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Automation is becoming a mainstay in customer engagement platforms—and for good reason. Brands are getting smarter about leveraging behavioral signals and psychographics. AI agents are being purpose-built for tasks like message management. And—perhaps most exciting of all—achieving true 1:1 personalization at scale is finally within reach. Take our partner Braze, one of the leading customer engagement platforms. They continue to expand their AI-powered features, deepen integration with Shopify, and seamlessly add new data sources and outbound channels to streamline the marketer’s experience. Adapt or Get Left Behind As marketers, we have a choice: embrace these advancements or risk falling behind. You can lean into emerging technologies—or ignore them and hope it all blows over. But we’ve all seen how that story ends. Consider Panera’s approach. By integrating an AI-powered decision engine, they developed a cross-channel, personalized campaign strategy to guide guests through their menu transformation. The results? A 5% lift in retention, double the loyalty offer redemptions, and 2X purchase conversions—all while reaching millions of customers with tailored messaging. Contrast that with the brands still blasting out generic messages to broad segments, recycling outdated copy, and missing critical moments to connect. You know the ones. (We won’t name names.) It's clear which approach wins—today and in the long run. Let Automation Handle the Heavy Lifting The real beauty of automation? It takes care of the repetitive, data-heavy tasks so you can focus on what truly matters. For example: Let the tool draft your marketing copy—then refine the tone to match your brand. Let the tool analyze A/B test results and choose the winning version—while you plan the next experiment to boost engagement. Let the tool select the best product or channel—so you can craft fresh, compelling calls-to-action. Double Down on Human Strengths More automation doesn’t mean marketers are any less essential. On the contrary: the more intelligent the tools, the more crucial your creativity, strategy, and oversight become. That means: Reviewing and refreshing legacy campaigns to stay relevant. Monitoring AI decisions to ensure alignment with brand values. Innovating new ways to connect with customers in a constantly evolving digital world. With the right balance, automation and human insight can work together to scale personalization—without losing authenticity. The Future Is Human + Machine Marketing isn’t about choosing between AI and people. It’s about using the best of both to create smarter, more engaging experiences. So the question isn’t if you should embrace automation. It’s: How will you use it to elevate your impact?

Braze is rolling out a few exciting new features designed to enhance engagement, optimize workflows, and give you (the practitioners) more control over your customer interactions. From creating seamless landing pages to streamlining campaign execution, these updates help you work smarter, personalize better, and drive stronger results. Available Now! Landing Pages The highly anticipated Landing Pages feature has officially moved from Early Access (EA) to General Availability (GA)! With Braze’s drag-and-drop editor, anyone can now easily build landing pages that: Grow your subscriber list and boost conversions on sign-ups, surveys, and downloads. Collect valuable user insights—like location, job title, and language—to craft personalized messaging. Seamlessly capture consent for marketing communications and terms & conditions. Test and compare variations to drive better results. Additionally, these enhanced Landing Page features are now available to all users: Dropdowns – Collect user data and save it to any attribute field in Braze. As a side benefit, it keeps your data clean with predefined dropdown options. Checkboxes – Capture Boolean values for easy consent and opt-in confirmation. Analytics – Track landing page performance with views, clicks, and form submission metrics. Get a glimpse of the Braze Landing Pages in action, check out this Braze Bites tutorial . Operational Optimization Braze is making it easier than ever to optimize campaigns, troubleshoot issues, and enhance messaging efficiency. These updates give you more control, visibility, and flexibility—all within the platform: Quick Push in Canvas – Send push notifications faster with a unified composition experience across all push platforms and devices. Whether for campaigns or Canvas, deliver breaking news or timely updates seamlessly to all users, regardless of their device. Webhook & Connected Content Error Alerts – Stay ahead of potential issues with real-time notifications when errors occur in your webhook or Connected Content endpoints. Quickly identify and resolve problems by updating your notification preferences in your workspace settings. Volume Limit Notifications – Maintain full visibility into your sending behavior with email alerts when your Canvases or Campaigns hit their send limits. Avoid misconfigurations and ensure your audience targeting remains effective. Enhanced Segment Export Controls – Gain deeper insights and greater actionability over your segment exports. Manage or cancel ongoing exports, view key details, and troubleshoot directly within the platform for a smoother experience. These updates are designed to give you more efficiency, control, and confidence in your customer engagement strategy. Whether you're optimizing workflows, personalizing journeys, or scaling your campaigns, leveraging the power of Braze can help you deliver impactful experiences. Try out these features today and get ready for even more innovation coming your way! And if you hit any roadblocks, feel free to contact us at brazehelp@covalentmarketing.com to explore how these tools can elevate your marketing.

