Leaving Brevo: What to Export Before You Cancel

Leaving Brevo (formerly Sendinblue) can be straightforward—until you realize that some of your marketing data, campaign history, or automation assets may be difficult to recover after cancellation.

Whether you are moving to another email marketing platform, consolidating your marketing stack, or simply closing an unused account, exporting your important data before cancellation should be treated as a migration project, not an afterthought.

This guide provides a practical Brevo cancellation and data export checklist so you can preserve the information you may need later.

Why You Should Export Your Brevo Data Before Cancelling

Before cancelling your Brevo account, think beyond your contact list.

Your account may contain years of:

• Subscriber and customer information
• Email campaigns
• Automation workflows
• Email templates
• Transactional email records
• Campaign statistics
• Contact attributes
• Lists and segments
• Suppression information
• Forms and signup assets
• Sender and domain configurations
• Marketing reports

Some information may not transfer directly to your new platform, while other data may require manual reconstruction.

The safest approach is simple: export first, verify your backups, migrate second, and cancel last.

Brevo Pre-Cancellation Export Checklist

Before you close your account, review these categories one by one.

1. Export Your Contacts

Your contact database is usually the most important asset to preserve.

Export all contacts you may need in the future, including:

• Active subscribers
• Customers
• Leads
• Prospects
• Unsubscribed contacts
• Blocklisted contacts, where appropriate
• Contacts associated with different lists
• Custom contact attributes

Pay attention to custom fields such as:

• First and last name
• Company
• Phone number
• Customer ID
• Lead source
• Subscription date
• Customer type
• Location
• Purchase-related attributes

Example: If your Brevo contacts contain a custom field called Customer_Type, make sure that field is included in your export. Otherwise, your new CRM or email platform may lose important segmentation information.

2. Preserve Your Lists and Segments

Exporting contacts alone may not preserve the way your database was organized.

Document your:

• Contact lists
• Segments
• Tags or categorization
• Suppression groups
• Subscription categories
• Audience rules

For dynamic segments, save the logic behind each segment, not just the contacts currently inside it.

For example:

VIP Customers = Customers with purchase value above ₹50,000 + active email subscription

Your new platform will need this logic if you want to recreate the segment.

3. Save Email Templates

Do not assume that your templates will automatically transfer to your next email marketing platform.

Save important:

• Newsletter templates
• Promotional templates
• Welcome emails
• Abandoned-cart emails
• Customer onboarding emails
• Transactional email templates
• Branded email layouts

Also preserve:

• Images
• Logos
• Brand colors
• Fonts
• Footer information
• Legal text
• CTA links

If your platform provides HTML access for a template, keeping a copy of the HTML can make rebuilding much easier.

4. Export or Document Automation Workflows

This is one of the most important parts of your migration.

Automation workflows often contain business logic that cannot simply be exported and imported into another platform.

Document every important workflow, including:

• Trigger conditions
• Entry criteria
• Email sequence
• Delays
• Conditions
• Branches
• Exit conditions
• List updates
• Contact attribute changes
• Webhooks or integrations

Create an Automation Map

For each workflow, record something like:

Trigger → Wait 1 day → Send Email A → Wait 3 days → Check customer status → Send Email B

Take screenshots or create a written workflow map.

This gives you a blueprint for rebuilding the automation elsewhere.

5. Save Campaign Data and Reports

If historical performance matters to your business, preserve your campaign analytics before leaving.

Save available information such as:

• Campaign name
• Campaign date
• Recipients
• Delivery rate
• Open rate
• Click rate
• Unsubscribe rate
• Bounce rate
• Campaign revenue, if tracked
• Clicked links
• Campaign-level performance

Historical campaign data can be valuable when comparing the performance of your new email marketing platform.

Why Historical Analytics Matter

Suppose your average newsletter open rate was 32% in Brevo.

After migration, your new platform reports an open rate of 21%.

Without historical data, you may not know whether the change is caused by:

• Deliverability
• Audience changes
• Tracking differences
• Email content
• Platform reporting methodology

Keeping historical reports gives you a baseline.

6. Preserve Transactional Email Information

If you use Brevo for transactional email, don’t forget this category.

Review your:

• Transactional email templates
• Sending configurations
• API integrations
• SMTP settings
• Webhooks
• Event tracking
• Delivery records
• Important transactional logs

Your website or application may depend on Brevo behind the scenes.

For example, your system could use Brevo to send:

• Password-reset emails
• Order confirmations
• Account verification emails
• Payment notifications
• Shipping updates
• Booking confirmations

Before cancelling, identify every application or website that sends email through Brevo.

7. Check Your API and Integrations

Make an inventory of every service connected to Brevo.

Common integrations can include:

• Websites
• Ecommerce platforms
• CRM systems
• Forms
• Zapier-style automation tools
• Customer support systems
• Analytics tools
• Custom applications

Record the purpose of each integration and what data flows through it.

Do not copy or store API keys unnecessarily. Instead, document which systems need to be reconfigured and plan to replace credentials securely in the new platform.

8. Preserve Sender and Domain Settings

Your email infrastructure is another area that should not be overlooked.

Document:

• Sending domains
• Sender identities
• Authentication configuration
• DNS records
• Dedicated IP arrangements, if applicable
• Reply-to addresses
• Brand information

If you are moving email sending to another provider, your new provider may require DNS changes for authentication.

