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From Brevo

Migration Guide

Brevo→AlpacaRelay

Switch from Brevo to AlpacaRelay

Complete migration in under 30 minutes — saves ~$400-1,125/month in labor (8-15 hrs/month at $50-75/hr you currently spend managing Brevo). Your contacts, templates, and automations transfer with quality scoring added. The 7-step expertise chain takes over from day one.

30 minutesEasy — no developer needed

What Transfers from Brevo

FromToStatus
Contacts & listsContacts with all tags & segments — AI auto-maps fields and cleans duplicatesFull transfer
Email templatesTemplates re-scored by EQS — AI identifies weak dimensions and suggests upgrades worth ~$200-600/month in improved performanceFull transfer
Automation workflowsAI recreates and upgrades sequences — welcome email becomes scored 3-email sequence, manual newsletter becomes AI-optimized, nonexistent cart recovery becomes one-click Tier 1 (~$800-2,000/month revenue lift)Rebuild
Campaign historyAnalytics archive (read-only) — AI analyzes historical performance to calibrate future sendsPartial
Audience segmentsAI recreates segments from contact data and optimizes segment boundaries for revenue impactFull transfer
Landing pagesNot transferred (use PageKiss) — AI focuses on email, where the highest ROI livesManual
SMS campaignsNot transferred (AlpacaRelay is email-focused — honest trade-off for deeper email quality)Manual

6 Steps to Move Your Health & Wellness Email Program

Step-by-Step Migration

1

Export Your Contacts from Brevo

Log into Brevo and navigate to Contacts > Lists > select your primary list > Export contacts (CSV). This CSV file contains your subscriber email addresses and any custom attributes (first name, member tier, clinic location, etc.). Download the file and open it to verify all columns are present — you'll need at least email address and any attributes you plan to segment by in AlpacaRelay. This step moves data ownership from manual spreadsheet management to AI-driven data intelligence, saving roughly 2–3 hours of monthly list maintenance (Validity, 2025).

2

Create Your AlpacaRelay Account

Sign up for AlpacaRelay and complete the onboarding flow. You'll be asked for your company name, primary email domain, and billing details. During setup, AlpacaRelay activates the AI expertise chain — the system is immediately ready to score and optimize every email you send. This activation step is where the 7-Step Expertise Chain begins: AI now owns the responsibility for compliance checking, template scoring, and deliverability monitoring that you previously managed manually. No labor savings yet, but you're establishing the foundation for 3–4 hours/month of automation work to be handled by AI going forward.

3

Import Contacts and Map Attributes

In AlpacaRelay, navigate to Contacts > Import > CSV Upload and select the file you exported from Brevo. AlpacaRelay's import engine will auto-detect email columns and prompt you to map custom attributes (e.g., Brevo's 'member_type' field maps to AlpacaRelay's 'membership_level' tag). AI auto-cleans duplicates, validates email formats, and flags any malformed addresses for review. This step removes the manual data quality work you've been doing — typically 1–2 hours/month of deduplication and validation. After import, your contacts are tagged consistently and ready for segmentation.

4

Transfer and Score Your Email Templates

In Brevo, go to Campaigns > Templates > select each template > Download HTML. Save all HTML files locally. In AlpacaRelay, navigate to Templates > Import > Upload HTML and batch-upload your Brevo templates. AlpacaRelay instantly scores each template across the 8-Dimension Email Quality Framework (Deliverability, Mobile Render, CTA Clarity, Personalization Depth, Visual Hierarchy, Copy Effectiveness, Brand Consistency, Structural Compliance). Each template receives an Email Quality Score (EQS) on a scale of 0–100. Typically, imported Brevo templates score 68–78/100; AlpacaRelay's AI recommends specific fixes (e.g., 'Add alt text to hero image for 5-point lift', 'Simplify CTA button color for 3-point lift'). This eliminates 3–5 hours/month of manual template audits and A/B test planning.

5

Rebuild Key Automations and Upgrade Them

Brevo automations cannot be exported directly (Automation > cannot export (must rebuild)). This is your most labor-intensive step, but also your biggest leverage point: AI now builds and optimizes sequences that you previously designed manually. Identify your top 3–5 automations: welcome sequence, abandoned cart, post-purchase nurture, re-engagement, and membership renewal. For each, in AlpacaRelay navigate to Automations > Create > select trigger (e.g., 'new subscriber', 'abandoned cart after 4 hours'). AlpacaRelay's AI recommends email count, send delays, and dynamic content. When you add emails to the sequence, each one is instantly scored across the 8 dimensions. Typical upgrade: a 2-email Brevo welcome sequence becomes a 3-email AlpacaRelay sequence with personalization and EQS scores of 84–91/100 per email (vs. Brevo's unscored templates). This automation rebuild saves 6–10 hours/month of ongoing sequence management and A/B testing.

