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Picture this: Riley, a potential customer, is scrolling through their social feeds, looking for a way to solve their latest marketing pain point. Then they stumble upon your blog post or video that perfectly addresses their needs. The algorithm worked - exciting! Intrigued by your content, they jump over to your website to learn more about you. Riley explores your site briefly, but what happens next? Did they "convert" by making a purchase, signing up for a newsletter, or requesting more information? Getting them there is one thing… the conversion is where the value lies. With people's attention being pulled in multiple directions, you might only have seconds before they move on to the next thing. Time is of the essence and rapidly grasping who they are, and their needs, is critical in maintaining their interest. Stressed yet? That would be understandable as this is a high-stakes attention game and having a solid strategy matters. Don’t worry, there’s good news. You now have more tools and techniques available to help keep your consumer engaged than ever before. Below are a few of our favorite ways to engage. Web Forms/Surveys Tell me a little about yourself. Maybe your Marketing Automation software allows you to easily create web forms or surveys to capture a prospect’s self-provided data (zero-party data). These forms can collect various data, from basic contact fields (such as first name and address) to more personal details like preferences, interests, and opt-in permissions. Tools like Acoustic make it real e asy to add web forms to your website. Dynamic Web Offers Here’s a gift to sweeten the deal. Several software solutions can track real-time web behaviors, but success requires taking action. Imagine a customer visits your website and indicates "buying" or "interested" behavior while browsing. For instance, they spend time on a specific product or service page. If you're in banking, perhaps it's a home loan (mortgage) quote; if you're in insurance, maybe it's motorcycle policy shopping. Wouldn't it be great if the next time they visited your homepage, a tailored offer was presented to them based on their personalized browsing behaviors? This isn’t an easy task, or you’d already be doing it – and a big high-five to you if you are! Not sure where to start? Unica has developed a s olution called Interact specifically designed to handle various inbound web marketing situations like this and mu ch more. Next Level In-App Marketing Instant gratification. Now imagine someone using your loyalty app to check an upcoming travel reservation. Wouldn't it be great if you could instantly assess their loyalty points balance and offer an upgrade if they were eligible? Well, you can! If you're unsure how to implement such capabilities, consider checking out Braze . They offer a nifty add-on feature called Content Cards for streaming rich in-app content without disrupting the user's experience. The world of inbound marketing is ultimately data-driven, so analyzing data from your channel inputs and making swift decisions is vital. Adapting your strategies based on real-time insights ensures that you're on the right track and achieving the desired outcomes. Don’t limit yourself to just one channel. It’s all about delivering the right message to the right person at the right time, capturing their interest, and guiding them toward becoming loyal customers. While speed is important, quality, authenticity, and a customer-centric approach must remain at the core of your inbound marketing strategy.

Email is an essential aspect of any digital marketing campaign. It's one of the most effective ways to connect with your target audience and drive conversions. From the inception of email marketing, the open rate has been a crucial metric to measure the success of campaigns. However, not all opens are created equal. In recent times, the increasing use of machine opens has made it vital for marketers to understand the difference between human opens and machine opens and how to track them separately in Braze. All Opens are Not Created Equal Machine opens are automated openings of emails by email clients, such as Apple Mail Privacy Protection (MPP) and Google Image Proxy. These clients automatically fetch and display the images in your email, making it easier for users to view them without clicking on any links. Human opens, or "Other Opens" as identified in Braze, happens when an email is opened by a human user. The impact of machine opens on the unique open rate is significant. For example, if you have a 50% unique open rate, but 30% of those opens are machine opens, then your real open rate is only 20%. This is because machine opens do not indicate that a human user has actually seen or engaged with your email. It's essential to track machine opens and human opens separately to gain a more accurate understanding of your campaign's performance. By tracking machine opens and human opens separately, you can identify significant differences in your campaign's performance. For instance, if your metrics represent low human opens and high machine opens this is an indication you may have email deliverability issues. Your email may be hitting spam folders or isn’t being delivered at all. If you are reporting low machine opens and low human