This can include records associated with:

• SPF
• DKIM
• DMARC
• Domain verification

Do not remove Brevo-related DNS records until your new email provider is properly configured and tested.

9. Save Forms and Subscription Assets

If you use Brevo signup forms on your website, identify them before cancelling.

Document:

• Embedded forms
• Popup forms
• Landing-page forms
• Signup fields
• Consent wording
• Confirmation messages
• Redirect URLs
• Double-opt-in processes
• Lists assigned to each form

You may need to rebuild these forms on your new platform.

10. Preserve Unsubscribe and Suppression Data

This is a particularly important migration issue.

Do not simply export your active subscribers and import everyone into your new platform.

You should also understand your:

• Unsubscribed contacts
• Blocklisted contacts
• Bounced contacts
• Complaint-related suppressions
• Subscription preferences

A person who previously opted out should not accidentally receive marketing emails after migration.

Your new platform should respect the applicable consent and suppression requirements when you import your database.

11. Download Important Documents and Billing Records

Your marketing data isn’t the only information worth preserving.

Keep copies of:

• Invoices
• Payment records
• Subscription information
• Tax-related documents
• Account receipts
• Relevant contracts or service records

These records may be useful for bookkeeping, audits, expense verification, or future business administration.

12. Record Your Current Account Configuration

Before cancelling, take a final inventory.

Create a simple document containing:

Account

• Account owner
• Users and permissions
• Connected domains
• Sending addresses

Contacts

• Total contacts
• Lists
• Segments
• Custom attributes

Marketing

• Campaigns
• Templates
• Automations
• Forms

Transactional

• SMTP/API integrations
• Transactional templates
• Webhooks
• Applications using Brevo

Reporting

• Historical campaign reports
• Important performance benchmarks

This becomes your Brevo migration archive.

A Simple Brevo Migration Folder Structure

Instead of saving everything randomly, organize your exported information.

A useful structure could be:

Brevo Migration Archive

• 01-Contacts
• 02-Lists-and-Segments
• 03-Campaigns
• 04-Templates
• 05-Automations
• 06-Transactional
• 07-Integrations
• 08-Domain-and-Sender-Settings
• 09-Forms
• 10-Analytics
• 11-Billing
• 12-Screenshots-and-Documentation

This makes it much easier to find something months later.

What You Should Rebuild in Your New Platform

After exporting your Brevo data, prioritize the migration.

A practical order is:

1. Verify your new sending domain
2. Configure sender authentication
3. Import contacts
4. Recreate lists and segments
5. Import or rebuild templates
6. Rebuild critical automations
7. Recreate forms
8. Reconnect integrations
9. Configure transactional email
10. Test sending
11. Compare results
12. Switch production traffic
13. Monitor deliverability
14. Cancel Brevo only after everything is verified

Test Before You Cancel Brevo

Never make the cancellation the first step.

Run a controlled test using your new platform.

Check:

• Email delivery
• Formatting
• Mobile responsiveness
• Links
• Images
• Personalization
• Unsubscribe functionality
• Tracking
• Automation triggers
• Transactional messages
• Forms
• CRM synchronization

Send test emails to multiple providers where possible.

For example, test with:

• Gmail
• Outlook
• Apple Mail
• Your business email system

Common Mistakes When Leaving Brevo

Cancelling Before Exporting

The biggest mistake is cancelling first and trying to recover information later.

Better approach: complete and verify your migration archive before cancellation.

Exporting Only Active Contacts

Your active list is not the complete picture.

You may also need historical suppression and segmentation information to ensure responsible future marketing.

Forgetting Automations

An automation can represent months of marketing strategy.

Don’t just save the email copy. Document the complete workflow logic.

Forgetting Transactional Email

Your marketing campaigns might migrate successfully while your website’s password-reset or order-confirmation emails stop working.

Audit your technical integrations separately.

Ignoring Historical Analytics

Your historical reports provide a valuable benchmark for evaluating your new platform.

Final Pre-Cancellation Checklist

Before you click the cancellation button, ask:

Contacts

• Have I exported my contacts?
• Have I preserved custom attributes?
• Have I documented lists and segments?

Marketing

• Have I saved important campaigns?
• Have I saved templates?
• Have I documented automations?

Technical

• Have I identified every API integration?
• Have I identified every website/application using Brevo?
• Have I documented domain and sender settings?

Compliance

• Have I preserved relevant unsubscribe and suppression information?
• Have I planned the new platform’s consent handling?

Reporting

• Have I saved historical campaign analytics?
• Have I downloaded important invoices and records?

Migration

• Have I tested the new platform?
• Are marketing emails working?
• Are transactional emails working?
• Are forms and integrations working?

Final step

• Have I verified that my backup is complete and readable?

If the answer to all of these is yes, you are in a much safer position to cancel.

Conclusion: Export First, Cancel Last

Leaving Brevo, formerly known as Sendinblue, does not have to be complicated. The key is to treat the process as a data migration rather than simply an account cancellation.

Your contacts, templates, automations, analytics, suppression information, transactional email configuration, and integrations can all represent valuable business assets.

The safest sequence is:

Audit → Export → Document → Migrate → Test → Verify → Cancel

Taking a little extra time before cancellation can prevent hours of rebuilding—and potentially the loss of important historical information.

If you’re moving from Brevo to another platform such as Zoho, Mailchimp, HubSpot, ActiveCampaign, or another email marketing system, use this checklist as your starting point and then create a platform-specific migration plan.