Automation & marketing
Brevo
The email and SMS platform we use for campaigns, flows and transactional mail.
Brevo (formerly Sendinblue) is an email and SMS marketing platform that handles campaigns, automated flows, contact management and transactional email in one place. HDC uses Brevo to keep a client's leads and customers warm, newsletters, follow-up sequences, booking confirmations and reminders, without the per-contact pricing that makes other tools expensive as a list grows.
Where it shines
- Email and SMS marketing plus automated flows in a single platform
- Handles transactional email (receipts, confirmations) as well as campaigns
- Pricing is based on emails sent, not contacts stored, friendly as a list grows
- Visual automation builder for welcome, nurture and re-engagement sequences
- Built-in contact management with segmentation and list hygiene tools
- Generous free tier to start, with reliable deliverability infrastructure
Trade-offs to weigh
- Smaller template and integration ecosystem than Mailchimp
- Advanced automation and reporting sit behind higher-tier plans
- Interface is broad, more setup than a single-purpose newsletter tool
What Brevo is
Brevo, formerly known as Sendinblue, is an all-in-one email and SMS marketing platform. It brings together the things a growing business needs to stay in touch with its audience: sending newsletters and one-off campaigns, building automated email sequences, managing and segmenting a contact list, and sending transactional messages, the automatic emails tied to an action, like a booking confirmation or a receipt.
Its standout difference is pricing. Most email tools charge by the number of contacts you store, which gets expensive as a database grows. Brevo charges mainly by the number of emails you actually send. For a trades or local business that builds up a big list of past customers but only mails them occasionally, that model keeps the cost low while the list keeps its value.
How HDC uses Brevo
We use Brevo as the engine for a client’s ongoing email and SMS marketing. In practice that means:
- Automated follow-up flows, when a lead comes in through the website, Brevo sends a same-day acknowledgement and a short nurture sequence, so no enquiry goes cold while the team is on a job.
- Newsletters and campaigns, seasonal offers, service reminders, reviews and news, sent to the right segment of the list rather than everyone at once.
- Transactional email, booking confirmations, appointment reminders and quote follow-ups that fire automatically from the website or booking system.
- List management, keeping contacts clean, tagged and segmented so messages stay relevant and deliverability stays healthy.
We design the templates, build the flows, and connect them to the site’s lead capture so the whole thing runs without manual effort.
Why we apply it
Most enquiries don’t book on the first contact, and most past customers will buy again if you stay on their radar. Email is the cheapest, most reliable way to do both, and the data backs it up: email marketing consistently delivers one of the strongest returns of any channel. Brevo lets a small team run that channel properly without a marketing department, turning a one-off enquiry into a follow-up, a booking, and eventually repeat work.
It also protects the investment in lead generation. Paying for ads to win a click, then letting the lead go cold, wastes the spend. Brevo catches and warms those leads automatically.
How Brevo fits our stack
Brevo is one of the two email platforms we work with, alongside Mailchimp, and we choose between them based on a client’s list size, sending volume and existing tools. In a typical setup, contacts flow into Brevo straight from the website’s forms, built on Astro, often routed through Make or Zapier so the right tags and segments are applied automatically. From there, Brevo handles the sending while Google Analytics measures the traffic and conversions those emails drive back to the site. It’s the layer that keeps a client’s audience engaged between visits.
When Brevo isn’t the right tool
We pick the platform to fit the client, not the other way around. If a business already runs Mailchimp happily and leans on its template library or integrations, there’s rarely a reason to move. If the need is a large, complex marketing operation with advanced segmentation and a dedicated team, a heavier enterprise platform may be a better fit. And for purely transactional sending at high volume, a developer-focused email API can be more economical. Brevo is the right call when a small team needs capable, affordable email and SMS marketing in one place.
Worked example
Turning one enquiry into repeat work
Picture a heating engineer who quotes plenty of jobs but loses track of the ones that don't book straight away. With Brevo, every enquiry from the website is added to a list and dropped into an automated flow: a same-day thank-you, a follow-up a few days later with reviews and reassurance, and a gentle nudge a week on. Booked customers move to a different track, a confirmation, a reminder before the visit, and a seasonal check-up prompt months later. The engineer keeps doing the work; Brevo keeps the relationship warm and the diary full. (Illustrative, every build is scoped to your goals.)
Better together
How Brevo fits with the rest of our stack
Mailchimp
The better-known alternative we also work with
Learn moreMake
Pushes leads into Brevo and triggers its flows
Learn moreZapier
Simple automations that add or tag Brevo contacts
Learn moreAstro
The site whose forms feed contacts into Brevo
Learn moreGoogle Analytics
Measures the traffic and conversions email drives
Learn moreBrevo: your questions answered
What is Brevo used for?
Brevo is an all-in-one platform for email and SMS marketing. Businesses use it to send newsletters and campaigns, run automated email sequences (welcome, follow-up, re-engagement), manage and segment contacts, and send transactional messages like booking confirmations and receipts, all from one account.
Why does HDC use Brevo?
Because it covers campaigns, automated flows and transactional email in one place, and its pricing is based on emails sent rather than contacts stored, so it stays affordable as a client's list grows. For a trades or local business building a database of past customers, that combination keeps ongoing marketing cheap and simple.
Is Brevo the same as Sendinblue?
Yes, Brevo is the rebranded name for Sendinblue, which changed its name in 2023. It's the same platform with the same core features, just under a new brand. You may still see the old name in older guides and articles.
How is Brevo different from Mailchimp?
Both send campaigns and run automations. Brevo includes SMS and transactional email and charges by emails sent, which suits businesses with a large but lightly-mailed contact list. Mailchimp has a bigger template and integration ecosystem and charges by contact count. We choose between them based on a client's list size, sending volume and existing tools.
Can Brevo handle my booking confirmations and reminders?
Yes. Alongside marketing campaigns, Brevo sends transactional email, the automatic messages tied to an action, like a confirmation when someone books or a reminder before a visit. We can wire these to fire from your website or booking system so customers always get a prompt, professional response.
Will you set Brevo up for me?
Yes. We design the lists, segments, templates and automated flows, connect them to your website forms, and make sure deliverability is set up correctly so your emails reach the inbox. You can manage day-to-day sending yourself, or we can run it as part of an ongoing arrangement.
Want Brevo working for your business?
Tell us what you're trying to achieve, we'll show you, honestly, whether it's the right tool and how we'd apply it.
Enquire now