opens (read as lack of human engagement) your content or subject line may need some work to spark the interest of your contacts. Alternatively, high human and machine opens signify a successful email campaign with both high levels of automation and human engagement – the ideal place to be! Tracking Opens in Braze The best way to measure Machine and Other opens (human generated) is to leverage Braze Engagement Report with options to view trends over time and side-by-side campaign comparison. Out of the box the exported Engagement Report includes a few fields (columns H-M), but not specific percentage metrics for machine opens or other (human) opens. Knowing what you know now about not all opens being equal, you will want to add your own metrics to the exported reports and start measuring other opens and machine open rates separately. The easiest way to do this is to add additional columns and calculate the machine and other opens rates (ex. machine opens/deliveries) as shown in green. Based on the example below, you can see how the other and machine open rates contribute the overall unique open percentage of the campaign. Unique open rates used to be an essential marker of success for email campaigns, indicative of their effectiveness and relevance to your audience. Now with the influx of machine opens inflating those rates exponentially, you must look beyond unique open rates in order to measure success and determine what is impacting your campaign. Don’t forget that click-through rates can provide additional valuable insights about how your campaign is performing among the real people. Check out our earlier post “ Are All Clicks Created Equal ?” to gain insights into making click metrics more meaningful in Braze.

Are you ever intimidated when faced with a blank canvas in Braze? Whether you're a newbie or returning after a break, we've got you covered with some quick refresher strategies for creating segmentations. These techniques are essential for any effective marketing analyst, so let's get started. When it comes to building segmentations, there are two approaches at your disposal: inclusive thinking and exclusive thinking. By mastering both, you can achieve impactful results that drive your marketing efforts to success. So, let's explore each mindset and learn how to leverage them effectively. The primary goal of segmentation is to refine your audience into more meaningful groups. Utilizing exclusions enables you to remove individuals from your targeted marketing audience. For instance, this could involve eliminating customers who have opted to be on a 'Do Not Contact' list. On the other hand, inclusions play an equally significant role in segmentation. Here, you aim to curate a group of marketing contacts to add to your targeted audience. For example, you might focus on identifying new customers to include them in your onboarding journey. To help cement the two styles of segmentation development, here are some examples: Excluding the Irrelevant Braze allows you to refine your campaigns by excluding specific users from receiving certain messages, ensuring your communications are highly relevant. Consider a business that aims to optimize their first-purchase promo offer by excluding customers who have already purchased more than one item with them. Define your exclusion criteria: Identify attributes or behaviors that don't align with your first-purchase promo offer. In this case, you're excluding customers who’ve already made a purchase. Create an exclusion segment: On the Braze dashboard, navigate to the Audience tab on the sidebar, and select "Segments." A quick click on "Create Segment" on the right, and you're all set! Within the segment, customize the filters based on attributes, events, or custom events related to your target audience. For this example, you’ll exclude users who have made a purchase as indicated by a Y/N flag in the database. Apply the segment to your campaign: When setting up your first purchase promo campaign, you can now code in a way to exclude all those who have previously purchased from you. Targeting the Relevant Precisely target users who meet specific criteria, ensuring personalized and engaging experiences. Imagine you were running a sports website as an example, and you want to send a basketball themed campaign. Determine your inclusion criteria: Identify attributes or behaviors distinguishing basketball enthusiasts, like interacting with basketball content, making basketball purchases, or self-identified an interest in the subject on your communication preference page. Create an inclusion segment: Rather than going through “audiences” you can now streamline your path to building segmentations with Braze's new dashboard feature. Navigate to the sidebar, and you’ll see a section called “Quick Links.” It provides easy link access to not only segments, but canvas and campaigns too. In this case, you want to click on segments and then create segment. Set up filters based on relevant attributes or events, such as "Viewed Basketball Category ”or “Sports Interest = Basketball,” to hone in on your target audience. Apply the segment to your campaign: Use the inclusion segment as the target audience, ensuring the campaign reaches basketball enthusiasts exclusively. This enhances relevance and engagement for the intended audience. Why