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If you’re considering adding SMS to your Braze channel mix, there’s a good amount of detail to prepare and compliance to understand before you hit submit on that application for carrier approval. The requirements, applications, and rules are always changing, and the review and approval process can be long and daunting. Even as consultants, we learn something new each time we submit a client’s application. If this is something you’re tackling for the first time, partner up with a trusted consultant (like us!) or SMS SME (still us!) to help make the process easier and possibly faster. Once you decide to adopt SMS, the process to apply is quite clear, but ensuring you’re compliant and providing proper application responses is a little fuzzier. Based on our experience, we suggest you work through the steps below, so you’re armed with all of the details needed to complete the application successfully. 1. Be prepared to wait. Grab a snack and get cozy, it takes weeks to get a short code (and sometimes long code) through the review and approval process. Give yourself at least 8-12 weeks before your first campaign is supposed to launch. The timer doesn’t begin on your application until it’s fully accepted, not necessarily when you submit your first draft! There will be a varying number of coordinated reviews and feedback coming directly from providers, like Twilio, and carriers, like AT&T, Verizon, etc. 2. Define your campaign name, use case, and frequency. Don’t be a spammer. Each code is approved for specific campaigns and use cases, and you will need to ensure the use case is fully defined and easily described before submitting your application. Included in the use case you’ll also need to share whether the message frequency will vary, is in response to an action or event. Some examples include marketing or promotional (messages may vary), customer support or transactional (response to an event), alerts and password reset (one time text). 3. Create sample content. They need to see it to believe it. Once your use case is outlined, create some sample content to submit with your application. It’s a good idea to provide multiple versions of the content you will be sending. The more explicit and detailed your content, the easier it is for providers (e.g. Twilio) and carriers (AT&T, Verizon, T-Mobile, etc.) to review. If it’s marketing/promotional create a few different types of promotions, if it’s transactional, create a few status or service messages. 4. Define your Global Keywords and experience for each. People need options. Let them know how to start and stop receiving messages, and if they’re in a pickle, how to reach out for help. Do know, this content will be scrutinized and must follow the current requirements for consent and content regulations. Keywords and message types are standard, but you will need to customize your response messaging based on the minimum requirements. Message Type Messaging (example only) Keyword (example only) Opt-in MyBiz: Thanks for subscribing to promo texts from MyBiz. Msg freq may vary. Reply HELP for help, STOP to cancel. Msg&data rates may apply. START, Y Opt-out MyBiz: You unsubscribed from MyBiz promo texts and will no longer get msgs. Visit http://help.com or Rply HELP 4 help. Msg&DataRatesMayApply. STOP Help MyBiz: Visit http://help.com for help. Msg freq may vary. Reply STOP to cancel. Msg&data rates may apply. HELP 5. Draft compliant Terms & Conditions. Bring in the big guns. If you already have SMS terms on your website, you’re ahead of the game, if not, you’ll need to start net new. A draft document prepared and approved by your legal team will suffice and it’s recommended to submit in an editable format so that you can coordinate any requested updates between your legal team and the SMS reviewers. You will also need to provide a link to where the T&Cs will be publicly accessible online once your campaign goes live. Additionally, to ensure the reviewers can validate that you’re in compliance, you will be required to provide a signed letter of authorization and mockups of your User “Opt In” experience, screen shots (actual or mocked up) of your app, message responses, etc. The more details you can provide upfront, the more efficient the review process. 6. Configure Braze for execution. Set it and forget it. Once the codes are approved, they will be set up in Braze by your Customer Success team. You will need to identify and share which App Group the code aligns with (if you have more than one) and you will need to name the Subscription Group assigned to your code. The Subscription Group will collect all the phone numbers of users who have provided consent to receive SMS messages and will be assigned to your specific use case. 7. Validate completeness and compliance. Details are everything. Before submitting your application, it’s a great idea to do a gut check and have your consultant, peers, SMEs and customer success team validate that you have completed all the of requirements, are submitting the proper documentation and using the correct application forms. We hope you find the above list helpful. It is a summarized version of the requirements at the time this article was written, so please validate current requirements (as noted in #7) before submitting an application. This is specific to short code provisioning, but a similar process exists for a 10-digit long code that can be used for testing or other limited use cases. We’re always looking for tips and tricks to get through this process quicker and easier, so hook us up with your pro-tips!

