How to create an email campaign with SendinBlue - step-by-step-guide • Peas On Toast

Trying to find the best way to create your email campaign? Check out SendinBlue for quality features and great value

TIP: this tutorial relates to the post: Website Diary #9 – installing an author bio box and using SendinBlue.

If you’re looking for a great value email marketing service for your email campaign, then use SendinBlue.

SendinBlue’s packages provide great value whether you’ve got a small email list, or you’re a seasoned website owner with an email list of thousands.

Unlike its competitors, SendinBlue’s free package is very generous. It allows you to send up to 9,000 emails a month with an unlimited number of contacts and automated emails (aka autoresponders).

TIP: check out this comparison of SendinBlue against MailChimp and MailJet for more information.

On average, SendinBlue’s four times cheaper than MailChimp. It also offers more features than many other email marketing providers, including MailJet.

Visit SendinBlue’s Pricing page to see the benefits of using its free or paid packages.

In this tutorial, you’ll learn how to set up your SendinBlue account ready for validation, as well as how to import/add your contacts and create your first email using SendinBlue’s Responsive Design Building or HTML options

Ok, now that you’ve heard what SendinBlue offers, let’s start the tutorial.

How to set up an email campaign using SendinBlue

1. create your account with SendinBlue

on the Sign Up page, type in your name, email address and website url

TIP: once you’ve completed the three checklist tasks, an Account Manager validates your account to ensure it’s in line with current laws and best practice policies. Validation takes no more than 24 hours and is only carried out once when you first join SendinBlue. It ensures quality service and guarantees optimal security and deliverability for all SendinBlue users.

you’ll see a checklist of three tasks to be done first:
– create your contacts list
– complete your profile
– schedule your first email campaign.

If you’re in a hurry for your account to be validated by SendinBlue but you’re not yet ready to create a campaign, just create a draft email campaign and choose a random date in the future. You can edit the email and change the date after validation.

follow the steps below to create your contacts list and email campaign in readiness for validation

2. add or import your contacts

TIP: it’s very easy to export your SendinBlue contacts: select which contacts you’d like to export, click the “Export” button above the contact list and choose whether to export it once, or automatically on a daily basis.

Click “Campaigns” in the top menu bar, then click “Contacts” in the left menu bar.

Click the blue Add Contacts button dropdown in the top right of the screen [EDIT: SendinBlue has since changed the button, and it’s now coloured green] and select whether you’d like to import files, add a contact or copy/paste your contacts:

import files – your existing contacts file should be in .csv or .txt format with correctly labelled columns ready to be imported to SendinBlue
add a contact – if your current email marketing service doesn’t allow you to export your mailing list (or you couldn’t find a way to do so, as was the case when I moved from using Campayn to SendinBlue), then you can manually type in each contact’s details. Hopefully for these purposes, your list isn’t too long or it could take you quite a while!
copy/paste your contact list – if your contact list isn’t a .csv or .txt file, but is in an acceptable format, then you can copy/paste the entire list to your new SendinBlue account

3. edit the name of your contact list or make other changes

click “Campaigns” in the top menu bar, and then click “Lists” in the left menu bar

Edit or bin your email list name

either, click on your email list name, and choose whether to edit or bin the current list name by clicking on either the pen or bin icons next to it; or

Make a new list

you can select the blue button on the far right of the screen to “Add a new list” [EDIT: SendinBlue has since changed the button, and it’s now coloured green]; or

Make other changes to your email list

you can select the Actions dropdown next to your list for additional options such as replicating the list, importing/adding subscribers and renaming/editing the list name

4. check out the available email options

click “Campaigns” in the top menu bar, then “Campaigns” in the left menu bar
the Campaigns page shows you the different types of campaign:

– Email campaigns – these are one time emails, eg holiday specials or (in my case) monthly emails with differing content
– SMS campaigns – these have the same concept as email campaigns, but they’re sent via text message

You can also create SMTP templates and use trigger marketing which works with SendinBlue’s automation:

TIP: for more information about SMTP templates, see my tutorial “How to use SendinBlue email automation – step-by-step guide“.