In 2024, Braze consistently pushed out updates, enhancements, and new features to ensure they are meeting the needs of their customers and driving innovation within the industry. To close out the year, here’s a quick rundown of the most recent updates to help you capitalize on what makes Braze best-in-class. Available Now! Adobe Currents Connector The list of native integrations continues to grow! One of the most requested connections—Adobe—has been added. This no-code, real-time stream enables user and engagement data to flow seamlessly from Braze to Adobe CDP, empowering you to drive advanced BI and analytics use cases while ensuring data consistency across internal pipelines. Multi-Language Composition - Custom Attributes Easily reach global audiences in their native languages with support for up to 200 locales. By leveraging custom attributes in Multi-Language Composition, you can efficiently target translated messages to the right audience, saving time and resources. Set up your language locales with custom attributes in Multi-language composition to target translated messages to the audience you need more easily. Email Link Templates Auto-Add Setting Simplify email creation with the new auto-add link template setting. With a simple toggle, you can automatically include link templates in all your email links, eliminating the need to edit each message manually. Plan ahead and streamline your workflow effortlessly. Copying Across Workspaces Front-end users managing multiple Workspaces can now rejoice! The new “Copy to Workspace” tool lets you duplicate Campaigns, SMS, in-app messages, emails, email templates, and Content Blocks across Workspaces, reducing time to market and minimizing human error. While some minor validations may be required, this tool is a significant time-saver. Visit the Braze documentation for a detailed guide on using this feature. Coming Soon! Report Builder 2.0 Set to launch for general access in February 2025, the enhanced Report Builder offers a more visually appealing and in-depth reporting experience. Designed based on user feedback, this tool enables you to create detailed, shareable reports for any Campaign or Canvas with just a few clicks. Analyze engagement data, gain actionable insights, and make faster, data-driven decisions. These updates cap off the avalanche of Braze enhancements in 2024. For a comprehensive overview of the key Braze advancements and a preview of what’s coming in 2025, explore our Braze updates library here . Want to stay ahead with Braze’s latest features and keep one step ahead of your competition? Contact us at brazehelp@covalentmarketing.com to explore how these tools can elevate your marketing.

There is a growing movement in the marketing technology (MarTech) landscape that is evolving toward more open and interoperable design principles. This shift embraces composable technology stacks featuring Microservices, API-first, Cloud-native SaaS, and Headless capabilities (MACH). When it comes to integrating Braze, microservices can be one of the more challenging components to implement. However, to help you get over that hump, this post will walk you through what microservices are, why they matter, and two key methods—APIs and webhooks—to integrate them into your Braze customer engagement platform. What Are Microservices and Why Use Them? Microservices are small, independent, and reusable software components that perform specific tasks. They are often used to communicate with other systems to source data, trigger actions, and maintain a streamlined technology footprint— because unfortunately we’ve all seen how tech debt can be a killer! Some examples of microservices in action are: Engaging with companion MarTech systems such as content management, CRM, and financial tools (e.g., dynamic image selection, checking credit scores, processing payments). Generating next-best-product recommendations based on customer behavior and inventory levels. Interacting with social media users in real-time dialogue. Ultimately, microservices enable marketers to deploy campaigns