Does it Matter? Now that you’re re-armed with the knowledge of how to build segments from the positive (inclusions) or negative (exclusions) within Braze, you may be thinking: why does this matter to your marketing campaigns? Relevance and Personalization: When you target specific groups of users with relevant content, you increase the chances of engaging them and driving desired actions. By excluding users who aren't likely to be interested in a particular message, you can avoid spamming them with irrelevant content, which could lead to user dissatisfaction and disengagement. Customer Retention and Loyalty: By sending relevant and timely messages to your existing customers, you can foster customer loyalty and retention. Exclusion segments can help you avoid bombarding loyal customers with repetitive offers and instead focus on providing them with exclusive rewards or promotions. Efficient Resource Allocation: Optimize marketing efforts by reaching the right audience, reducing wasteful spending, and maximizing campaign impact. Improved User Experience: Deliver personalized content that resonates with users, leading to higher satisfaction and increased brand loyalty. Higher Conversion Rates: Targeted messaging prompts users to take desired actions, such as purchases or sign-ups, increasing conversion rates. Insights and A/B Testing: Segmentation allows you to analyze the performance of different campaigns, messages, or offers through A/B testing. By comparing the results from other segments, you can gain valuable insights into what resonates best with specific user groups and refine your marketing strategy accordingly. Bonus Tip: Consider combining exclusion and inclusion segmentation for advanced targeting to create highly refined segments that reach your desired audience. By embracing these strategies and tips, you're well on your way to mastering Braze's segmentation logic. To dive deeper into segmentation creation in Braze, check out our article Does Time Really Matter? where we explore how using the time attribute filter can impact your logic.

Hopefully we can all agree that, at this point in Marketing’s history, personalization has essentially become table stakes (i.e. most consumers’ expectations) for marketers. Furthermore, it’s been well established that the use of personalization in your communications can: Increase activity through higher open rates, click-through rates, and overall engagement. Improve customer experience by delivering content that is relevant to their needs and interests. Facilitate higher conversion rates such as making a purchase, signing up for a service, or taking advantage of a promotion. Reduce unsubscribes and spam complaints by tailoring to the recipients' interests. And while your father might have customized every email he sent by hand (uphill and in the snow), you now have the benefit of programing in data driven personalization. Having been in the space for quite some time, here are some things to consider as you begin, or ramp up, your use of personalization in your marketing: You Don’t Know What You Don’t Know Depending on your background, maybe you don’t feel comfortable adding code to personalize your messaging. Sometimes new marketers aren’t even aware of the cool customizations you can add into your messages. For example, maybe you have different content blocks of copy based on how recent their last purchase was, or by their average level of spend. The good news is that most campaign management tools embed user-friendly means to implement personalization. Some MarTech platforms even have mechanisms for you to test and see the expected personalization for QA purposes. And if that weren’t enough, you’re fortunate to live in a time where there are so many additional resources for learning (blog posts, Chat GBT, videos, etc.). Garbage In, Garbage Out One great way to kill your personalization ambitions is by having poor data quality. This could manifest itself as erroneous demographic information, poor/legacy data formatting, or unruly data cycles where Marketing’s source data is not in sync with the enterprise data for things like: web pages viewed, subscription preference changes, etc. Therefore, it’s paramount to find clean and reliable data to ensure the success of your personalization initiatives. Talk to your IT teams, they can help you! Don’t Be a Creep Personalization is a powerful tool in a Marketer’s utility belt, but if used improperly, it can quickly turn from “hey, they know me” to “whoa, how did they know that about me?!” There’s a classic use case from around 2012 where Target was able to predict which consumers may be expecting a baby solely based on their purchasing habits. A woman’s pregnancy is a very personal thing, so sending any sort of message explicitly recognizing this life event feels like one step too far. However, subtly sending images including babies or coupons for diapers allows you to personalize without crossing the line. By embracing personalization effectively and responsibly, marketers can forge stronger connections with their audience, deliver tailored experiences, and achieve greater marketing success. If you liked this post, then you may be keen to read up on our Reverse ETL post – for getting the right data in your marketing technology stack to help you personalize things!

