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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

From Brevo to AlpacaRelay

Step-by-Step Migration

1

Export Your Contacts from Brevo

Log into Brevo and navigate to Contacts > Lists. Select the list(s) you want to migrate, then click Export contacts (CSV). This exports your subscriber data with all attributes (name, email, custom fields). Save the CSV file to your computer — you'll upload it to AlpacaRelay in Step 3. This step shifts data custodianship from Brevo's servers to your own hands, preparing it for AI-driven enrichment and management. Time investment: 10–15 minutes. Labor value: 10–15 min × $62.50/hr (midpoint) = ~$10.42 saved.

2

Create Your AlpacaRelay Account & Verify Domain

Sign up at AlpacaRelay with your email and travel business domain (e.g., travelagency.com). Verify your domain by adding DNS records — AlpacaRelay will provide the exact CNAME, SPF, and DKIM records you need. This step activates the AI expertise chain: AlpacaRelay begins monitoring your sending infrastructure and will auto-detect compliance issues. Domain verification typically takes 15–30 minutes and is non-negotiable for authentication; without it, your emails risk spam filtering. Time investment: 20–30 minutes. Labor value: 25 min × $62.50/hr = ~$26.04 saved (this would normally require IT involvement).

3

Import Contacts & Auto-Map Attributes

In AlpacaRelay, go to Contacts > Import CSV and upload the file you exported from Brevo. AlpacaRelay's AI auto-maps your columns (email, first name, last name, custom fields like 'destination_preference' or 'booking_status') and detects duplicates across your existing list. This is where AI takes over data hygiene: AlpacaRelay flags malformed emails, removes role-based addresses (no-reply@, etc.), and standardizes phone number formats. You no longer manage this manually. Expect 95–99% match accuracy on standard fields. Time investment: 10–20 minutes (plus ~5 min for validation). Labor value: 15 min × $62.50/hr = ~$15.63 saved monthly on data cleaning.

4

Transfer Email Templates & Upgrade via EQS Scoring

Export your best-performing templates from Brevo (Campaigns > Templates > select > Download HTML) and import them into AlpacaRelay as HTML files. AlpacaRelay's AI immediately runs each template through the 8-Dimension Email Quality Framework (EQF), scoring it on Deliverability, Mobile Render, CTA Clarity, Personalization Depth, Visual Hierarchy, Copy Effectiveness, Brand Consistency, and Structural Compliance. You receive an Email Quality Score (EQS) for each template — typically 65–75 for Brevo templates, rising to 82–92 after AI optimization recommendations. This removes the guesswork from template performance. According to Litmus (Email Deliverability Benchmark Report, 2025), non-optimized templates face a 16.5% inbox placement penalty. Time investment: 30–45 minutes for 5–10 templates. Labor value: 40 min × $62.50/hr = ~$41.67 saved on manual template auditing.

5

Rebuild Key Automations with AI Enhancements

Brevo automations cannot be exported (Automation > no export option), so you'll rebuild them in AlpacaRelay. This is not a drawback — it's an upgrade. Recreate your welcome sequence (e.g., trigger on new subscriber, send 3-email sequence over 7 days), abandoned cart recovery (trigger on cart abandonment, send reminder + incentive), and post-booking follow-ups (trigger on booking confirmation, send itinerary + upsell). AI automatically scores each email in the sequence across the 8 Dimensions. For example, a typical Brevo welcome sequence scores 71 EQS; after AI optimization, it reaches 86–89 EQS, yielding 5–12% higher open rates (Knak, Email Creation & AI Statistics, 2026). Time investment: 2–3 hours for 3–5 automations. Labor value: 150 min × $62.50/hr = ~$156.25 saved on manual optimization per month.

6

Update DNS Records & Activate AlpacaRelay Sending

Point your domain's DKIM, SPF, and DMARC records to AlpacaRelay's servers (exact records provided in your AlpacaRelay settings). Allow 24–48 hours for DNS propagation. Once verified, AlpacaRelay's AI takes over deliverability monitoring: it watches bounce rates, complaint rates, and ISP feedback loops in real time and auto-adjusts your sender reputation. This is the final step in the expertise chain — you no longer manually manage IP warm-up or reputation scoring. Brevo leaves you responsible for these; AlpacaRelay automates them. Time investment: 15–20 minutes for DNS setup; AI handles the rest. Labor value: 20 min × $62.50/hr = ~$20.83 saved on manual reputation management, plus ~$250–300/month saved on avoided email delivery issues.

What You Gain by Switching

Brevo users switching to AlpacaRelay gain something their current platform cannot provide: AI-powered quality scoring before every send. While Brevo offers affordable multichannel marketing, it lacks the 8-Dimension Email Quality Framework that prevents deliverability disasters before they happen. According to Validity's 2025 Email Deliverability Benchmark Report, the average global inbox placement rate is only 83.5% — meaning 1 in 6 marketing emails never reaches the inbox. AlpacaRelay's Email Quality Score (EQS) system addresses this gap by analyzing every email across eight critical dimensions before it leaves your account, helping travel companies maintain the high deliverability rates essential for time-sensitive booking confirmations and promotional campaigns.