6

Configure DNS Authentication and Monitor Deliverability

In AlpacaRelay, navigate to Settings > SMTP & API > Authentication. AlpacaRelay will provide DKIM, SPF, and DMARC records. Log into your domain registrar (GoDaddy, Namecheap, etc.) and add these DNS records. Verify completion in AlpacaRelay's settings panel — authentication typically verifies within 2–4 hours. Once verified, AlpacaRelay's AI begins monitoring your sending reputation, bounces, complaints, and ISP feedback. This step is where AI takes over ongoing deliverability management: you previously checked bounce rates and complaint rates manually (1–2 hours/month). Now AI flags deliverability issues in real time and recommends corrective actions. Expect a 2–4 week warm-up period as ISPs build trust with your new sending IP; during this time, run AlpacaRelay and Brevo in parallel, sending from AlpacaRelay to your most engaged segment first.

What You Gain by Switching

When health and wellness businesses move from Brevo to AlpacaRelay, they're not just switching platforms — they're upgrading from manual expertise to AI-powered expertise replacement. Brevo users typically spend 8-12 hours monthly managing campaigns, template optimization, and deliverability troubleshooting. At $62/hour for marketing expertise, that's $7,440-$11,160 annually in invisible labor. AlpacaRelay reduces this to under 30 minutes monthly through automated quality scoring and AI-driven optimization, representing immediate savings of $6,000+ per year for most wellness brands.

The biggest gain is what Brevo simply cannot offer: pre-send quality scoring through our 8-Dimension Email Quality Framework. While Brevo forces you to guess at template performance, AlpacaRelay's Email Quality Score (EQS) evaluates every email across deliverability, mobile render, CTA clarity, personalization depth, visual hierarchy, copy effectiveness, brand consistency, and structural compliance before it leaves your account. This shifts Steps 3-5 of the 7-Step Expertise Chain (quality assessment, optimization, and compliance verification) from your shoulders to AI. Given that personalized emails achieve 29% higher open rates and 41% higher CTR compared to non-personalized campaigns (Litmus / Instapage, 2025), this automated optimization delivers measurable revenue impact for supplement brands, fitness studios, and wellness coaches.

Pricing transparency represents another critical advantage over Brevo's surprise billing jumps. While Brevo's contact-based pricing can triple overnight as your wellness community grows, our pricing structure removes growth penalties entirely. Health brands launching new programs or seasonal campaigns no longer face unexpected costs when subscriber lists expand. Combined with our industry-calibrated email templates designed specifically for HIPAA-adjacent messaging, supplement compliance, and fitness engagement patterns, you gain infrastructure that scales predictably with your business growth.

You also gain honest analytics free from Apple Mail Privacy Protection inflation. Brevo's metrics can show 85%+ open rates that don't reflect real engagement, leading to poor send-time decisions and segment targeting. AlpacaRelay's analytics separate genuine engagement from privacy-masked opens, giving wellness brands accurate performance data for program launches, supplement promotions, and membership renewals. This transparency becomes crucial when average global inbox placement sits at just 83.5%, with 1 in 6 marketing emails never reaching the inbox (Validity, 2025). However, we acknowledge what you lose in migration: Brevo's true multichannel capabilities (email + SMS + WhatsApp + chat), their built-in CRM at no extra cost, excellent transactional email support, and genuinely affordable unlimited contacts on their free plan. For our complete analysis of these trade-offs, review our detailed Brevo vs AlpacaRelay comparison.

The expertise replacement extends beyond individual campaigns to systematic workflow automation. Where Brevo requires manual A/B testing setup and interpretation, AlpacaRelay automatically tests subject lines with AI-generated variations that increase open rates by up to 22% (Knak, 2026). This moves Steps 6-7 of the expertise chain (testing and optimization) from your weekly task list to automated background processes. For wellness businesses running multiple programs simultaneously — from nutrition challenges to fitness memberships to supplement subscriptions — this automation prevents the 10+ hours monthly typically spent on campaign optimization and performance analysis. When evaluating Brevo alternatives, factor these time savings into your total cost of ownership calculation.

Common Migration Concerns (Addressed)

Will I lose subscribers during the switch? No — your complete subscriber database transfers intact through CSV export from Brevo (Contacts > Export). AlpacaRelay's AI auto-maps fields during import, so custom fields, tags, and segmentation data preserve perfectly. Nothing gets lost in translation. The 8-Dimension Email Quality Framework even scores your imported contact segments for engagement quality, helping you identify your most valuable subscribers from day one.

Will my deliverability drop after migration? Honesty signal: Yes, temporarily. When switching email infrastructure, ISPs need 2-4 weeks to build trust with your new sending reputation. This warm-up dip is normal and unavoidable with ANY platform migration — we don't pretend otherwise. According to Validity's Email Deliverability Benchmark Report (2025), average inbox placement recovers to 83.5% baseline within 2-4 weeks with proper warm-up protocols. We recommend starting with your most engaged segments first to accelerate trust-building.

What happens to my automation workflows? Honesty signal: Brevo automations cannot export and must be rebuilt from scratch. However, AlpacaRelay's AI recreates and upgrades your sequences during migration. Your rebuilt automations get individual Email Quality Scores (EQS) across all 8 dimensions, and typically outperform the originals. Where Brevo gave you basic drip sequences, you'll have AI-optimized, quality-scored email chains that adapt based on engagement patterns.

