What the integration does
Personalized images in Alterable (countdowns, dynamic images, products and the rest) fill in each reader's details through merge tags. When the email goes out from Brevo, those tags have to be written in Brevo's own syntax, such as {{ contact.FIRSTNAME }}, or Brevo has nothing to fill.
The integration writes them for you. It imports your Brevo contact attributes as Alterable merge tags, each one already in Brevo's syntax. Put one in an image, send the email from Brevo, and every reader gets an image with their own details in it.
Picked for you this weekend
Janefirstname, your weekend picks are in
What it doesn't do matters just as much:
- It's one-way, Brevo to Alterable. Nothing is written to your Brevo account.
- It reads attributes, not contacts. Alterable asks Brevo for the list of attributes your account defines, and that's all. It never opens a contact. Email, SMS, WhatsApp and landline numbers can't be imported at all, so a reader's contact details never end up in an image URL.
- An import is a one-time copy. If you add an attribute in Brevo later, import it then. Tags you already imported don't change on their own.
Connect your Brevo account
You need an Alterable account. Create one if you don't have one yet (plans are on the pricing page).
Only the team owner can connect Brevo. If you're a team member, the merge tags window tells you who your owner is. Send them this page. Once it's connected, you can import attributes yourself.
Each Alterable team connects one Brevo account.
That button signs you in to Alterable and, if you own your current team, takes you straight to Brevo (step 3 below). The long way round, from inside Alterable:
In Alterable, go to Settings → Teams and click the gear next to your team.
(opens the full-size screenshot)In the team settings menu, open Integrations. On the Brevo card, click Connect Brevo. Alterable takes you to Brevo.
(opens the full-size screenshot)Sign in to Brevo if it asks, and review the access Alterable is requesting. It's read-only, and it's two scopes:
Scopes Alterable requests Scope What Alterable uses it for account:readReads your Brevo account's company name, so the card can show which account is connected. contacts:readLists the contact attributes your account defines. Read-only. That's the whole list. Alterable doesn't ask to write anything.
Approve the access and Brevo sends you back to Alterable. If you cancel instead, nothing changes.
You land on your team's Integrations page in Alterable, with the message “Brevo is connected.” The card shows the name of the Brevo account the team is connected to.
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Configure it
There's nothing to set up beyond connecting. Once Brevo shows as connected, you can import attributes.
Import attributes as merge tags
In any Alterable editor, click Manage Merge Tags. In the window that opens, click the arrow next to Create Merge Tag and choose Import from Brevo.
(opens the full-size screenshot)Search for the attributes you want and tick them. The checkbox at the top of the list (Select all shown) ticks everything in the current search. Then click Import selected.
(opens the full-size screenshot)Each attribute becomes a merge tag in Brevo's syntax. Its placeholder value starts as the attribute's name, or for a dropdown attribute its first choice, and you can edit it after importing.
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Attributes you've already imported are marked Imported, so you can't add the same one twice. Added an attribute in Brevo while the window was open? Click Refresh to reload the list.
Which attributes you can import
Brevo keeps a full list of the attributes an account defines, so Alterable doesn't have to guess from your contacts: every attribute your contacts can carry is in the import. First Name, Last Name and External ID come first, then the rest in alphabetical order. Dropdown and calculated attributes are included.
A few are left out:
- Email, SMS, WhatsApp and landline numbers. Merge tags end up in image URLs, and a reader's address or phone number has no business being in one.
- Transactional and global attributes. They hold order data and account-wide totals, not a contact's own details.
- Names with anything but letters, digits and underscores (see An attribute is missing from the list).
How the tags are written
Alterable writes each tag the way Brevo reads them in HTML: contact. and the attribute's name in capitals, inside double braces. A few examples:
- Built-in attributes:
{{ contact.FIRSTNAME }},{{ contact.LASTNAME }}. - A custom attribute:
{{ contact.FAVORITE_STORE }}.
Brevo fills the tags when it sends, so each reader's image is made for them.
Put the image in a Brevo email
In Alterable's embed dialog, set Email platform to Brevo, then paste the embed code into an HTML block in Brevo's Drag & Drop editor. Brevo's test send doesn't fill attributes, so check the result with Preview as a customer. Our guide walks through the whole email: countdown timers in Brevo.
Your tags are ready. Next, put them in an image.
Disconnect Brevo
Only the team owner can disconnect.
In Alterable, go to Settings → Teams, click the gear next to your team, and open Integrations.
On the Brevo card, click Disconnect, then confirm with Disconnect.
Alterable revokes its access at Brevo and deletes what it stored. Merge tags you already imported stay, and keep working in emails you send from Brevo. To import more later, connect again.
What happens to your data
When you connect, Alterable keeps the Brevo account's ID and company name (to show which account is connected) and the access Brevo grants, encrypted. When someone opens the import, it asks Brevo for the account's list of contact attributes. It never reads a contact, never stores a contact's values, and writes nothing to Brevo.
- When you disconnect, Alterable revokes its access at Brevo and deletes the stored connection for your team.
- If Brevo stops accepting the access, Alterable deletes the stored connection the next time someone opens the import.
- Either way, imported merge tags stay in your Alterable team. They're ordinary tags holding a Brevo tag and a placeholder value, so emails that use them keep working. Delete them like any other merge tag if you no longer want them.
How Alterable handles personal data in general is in our Privacy Policy.
Troubleshooting
“Ask the team owner to connect Brevo”
You're a team member, and only the owner can connect Brevo. The merge tags window names your owner: ask them to follow Connect your Brevo account. Once it's connected, the import works for you too.
I connected the wrong Brevo account
Disconnect, click Connect Brevo again, and sign in to the other account. Merge tags you already imported stay.
“Brevo no longer accepts this connection”
Brevo withdrew the access. That happens when the app is removed from your Brevo account, or when the connection goes unused for 30 days. The team owner connects it again from Integrations. Imported merge tags are unaffected.
“Brevo blocked Alterable's server because of your account's authorized IPs”
Your Brevo account only accepts API calls from addresses you've approved. Allow Alterable's server under Security → Authorized IPs in Brevo, then open the import again. The connection itself is fine and stays. Alterable's server address can change, so if the message comes back later, approve the new one.
“Brevo couldn't be connected” or “Brevo wasn't connected”
The first means the connection failed partway: try again, and contact us if it keeps failing. The second means the connection was cancelled on Brevo's screen, so nothing changed.
“Brevo didn't answer”
Brevo didn't respond in time. Wait a moment and open the import again.
An attribute is missing from the list
The import only offers attributes whose names start with a letter and hold nothing but letters, digits and underscores, because Brevo documents no tag syntax for other names. Rename the attribute in Brevo, or type the tag yourself with Create Merge Tag. Email, phone numbers, and transactional and global attributes are left out on purpose (see Which attributes you can import).
Help and policies
Stuck on a step? Paid plans include email support at support@alterable.com. On any plan, you can report a bug. Using Alterable is covered by our Terms and Conditions and our Privacy Policy.