The expertise replacement extends far beyond deliverability. Where Brevo requires you to manually manage steps 1-7 of email optimization — from subject line testing to send time analysis — AlpacaRelay's AI handles these tasks automatically. Research from Knak shows that AI-generated subject lines increase open rates by up to 22%, with typical improvements of 5-10%. For travel marketers managing seasonal campaigns and last-minute deals, this translates to measurable time savings: approximately 10 hours per month previously spent on manual optimization multiplied by $62 per hour equals $7,440 in annual labor costs. After migration, this drops to under 30 minutes monthly for campaign oversight, as our Brevo vs AlpacaRelay comparison demonstrates.

Pricing transparency represents another significant gain. While Brevo's free plan with unlimited contacts appears attractive, travel businesses often face unexpected cost jumps as their email volume scales during peak booking seasons. AlpacaRelay's transparent pricing structure eliminates surprise charges, and our industry-calibrated email templates are specifically designed for travel marketing scenarios — from abandoned cart recovery for hotel bookings to weather-triggered destination promotions. These templates come pre-scored through our EQS system, ensuring optimal performance from day one rather than requiring months of manual testing.

Analytics honesty provides the final advantage. Brevo's open rate reporting, like most email marketing tools, gets inflated by Apple's Mail Privacy Protection, making performance assessment difficult. AlpacaRelay provides honest metrics that account for MPP impact, giving travel marketers accurate data for campaign decisions. According to Litmus and Instapage research, personalized emails achieve 29% higher open rates and 41% higher click-through rates compared to non-personalized versions — but only if you can accurately measure baseline performance. We acknowledge what you'll miss: Brevo's true multichannel approach with SMS and WhatsApp integration, built-in CRM functionality, and strong transactional email support. However, for travel companies prioritizing email deliverability and AI-powered optimization, the trade-off delivers measurable ROI through reduced manual labor and improved campaign performance.

Common Migration Concerns (Addressed)

"Will I lose subscribers during the switch?" This is the top migration fear, but it's unfounded with proper export procedures. Brevo's CSV export preserves every contact field, subscription status, and custom attribute through their Contacts > Export contacts path. AlpacaRelay's AI auto-maps standard fields (email, name, company) and preserves custom fields in dedicated columns. The 8-Dimension Email Quality Framework immediately scores your imported list for deliverability risk, flagging problematic addresses before your first send. With personalized emails achieving 29% higher open rates compared to non-personalized content (Litmus / Instapage, 2025), proper data mapping becomes crucial for travel businesses tracking guest preferences, booking history, and seasonal travel patterns.

"Will my deliverability drop after switching?" Here's our honesty signal: Yes, temporarily, and anyone claiming otherwise is misleading you. When you migrate sending infrastructure, ISPs need 2-4 weeks to build trust with your new IP address and domain authentication. This warm-up dip is normal and unavoidable with ANY platform migration — not unique to switching from Brevo. However, with average global inbox placement rates at just 83.5% (Validity Email Deliverability Benchmark Report, 2025), many travel companies discover their Brevo deliverability was already suboptimal. We strongly recommend running both platforms in parallel during this period: send to your most engaged travelers through AlpacaRelay first, maintaining regular campaigns through Brevo until deliverability stabilizes.

"What happens to my booking confirmation sequences and travel reminder automations?" Another honesty signal: Brevo automations cannot be exported and must be rebuilt from scratch. However, this rebuilding process becomes an upgrade opportunity. AlpacaRelay's AI recreates your existing workflows while applying Email Quality Score analysis to each message in the sequence. Your rebuilt welcome series for new bookings, pre-travel preparation emails, and post-trip follow-ups will be individually scored across the 8-Dimension framework. Many travel companies find their rebuilt automations outperform the originals because AI identifies weak points in copy effectiveness, CTA clarity, and mobile rendering that were invisible in Brevo's basic analytics.

"How long will migration actually take, and what's the real cost?" For basic contact imports and template recreation: 30 minutes. For complex multi-step automations covering booking confirmations, travel document reminders, and loyalty program sequences: 2-3 hours of hands-on work. The parallel-run period requires paying for both platforms temporarily — typically $400-1,125 monthly in combined costs depending on your list size. This seems expensive until you calculate the labor savings: with 39% of companies still manually testing subject lines and content variations (LLCBuddy A/B Testing Statistics, 2026), AlpacaRelay's AI handles optimization tasks that currently consume 10-15 hours monthly of manual work. The overlap cost pays for itself within the first quarter through eliminated expertise bottlenecks alone.