In today's fast-paced digital landscape, getting your hands on a shiny new marketing automation platform like Braze is like unwrapping the latest tech gadget on your birthday—exciting, full of promise, and ready to take your marketing game to the next level. Imagine the possibilities: streamlined workflows, hyper-personalized customer journeys, and a treasure trove of data insights all at your fingertips. It's enough to make any marketer's heart race with anticipation! But hold your horses! The key to harnessing all that Braze has to offer lies in a well-orchestrated preparation plan to support your formal onboarding process. We know how overwhelming this can all be, so we pulled together the essential steps to ensure a smooth and successful transition. Use this as your guide and you’re ready to unlock the full potential of Braze after onboarding and elevate your marketing efforts to dazzling new heights. Mobilization Before diving headfirst into onboarding your new marketing automation platform, it's crucial to lay a solid foundation. This starts with getting to know Braze inside and out and assembling a team that’s ready to tackle the challenge. Here are the critical steps to ensure your preparation is both thorough and effective: Explore Braze’s Features: Dive into Braze’s capabilities and documentation to fully understand what the platform offers. The more familiar you are, the smoother your onboarding will be. Build Your Onboarding Team: Assemble a cross-functional team with members from Marketing, Sales, IT, and other relevant departments. Clearly define roles and responsibilities to ensure everyone knows their part. Appoint a Team Leader: Choose a project manager to oversee the entire onboarding process and partner with your appointed onboarding team to ensure smooth coordination across the teams. Planning Creating a well-structured plan to support the formal Braze onboarding process is essential to ensure everything runs smoothly. Start by mapping out a realistic timeline for each phase of the process, allowing sufficient time for thorough development and testing. Set clear milestones and goals to track progress and maintain momentum—remembering to celebrate small victories along the way. Equally important is establishing a communication plan to keep all stakeholders informed and engaged, ensuring everyone is aligned and moving in the same direction. Within your plan it is crucial to include detailed plans for your campaigns, data, and integrations. This ensures seamless campaign execution, data integrity, and smooth integration with existing systems. Specifically, you should have your teams focus on: Campaign Planning High-Impact Campaigns: Focus first on campaigns that have the potential to drive the most significant results and align with your business goals, such as those targeting key customer segments or promoting high-value products. Resource Requirements: Prioritize campaigns that can be executed with the available resources and within the timeline. Quick Wins: Include a mix of quick, easy-to-launch campaigns alongside more complex ones to gain early momentum and demonstrate the platform's value. Data Preparation Data Audit: Conduct a thorough audit of your existing marketing data. Know what you have and what you need to support your identified campaigns and use cases. Creating a data dictionary to align the data with your campaigns is always a good idea. Data Clean-Up: Clean and organize your data like you’re Marie Kondo-ing your closet. Only keep what sparks joy—and accuracy. While you’re inspired, use this as an opportunity to create an ongoing data hygiene process. Data Mapping: Map out how your existing data will flow into Braze, ensuring compatibility and a smooth transition. This is a crucial step in preparing for integration planning. Integration Planning Identify Integrations: Determine which other systems need to play nice with Braze (e.g., CRM, analytics tools). Document your current state architecture and identify if additional processes or tools are required to achieve your goals. Integration Strategy: Develop a strategy for integrating these systems. This is an orchestration of systems and events factoring in refresh rates, data dependencies, security, etc. Customization and Configuration Once the foundation is set, the next step in your Braze onboarding journey is to tailor the platform to your unique business needs. Customization and configuration are pivotal to ensuring that Braze works seamlessly with your marketing strategies and processes. Here’s how to get started: Initial Configuration: Set up the Dashboard and Workspaces according to your business needs. It’s like setting up the ultimate gaming rig. Workflow Development: In addition to the platform, you may need to develop and update key marketing workflows to support the needs of your internal resources. Think of it as building a well-oiled machine. Training and Education To fully unlock the potential of Braze, it’s essential that your team is well-equipped to use the platform effectively. Training and education play a crucial role in this process, ensuring that every team member is confident and capable. Braze provides an abundance of resources, here’s how to make sure your team is ready to hit the ground running: Braze Learning and Documentation: Braze provides robust documentation and thorough training opportunities to all users. Take advantage of all the available resources including on-demand online modules, role-based learning paths, and live trainer-led sessions. Training Recommendations: Develop comprehensive training recommendations for all Braze users in your organization. Tailor them to different roles and expertise levels. Internal Workshops: Conduct internal workshops, office hours, and training sessions to ensure everyone’s on the same page. There you have it! With a rock-solid plan and a sprinkle of excitement, you're ready to onboard Braze like a pro. Remember, preparation is the secret sauce to unlocking all the awesome features and benefits of your new marketing automation platform. So, roll up your sleeves, rally your team, and get ready to transform your marketing efforts. Here’s to smooth sailing and dazzling results! If you thought this was helpful, you may also like our guide some of our thoughts about setting up your data architecture .