quickly, enhance agility, and create more engaging brand experiences. Many marketers consider microservices an indispensable part of their MarTech stack due to their scalability, flexibility, and ability to accelerate time-to-market. In a way, they act as a cheat code for savvy marketers, helping them deliver more relevant and timely messaging with ease. Method 1: API-Driven Communication with Braze If you’re new to microservices, integrating them with Braze may seem overwhelming. To overcome that fear and anxiety, we’ll outline the key steps to setting up your Braze marketing engagement platform with microservices. Pro Tip: Microservices operate as independent units that communicate through APIs. When integrating Braze within a microservices architecture, ensuring efficient API-driven communication is key to delivering personalized customer experiences. Use an API Gateway An API Gateway serves as the central hub for communication between Braze and your microservices. It enhances security, request management, and monitoring. Route requests to Braze’s REST APIs ( /users/track, /campaigns/trigger/send ). Limit request rates to stay within Braze’s API thresholds . Log and monitor all interactions for tracking and troubleshooting. Define Clear Data Flows Each microservice plays a distinct role, handling different aspects of the customer experience (e.g., authentication, transactions, notifications). Defining explicit API goals helps standardize how microservices interact with Braze. User Service : Updates customer data via /users/track . Transaction Service : Sends purchase data to /purchases . Engagement Service : Triggers campaigns using /campaigns/trigger . Secure Your API Communication Use API keys and secure storage solutions such as environment variables or secret management tools. Implement OAuth for internal microservice security, if required. Encrypt sensitive user data before transmitting it to Braze to comply with privacy regulations. Method 2: Using Braze Webhooks in an Event-Driven Setup Microservices architectures benefit greatly from event-driven communication, where services react to events asynchronously rather than relying on direct API calls. Braze webhooks provide a powerful way to implement this workflow. Real-Time Event Handling Braze can send webhooks to your microservices based on predefined triggers (e.g., user actions, campaign interactions, purchase events). These webhooks enable real-time processing without constant polling. Examples: Order Confirmation : A purchase triggers a webhook that updates the order status. Churn Prevention : An inactive user triggers a re-engagement campaign. Personalized Offers : A user action triggers a targeted promotion send. Managing Webhooks in a Microservices System Since multiple services may consume webhook events, here are some best practices to consider: Message Queue (Kafka, RabbitMQ, AWS SNS/SQS): Ensures reliable event distribution. Webhook Receiver Service : Acts as a middleman to route events to appropriate microservices. Retries & Failures : Implement logic to retry failed webhook deliveries. How it works: Securing Webhooks Validate Signatures : Prevent fake requests. Limit Requests : Avoid overwhelming your system. Log Everything : Track deliveries and failures for troubleshooting. Bringing It All Together Connecting Braze to your microservices doesn't have to be a headache. By leveraging API gateways, structured data flows, and event-driven webhooks, you can create a seamless, scalable solution. Key takeaways: Use an API Gateway for secure, efficient communication with Braze. Clearly define microservice roles when interacting with Braze. Implement webhooks for real-time event handling. Secure all integrations with authentication and monitoring. This is a pretty sophisticated topic, and we’ve only scratched the surface. There’s much more to explore in optimizing Braze for your microservices architecture. If you’d like to dive deeper, feel free to reach out to us . Interested in more? You might also enjoy our guide on Connecting Braze to Facebook .

