Proposal · Brevo and our former students
This page explains how we could use Brevo, an email and contact platform, to know for every student which courses they have taken, and to invite them to the logical next course at the right moment. Brevo would replace HubSpot. Once it is set up, the invitations go out by themselves, and Cathérine only checks it now and then.
In short
1. Write down which course comes after which.
2. Move our contacts from HubSpot to Brevo.
3. Let the webshop send every enrolment to Brevo.
4. Let Brevo send the right invitation at the right moment.
Why this matters
Someone who has just finished a course already knows us, already likes the teacher and is already used to learning Chinese. That makes them far more likely to enrol than someone who has never heard of us, and reaching them costs almost nothing. In our student survey, 45 students rated how likely they are to recommend us at 4.6 out of 5. They are positive about us. But after a course ends, we currently have no reliable way to know who took what, so nobody gets a personal invitation for the next step.
Today our contacts sit in HubSpot. There are two HubSpot accounts, it is not clear which one holds the right contacts, and the alumni list holds 175 contacts, far fewer than the real number of former students. The information about who took which course does exist, but it sits in the webshop and never reaches HubSpot. And the HubSpot plan that could send these emails automatically costs around $890 a month, which is far too much for an institute of our size. That is why we propose to move to Brevo.
Step 1 · The course ladder
Before touching any software, we write down the logical route through our courses. We call this the ladder. It answers one question for every course: if a student finishes this, what is the most sensible next course to offer them? No platform can work this out for us. We decide it once, together with the teachers, and it only changes when our courses change.
The ladder as a table
This table is what the emails are based on. The timing matters: an invitation three weeks before a course ends reaches students while they are still motivated and before they have made other plans.
| Just finished | What we offer next | When we send the invitation |
|---|---|---|
| Event or workshop | Level 1, or a trial lesson | Within two weeks of the event |
| Level 1 | Level 2 | Three weeks before Level 1 ends |
| Level 2 | Level 3, or HSK exam training | Three weeks before Level 2 ends |
| HSK exam | The next HSK level, or Business Chinese | After the exam result is in |
| A course, then nothing | A come-back offer, or an invitation to a culture evening | Six months after their last course |
Step 2 · Setting up Brevo
Brevo is where we keep everyone we have contact with: students, former students and newsletter subscribers. It also sends our newsletter and the invitations. The work below is done once. After that, Brevo keeps itself up to date.
2a · One platform instead of two accounts
We export the contacts from both HubSpot accounts, remove duplicates and import them into Brevo. Former students are added from the webshop's order history, so the list reflects everyone who actually took a course, not only the 175 who are in the alumni list today. The newsletter moves to Brevo as well, so we work in one system.
2b · Connect the webshop
Our courses are sold through the WooCommerce webshop on our website. Brevo has an official plug-in for WooCommerce that passes customers, courses and orders on to Brevo automatically. Every completed enrolment becomes an event that Brevo can act on: who enrolled, for which course, and when. Webmix, who manage our website, can install it.
2c · A few fields per student
For every student, Brevo stores a small number of facts, called attributes: which courses they have taken, their last course and when it ends, their level, their location (Maastricht, Rotterdam or online), and whether they have agreed to receive emails from us. Most of these fill in automatically from the webshop.
2d · Automations, one per rung
For every rung of the ladder we build one automation in Brevo. It starts when a student enrols in a course, waits until three weeks before that course ends, and then sends the invitation for the next course. If the student has already enrolled in the next course, they leave the automation and get nothing. The waiting time is set per course, so it matches the course length.
An example: one student in Brevo
Sanne enrolled for Level 2 in September. The "After Level 2" automation waits, and around 21 November it sends her the invitation for Level 3 or HSK exam training. Nobody has to press a button.
2e · Emails written once
For each automation we write one email, once. Every semester the same email is reused; only the dates and course details are checked. To connect this with Star Teacher, the email can be signed by the teacher of the next course, with their photo and one line, rather than by "the institute". Students then already know who they will learn from.
Step 3 · Keeping it running
Because Brevo sends the invitations by itself, the regular work is small: checking that dates are right at the start of each semester, and looking at the results once a month.
Set-up, once, before December
After that
Why Brevo
Brevo's Standard plan includes these automations, without a limit on the number of contacts, from around $18 a month according to public pricing. Doing the same in HubSpot needs the Professional plan at around $890 a month plus a one-off $3,000. Brevo is a European company, based in France, which makes the privacy side simpler for an institute that is part of Zuyd. It is simple enough to use without technical knowledge, and it also handles the newsletter, so we can stop using HubSpot altogether. Prices should be checked before buying.
The alternatives we looked at
We compared platforms that work with our WooCommerce webshop, can send emails automatically based on what someone bought, and are affordable for a few thousand contacts. Prices are indications from public overviews, in US dollars.
| Price | Automation | Webshop link | Data | For us | |
|---|---|---|---|---|---|
| 1 · Brevo | from ~$18 a month (Standard) | included, no contact limit | official WooCommerce plug-in | France, EU | Our proposal |
| 2 · MailerLite | ~$19 to ~$39 a month at 1,000 contacts | more triggers only on the higher plan | plug-in with purchase trigger | Lithuania, EU | Good alternative, very easy to use |
| 3 · FluentCRM | ~$129 a year | full | runs inside our own WordPress site | our own server | Cheapest, but needs technical upkeep |
| 4 · Mailchimp | from ~$20 a month, rises quickly with contacts | from the Standard plan | good integration | United States | Familiar, becomes expensive |
| 5 · ActiveCampaign | ~$49 a month at 1,000 contacts | very strong | basic integration | United States | Powerful, more than we need |
| For comparison · HubSpot Professional | ~$890 a month plus $3,000 once | full | through a separate connector | United States or EU | Too expensive for us |
Why not the cheapest? FluentCRM is the best deal on paper, but it depends on our WordPress site, on Webmix and on our own mail server. Without someone technical in the team, that is too fragile.
Ground rules
How often
At most one email a month per student, even if they are in several automations. More than that and people stop reading or unsubscribe.
Permission
We only email students who may receive marketing email from us, and every email has an unsubscribe link. Before we start, we check the rules for emailing former customers with Zuyd's privacy officer.
How we know it works
We track one number: the share of students who take a second course within six months of their first. We do not know that number today, so the first step is to measure it.
Still to decide
Confucius Institute · Buro Frontier · Brevo proposal · 12 October 2026 · prices from public overviews, to check before buying