Brevo

Brevo

Brevo is an all-in-one marketing platform: transactional email, contact management, CRM (deals, tasks, notes), and campaigns.

Data Model

• Account: Plan info, credits, SMTP relay settings, timezone.
• Contacts: Core entity. Identified by email, ID, SMS, or ext_id. UPPERCASE attributes (FIRSTNAME, LASTNAME, etc.). Searchable by attribute filter.
• Contact Lists: Static groups of contacts. Organized into folders. Contacts can belong to multiple lists.
• Segments: Dynamic groups based on conditions (auto-updating).
• Companies: CRM companies with attributes (domain, industry, revenue). Link to contacts and deals. Searchable by attribute.
• Deals: CRM deals with pipeline stages, amount, owner. Link to contacts and companies. Searchable by name, stage, owner, pipeline, linked entity.
• Pipelines: Define deal flow stages (e.g. New → Qualified → Won/Lost). Pipeline view gives board-style overview.
• Tasks: CRM tasks (Call, Email, Meeting, Todo) with due dates. Filterable by type, status, assignee, linked entity, date range.
• Notes: Free-text notes linked to contacts/deals/companies. Must link to at least one entity.
• Email Campaigns: Bulk marketing emails to lists/segments. Usually created as drafts, then sent in a separate step.
• Email Templates: Reusable transactional templates with {{params.VAR}} substitution.
• Senders: Verified email addresses authorized to send from your account.
• Blocked Contacts: Transactional contacts blocked due to bounces, spam reports, or admin action.

Key Relationships & Linking

• Contact → Lists (many-to-many via list membership)
• Contact → Companies (linked via IDs)
• Deal → Pipeline Stage (belongs to one pipeline)
• Deal ↔ Contacts, Companies (linked via IDs)
• Task → Contacts, Deals, Companies (linked via IDs)
• Note → Contacts, Deals, Companies (must link to at least one)

IMPORTANT — full update vs incremental links: When you update a deal or company with a payload that includes linked entities, the vendor often replaces the entire linked-entity set. To add or remove individual links without wiping unrelated associations, use the dedicated link/unlink operations in the tool list for deals and companies.

Search & Filtering

• Contacts: filter=equals(FIRSTNAME,"Jane") — search by any UPPERCASE attribute. Also filter by list_ids or segment_id.
• Companies: filters={"attributes.name":"Acme"} or filters={"attributes.domain":"acme.com"}. Also filter by linked_contacts_ids or linked_deals_ids.
• Deals: Filter by deal name, stage, owner, pipeline, or linked contact/company identifiers (see tool parameters).
• Tasks: Filter by type, status (done/undone), date bucket (overdue/today/week/range), assignee, and linked contact/deal/company. Date range via date_from/date_to (ms timestamps).
• Notes: Filter by entity type (contacts/deals/companies) and entity id.

Common Workflows

1. Find a contact: Search by attribute filter (UPPERCASE keys) or by stable identifier such as email.
2. Add contact and send welcome email: Create or update the contact, then send transactional mail.
3. Bulk contact operations: Imports must target a list (existing or new); then manage list membership as needed.
4. Email campaign flow: Create or update a draft campaign, then trigger send as its own step.
5. Template-based emails: Create or select a template, then send with template parameters.
6. Sales pipeline board: Use the pipeline/board-style view to see deals grouped by stage with counts and totals.
7. Find deals for a contact: Filter deals by the linked contact.
8. Find tasks for a deal: Filter CRM tasks by the linked deal.
9. Link entities safely: Prefer incremental link/unlink when you must not disturb existing associations.
10. Email debugging: Inspect email events, transactional send history, and aggregate stats.
11. Deliverability: Review blocked contacts; remove blocks when appropriate.
12. Scheduled email management: List scheduled sends and cancel if needed.
13. Account audit: Review account settings, verified senders, and sending domains.

Vendor quirks

• Contact attributes must use UPPERCASE keys (FIRSTNAME, not firstname). Resolve valid attribute names from metadata tools before writing filters.
• Imports require either list_ids or new_list — imports without a target list fail validation.
• Deleting a template auto-deactivates it first (Brevo only allows deleting inactive templates).
• CRM notes require at least one linked entity (contact, deal, or company).
• CRM tasks need a task type on creation — list task types first.
• Some updates return minimal bodies (success with little or no JSON) even when the change applied.
• Webhook listing may surface as “not found” on accounts with no webhooks; treat as an empty configuration.