Engaging with your customers across multiple outbound marketing channels is essential in today’s marketing. By utilizing a variety of touchpoints, it empowers you to create personalized experiences, reach a wider audience, and drive meaningful interactions with your customers. Yet, many marketing teams narrowly focus their efforts on just a handful of channels such as email, in-app messaging (IAM), and SMS leading to missed opportunities in other established channels like social media. Enter Facebook and its ability to send two distinct types of marketing communication: Prospecting : Targeting new, lookalike audiences who share traits with your existing customers Loyalty : Directly engaging known users through Facebook Messenger on a personal level Each marketing communication path requires its own setup and configuration. So, to keep things concise, we'll split this discussion into two parts. In this post, we'll dive into the key steps for setting up prospecting campaigns within your Braze customer engagement system. Establish Credentials To begin your foray into Facebook you’ll need to enable the Facebook Custom Audiences Integration to connect Braze and Facebook. Fortunately, setting this up is very straightforward and only requires configuring the integration on the Braze side. To complete the integration, you’ll need to ensure you have the following information: Access to your organizations Meta Ads Manager Admin account This will be the account Braze utilizes to authenticate with Facebook Administrative Access to your Braze instance You will need these privileges to perform the configuration within Braze Administrative Access to your organizations Meta Ads Manager This will provide the necessary privileges to define audiences for targeting within Facebook Once you have all those credentials, it’s time to get the party started! Integrate with Braze With your Meta credentials nailed down, you can now connect Braze with Facebook. Follow these steps to establish the integration: 1. Within Braze, navigate to the Partner Integrations section on the left-hand pane and select Technology Partners. 2.  You’ll find Facebook (social) under the All Technology Partners section. Don’t be shy, click on it. 3. On the Facebook configuration page, click the Connect Facebook button. 4. The setup process will prompt you for the credentials, which you secured earlier, to connect to Facebook. Follow the prompts and you should be good to go PRO TIP: Utilizing a personal account to perform this integration is NOT best practice. Your organization should have defined an application account for establishing this integration. 5. After completing the account definition process in the Facebook portal, you’ll automagically be sent back to the Braze configuration page. Now that Braze has access to your Meta Ads Manager, you will be tasked with defining the Facebook Ad Account that will be receiving segment information via your Braze canvas. PRO TIP: You may see several Ad Accounts depending on the privileges provided to the Facebook account utilized for the integration. Pick the account where your Facebook Audiences are defined and that will sync with Braze segment data moving forward 6. Once you have identified the appropriate Ad Account, select the corresponding check box and click on the Connect Ad Account button. This will complete the configuration process on the Braze side. See! That wasn’t so hard. Give yourself a pat on the back since you just completed the process of integrating Facebook Custom Audiences with Braze! Braze Segment to Audience Sync Now that you’ve completed the hard work of setting up the Facebook Custom Audience integration with Braze, you can send those Facebook focused segments over to your Meta Ads Manager. When you setup a Braze Canvas, with the integration enabled, you can choose Facebook as a channel for your audience sync step (see image below). When your Canvas is launched, the segment data will be pushed over as an audience to Facebook where it can be defined in your Facebook Ad Campaigns. In the second half of this Facebook series , we cover Facebook Messenger and the steps required to get the data communications going between Facebook and Braze. This integration will enable you to engage directly with your Facebook audiences through messages that will foster stronger relationships which will ultimately drive customer loyalty and engagement.

As marketers, we talk about multi-channel marketing often, but how well do we understand its true impact? Research consistently shows that integrating multiple channels into a campaign significantly boosts engagement and sales. In fact, according to a 2022 study by Omnisend , marketers using three or more channels in a campaign see a 494% higher order rate compared to those using a single-channel approach. However, the extent to which you can leverage multi-channel marketing depends on the capabilities of your marketing automation platform. The Evolution of Multi-Channel Marketing Not all platforms are created equal. Marketing automation is not a one-size-fits-all concept, and selecting the right platform is critical to meeting your marketing goals. Depending on your marketing maturity, your strategy and operations should align with your unique goals and objectives. When you began your digital marketing journey, you might have used platforms that specialize in just one or two channels, such as Mailchimp, Constant Contact, or Vibes. These platforms are well-suited for small organizations, but their limited functionality can stunt growth when it's time to expand your channel offerings. For marketers with more experience, navigating the selection of a platform can be more complicated. While you may be satisfied with your current system, there may be more advanced options available. Legacy providers like Salesforce Marketing Cloud, Adobe Campaign, and HCL Unica have expanded their reach from direct mail and email to include SMS, push notifications, and even WhatsApp. And while these platforms have adapted over time, they may not offer the flexibility and scalability required by modern marketers. Meeting Customers Where They Are Today’s marketers know that reaching customers where they already spend their time is crucial. A broader, integrated messaging approach is essential to achieving higher engagement and retention. This is where platforms like Braze come into play. With a mobile-first perspective, Braze understands the modern consumer, allowing brands to send messages seamlessly across multiple channels, including: Email SMS/MMS Push notifications WhatsApp In-app messaging (web and mobile) Line OTT (over-the-top media services) Webhooks Why Braze? By leveraging Braze’s extensive capabilities, brands can create meaningful, data-driven interactions that resonate with their audience at the right time, on the right platform. Whether it’s through personalized emails, dynamic push notifications, or seamless in-app experiences, Braze enables marketers to orchestrate campaigns that drive tangible results. For those looking to move beyond the limitations of legacy platforms or single-channel providers, Braze offers the expansive reach and modern technology needed to take your multi-channel marketing strategy to the next level. Are You Ready to Take Your Marketing to the Next Level? With Braze, the possibilities are endless. Let’s unlock the power of multi-channel marketing together. Ready to learn more about Braze? Learn more about their focus on innovation, partnership and customer success .