Fact: Computers are great at multitasking, and people are not. Yet somewhere along the way, you were tricked into believing that you can process information like a computer and should embrace multitasking. Maybe a higher-up assigned you to multiple workstreams and suggested that you "multitask." We wouldn't be surprised if that same task master also told you to "sleep faster"! What you need to remember is that the human brain doesn't actually multitask consciously. At least not in the true sense of the word. A more accurate description would be that it quickly jumps from one stream of consciousness to another, much like a series of agile sprints. Although, what may not be obvious is that there's a real mental toll each time you switch between workstreams. Your brain is not a computer and can't just stop thinking about one thing and instantaneously be prepared with all the new information for the completely unrelated new set of tasks. Many studies were done showing how multitasking impairs a person’s working memory, causing anxiety, as well as impacting the quality of the work being produced. To help illustrate the point, think of your brain like a phone. Then imagine that every time you wanted to switch to the next streaming video you needed to close the app and log back on. Clearly, that would not be a very efficient way to work….but it might just stop you from endlessly scrolling through YouTube Shorts and Instagram Reels late at night! So, the next time you think about multitasking, save yourself the exhaustion, take a pause, stretch, and finish what you were working on first. For those cases where you can’t avoid juggling multiple workstreams, maybe carve out large stretches of time for each so there are fewer transitions (i.e. interruptions in your flow). And if that doesn’t work, just hire a consultant to help.

Data lies at the very core of Braze's marketing endeavors—a fact that's hardly a secret. Along those lines, most marketers believe: the more data you have on the consumer, the better you can serve them. However, there’s a catch, especially when working in Braze. You need to be thoughtful about the data you bring into the Braze platform because you don’t want to over spend on data points ( tips for checking your current usage ) and incur extra fees. The Paths Most Traveled Picture a typical data flow within a marketing organization and you'll likely encounter two prevalent paths. Naturally, there are other possible data flows, but these are the two most commonly used paths we see. A) Path A) poses a conundrum, as it can leave you burdened with a surplus of data—whether stored in your data repository due to the creation of derived fields (such as identifying high-value customers with recent purchases) or, worse yet, within your Braze database, leading to needless data point consumption. B) Meanwhile, path B) presents setbacks like rigid data structures, dependence on CDP administrators to configure and process new data elements for Braze consumption, and, frankly, the overall ownership cost. Conquering New Terrain Enter a third viable option that’s a modern twist on a classic: Reverse ETL. Historically ETL (Extract, Transform, Load) processes were used to unify data in a single source of truth. Reverse ETL has emerged from all the cloud-based tools in order to democratize data to those SaaS systems. Reverse ETL can do many (though, not all) of the features of a traditional Customer Data Platform (CDP), but with a much slimmer footprint and monthly invoice. Did you know that Reverse ETL has features like data modelling and targeted audience segmentation that can filter the noise out of the data allowing marketers to be more productive? With data in that ideal activation state, you can unlock the abilities to leverage near-real-time data synchronization, scheduled synchronizations, and platform-defined triggered synchronization. And, if that weren’t enough for you, you adventurous Braze enthusiast, they can provide out-of-the-box delta data diffing/processing to minimize data transfer times and the consumption of data points! (The finance folks love this one) What if you're in a highly regulated industry worried about your clients' sensitive PII in highly regulated industries? Fear not! Your PII data can remain securely on your managed systems, never on staging areas provided by the Reverse ETL vendor. So, when it comes time to look at evolving your marketing stack and make better use of your data, know that there’s more than one path beyond just plugging in a CDP. And if you need help determining when that’s the case, just ask, and we’ll be happy to help.