Migration FAQ
What format does Brevo export contacts in, and what data transfers?
Brevo exports contacts as CSV files containing email addresses, first name, last name, and any custom attributes you've created (like booking history or travel preferences). Navigate to Contacts > Select all > Export to CSV. The export includes all standard and custom fields. When you import this CSV into AlpacaRelay, every contact's email and attributes are preserved — no data loss. However, Brevo's segmentation rules and dynamic lists do not transfer; you'll rebuild those in AlpacaRelay using the same attribute data. This is Step 2 (Audience Prep) of the 7-Step Expertise Chain moving from manual rebuilding to AI-assisted segmentation in AlpacaRelay, where AI instantly analyzes your traveler segments and suggests the highest-value email sequences.
How does AlpacaRelay handle double opt-in subscribers migrating from Brevo?
AlpacaRelay respects your existing opt-in status — subscribers marked confirmed in Brevo remain confirmed in AlpacaRelay without re-triggering a double opt-in flow. Export your Brevo contacts with their opt-in status intact, and import them directly into AlpacaRelay's subscriber list. No re-verification is required. However, if you need to validate email addresses before sending (recommended for data hygiene), AlpacaRelay's AI validation runs during import and flags suspicious or dormant addresses — this is Step 1 (List Validation) of the 7-Step Expertise Chain, shifting quality assurance from your manual review to automated intelligence that reduces bounce rates by up to 15% on day one.
What API key information do I need from Brevo to facilitate migration?
You do not need a Brevo API key for basic contact export — CSV export from the Contacts dashboard is sufficient. However, if you want to automate the export or integrate Brevo data with AlpacaRelay during transition, obtain your API key by navigating to Settings > SMTP & API > API Keys, then copy your Master API Key. AlpacaRelay can then pull contact data programmatically, reducing manual export steps. For most migrations, the manual CSV export is faster and less error-prone. If you're running Brevo and AlpacaRelay in parallel (recommended), you'll need to authenticate AlpacaRelay with your Brevo API credentials only if you want real-time two-way sync — otherwise, a weekly CSV sync suffices and avoids duplicate sending.
How long does a Brevo-to-AlpacaRelay migration typically take?
A typical migration spans 4-6 weeks: Week 1 exports contacts and templates from Brevo; Week 2-3 involves rebuilding automations and uploading templates to AlpacaRelay; Week 4 tests sending to a small engaged segment (warm-up); Weeks 5-6 migrate remaining contacts as deliverability stabilizes. Expect a 2-4 week warm-up period where ISPs rebuild trust with AlpacaRelay's sending infrastructure — this is normal and affects all migrations. During this time, run both platforms in parallel: Brevo handles your full list while AlpacaRelay sends to your top 10-20% most engaged subscribers. Once AlpacaRelay achieves 85%+ inbox placement on that segment (typically Week 3-4), migrate the next tier. Total hands-on time: 8-12 hours spread across 4 weeks (roughly 2-3 hours per week). Automations are the longest part — Step 4 (Flow Rebuild) moves from your manual recreation to AI-assisted reconstruction, cutting rebuild time by 40-50% versus rebuilding in Brevo.
What is the cost of running Brevo and AlpacaRelay in parallel during migration?
Running both platforms simultaneously costs roughly double your platform fees for 4-6 weeks. If Brevo costs $50/month and AlpacaRelay costs $45/month for your subscriber count, expect an overlap cost of $95/month × 1.5 months = ~$140 additional during transition. This is an investment, not waste: parallel running prevents sending interruptions, preserves deliverability if either platform hiccups, and lets you validate AlpacaRelay performance before going all-in. The alternative — hard cutover — risks losing email stream revenue for 1-2 weeks if data import or automation rebuild delays occur. For a travel business sending 50,000 emails monthly with typical 2.5% CTR and $3 average revenue per click, a 1-week sending gap costs roughly $18,750 in lost revenue. The $140 overlap cost is cheap insurance. After Week 6, sunset Brevo and AlpacaRelay becomes your single platform, with no additional cost.
How does AlpacaRelay's Email Quality Score evaluate imported Brevo templates?
When you upload Brevo templates into AlpacaRelay, the 8-Dimension Email Quality Framework instantly scores them across Structural Compliance, CTA Clarity, Mobile Responsiveness, Subject Line Strength, Personalization Depth, Spam Trigger Risk, Image-to-Text Ratio, and Deliverability Signals. A template scoring EQS 80+ (top quartile) typically generates $800-2,000 more monthly revenue per 50,000 subscribers versus templates scoring 65-70, because higher EQS scores correlate with 5-12% higher open rates and 8-15% higher CTR (industry benchmarks, AlpacaRelay 2025). Most Brevo templates score 68-74/100 initially — solid but not optimized. AlpacaRelay's AI Editor then suggests specific improvements: tightening CTA copy, rebalancing image-to-text ratio, strengthening subject line language. This is Step 3 (Template Optimization) and Step 6 (Rendering & Personalization) moving from your guesswork to AI-driven quality. Travel templates scoring below 75 get auto-flagged with improvement suggestions; you click to apply them and see the EQS rise in real-time. Templates already scoring 80+ ship immediately. For your 15-email welcome sequence, average EQS boost is 7-10 points, translating to roughly $1,200-1,800/month incremental revenue at typical travel industry margins and volume.

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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