Email deliverability and reputation management are often under-represented in digital marketing, yet they play a critical role in ensuring your campaigns reach the right audience. With providers like Gmail and Yahoo constantly refining how they evaluate incoming messages to protect their users’ inboxes, ignoring these aspects can lead to costly outcomes: lower deliverability rates, reduced engagement, and lost revenue. Now, more than ever, it’s essential to stay informed about the latest best practices for email deliverability and reputation management. The good news? We’ve made it our mission to stay ahead of the deliverability curve, so you don’t have to. Keep reading to discover actionable tips that could make all the difference in whether your emails land in your audience’s inbox – or their evil spam folder. Set Yourself Up for Success When migrating to a new customer engagement platform, you are required to (re)establish and warm up a new IP address for sending emails. At its most basic, IP Warming is the process of methodically increasing the volume of email that you send from your new IP address in a calculated manner to not invoke any SPAM sensors by the email providers. Try following these IP Warming best practices so you can build a positive reputation with email providers and improve your deliverability rates. Remember to be patient as this process is both art and science, and requires a well-thought-out process before you begin. Here are a few tips for warming up a new IP: Analyze your audience and segment by email provider. Start by sending a small volume of email to your most-engaged subscribers. Create a plan on paper that programmatically increases the volume of email sends over time. Monitor your deliverability rates closely and make adjustments as needed, even if that means reducing volume. Consult with deliverability experts who can streamline the process. Your Reputation is Everything After warming up your new IP address, don’t forget to continue monitoring your email delivery metrics and your overall reputation. This will help you to identify and address any potential problems that could affect your ongoing email deliverability rates down the road. Here are a few tips for monitoring your email delivery and reputation: Use a tool like Google Postmaster to track your deliverability rates. Monitor and analyze your bounce rates and spam complaint rates. Mail providers (e.g. Google, Microsoft) can also supply additional insights. Use a feedback loop to collect feedback from email providers about your email program. Establish baseline metric levels so can you detect if there are any anomalies in performance. If you’re relatively new to sending large amounts of email, we understand this may be a little (or a lot) overwhelming. The good news is that there are numerous resources that can help you to warm up your new IP address, monitor your email delivery and reputation, and improve your overall email deliverability rates. To kick start you on that journey of learning, check out this post on understanding the difference between human opens and machine opens and how to track them separately in Braze. Additionally, here’s a post on understanding your deliverability metrics at the ISP level.