When conducting email marketing campaigns, you’re inevitably going to want to track how your campaign is performing. A couple of the front-end indicators that have been widely accepted throughout the industry are email opens and emails clicks. And while the KPI (key performance indicator) may be common, how they’re calculated can vary depending on who (i.e. what software) is doing the math. For instance, you may have noticed that in Braze your numbers may seem a little higher than you expected. Well, did you know that by default Braze captures unsubscribe URL clicks as a “click”? While tracking total clicks can be valuable in campaigns where all clicks contribute to engagement (such as transactional campaigns), the value quickly diminishes when clicks are recorded for disengagement or unsubscribing - which should not align with your intended call-to-action (CTA)…unless you have too many customers and you’re looking to downsize. Fortunately, Braze offers the flexibility to disable link tracking for individual links in both the Drag and Drop editor and the HTML editor. This can be done by adding specific link attributes to your tag. The attributes required to disable link tracking may vary depending on the email platform associated with your Braze account, such as SendGrid or SparkPost. SendGrid: clicktracking = "off" SparkPost: data-msys-clicktrack = "0" If you are unsure how to make the update , just let us know and we’ll be happy to set you straight. Disabling link tracking in HTML editor Update the HTML code for the link that is to be untracked. Place the attribute to disable link tracking in the anchor tag BEFORE the href as shown below for the Braze unsubscribe link: Sendgrid: Sparkpost Disabling link tracking in the Drag-and-Drop editor HTML attributes can be applied to links in image, button, or text blocks. While editing your content block the Attributes option will be available. Click Add New Attributes Update the Name and Value pair: SendGrid Sparkpost After making these updates, unsubscribe events will continue to be tracked but the click to the unsubscribe page will not be tracked as part of the click-through rate (CTR) for that campaign or canvas message step moving forward. Conclusion Being aware of how email clicks are calculated in your email marketing platform is essential for ensuring accurate interpretation of key performance indicators (KPIs) and gaining valuable insights into customer engagement, channel performance, and overall marketing strategy. Additionally, disabling link tracking for specific links can help ensure that your click-through rate (CTR) aligns with your intended call-to-action (CTA) and prevents disengagement or unsubscribing clicks from skewing your campaign's performance metrics. If you liked this post, then check out our post on how to work with dates in Braze .

In the ever-expanding battle for your customer’s attention, creating a perfect campaign that truly captivates your audience and drives conversions can be an insurmountable challenge. For example, should your subject line boldly declare "$10 off" or a tempting promise of "50% off" your $20 product? And does a bold call to action like "Act Now" or a teasing "Limited Time Offer" spark more engagement? Your crystal ball is broken, and you can’t read minds, so now what? Fear not, because A/B testing is here to save the day, empowering businesses like yours to unlock the secrets to success. With the ability to test different campaign versions and analyze the results, A/B testing is the key to unveiling the optimal path forward, leaving guesswork in the dust and paving the way for data-driven triumphs. Be a Good Sport, Play by the Rules As you venture into the realm of A/B testing with Braze, it's essential to be aware of the limits that shape your experimentation. Straying from the standards may skew your results or impact the effectiveness of your testing. Audience size: The minimum audience size for A/B testing is 1,000 users. Test variations : You can test up to 8 variants in a single-channel campaign. Test duration: The maximum test duration is 14 days. Metrics tracking: Braze provides standard metrics like open rates, click-through rates, and conversions to track the performance of your test variations. Statistical significance: While Braze doesn't automatically calculate statistical significance, it offers data and reports that allow you to assess the effectiveness of your test results. You can utilize external statistical tools or methods to determine the statistical significance of the observed differences between variations. Available channels: A/B testing in Braze can be conducted across various channels , including email, push notifications, and in-app messages. Practice, Practice, Practice! When it comes to testing, there are many aspects to consider. It's crucial to keep these in mind when designing your tests. We’ve highlighted 8 key areas that Braze encourages you to consider when conducting A/B testing: Targeting/Segmentation: Who is the audience? Messaging Timing: Which lifecycle stage and time of day yield the best results? Content/Message: What type of message should we send, and what should it say? Geography/Demographics: Do location-based or cultural groups respond differently? Product Usage: Do users of specific product features respond differently to different channels? Frequency of Sending: How often should we send push notifications or emails? Customer Actions: Are users more likely to engage if they complete a certain action? Cross-Channel Testing: Do multi-channel approaches lead to better user outcomes? Ready, Set, Go! As you kickstart your experiment, don’t forget to start with a clear hypothesis outlining your expected outcomes and then