Hello!!! Is there anyone out there? Despite the evident practicality of marketing technologists, the scarcity of this role in the workforce is confounding. The vast marketing technology landscape has rapidly evolved over the past two decades, but why hasn’t the supply of qualified marketing technologists kept pace? Furthermore, finding a young marketing technologist is as probable as finding someone who actually prefers orange Starburst as their favorite flavor. Yuck, and good luck with that! Marketing technologists are skilled professionals who serve as a crucial link between marketing and technology, combining their expertise in marketing strategies with industry technologies to enhance marketing outcomes. Being the consultants that we naturally are, we contemplated the underlying reasons contributing to this talent shortage. We arrived at three contributing factors: Corporate America's Slow Adaptation: The organizational structures of most medium-to-large corporations lack adequate provisions for marketing technologists. As a result, informal "shadow IT" groups have emerged within some Marketing umbrellas to fulfill specific technology needs. However, this ad hoc approach deprives these individuals of a formally defined career path for growth and development which can easily prevent them from pursuing their talents in this field. Lack of Formal Education: Surprisingly, few higher education institutions offer clear and dedicated Marketing Technology degree or certification programs. While some may tout Management Information Systems (MIS) degrees, those tend to prioritize teaching IT professionals interpersonal skills rather than honing their marketing expertise. The Fusion of Art and Science: Excelling as a marketing technologist demands a unique blend of detail-oriented analytical skills and creative, outside-the-box thinking. It necessitates a harmonious union of left-brain and right-brain capabilities, which can be challenging for many individuals. While true 50/50 (left/right) usage is rare, working with someone who has a 65/35 split, in either direction, would be a welcomed treat. As businesses increasingly recognize the pivotal role of technology in marketing, the demand for marketing technologists will undoubtedly continue to rise. Formally addressing these scarcity factors in the workforce will become paramount for organizations to maintain competitiveness in the market. Embracing marketing technologists and providing them with the necessary recognition, education, and growth opportunities will undoubtedly help prevent the marketing technologist from further becoming an endangered species.

It’s the moment you’ve been awaiting since you signed your contract with Braze. An incoming message arrives that says, “Dear Awesome User; Congratulations, you’ve completed your Braze onboarding!” You invested a lot of time and effort to establish the foundational elements of your new, best-in-class customer engagement tool. So now with your data sources in place, digital marketing channels configured, and your most important marketing campaigns recreated, you’re probably itching to take off the training wheels and go full throttle. Not so fast! Before you attempt to add new customer journeys, greater personalization, and more outbound channels, please ask yourself this: are you properly staffed to get to the next level? While it’s such a simple question, it’s also a very important one. To be truly effective, you need people who really know Braze – what it’s capable of, as well as what are its limitations, and those people need to have enough bandwidth to invest in the execution. You need the right people in place to not only tackle the required marketing and IT tasks, but also people that can generate productive connections between marketing and IT teams. We have consistently seen Marketing teams who are properly staffed, either internally and/or with some outside help, accelerate faster in their use of Braze and achieve better ROI than those who try to wing it. Below is a list of questions you should ask yourself, and if you’re not able to confidently say “YES” to all of them, you may want to look for some help from Braze-certified consultants: Can you articulate the marketing vision into requirements that IT can use to source the required customer data needed to support your campaign execution? Is your IT team fully aware of the data point implications (i.e. cost) of adding new data? If you’re adding new digital marketing channels (e.g., SMS, In-app, Facebook), do you know how to properly configure them? Do you fully understand the unique data and privacy regulations associated with each? Does your team have capacity to learn (and make mistakes with) the new Braze features and functions that you want to implement and use now or in the future? Take time to reflect on those questions and your honest answers. As enter your post-onboarding phase, remember that having the right mix of qualified talent can’t be overstated. So, really assess your team's readiness and, if needed, bring in the expertise required to drive your project to success and accelerate your ability to generate positive ROI.