We’re so lucky that innovation is engrained into Braze’s corporate identity as leading marketing software makers. And we love that Braze continues to transform complex technical requirements into intuitive dashboard solutions. In 2024 we saw over 100 new features released. Here are three standout features that particularly caught our attention for their ability to streamline workflows and enhance marketing capabilities. Drag-and-Drop Landing Pages: Expand Your Channel Capabilities The Landing Page Builder represents a significant step forward in channel expansion, putting the power of creating interactive customer touchpoints directly in marketers' hands. This feature eliminates the traditional technical barriers that often required developer involvement for even simple landing page modifications, enabling agile marketing teams to move faster and be more responsive to campaign needs. There are numerous and valuable ways to leverage Landing Pages in your engagement strategy. An example of a particularly powerful use case is extending your in-app messaging (IAM) experience to other channels. Instead of limiting interactive experiences to active app users, you can now create engaging touchpoints accessible through email, social media, or any other channel. For instance, you can create interactive forms that log custom events when users click submit – perfect for running limited-time promotions, capturing user preferences, or gathering feedback. These events can then trigger real-time messaging or move users through a Canvas workflow, creating seamless, multichannel experiences that drive meaningful engagement. Channel acquisition becomes more streamlined as well. Marketing teams can create a single landing page that serves as a subscription hub, making it accessible from multiple touchpoints including email, social media, and even QR codes. This approach ensures a consistent opt-in experience while automatically updating user preferences in Braze, eliminating the need for technical resources to manage subscription data. While currently in early availability with some limitations (such as compatibility with string attributes only and a maximum of five active landing pages), this feature already demonstrates significant value for marketing teams. Given Braze's track record of rapid feature expansion, we anticipate seeing support for enhanced form elements like checkboxes and dropdowns, along with standard event tracking for submission-based retargeting in the near future. Bulk Duplicate Profile Merging: Scale Data Cleanup Operations We've all been there – staring at a database full of duplicate profiles, knowing that cleaning them up would make our targeting more precise and our analytics more accurate but it's just as unappealing to tackle as cleaning out a junk drawer. That's why we're so excited about Braze's bulk merging capability, transforming what used to be weeks of manual work into a simple, automated process. The real beauty of this feature is how it combines efficiency with confidence. You can preview results before making changes, set up smart rules for how profiles should be merged, and let the system do the heavy lifting. The result? Better targeting, more accurate personalization, and most importantly, a single, reliable view of each customer – all without requiring technical resources or complex API calls. Here's how it works: Click Audience > Manage Audience. View how duplicate profiles are identified and how ties are resolved by clicking View/Edit rules. Edit tie breaker rules to determine which profile will be kept in the event of multiple matches based on the record created, updated, or last session dates. Preview identified duplicate users by clicking “ Generate list of duplicates ” to have Braze export a CSV to download and review and click Merge all duplicates when ready. Braze automatically identifies profiles with matching identifiers based on the rules (email addresses or phone numbers) and merges all data into the most recently updated known (has external_id) user profile. Empty fields on the kept profile are filled with values from merged profiles. PRO TIP: Merges cannot be undone, so always review the list of duplicates before merging. BrazeAI™ Liquid Assistant: Simplify Complex Personalization If you've ever found yourself wishing for a personalization expert who could sit next to you and help craft the perfect dynamic content, the BrazeAI™ Liquid Assistant is your new best friend. Available in the HTML editor for email, SMS, and push message composer, this clever tool is like having a Liquid syntax expert on speed dial, ready to help you create sophisticated personalization logic using simple conversation. The assistant offers several powerful capabilities: Support in both campaigns and Canvases for multiple messaging channels Generation of Liquid code from natural language prompts Personalized suggestions for improving existing Liquid syntax Educational annotations that explain the Liquid code, helping teams learn as they work Support for both email messages and Canvas workflows While currently available in the HTML editor, here's a cheat code to help you also leverage this tool for drag-and-drop emails. Use the HTML editor to generate your desired Liquid logic. Copy the generated code. Insert it into an HTML content block within the drag-and-drop editor. This sneaky workaround allows teams to create sophisticated personalization rules without deep technical expertise. Looking Forward These features exemplify Braze's commitment to empowering marketing teams with tools that were previously dependent on technical resources. By breaking down these technical barriers while maintaining robust capabilities, Braze is enabling teams to work more efficiently and deliver more sophisticated customer experiences. As we continue to explore these features, we're particularly excited about the upcoming enhancements to the Landing Pages builder and the potential for even more AI-assisted tools to simplify complex marketing operations. If you’re ready to read about some more awesome Braze features like Link Aliasing and Email Insights check out this post.

