission-based lists generally provide a stronger foundation for sustainable deliverability and engagement.
Step 4: Build, Test and Launch Your First Workflow
Start with one simple automation instead of building a complicated customer journey immediately.
A good first workflow might be:
Signup → Welcome email → Wait 2 days → Educational email → Wait 3 days → Relevant offer
Test every link, personalization field, unsubscribe mechanism, mobile layout, and trigger before activating the workflow.
Monitor delivery, opens, clicks, bounces, unsubscribes, and other available engagement indicators after launch.
Final Recommendation
Email marketing automation is best understood as a system for turning customer data and behavior into repeatable communication. The objective is not to send more emails; it is to send more relevant messages at more appropriate moments while reducing repetitive manual work.
Brevo is particularly interesting for businesses that want to combine email marketing, automation, CRM, transactional messaging, and multiple communication channels within one platform. Its pricing structure can also make sense for organizations with relatively large contact databases but moderate sending requirements.
It is not automatically the best choice for every company. Advanced ecommerce marketers may prefer a specialist platform such as Klaviyo, organizations requiring sophisticated CRM infrastructure may favor a dedicated CRM ecosystem, and advanced automation users may prefer a platform centered specifically on complex workflows.
For many small and midsize businesses, however, Brevo provides a broad feature set without requiring them to assemble multiple separate tools from day one.
Our overall view: Brevo is worth evaluating if your priority is a flexible, multi-channel marketing platform with automation and CRM capabilities, particularly when controlling software costs is important.
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Disclosure: LedgCraft may earn a commission when readers purchase or sign up through qualifying affiliate links. Affiliate relationships do not determine our editorial conclusions. We aim to evaluate software based on features, usability, pricing, limitations, and suitability for different business needs.