One of the things we love about Braze is their commitment to always adding and improving features. They’re never resting, always innovating. To keep you from being “Brazed and Confused,” we want to highlight some newly released features. This month’s update was reminiscent of the classroom and has a bit of a 'Reading, Writing, and Arithmetic' feel to it. Reading – Ingesting Customer Profile Data in New Ways SMS and WhatsApp Inbound Information: In today's data-driven world, first-and zero-party data is priceless. Braze now offers more ways to gather these crucial attributes. You can now ingest inbound preference information directly into your Braze profile database and/or distribute it to third-party vendors (e.g., CRM systems). It can then be seamlessly integrated into your Canvas flow and collected via SMS and WhatsApp channels. Instead of overwhelming customers with a million preference questions all at once, you can now break them down into smaller, manageable interactions through familiar channels that encourage quick responses. Writing – Enhancing AI Copywriting Assistance with Brand Guidelines Brand Guidelines: A few months ago, Braze introduced the ability to select various copy style tones (e.g., casual, eye-catching, urgent) for AI-generated content. Building on this, Braze now allows you to integrate your own unique brand guidelines. By defining your brand's "personality," you can maintain a consistent voice and tone across all digital marketing content. Plus, you can still tailor the tone of any individual messages with the tone selector. Check out this post to learn more about the different AI writing tones available. Arithmetic – Creating More Feature Flag Options Feature Flag Enhancement: When leveraging Feature Flags, for things like A/B user experience testing, throttling functionality roll outs, gated content, etc., you now have more property types to leverage. In addition to the existing data types (Boolean, Number, and String), Braze’s Feature Flags now support Image, JSON, and Timestamp elements. This expanded functionality provides your product managers with even more tools to enhance your brands’ mobile/web app experience! Friendly PSA Reminder: Google deprecated one of its Firebase APIs on June 20, 2024. To continue sending Android push notifications, you must migrate to the new API by uploading a new Firebase service account credential file in Braze. A single-click button is available to "Test Credentials." If you haven't done this already, we recommend you do it ASAP. Which of these new features are you most excited to use? If you want to learn more about the complex world of Feature Flags, or anything Braze related, feel free to drop us a note .

If you’re a B2B company using Braze, how do you ensure your messages are only sent during the work week? Regardless of if you're in financial services, healthcare, or some other B2B vertical, it’s a fact that reaching your audience during the work week leads to better outcomes. While the sad news is that Braze does not provide a built-in option for scheduling messages exclusively on weekdays; the happy news is that our talented team at Covalent Marketing has developed a solution using Liquid code and Braze's Canvas Flow to make it happen. So, get out your pen and paper, because we’re gonna spill the beans on how to do it! How to Schedule Messages for Weekday Delivery in Braze In order to ensure that a message is only sent on weekdays you will need to know how to create a couple of things in Braze: 1) A content block containing Liquid logic to evaluate if the current day is a weekday, and 2) a Canvas to send the messages. Using Canvas Flow  provides the opportunity to determine if the message was sent and to resend as needed. You can use this approach for a single message campaign as well as multiple messages in a user journey. The example below showcases how to execute a B2B Welcome Canvas with multiple message steps. First you'll reate a content block (HTML or Drag and Drop) with the following Liquid code snippet : {% assign today = ' now ' | date: " %A " %} {% if today == ' Saturday ' or today == ' Sunday ' %} {% abort_message ('weekend quiet hours') %} {% endif %} This code snippet assigns the day of the week (e.g., 'Monday', 'Tuesday') to the variable ‘today.’ Conditional messaging logic is used to evaluate if ‘today’ is Saturday or Sunday, if so, the message will be aborted. The aborted message will be logged in the Message Error Log (Settings>Message Error Log) with the descriptive error “weekend quiet hours” as displayed below. Next, you'll include the Content Block  of Liquid at the top of your message body. This Liquid can be applied across multiple channels in the Canvas (e.g. Email, In-App, SMS, Push, WhatsApp), allowing for consistent experience no matter the channel. Now create your Canvas  with the following workflow : You'll need to create a message step that includes the Content Block of Liquid at the top of your message body. Liquid can be applied across multiple channels in the Canvas (e.g. Email, In-App, SMS, Push, WhatsApp), allowing for consistent experience no matter what the channel. Next, add a Decision Split immediately following the message in the Canvas and configure with a retargeting filter for “Has received message from Canvas step” and select the message from the previous step. Each path will execute the following: Yes Path:  Configure this