In this guide: A detailed roadmap for Klaviyo to Brevo ESP migration, packed with step-by-step to-dos and related resources.
Step 1: Account creation, domain authentication and senders set-up
You can register for Brevo by creating an account in a few clicks, using your work email address. Choose a plan, and you’re ready to go.
The next step is domain authentication, which is now mandatory for all email senders. This might sound a little complex, but thanks to our Entri integration, Brevo allows you to complete authentication automatically. Follow the steps in this guide to complete authentication either automatically, or manually.
Next, you need to set up senders or authorized addresses that distribute email messages on your Brevo account. To do this, tap your account dropdown, select Senders, Domains & Dedicated IPs > Senders, and add a sender. You can even add multiple senders or a whole pool of senders. Use this guide if you need more detailed instructions.
If you have a team of developers, they can create, delete, update, and get your senders through the endpoints in the API Reference > Senders.
Brevo also provides reference codes for setting up senders, that your developers can use in their preferred coding language. See the detailed developer guide (with screenshots) here.
Step 2: Move contacts
The next step is to export your contacts from Klaviyo. This bit is fairly easy with the Klaviyo integration, which is super-useful and completely free.
- Importing Active Contacts
Follow the steps in this detailed guide to export your contacts. You can only export one list at a time.
Once you’ve done this, use Brevo’s import tool to add contacts in two convenient ways:
- Upload a file, copy and paste, or
- Enter your data before manually mapping it to the correct attributes. Identify which lists you wish to import your contacts to, and update them with just a few clicks.
Here’s the kicker- many ESP migration guides suggest data deduplication as a critical pre-migration measure. However, with Brevo, you need not divert the team’s time and bandwidth on this task because Brevo eliminates duplicate contacts automatically. Even if you include the same contact in different lists, duplicates are dismissed before communication dissemination. Your contacts will never receive the same message twice, and you’ll also avoid wasting emails. You save on time and money! Use this guide for a detailed step-by-step on moving your contacts to Brevo without breaking a sweat.
- Importing Suppressed Contacts
In various other ESP, importing suppressed contacts can get a bit tricky. These include contacts who are blacklisted for various reasons like unsubscription, spam complaints, or incorrect email addresses? Should you import this list? And what happens if you do? Short answer: yes- it’s mandatory to do this. This resource can help you learn more about managing blacklisted contacts, and the reasons why Brevo might blacklist a contact.
With Brevo, you can import suppressed contacts without worrying about accidentally sending them emails despite their status, access their contact details, and communication history. Brevo will automatically eliminate these contacts if they are on any lists that you choose for an email campaign, and you can also blacklist contacts manually if the need arises. To learn how to import these suppressed contacts, use this resource.
You also need not worry about the number of contacts in your Brevo account — leave your contact volume worries behind when you migrate from Klaviyo to Brevo because the $20 per 500 contacts rule does not apply here. Instead, enjoy better value and only pay for emails sent. For just $9 per month, you get 5000 emails on Brevo, plus functionality like no daily sending limit, 24X7 email support, and even basic data analytics. Brevo’s cost-effectiveness only escalates as your email volume increases. For example, if you wanted to send one email per month to 250,000 contacts, you would spend only $239 on Brevo versus $2300 on Klaviyo.
Step 3: Recreate essential templates
Drag and drop. That’s all it takes to build new templates on the Brevo platform. Alternatively, you can choose the quick DIY method of exporting your HTML template from Klaviyo and importing it to Brevo using link replacement and dynamic placeholding in the rich text editor. This can help you preserve the layouts that you have created in the past.
Moreover, If you have a development team, you can use Brevo’s Template Language to dynamically personalize your email templates. You achieve this by simply dropping a contact attribute (like a name) placeholder into your email to import customized data. Brevo’s Template Language also supports conditions, loops, and filters to help you personalize to a more granular level.
You can choose from (or combine) three types of placeholders, namely:
- Contact attributes, such as customer name, email address, or any custom contact attribute you've stored in your contact list. Read this detailed guide (with screenshots) for step-by-step guidance.
- Predefined placeholders for things like your mirror link, unsubscribe link, and update profile form link. Follow our detailed guides for creating unsubscribe and mirror links and profile update forms if it helps.