– SMTP templates – these are emails sent out based on a request, eg password reset, confirmation email or (in my case) welcome email – they’re known as “transactional templates” in SendinBlue’s Resources tutorial page

– Trigger marketing – these are emails sent daily (or on a frequent basis) to a specific set of contacts, eg for Happy Birthday emails or discounts for purchases above a certain threshold

5. create your email campaign

TIP: at each stage, you’re given the option to save and quit (ie save as draft).
All draft and scheduled emails can be viewed/edited/deleted etc by clicking on Campaigns in the top menu bar

For account validation purposes, you’ll initially choose to create an Email Campaign (instead of the other email types):

select Campaign in the top menu bar. On the Email Campaigns page, click the blue Create a New Campaign button on the far right of the screen [EDIT: SendinBlue has since changed the button, and it’s now coloured green]

Step 1: Setup

complete the Setup fields for your website’s email

Step 2: Build

TIP: unless you’ve already got the HTML code for your email layout from your previous email marketing software, then it’s probably easier to use SendinBlue’s Responsive Design Builder which is a drag and drop format

the next stage is “Build”
– the Build New Template tab offers the Responsive Design Builder or the HTML/Simple Text Editor to create your email
– the Saved Templates tab shows your existing emails so that if you want to copy over the same design, you can do
- TIP: if you’re not sure how to create your own email template, click the green Templates button above the Design Builder to see ready-made, editable templates for your use
  
  if you choose the Responsive Design Builder, there’s a pre-set template into which you can drag or upload from the left hand side Elements section.
  When hovering over each element in the template, you’ll see an edit pop-up bar with formatting options on the right hand side of the screen.
- if you choose the HTML/Simple Editor tab, it’s just a case of copy/pasting your HTML code into the blank field so that your email is created as is
after creating your email, click Save

Testing the email

scroll down the screen and you’ll see an area to edit three tabs to test your email, start an inbox test and look at the browser preview.

SendinBlue recommends you test your email before sending your campaign, to check “that the subject, sender’s name, and spelling are correct, that links are working properly, and that your message is relevant”
click Next

Step 3: Recipients

choose the mailing list and decide whether you’d like to send to all your selected contacts or if you’d prefer to send it only to a segment (portion) of that list

Step 4: Confirm

this is the final stage of creating your email campaign
decide which email address you’ll use for the test email and schedule the email campaign – bear in mind that your first email is being validated, so don’t expect your email to be sent imminently. After it’s been validated, re-schedule your email campaign to be sent

What’s next?

Now that you’ve set up your contacts list, completed your profile and created an email campaign, you’re ready for SendinBlue to validate your account.

You could also use this time to check and edit the default unsubscribe email.

1. validate your account

TIP: I’ve used SendinBlue’s Support & Tickets facility several times and on each occasion I’ve found the customer service to be quick and helpful (although there doesn’t appear to be much helpdesk support at the weekends, but I know that LiveChat is in the pipeline of changes).
Regardless, there’s still help at hand as you can access Resources from the top menu bar for the Support Desk which has many in depth Tutorials and FAQs.

Once you’ve completed those three checklist tasks, SendinBlue will automatically start validating your account.

If needs be, you can check it’s being validated by emailing them via Support & Tickets (click Help in the top menu bar on SendinBlue’s main Welcome screen).

Within 24 hours you should have received email confirmation of your account validation.

2. check/edit the default unsubscibe email

While SendinBlue validates your account, you could check or edit the default unsubscribe email:

select “Campaign” in the top menu bar, and then “Settings” in the left menu bar, to open the Advanced Settings screen
select Unsubscribe Pages [EDIT: SendinBlue has since changed the Unsubscribe Pages icon to a red colour] and click “Personalize”
select the edit icon to view/edit the default template, or choose to create a new unsubscribe page
amend the wording or change the background, fonts and colours using the dropdown options in the top menu of the unsubscribe template
click Save

Now that your account’s been validated, you’re ready to send your first email campaign. Go back and finish editing the draft email campaign you created before validation, and schedule it ready to be sent.

Don’t forget to read the tutorial about creating subscription forms for your pop-ups, landing page and social media with SendinBlue, so that you attract more subscribers to your website.

Note: this blog post is intended to be a general resource only.

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I'm a full-time working wife and mum who loves searching for innovative products and learning how to run a successful website. I started PeasOnToast.co.uk to help people like you:
- reviews to save you time looking for good value, quality household/fintech products
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How to create an email campaign with SendinBlue – step-by-step-guide

Trying to find the best way to create your email campaign? Check out SendinBlue for quality features and great value