path to continue the next message as needed. The qualifier being that message was sent on a weekday, and the original message was not aborted. No Path:  Configure this path with an immediate delay step configured to delay the user until the following Monday. The qualifier is that the message was determined to be scheduled for a Saturday or Sunday and was aborted. Finally, add a message step directly after the Weekend delay step to resend the original message that was skipped due to weekday Liquid logic. Advance the user to the next message in the journey, Email 2 in our example, if applicable. Otherwise, if your Canvas is a for single message rather than a journey, you’re done! By leveraging Canvas Flow and a bit of Liquid code, you can effectively manage the timing of your messages in Braze to ensure they are only sent on weekdays. Implementing these steps can help you achieve more strategic and effective messaging campaigns and contributes to achieving high engagement rates and respecting customers’ preferred communication times. To learn more about strategic Braze features check out:   Four Braze Features You Shouldn't Sleep On .

Personalized email marketing with tailored digital coupons significantly increased Coborn's sales and customer engagement, driving nearly $200K in incremental sales and advancing 27% of targeted households to Primary status in the first quarter. Their Challenge Coborn’s, a beloved employee-owned grocery retailer with 77 stores spread across several U.S. states, faced a dilemma that threatened its very foundation. The lifeblood of their business, high-value customers who were known for their frequent visits and substantial spending in crucial departments like Dairy, Grocery, Bakery, Frozen, Deli, Produce, and Meat, were gradually fading away. Their baskets were lighter, their visits fewer, and their loyalty dwindling. The management at Coborn's knew that without the steady support of these high-value customers, their financial stability was at risk. They needed some real change—like a marketing automation system that could deliver personalized offer—to rekindle the spark with these valued patrons and revive their store loyalty. Our Approach Enter, Covalent Marketing, the trusted ally and marketing technology experts Coborn's turned to for help. It quickly became clear that the legacy marketing strategy of generic promotions and static marketing automation systems had lost their charm. What Coborn's needed was a new kind of magic—one that spoke directly to the hearts and wallets of their high value customers. A strategic plan was devised, and it started with a personalized email marketing campaign, weaving together customer profile and behavioral data, some technology, and a sprinkle of creativity. The campaign was designed to run over the course of three weeks, with a weekly email sent to each high-value customer. Inside each email, like found money in the clothese dryer, were digital coupons tailored specifically to the departments where the customer's spending had waned. Each customer could receive up to seven personalized $1 off coupons, enticing them to revisit the departments they once frequented. To ensure the message hit home, Covalent Marketing employed the art of A/B testing, perfecting the subject lines and timing of the emails. The marketing automation tool worked its magic by evaluating all the available offers and then dynamically inserting the right offers into each email. Thus, making every message as unique as the individual receiving it. Coborn's personalized marketing campaign is a shining example of how businesses can use data, technology, and creativity to achieve their marketing goals. By understanding their customers' needs and using personalized offers, they were able to drive incremental sales, increase customer engagement, and achieve their business objectives. Their Results At the end of the three weeks, Coborn's stores began to buzz with renewed activity as their high-value customers returned, digital coupons in hand! The personalized marketing campaign yielded impressive results, significantly enhancing customer engagement and driving substantial revenue growth. By sending weekly emails with up to seven tailored digital coupons to their 16,000 high-value customers, Coborn’s was able to achieve the following positive outcomes in the first three months of the campaign: Incremental Sales: The strategic personalization brought in nearly $200,000 in incremental sales across the stores. Customer Progression: A remarkable 27% of households that redeemed their coupons moved up to Primary status, indicating a significant boost in customer loyalty and spending. Effective Engagement: The use of A/B testing to optimize email subject lines and send times, along with marketing automation tools for dynamic offer insertion, ensured high relevance and engagement for each customer. This methodology proved crucial in converting promotional efforts into tangible sales and customer retention. These metrics underscore the power of personalized marketing in driving both immediate sales and long-term customer loyalty, and validating the effectiveness of Covalent Marketing's data-driven approach. This campaign would not have been possible without Coborn's ability to provide personalized offers at a customer level, facilitated by the dynamic insertion of applicable offers via its marketing automation tools.