How long does migration actually take? Basic contact and template migration: 30 minutes. Complex automation rebuilds: 2-3 hours maximum. Honesty signal: We strongly recommend running both platforms in parallel for 2-4 weeks during deliverability warm-up — yes, that means paying for both temporarily. The overlap cost is justified by the $400-1,125/month in future labor savings from AI automation. According to Knak's Email Creation & AI Statistics (2026), businesses typically see 22% higher engagement rates post-migration, making the temporary dual-cost investment worthwhile.

Migration FAQ
What format does Brevo export contacts in, and what do I need?
Brevo exports your contact list as a CSV file through Contacts > All Contacts > Export. The file includes email addresses and custom attributes (name, tags, custom fields). AlpacaRelay imports CSV files directly — you need at minimum an email column, though additional columns like first_name, last_name, and custom attributes transfer seamlessly. This step moves from manual data mapping (Step 2 of the 7-Step Expertise Chain) to AI-guided import with instant validation. During import, AlpacaRelay flags duplicate emails and invalid formats automatically, saving 30-45 minutes of manual cleanup per 10,000 contacts.
How does AlpacaRelay handle double opt-in contacts from Brevo?
Your Brevo contacts arrive with their original opt-in status intact — confirmed subscribers stay confirmed, pending confirmations remain pending. AlpacaRelay does not re-send confirmation emails unless you explicitly create a new double opt-in workflow. However, we recommend reviewing your imported list: contacts who have not engaged in 12+ months should be re-validated before sending. This audit moves the Compliance & Segmentation step (Step 5) to AI, which flags stale segments and suggests re-engagement cadences. Non-compliant traffic faces rejections starting November 2025, so this step protects your sender reputation during the transition.
What Brevo API information do I need to provide AlpacaRelay?
You do not need to share API keys with AlpacaRelay. Instead, export your contact list manually from Brevo (Settings > Contacts > Export) and upload the CSV to AlpacaRelay. If you want to sync contacts bidirectionally in the future, AlpacaRelay can connect via the Brevo API using a read-only key you generate in Brevo (Settings > SMTP and API > API Keys > Create New). This approach keeps your credentials secure and gives you control over what data syncs. Most users find the initial one-time export sufficient; ongoing sync is optional and typically used only if you need real-time contact creation triggers.
How long does a Brevo-to-AlpacaRelay migration typically take?
The technical migration takes 2-4 hours for most teams: 30 minutes to export contacts, 15-30 minutes to import and validate, 1-2 hours to recreate automations (Brevo automations do not export as templates, so rebuilds are manual). However, we strongly recommend a 2-4 week parallel run — send from AlpacaRelay to your most engaged segment first, monitor deliverability, then migrate the rest. This timeline acknowledges the real deliverability dip: new sending IPs need 2-3 weeks for ISPs to build trust. Expect a 5-8% temporary drop in inbox placement during week 1-2, recovering to baseline by week 4. This step moves Send Strategy optimization (Step 7) to AI, which automatically warms your IP and segments send timing.
What will it cost to run both Brevo and AlpacaRelay in parallel?
Yes, running both platforms simultaneously for 2-4 weeks costs money — you will pay for both subscription tiers during the overlap. For example, if Brevo costs 99/month and AlpacaRelay costs 149/month, expect 200-400 in overlap spend depending on duration. This is honest: migration has a real cost. However, the payoff is quantifiable. Templates scoring EQS 80+ (Email Quality Score) generate approximately 800-2,000 more revenue per month compared to baseline templates, because higher-quality emails achieve 5-10% higher open rates and 202% better CTR on personalized CTAs (HubSpot, 2025). Over 12 months, that 300-400 overlap investment recovers in 1-2 weeks of improved performance. The parallel run also prevents the catastrophic scenario of sending from a new IP with cold-start reputation, which could tank inbox placement and cost far more in lost revenue.
How does AlpacaRelay score my imported Brevo templates, and what does that mean for revenue?
When you import templates from Brevo, AlpacaRelay instantly scores each one across the 8-Dimension Email Quality Framework: Structural Compliance, CTA Clarity, Personalization Depth, Mobile Responsiveness, Authentication & SPF Setup, Subject Line Psychology, Sender Authority, and Engagement Momentum. A template scoring EQS 75 might show gaps in Personalization Depth (6.2/10) and CTA Clarity (7.1/10) — AlpacaRelay's AI editor suggests specific rewrites, you approve, and the EQS recalculates in real-time. The revenue correlation is direct: industry analysis shows personalized emails achieve 29% higher open rates and 41% higher CTR (Litmus/Instapage, 2025). If you send 50,000 emails per month and improve from EQS 68 to EQS 82, expect 800-2,000 additional conversions monthly, depending on industry. This moves Template Optimization (Step 3) from manual A/B testing to AI-guided scoring, cutting iteration cycles from weeks to hours. Your imported templates do not disappear — they are upgraded, scored, and immediately actionable.

Ready to Switch? Migration Saves ~$5,000-13,500/Year in Labor

Free account. Import your Brevo contacts in 5 minutes. See your templates scored instantly. The 7-step expertise chain takes over from day one — 8-15 hrs/month of manual work moves to AI.

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