01 | Prepare contacts: consent comes before CSV
Begin with 50–200 real contacts and record consent source, consent date, expected message type, and owner. The import needs at least one accepted identifier; new contacts should not carry CONTACT_ID values generated elsewhere. Clean email, phone, country code, language, and subscription state first.
Create a field dictionary documenting source, format, required status, overwrite behavior, and null handling. Do not invent field meaning during import. Exclude historical contacts whose marketing consent cannot be demonstrated instead of hiding the gap inside a bulk import.
- Why may each contact receive this message type?
- Which fields may overwrite existing values?
- Who owns rejected rows and when are they retried?
02 | Import contacts: reconcile before scaling
Use CRM > Contacts > Import contacts, place pilot records in a dedicated list, and complete attribute mapping. Preserve accepted, updated, and rejected counts plus the error report, then sample at least five records for identifiers, subscription state, language, and critical custom fields.
Do not send when counts fail to reconcile. Determine whether the system created, updated, skipped, or merged each record and document the behavior. Scale only when the team can explain the rule.
03 | First send: verify domain, unsubscribe, and delivery operations
Authenticate the sending domain, configure a recognizable sender, and test preview, mobile rendering, links, unsubscribe, and destinations before creating the campaign. Use representative recurring content rather than a demo designed to produce attractive metrics.
Record delivered, soft bounce, hard bounce, unsubscribe, complaint, and link-click outcomes. Privacy mechanisms can distort opens, so open rate is not a sufficient success metric. Pause scaling when unknown-address failures cluster, unsubscribe fails, or compliance ownership is unclear.
Free limits rechecked on October 25, 2026: 300 sends per day with no rollover. Campaigns exceeding the daily allowance require manual Requeue on later days; this is not a monthly pool that automatically completes the campaign. Transactional retries use a separate mechanism. Check audience and deadline with the planner before batching or comparing paid capacity.
04 | Automation: prove trigger, exit, and human handoff
Do not make complex automation the first task. Choose one observable event such as form submission, list entry, or purchase, then document entry, delays, branches, frequency cap, exit, and human handoff. Run test contacts through every path.
Mark any automation-contact, send-volume, seat, or add-on threshold that would trigger an upgrade at real scale. Automation creates value only when it removes manual work without creating unexplained messages.
The current help page limits Free and Starter to 2,000 unique contacts entering active automations; a contact in several workflows counts once. This differs from contact storage and daily sends. Check existing automation usage and upgrade conditions; previously blocked contacts with a list-entry trigger may not enter automatically after upgrading.
05 | Cost and fit: decide whether to upgrade
Enter monthly sends, stored contacts, automation contacts, marketing seats, logo removal, Sales Essentials, SMS or WhatsApp, dedicated IP, and implementation time separately. Choosing Free, Starter, or Standard requires the limits triggered by the real workflow—not the headline entry price.
The fit is strongest when multichannel marketing and lightweight CRM need shared contact data. It weakens for newsletter-native publishing, complex sales-object governance, or complete export of deal notes, files, and email activity. Compare Brevo and alternatives with the same job and scorecard, keeping ‘do not buy’ available.