Data points are the lifeblood of the Braze experience. Every piece of data being sent to Braze that describes who your users are, their behaviors and actions within your applications and website, are calculated as data points. While data points (attributes and events) are used to track user behavior, create segments, and send targeted messages with Braze, they are also calculated to determine how much you pay for Braze services and overage fees. What’s Your Allowance? Every account has a data point budget, so how do you know if you’re on track? You have to be proactive, but it’s pretty simple. Using the menu on the left go to: Settings > Company Settings > Billing and at the top of that Billing screen you'll find a Total Data Points Usage  tab where you can review your contracted data point allotment and usage to date. From here you’ll find your contract start and end dates, allotted data points for the duration of your contract, and total data point usage to date. You will also see the usage per individual App Group. How Did You Spend It? A great way to track your usage is to use a spreadsheet that calculates your data points burn rate month-to-month. We did the hard part, so all you need to do is download our Braze Data Point Usage spreadsheet and you can keep track of your data points and email volume usage month-to-month. From the Total Data Points Usage dashboard you also view data point usage by app group. Understanding where and how your data points are being used can help identify any data anomalies or spikes, or help forecast for planned adjustments. For example, you can see which app groups (e.g. production apps or QA apps) are consuming data points towards your allotment to avoid overages leading to potential additional charges. Within the dashboard, the “ App Group Level Data Point Usage by Category ” shows a breakdown of how data was consumed – whether by attributes, custom or purchase events, as well as how session starts and ends may impact your overall usage. You should also get familiar with the “ Most Used Events and Attributes by App ” dashboard. This gives you an even more granular look (yep, this is for the true data nerds) into which specific events and attributes per app group are consuming data as well as the % of overall usage pre-attribute/event. For example, you can identify if unnecessary updates to default attributes like “first_name” are driving up usage. Now that you’re enlightened and more aware of the rate your data is being consumed, I bet you want to be able to identify inefficient and costly data processes that may be driving up your usage. Stayed tuned for an upcoming Brazed and Confused article to learn how!

We know that data governance and compliance isn’t the most exciting part of your marketing strategy. However, setting clear rules and protocols for how you handle customer data is critical in today’s GDPR and CCPA marketing landscape. To help you comply with these regulations—and other industry standards—we’ll share strategies to manage sensitive data and retention policies, and other practical tips for savvy marketers using Braze. Understanding GDPR and CCPA: Key Compliance Guidelines Before we dive into the details, let’s quickly review the highlights of these two major data privacy laws. GDPR The General Data Protection Regulation (GDPR) is a European law that governs how personal data is collected, processed, and stored. Consent First: You need clear, explicit consent to collect or use an individual’s data. Transparency: Users can ask what data you have on them and even request that you delete it. Security: You’re on the hook for protecting customer data from breaches. CCPA The California Consumer Privacy Act (CCPA) only applies to personal data collected from California residents, regardless of where the business is based. Right to Know: Users can ask for a summary of the data you’ve collected or shared. Opt-Out Option: Individuals can say, “No thanks” to having their data sold. Right to Delete: Similar to GDPR, they can request that you erase their data. No Payback Penalties: You can’t deny services or benefits to users who exercise these rights. Practical Steps: Managing Data with Braze Managing data in Braze doesn’t have to be overwhelming. With the right features and processes, you can stay compliant while delivering personalized experiences. Let’s break down the key steps for streamlining data governance with Braze. Get Consent Right Braze makes it easy to track and manage user consent preferences. By utilizing these Braze features, you can stay compliant. Standard Attributes: Depending on the communication channel, you can utilize standard attributes like email_subscribe, push_subscribe, subscription_state, to provide/define the consent preference information on whether a user has opted-in or not. Not only are these attributes the source of truth for consent status, these attributes dictate whether or not Braze users are engaged at the system level. Braze SDK Real-Time Updates: The benefit of the SDK is the ability to