2022 SendinBlue Review: All-in-One Email Marketing Solution

SendinBlue is a major player in the email marketing software industry, despite being a newcomer.

But what makes it a good email marketing tool, who’s it for, and how does it compare to other email marketing software on the market?
This SendinBlue Review has the answers.

What’s SendinBlue?

SendinBlue started as a simple email marketing platform that evolved into a comprehensive marketing hub in just a couple of years. The platform delivers improved template design, customisable chat solutions, SMS campaigns, and a built-in CRM, making it an excellent choice for small-to-medium businesses.

Sendinblue Prices and Plans

SendinBlue has three paid plans and one free plan. 

SendinBlue has a different pricing concept than its competitors. Unlike most platforms that charge based on the number of contacts, SendinBlue charges per number of sent emails per month. 

This company’s plans are not as affordable as some of the competition. Constant Contact’s offer starts at £8 while Moosend begins at $8 for 2,000 contacts, but SendinBlue offers better value for money given the number of advanced features it provides. 

SendinBlue Features

Email editor

SendinBlue has a simple drag-and-drop editor with a navigation bar you can use to customise your templates.

Personalisation

One of the platform’s best features is the tool that allows users to add contact attribute placeholders in emails making messages more personal. 

Email types

Users can send transactional messages, newsletters, SMS messages, and customisable autoresponders.

In fact, apart from Omnisend, SendinBlue is one of the few marketing platforms that offer SMS marketing without the use of third-party apps. 

Template design

SendinBlue has around 40 customisable template designs in its library.

Although responsive, AWeber and GetResponse have a more varied offer, the latter hosting over 500 gorgeous newsletter templates for every occasion.

List management

Users can add, export, and edit contacts, as well as create lists based on consumer behaviour, activity, location, and lead scores. This is similar to how easy and straightforward managing contacts are on Constant Contact.

Languages

SendinBlue is available in English, French, Spanish, Italian, Portuguese, and German.

Opt-in and Opt-out forms

Like Moosend and MailerLite, SendinBlue opt-in and opt-out forms help users remain GDPR compliant and ensure better deliverability. 

Reports and analytics

SendinBlue offers in-depth analytics and reporting that help you track the success of the email marketing campaign.

Deliverability

SendinBlue has impressive deliverability rates. Many Sendinblue reviews argue it’s the best platform for making sure your emails get to your subscribers inboxes. However, the company’s rate has gone down in the latest testing, falling behind by rivals like ConvertKit and MailerLite. 

Email preview

Before you send an email marketing campaign, SendinBlue allows you to review them and make any last-minute adjustments.

A/B testing

A/B testing with SendinBlue is limited to subject lines only. For more detailed reports and advanced testing features, take a look at AWeber.

SendinBlue customer support 

The company has 24/7 live chat and email support, as well as a blog with tutorials on how to use certain features.

Campaign Setup

Creating a campaign in SendinBlue is a quick and simple process, however, users can’t send a campaign until the company verifies their account. 

1. Prepare a list of contacts.
2. Click on “Create an email campaign from the “Campaigns” tab.
3. Fill in all the details such as Campaign Name, Subject Line, Preview text, From email, and From Name
4. Customise your email in the drag-and-drop editor: Add attachments, add images, embed forms, add a tag, activate Google Analytics, customise the header, footer, and mirror link, default or custom made unsubscribe page. 
5. Create a segment and apply filters to the campaign if needed. You can use the Contact Management tool to automate segments, edit email lists, customise subscription forms and check contacts’ activity.
6. Review your campaign and schedule it.

Additional features

Transactional Messaging  

The SendinBlue transactional emails feature allows users to automate part of their business, especially those in the eCommerce world. For example, they can set up transactional messages, order confirmations, order follow-ups, bills and receipts, and even password reset attempts.

SendinBlue users have three different options when it comes to transactional email: built-in plugins, SMTP configuration, or SendinBlue’s email API.

The platform also has pre-built templates for less tech-savvy individuals. Still, creating a transactional email is easier with CleverReach, whose interface is more beginner-friendly.

On the other hand, SendinBlue users have access to engagement rate and deliverability statistics in real-time and can edit their campaigns at will.

Marketing Automation

The Sendinblue automation feature is what makes this platform a top choice for email marketing because it allows users to automate almost every part of their email marketing strategy, including SMS campaigns.

With Sendinblue, you can set up advanced triggered campaigns and target market leads based on consumer behaviour, web activity, and engagement. 

There’s a variety of readily available SendinBlue workflow templates for different scenarios, follow-ups for subscribers that engage with the campaign, and personalised emails to contacts based on their activity on your website.

Advanced users can create their workflows from scratch, as well as redesign and customise existing templates. 

When it comes to automation, ActiveCampaign is one of SendinBlue’s greatest competitors, as it doesn’t impose a limit on the number of contacts you can reach through automation workflows. Unlimited contacts with SendinBlue are only available with its most expensive plan.

SendinBlue Integrations

SendinBlue integrates with plenty of apps across different industries including eCommerce, CRM, CMS, automation platforms, and payment services. Some of them include WooCommerce, Shopify, Outlook, MailChimp, and Zoho.

Unlike most of its competitors, the company has an open API for creating new, custom integrations for better engagement. Also, SendinBlue offers a long list of plug-ins for  Amazon, Etsy, Asana, WordPress, Shopify, Facebook Lead Ads, and others. 

Bottom Line

SendinBlue is one of the best email marketing hubs on the market. It has plenty of advanced features and a solid number of different templates for beginners. The platform is best suited for small to medium-sized businesses that can take full advantage of its expansive automation features.