For Braze users aiming to enhance their content strategies in the current year, the incorporation of Braze Catalogs proves to be a game-changer. This exceptional feature transcends the ordinary, reshaping the landscape of dynamic content management across various campaigns and channels. Braze Catalogs, functioning as tables or "look-up" tables, strategically store non-user data independently from user profiles. However, it goes beyond a mere product catalog solution; it serves as a dynamic repository meticulously designed to efficiently handle and distribute content across a spectrum of canvases, campaigns, and channels. Before we get into how to use catalogs, let’s talk about what exactly is a catalog in Braze.
What are Braze Catalogs?
By design, Catalogs are a feature that stores data relating to your company’s products and services like SKUs, descriptions, image URLs, availability, prices, related products and services. These product catalogs can be uploaded easily into the Braze dashboard. Catalog data can then be used to personalize cross-channel messaging, think abandoned cart reminders, new product alerts, and 1:1 product recommendations.
For example, suppose you have a custom attribute called “LastOrdered” with a nested property of “product_id” stored in the user profile and want to personalize your post purchase messages with the product name, description, and image of the last item ordered. Using a Catalog, each product’s information can be inserted directly into your message by doing a look-up and selecting the catalog item that matches the product_id stored in the users “LastOrdered” attribute. The “Add Personalization” option when composing makes it super easy to insert catalog data into any part of your message as outlined below.
Three reasons why you should use Braze Catalogs for dynamic message content.
1. Less reliance on IT and code development.
Today, you might be delivering personalized product-based messages. However, unless Connected Content is utilized, all details essential for personalization, such as display name, image URL, and item URL, must be stored directly in the user profile. In the event of any changes to this information, updating each user profile's purchased item properties becomes necessary to ensure up-to-date personalization. The use of Catalogs offers a streamlined alternative, allowing you to update product information centrally without the need for API/SDK development and user profile modifications. This approach enables a dynamic content management system that is streamlined, fast to market, and reduces dependence on IT.
2. More efficient and streamlined dynamic content management.
Prior to Catalogs, the main method for incorporating dynamic content into messages involved utilizing potentially complex Liquid scripting within the body of each individual message. Now, consider a situation where one of your stores changes its location or updates operating hours. If Liquid scripting rules are used for dynamic content, updates would be mandatory in each campaign and canvas message individually. This opens the door to all sorts of potential errors and oversights. However, with Catalogs, the need for code updates across various campaigns and channel messages becomes obsolete. Instead, updates can be efficiently managed from a single centralized location.
3. Catalogs don’t use any data points.
Utilizing Braze Catalogs offers another distinct advantage as it does not consume data points. Traditionally, every update to a user's profile data consumes data points, and personalization-driven updates can lead to data point overages. With Catalogs, you can effortlessly manage and update content without the concern of exhausting your data points, providing a seamless and worry-free approach to dynamic content management.
As you can see, incorporating Braze Catalogs into your strategy can significantly enhance your dynamic content management game. Going beyond traditional methods, Catalogs act as dynamic repositories adept at efficiently handling and disseminating content across various campaigns and channels. By storing non-user data separately from profiles, Catalogs provide a streamlined alternative, reducing the dependence on IT and code development. This not only ensures a swift-to-market dynamic content management system but also mitigates the risks associated with complex scripting, minimizing errors and oversights. Furthermore, Catalogs uniquely stand out by enabling content management without consuming data points, offering a seamless and stress-free solution for personalized messaging. Embracing Braze Catalogs introduces a new era in content management, characterized by efficiency, scalability, and enhanced agility in dynamic content delivery.
Want to know more about using Liquid and Braze? Check out our article Level Up Your Braze Campaign with Liquid.