Leveraging Braze, Census, and Movable Ink, a major retailer achieved significant revenue growth and personalized customer engagement through strategic marketing innovations. Their Challenges A major retailer serving a unique customer base of U.S. Armed Forces members, veterans, retirees, and their families faced a daunting challenge. In a highly competitive market dominated by big-box retail stores, they struggled to optimize customer engagement. Each interaction with their customers held immense value, yet they were hampered by data silos across multiple departments and an outdated marketing technology infrastructure. This lack of sophisticated and personalized engagement tools prevented them from delivering tailored experiences, and hindered their revenue growth and customer retention efforts. Determined to turn the tide, the retailer embarked on a strategic initiative aimed at transforming their marketing capabilities. Their goal was to create a dynamic, robust marketing ecosystem capable of driving personalized customer interactions at scale. To begin, they set clear objectives to improve data management and integration, automate marketing processes, and develop highly personalized customer journeys to foster deeper connections and drive substantial revenue growth. After thorough research, they chose to migrate their operations to Braze, a leading customer engagement platform. This massive undertaking involved coordinating efforts across four business units and re-establishing over 50 active email, SMS, and mobile campaigns. Recognizing the complexity of this endeavor, the retailer enlisted the expertise of Covalent Marketing. Known for our success with sophisticated Braze marketing solutions, we were the ideal partner to navigate this transformation. We aimed to ensure a seamless transition to Braze, optimize complementary technologies like Census for data management, and Movable Ink for advanced personalization, ultimately enhancing the retailer’s overall marketing efficiency. Our Approach The retailer’s transformative journey began with a comprehensive assessment of their existing marketing infrastructure to identify key pain points. Covalent Marketing's team quickly recognized that complementing Braze with Census and Movable Ink would be pivotal in addressing these challenges. Census was chosen for its ability to streamline data integration and activation, ensuring a seamless flow of customer and offer data into Braze. Movable Ink’s advanced features, such as gamification and real-time product promotion updates, were integrated to boost personalization capabilities. This trio of tools aimed to craft a cohesive, data-driven marketing ecosystem that delivers highly tailored customer experiences. Throughout the project, Covalent Marketing coordinated with the retailer’s four distinct business units, each with unique marketing needs and goals. The team encountered several roadblocks that tested their adaptability and problem-solving skills. One significant challenge was the process of IP warming for email campaigns which required careful management to avoid deliverability issues while ramping up email volumes. Another hurdle was securing carrier approvals for SMS promotions, involving complex regulatory navigation. We addressed these challenges with a phased approach: Optimized email campaigns and ensured data integrity . Introduced SMS promotions with careful attention to compliance and readiness. Transitioned to dynamic, personalized customer journeys. By strategically phasing the project and leveraging agile methodologies, our team successfully overcame these obstacles, delivering a solution that exceeded the retailer’s expectations and set the stage for sustained engagement and revenue growth. Their Results The outcomes of this strategic initiative were nothing short of transformative, primarily driven by the seamless integration of Braze, Census, and Movable Ink. Through meticulous planning and execution, the retailer achieved significant improvements in both customer engagement and revenue growth. Key results included: Real-Time Email Offers: Leveraging Braze capabilities, the retailer implemented real-time email offers triggered by new online account creation. This immediate engagement resulted in a more personalized experience for new customers , driving higher initial interaction rates, and fostering stronger customer relationships from the outset. Weekly Revenue Increase: The combination of dynamic content and targeted promotions led to a substantial increase in weekly revenue, with figures showing a 2-2.5x growth . Tailoring offers to individual customer preferences and behaviors significantly enhanced the relevance and effectiveness of marketing communications. One-Second Execution Time: Integration with Census allowed for streamlined data flow and activation, enabling marketing campaigns to be executed in just one second. This remarkable speed ensured timely, contextually relevant messages, thereby increasing engagement rates . 100% Process Automation: The retailer achieved full automation of their marketing processes, reducing manual intervention and increasing operational efficiency. This automation maintained consistent, high-quality customer interactions at scale, ultimately driving better results and freeing up resources for strategic initiatives . These outcomes underscore the power of leveraging advanced marketing technologies and strategic partnerships to drive continuous innovation and achieve measurable business results. Through this project, the retailer not only met but significantly exceeded their engagement and revenue targets, laying the groundwork for even more successes.