- Transactional parameters such as products purchased, products prices, products left behind in a cart, etc — you can define these yourself, or you can opt for the parameters that come with the Brevo plug-in. Read a detailed guide on how to manage this here.
This step can sometimes leave you and your team worrying about how the message will finally display to your contacts (and whether you’ve set things up correctly). But worry not, because Brevo’s got your back here — if you’ve made a mistake in the syntax of your placeholders, an error message will alert you.
Another matter that might cross your mind when designing and personalizing templates is, “How will the email look on various email client applications like Gmail, Outlook, Apple Mail, and other popular options?” But that’s only because email client testing isn’t a feature on Klaviyo. However, Brevo lets you test the appearance of your email on various popular platforms.
Pro-tip: When you migrate from Klaviyo to Brevo, customization need not end with email customization. Brevo also features sent time optimization, which means that the same email would be delivered to each recipient at distinct timings — and this timing will be selected based on when the recipient is most likely to engage.
Step 4: Enable segmentation for personalized communications
Segments are tailor-made groups of contacts automatically generated by a set of conditions based on attributes and/or events that you feed into the system. “Made first purchase” is an example of an event. You can create your segments from scratch if you have the time and bandwidth, or, use Brevo’s predefined segments to get up and running instantly.
Here are some of the predefined segments available on Brevo that can serve as a starting point for you to create more granular segments in the future:
You can create segments from the contacts page or the segmentation page on the Brevo platform.
As your contacts' information changes, or you add more contacts that meet the conditions defined in your segment, your segments will automatically be updated to reflect these changes.
Step 5: Activate automation workflows
Every e-commerce marketer knows the value of automating critical workflows like welcome and onboarding emails, abandoned cart emails, and post-purchase emails. It's helpful that every account sign-up automatically triggers a warm, welcoming message to your customer, that customers are reminded of items they love but have forgotten in their cart, and that thank-you notes and feedback forms are triggered automatically after your customers make a purchase.
Importing existing workflows that send automatic emails to customers following specified actions is easy and can be completed in just a few clicks on Brevo.
To import a workflow, you simply send links to your Brevo account and open links from your Brevo dashboard. Then you select the option “Import a copy of this workflow”, and the workflow will appear at the top of your list of Automations.
If parts of the workflow still need to be populated, you’ll see a warning sign and warning icons indicating which portions need your attention. Like this:
You can also read detailed instructions (with screenshots) about sharing and importing workflows here.
Use these instructions to set up automatic workflows around welcome emails, post-purchase, abandoned carts, and any other events that should trigger email notifications. This can include win-back (for customers who’ve been MIA), restock reminders, wishlist reminders, back-in-stock alerts, holiday and sale alerts and so on.
If you haven’t already got workflows you want to import and need to start from scratch, you can do this in the Automations section.
But hold on a second! Before you begin creating a workflow, check Brevo’s list of helpful pre-built automation workflows. On Klaviyo, you may have used pre-built automated workflows for abandoned carts. With Brevo, you can also access additional pre-built automated workflows for events like customer welcomes, birthdays, and purchases.
If you do indeed need to create a workflow, go to Automations and click “Create a workflow” to get started. Then, add entry events, actions, and conditions you want your audience to experience as part of the workflow. You can add as many entry points, actions, and conditions as you want, as well as exit and re-entry conditions if needed. Check out a detailed guide (with screenshots) here.
Don’t forget to test your automation workflow to ensure it works as intended and that the chosen actions and communication get populated correctly with customer event data and contact details.
Step 6: Complete pro-deliverability actions
When migrating to Brevo, make sure to transfer all data related to permissions from Klaviyo and blocklist opt-outs (whom you should not be retaining data on in any case). Be mindful to avoid missing this step because all contacts imported to Brevo are automatically categorized as subscribed.
Note that the data you import should include details like subscription methods and timestamps for email and SMS opt-ins, and unsubscribe and bounce data. By importing this information into Brevo, you can prevent sending communications to contacts that could hinder your deliverability.
You’re all set to migrate!
Armed with this guide, you will be able to tackle your Klaviyo to Brevo migration with no gaps, stress, or confusion. Remember to plan your migration during a period when you can afford a momentary lull in communications, like a low season or the shoulder period that follows a peak in such communications.
And if you have any questions, our support team is just a call away.