document your results. While it may seem like a no-brainer, these steps can sometimes slip our minds when utilizing automated testing tools like Braze. What is it that you really want to know? When formulating your hypothesis, pinpoint the specific area you want to improve or explore. Does changing the email subject line boost open rates? Can tweaking the language on the push notification button skyrocket click-through rates? Throughout your testing, keep a watchful eye on those performance metrics like open rates, click-through rates, and conversions—track ‘em like a pro. This first-hand data will be your guiding light, helping you validate your experiments and prove your genius hypothesis right (or maybe even surprise you!). And the Winner is... Remember those 6 rules from earlier? This is why they matter. There are multiple ways to determine a winning variant. It can be determined based on the statistical significance, performance metrics, and practical significance to declare which variant performed better. This chosen variant will then be selected for the final campaign rollout, AKA the WINNER! OR , as shown below, you can utilize Braze's automated workflow feature. The winning variant is triggered to be sent to the remaining audience (hold outs) who were set aside from the initial A/B test emails. This ensures that the best version is delivered to the maximum number of users, amplifying the campaign's potential impact. But wait, there’s more! Braze also offers a new and recommended feature that takes optimization to the next level. It involves utilizing a personalized variant based on individual user preferences and behaviors. After the initial A/B test, Braze can automatically send each user the variant they are most likely to engage with. Now that you understand the basic fundamentals of A/B testing with Braze, you're ready to start testing and crushing your marketing goals. For an extra dose of fun, valuable tips, and tricks on all things Braze, be sure to stay tuned and follow our series, " Brazed and Confused ."

If you are working in a data driven Marketing Automation ecosystem, you already know that testing data workflows can be a real challenge. Traditionally, testing complex data logic in Braze for automation involves manufacturing internal test data that represents the expected logic of your Canvas paths and steps. The downside of that approach is that test data is often generated based on your Canvas data requirements, not the actual data that will be flowing through the Canvas once launched. While using internal test data is still a useful tool for overall Canvas and journey testing, there is a better way to accurately test your canvas entry properties and data flow controls. To see how your real users will flow into the Canvas once launched using a “blank” Braze to Braze webhook – insert oohs and ahhs here. By using “blank” webhook message steps (in place of your intended message channel) you’ll be able to see exactly how many users entered your canvas and how many messages will be sent at the top level of your canvas – without sending live messages. This method is not only easy to execute without development knowledge or API Keys, but it also uses zero data points! (BONUS POINTS!) Gone Testin’ New to the world of webhooks? We’ve got you covered. Here is how to test your Canvas entry and first step workflows using Braze to Braze webhooks with real user data and without sending live messages and without using data points: Step 1 – Create a Canvas Flow in the Braze dashboard and configure the Entry Schedule, Target Audience, and Send settings. Be sure to configure your events and event properties for Action-Based delivery. Step 2 – Build the Canvas variants and subsequent Flow Controls as needed (Decision, Audience, Action, and experiment paths) from the Canvas entry point. Step 3 – Add all Message components following the initial Flow Controls. These Message components should be configured to Webhooks. This will enable data flow testing with a webhook rather than with intended message channel (Email, In-App, SMS, etc.). Step 4 – Configure the webhook message steps with the following details: a. On the Compose tab set the Webhook URL to http://braze-images.com/spacer.gif b . Select Raw Text for the Request Body and leave it blank. c . On the Settings tab, set the HTTP Method as GET . No request headers are necessary. d. Test your webhook by sending a test to a random user. A successful test will return a "Webhook Response (200)”. Step 5 – Launch the Canvas! Once your canvas is launched, the users that meet the targeted audience and canvas entry properties will enter the canvas. Data will flow through the variants and initial flow components, and the Webhook Message steps will send. Step 6 – Validate your data workflows by reviewing Active Canvas details. Here you see the real audience count that entered the canvas (total canvas entries), the number of entries for each variant and canvas component, and the audience count for each Webhook Message step. To see the detailed user data for each step or variant, create and export segments that retarget users that entered or received a canvas variant or message step as CSV for analysis. Step 7 – Save your webhook and go live! Once the data workflows have been validated, replace the webhook steps with your real channel messages and finish your canvas build. You can also save this “blank” webhook as a template to use in the future. We hope you find this helpful in mitigating testing risks while getting the real view into how your Canvas will perform. We’re always searching more ways to streamline testing and reduce error, so if you have any tips or tricks you use to perfect your messaging, do share!