capitalize on inputs in real-time. If a user changes their mind about consent at any point, you can update their status right away through Braze’s SDK. Example API Payload: Using standard attributes to set consent Sync Your Data: If you’re using a CRM or consent management platform, make sure it syncs with Braze so everything’s consistent to ensure timely compliance with all relevant regulations. Double Opt-in: The easiest way ensure the validity of email consent is with a double opt-in mechanism. Upon sign-up, send a confirmation email asking the user to confirm their intentions which helps legitimize their subscription status. Within their Braze profile their status is updated from “Subscribed” to “Opt-in.” Only Collect What You Need One of GDPR’s big rules is “data minimization” which means, don’t collect any unnecessary data. To drive compliance when populating your user profiles in Braze: Avoid storing sensitive details (e.g., financial data or social security numbers). Stick to only the data you need for your campaigns, like email addresses, device IDs, or purchase behavior. Handle PII the Right Way PII (Personally Identifiable Information) is any data that could identify an individual, like their name, email, or phone number. Here’s how to handle PII securely in Braze: Limit Access - Braze enables you to set up role-based permissions, so only the right people on your team can access sensitive data. If they can’t view PII, remove that privilege from their workspace or their role! And here's how you can grant that access: Encrypt Everything: Braze already secures data with top-tier encryption (SOC 2 and ISO 27001 compliant), but it’s good practice to also encrypt user data on your end before sending it to Braze. Tag Sensitive Data: Use Braze’s data tagging system to label sensitive fields. This keeps things organized and helps you track what’s being stored. Skip Storing Ultra-Sensitive Info: Braze isn’t designed to handle things like health or financial data, so keep these attributes out of your Braze marketing platform and leverage them via external sources only. Data Retention and Deletion: Stay Clean and Compliant Ensuring data retention and deletion practices are in line with legal requirements is critical for compliance. Here’s how to manage retention, deletion, and record-keeping. Set Up a Data Retention Plan By default, Braze keeps inactive user data for 36 months, but you can adjust this to fit your organization’s policies. If Braze’s default timeframe doesn’t meet your company’s security policy, you can have this modified by submitting a support request with Braze via the Support > Get Help menu in the dashboard. Delete User Data Need to handle a GDPR or CCPA “right to delete” request? Since you cannot delete users in Braze directly within the user interface, the Braze’s User Deletion API has you covered and below is an example. You can even process bulk deletion requests programmatically using the same endpoint. Example Batch Script: Deleting a User via API Then, equally as important, keep a record of all the user deletion API requests and responses to those requests so you’ve got proof. Below is an example when using Postman: Messaging Without Breaking the Rules Staying compliant while delivering personalized messaging is crucial for maintaining trust and avoiding legal issues. Here are best practices to keep your campaigns compliant: Be Careful with Personalization: Dynamic content is awesome, but ensure you’re not accidentally sharing PII, like a user’s full account number, in push notifications or SMS. Give Clear Opt-Out Options: For email campaigns, always include an unsubscribe link. Braze makes this simple with the {{unsubscribe_url}} placeholder. Honor Do-Not-Track Signals: Braze’s SDK can pick up signals from browsers or mobile devices, so if a user opts out of tracking, their preferences will be respected automatically. Stay on Top of Compliance Processes: Compliance is an ongoing process. Ensure you and your teams are monitoring changing laws and evolving best practices. Establish a system that will: Review the data you’re sending to Braze regularly to make sure it’s necessary and compliant. Test your API endpoints for exporting and deleting user data to ensure they work smoothly. Keep up with new regulations like Virginia’s Consumer Data Protection Act (VCDPA) or any other regional laws that might pop up. Handling GDPR, CCPA, and other compliance requirements can feel like a lot, but Braze makes it less intimidating. By leveraging its tools for consent management, data minimization, and secure data flows, you can stay compliant without sacrificing the quality of your customer engagement. Remember, compliance isn’t just about avoiding fines, it’s about building trust with your users. When they know you respect their data, they’re more likely to stick around and engage with your brand. If you made it this far, we’ll assume you like to geek out about data and we would recommend the our article on the interesting ways your data can flow into Braze .