Streamlining Operations and Maximizing Impact Through Strategic Braze Optimization Their Challenges In the crowded world of ecommerce, a specialty online retailer found itself at a crossroads. Despite utilizing the Braze platform for a year, their marketing team struggled to drive campaign effectiveness and customer engagement. At the heart of their problem resided some faulty segmentation logic that caused critical messages to be misdirected or overlooked by the intended audience. Compounding this issue were suboptimal configuration settings within Braze, hindering the platform's performance and the team's ability to harness its full potential. Furthermore, deliverability challenges with email messages, especially through mid-tier Email Service Providers (ESPs), resulted in delays and discrepancies, impacting communication with customers. Faced with these hurdles, the retailer's marketing team set a clear objective: optimize campaign development, testing, and execution processes to enhance customer engagement and drive revenue growth . However, this goal seemed elusive amidst the persistent challenges. They sought a strategic partner to rectify their existing issues and enhance their usage of Braze, and all within a tight 30-day timeframe. Our Approach Enter the Covalent Marketing team, who quickly set about identifying the root causes of the retailer's challenges properly using Braze. They discovered that the faulty segmentation logic was a significant roadblock, directly impacting the effectiveness of critical campaigns. A deep dive into the retailer's data architecture and campaign setup revealed the complexities of their segmentation rules. Surprisingly, the suboptimal configuration settings within Braze had been overlooked during the initial onboarding process. Addressing these settings became crucial for optimizing the platform's performance. Moreover, deliverability challenges with email messages via mid-tier ESPs presented an unexpected hurdle, necessitating innovative solutions to ensure consistent delivery and improve overall performance. To tackle these challenges, the Covalent Marketing team developed a comprehensive solution tailored to the retailer's specific needs. Optimized Segmentation Logic: rectifyed faulty segmentation logic to ensure messages reached the right audience with precision. Data Restructuring and Workspace Introduction: restructured Braze data attributes and introduced new Workspaces tailored to various lines of business, facilitating better organization and management. Established QA Campaign Procedure: created a systematic and replicable quality assurance (QA) campaign procedure to eliminate issues before deployment, ensuring campaign accuracy and effectiveness. Addressed Deliverability Challenges: detected and addressed email deliverability challenges, including delays and discrepancies via mid-tier ESPs, with the implementation of campaign throttling to ensure consistent delivery and improved overall performance. Rectified Configuration Settings: mended overlooked configuration settings from the initial Braze onboarding to optimize the platform's performance and capabilities. Workforce Augmentation: enhanced the retailer’s workforce to support campaign development and execution, ensuring efficient utilization of Braze resources. Through a combination of strategic solutioning, innovative thinking, and collaborative effort, Covalent Marketing successfully addressed the retailer's challenges with Braze within the 30-day engagement period. These solutions not only rectified existing issues but also set a strong foundation for continued growth and success in their marketing initiatives. Their Results Following the implementation of these targeted solutions, within the 30-day engagement period no-less, the retailer experienced significant improvements across key areas. Optimizing segmentation logic led to a marked increase in campaign effectiveness, with messages now precisely reaching the right audience, resulting in higher open, click-through, and improved conversion rates. Simultaneously, restructuring data attributes and introducing tailored Braze Workspaces facilitated better organization and management of data and campaigns, leading to improved operational efficiency and streamlined workflows for the marketing team. Addressing deliverability challenges through the implementation of campaign throttling not only improved the consistency of email message delivery but also enhanced overall performance and reliability in customer communication. These positive outcomes underscore the success of the retailer’s partnership with Covalent Marketing and the effectiveness of the strategic solutions implemented. By leveraging expertise and tailored solutions, the retailer optimized their campaign development and execution processes, ultimately driving enhanced customer engagement and revenue growth. This case is a testament to the power of strategic partnerships and innovative problem-solving in transforming marketing challenges into success stories.