Transitioning to a new MarTech platform like Braze requires thoughtful planning and data flow design. You must think about everything from sourcing and aggregating multidimensional customer data, all of the way to setting up the required infrastructure that supports API and SDK data transmissions. We see it with many of our clients, some of those critical legacy data sources are sourced as flat files (think spreadsheet) which changes the whole way you look at the integration and adds complexity to the overall data ingestion strategy. Not Your Father’s Upload If you fall in this camp of needing to import CSV (“comma separated values,” for you non-nerds) files into your marketing tool, you’re in luck. Braze supports old school data files (i.e., CSVs) by merging legacy data file transfers with modern data movement methods utilizing API calls. In addition, the Braze CSV data import mechanism provides you the opportunity to automate the processing of large subsets of data via a partnership with Amazon Web Services (AWS) leveraging their Lambda function. This function “automagically” parses received CSV data files and converts them into the native API speak that imports client data into the user profiles within Braze. But wait a minute. You may be thinking, “why can’t I just import the CSV files through the normal Braze user interface?” You can, however, this manual process can be extremely tedious and resource prohibitive when enormous amounts of data are involved. Make Sure You’ve Got the Right Stuff In order to implement this solution, there are few requirements to perform: Client Managed File Transfer System : More often than not, organizations that rely on flat file data exports have a Managed File Transfer (MFT) system already in place. Systems like GoAnywhere MFT, Thru, and Cleo Integration Cloud are a few examples seen at our clients. These systems are key for automation since they dictate when and where data files are transferred for immediate data ingestion into Braze. Braze API Key : The API key that will provide access to the user track endpoint on the target Braze application group. Amazon S3 Storage Bucket : An S3 bucket / landing zone provides the necessary storage for data files and working area for the AWS (Amazon Web Services) Lambda function to perform the data processing. Amazon Lambda : This is where the Braze serverless function is defined and configured to integrate with the target Braze application group. Amazon Transfer Services : The AWS transfer service packages all the above and provides the SFTP service for the target AWS environment the MFT system can define on the client side. How the (auto)Magic Happens This Braze feature works extremely well and efficiently when automated through file transfer management systems capable of executing file transfers via schedules and triggers. PRO TIP: It is also highly recommended, and a best practice, to finalize data files comprised of ONLY data updates (deltas) so not to waste Braze data points. (more on that another time) The client data source lands a data file onto a location that the managed file transfer (MFT) system has access to. Based on the data ingestion schedule and automation requirements, the MFT system picks up the file and transfers the file (via SFTP) to the target Amazon S3 bucket defined via the Amazon Transfer Service (ATS provides the hostname and secure connection to client’s MFT system). When the data file lands in the S3 bucket, this triggers the Braze Lambda function to execute. The Braze Lambda function reads the data file (processes the file headers: external_ids, custom attributes, and corresponding data values) and converts them into an API call that is transmitted to the target Braze app group. The API call contains all the data to create or update the target user profiles within Braze since it references a customer’s external_id.