Brevo Visual Automation Builder: A Complete Walkthrough

Brevo's visual automation builder is one of its most powerful features. Unlike text-based autoresponders, the visual canvas lets you see your entire workflow at once — every branch, delay, condition, and action laid out as a clear diagram.

This guide is a hands-on walkthrough of every component in the builder.

Accessing the Automation Builder

Go to Automation in the left sidebar and click Create a Workflow. If you choose to start from scratch, you'll land on a blank canvas with an Entry Point block already placed.

The canvas is infinite — you can scroll, zoom, and pan to accommodate complex workflows. Blocks snap to a grid, keeping your workflow organised.

Triggers (Entry Points)

Every workflow starts with a trigger that determines which contacts enter it and when.

Available Triggers

List triggers

• Contact is added to a list
• Contact is removed from a list

Form triggers

• Contact submits a specific form

Email engagement triggers

• Contact opens a specific email campaign
• Contact clicks a link in a specific campaign

Website behaviour triggers (requires Brevo tracking script)

• Contact visits a specific page
• Contact visits any page

Contact attribute triggers

• Specific contact attribute value changes
• Contact attribute reaches a specific value on a specific date (useful for birthdays or anniversaries)

E-commerce triggers (requires integration)

• Contact places an order
• Contact abandons a shopping cart

Entry Frequency

For each trigger, you can set how often a contact can re-enter the workflow:

• Once — a contact only enters once regardless of how many times the trigger fires
• Multiple times — a contact can re-enter each time the trigger fires
• Multiple times with a minimum delay — re-entry allowed, but not more than once every X days

For welcome sequences, use Once. For behavioural triggers like page visits, Multiple times may be appropriate.

Delays

Delays pause the workflow before executing the next step. They're essential for spacing your emails naturally.

Delay Options

• Fixed delay — wait X minutes, hours, or days
• Wait until a specific time — hold the contact until a specific day of the week or time of day before proceeding (useful for ensuring emails arrive during business hours)

For example: set a 2-day delay, then "wait until 10am on a weekday" — this ensures your follow-up email arrives on a Tuesday, Wednesday, or Thursday morning rather than a Saturday at 3am.

Actions

Actions are the things your workflow does to a contact when they reach that step.

Email Actions

• Send an email — the most common action. Creates or assigns an email to send
• Send an SMS — for workflows that include SMS steps

Contact Actions

• Add contact to a list — useful for moving contacts between lifecycle stages
• Remove contact from a list
• Update a contact attribute — e.g., set "onboarding_complete" to "true"
• Add contact to another workflow — chain workflows together
• Unsubscribe contact from a list

Notification Actions

• Send a notification email to your team — useful for sales workflows where a rep should be alerted when a lead takes a key action

Conditions

Conditions split your workflow into branches based on whether a contact meets a specific criterion.

Condition Types

Email engagement conditions

• Has/has not opened a specific email
• Has/has not clicked a link in a specific email

Contact attribute conditions

• Contact attribute equals/does not equal a value
• Contact attribute is greater/less than a value

List membership conditions

• Contact is/is not a member of a specific list

Website behaviour conditions (with tracking script)

• Contact has/has not visited a specific page

When a condition is added to the canvas, it creates two branches: Yes and No. You build different paths down each branch.

A/B Split Testing in Workflows

Available on Business and Enterprise plans, A/B splits let you test different email versions within an automation.

Add an A/B Split block and configure the percentage split (e.g., 50/50 or 70/30). Each branch can contain a different email, a different delay, or even different subsequent steps. After sufficient data is collected, Brevo shows you which branch performed better.

Reading Workflow Analytics

Once your workflow is active, click its name in the Automation list and go to the Statistics tab.

You'll see:

• Total contacts entered — everyone who has triggered entry since activation
• Currently in progress — contacts actively moving through the workflow
• Completed — contacts who have finished all steps
• Exited — contacts who left due to unsubscribing or being removed from a list

For each email step, you'll see individual open rates, click rates, and unsubscribe rates. This lets you identify exactly which step in a multi-email sequence is underperforming.

Common Workflow Mistakes to Avoid

No delay before the first email. Even a 1-minute delay improves deliverability and allows double opt-in confirmations to process.

Too many emails too fast. Sending 5 emails in 3 days is aggressive. Give new subscribers breathing room.

No exit condition. Always consider: what should happen if a contact unsubscribes mid-workflow? Brevo handles this automatically — unsubscribed contacts are removed from active workflows.

Forgetting to test. Use the Test Workflow button before going live. Send test emails to yourself for each step and verify that all content and links are correct.

Brevo Pricing at a Glance

All plans include unlimited contact storage. See full pricing on Brevo →