One of the things that we love about Braze is their constant drive to improve their marketing platform. They’re never resting, always innovating. To keep you from being “Brazed and Confused,” we want to highlight a few new features and functions that were recently released that we think are particularly cool. This time, they waited until the end of the month to release their new features so it’s almost like a two-for-one deal with how many things that are being rolled out! Development for Campaign/Canvas Builders For those of you who are hands-on users of the tool - making segments, developing personalization, and sending communications - here are four new capabilities that we though were particularly interesting: 1.) Enhanced AI-Powered Copy Generation: As marketers increasingly use AI for copy generation, there can be a certain cold, inhuman quality to it. Braze, always ahead of the curve, now allows you to use the Chat GPT-4.0 engine to generate push notification copy that mimics your tone and style by analyzing past messages. How cool is that?! 2.) Message Open Likelihood Filter: Not sure which channel is best to send your message to a customer? If they haven’t declared a preference, Braze has you covered with the "Message Open Likelihood" filter. This filter analyzes a customer’s past behaviors and develops a propensity score related to their likelihood of opening a message per channel. For example, you can send emails only to those with a likelihood score of 80 or more (BTW: the max score is 100). 3.) Pre-Built Marketing Segments: To streamline operations, you can now pre-build your marketing segments in your data storage platform and then port them over to Braze for use in SQL Segment Extensions. Initially, this capability is set up to receive segments exclusively from Snowflake but expect to see other data platforms (like CDPs) added in the near future. 4.) Making New Drafts of Active Campaigns: As your marketing evolves, so must your campaigns. When you’re ready to modify an active campaign, you can now save a new draft of it in parallel. This allows you to test enhancements in a safe space for quality control. Then, once satisfied, you can launch or discard the new draft. Features for Data Managers For those of you who are charged with keeping the data fresh and also mindful of data point usage, here are some new features for you: 1.) Reports on the Utilization of Custom Attributes/Events: As you gain more expertise with Braze, you will likely begin incorporating custom attributes and events. Nevertheless, keeping track of the purpose of each field or where it is used can be daunting. Braze now provides reports on usage that allow you to visualize where custom attributes/events are employed in Campaigns/Canvases/Segments. It is important to remember that this report does not assess your Liquid coding, so there may be certain gaps to consider during your data audits. 2.) Custom Data Deletion Options: Data privacy is an increasingly important matter in our GDPR and CCPA marketing world. Braze now has a custom data deletion process that will give you, the practitioner, more control over the deletion of events and message extras in Braze’s data lake. If you opt-in, you can retain the non-PII data elements for analytical purposes. These settings can be applied globally or at a Workspace level. 3.) Enhanced Shopify Integration: For those working with Shopify, there are new event properties, catalog fields, and custom attribute data available for import. This should reduces the amount of workarounds needed to achieve some of the cool integrations you’ve been after. Enhancements for Admins As Administrators of Braze there can be a lot of responsibilities to juggle. To help with that burden there are some enhancements that will hopefully make life easier: 1.) Feature Flags Change Log: Braze is great at adding new capabilities for users that are commonly turned on as Feature Flags. Now you can see who is modifying the Feature Flag permissions in a change log. 2.) Role-Based Dashboard Permissions: Let’s be honest, onboarding new users and assigning permissions can sometimes be a pain. However, you can now assign permissions at the role level, saving you time and reducing potential errors. These role-based permissions can be applied across one, or many, Workspaces and assigned across different Teams. It should definitely simplify and streamline your onboarding process. 3.) Enhanced Data Field Encryption: For those seeking more data encryption, Braze has introduced an advancement with Amazon’s key management system (KMS). You can now encrypt customers’ email addresses, which will only be resolved at the time of execution, and never stored in a vulnerable state within Braze. This is particularly beneficial for highly regulated industries, and if successful, will be expanded to other PII fields like phone number. Expanding Braze’s Global Reach Lastly, as Braze continues to grow internationally, they’ve add more dashboard display languages. In addition to English, French, Japanese, and Korean versions, they’ve now added Spanish and Brazilian. Que bueno. Which of these new features are you most excited to use? If you want to learn more about anything Braze related feel free to drop us a note .