Braze Implementation

Want to accelerate your company’s time-to-value metric with Braze? Implementation is the first step in your Braze journey. Partnering with a solution expert like Stitch allows you to move beyond basic setup, providing the hands-on expertise required to architect a robust, scalable data strategy from day one. 

Here are the specific steps that a hands-on Braze implementation partner can help you with:

• ‍Implementing the Braze SDK: Your Braze partner will help set up the SDK that connects Braze to your app or website so that there’s a free flow of information between the two.‍
• Implementing Messaging Channels: Braze features many messaging channels so our team of Braze experts can implement all the relevant ones to your customers.
• Setting up your Data: This is where your marketing team will work with the Braze implementation expert to make sure that every customer action taken on your app or website is picked up by Braze. They’ll engineer a very personalized customer journey for your marketing campaigns.‍
• Making some customization: If you want additional customization like Connected Content and API-triggered launching, discuss this with your developers or Braze implementation partner so that they can get this done.‍
• Test, Test, Test: To make sure that everything is all good and working as it should, you will have to send test messages using the test apps for Android and iOS.

 

Get to Know the Top Braze Features

A Braze demo gives you a sneak peek of the platform. In a nutshell, these Braze features make this software a very nifty tool for brands that take their customer-centric marketing seriously.

Braze Data Platform

The Braze Data Platform keeps the full picture of who your customers are, connected and current in real time, so your teams and AI models can act on complete context instead of working from a partial view.

BrazeAI™ Agent Console

With Agent Console, you can design and launch agentic workflows at scale. Add custom AI agents right into your highest-priority workflows. Automatically create content, enrich customer data, and generate actionable insights, while running within the instructions, rules, and guardrails you set to protect your brand and optimize performance.

BrazeAI™ Operator

Operator is your always-on Braze AI assistant, building personalized campaigns, analyzing customer data in seconds, writing Liquid code, and handling execution, all with your approval.

BrazeAI™ Decisioning Studio

Decisioning Studio delivers true 1:1 personalization at scale. It replaces manual testing and static rules with AI decisioning agents that optimize for engagement. Agents autonomously test and continuously learn from every interaction.

Currents

Effective marketing relies on the seamless flow of data across your tech stack. Braze Currents create a direct connection between your data warehouse and Braze, allowing Cloud Data Ingestion to easily deliver timely, hyper-personalized experiences that drive engagement.

Canvas

Canvas is Braze’s unique customer journey tool. Using this tool, you can easily create multivariate, multi-step, and multiple relevant messages to form a cohesive campaign for your brand. Throw in comprehensive analytics and you can continuously tweak and optimize the process.

Cross-Channel Messaging

Reach out and communicate with your customers virtually in different channels with Braze’s cross-channel messaging. Whether through email, push notification, SMS, news feed, web browser, in-app messaging, or WhatsApp, there’s no longer any excuse why you can’t grab your customer’s attention.

Content Cards

You can send a highly targeted message to your customers without being too intrusive through the use of Braze Content Cards. This subtle reminder can be displayed within your app or website and your customers can opt to pin, swipe, or dismiss it. Working together with other channels, Content Card is a very clever way to connect with your customer.

Liquid

Using Liquid tags, you can turn any template or message into a highly personalized and dynamic one. You can tell Braze to substitute a specific part of the message with your customer’s details by putting those expressions between two sets of curly brackets. So instead of the generic salutation to greet your customers, you can be on a first-name basis with them.

Feature Flags

Want to enable or disable Braze functionalities for selected users without touching a line of code? Braze feature flags allow you to do just that. You can use feature flags to release new updates to a given population gradually. This allows you to test the launch first and catch bugs early on before deploying the new updates to all of your customers. 

 

Technical Specifications for Braze Implementation

Braze’s flexible design allows you to combine it with other leading tech platforms so that you draw more value out of the integrated system. To configure this software so that it meets the specific requirement of your organization, we recommend collaborating with a Braze implementation partner like Stitch. They act as an extension of your internal team, managing technical integration, data architecture, and configuration, so your marketing and engineering teams can focus on strategic outcomes rather than the mechanics of setup. Here’s a rundown of the process:

Implementing Braze SDK

Onboarding typically starts with Braze SDK integration. A software development kit (SDK) is premade, small blocks of codes that are used to get and send information from your app or website. With Braze SDK integration, your developers or Braze implementation partners don’t have to start from scratch to create the tools necessary for data processing, campaign analytics, segmentation logic, delivery options, etc.

This means that for Braze integration, you simply have to add the SDK code to the larger overall code powering that site or app. This ties up Braze to your website so that there’s a smooth flow of action and information between them.

Data Aggregation

Braze SDK captures huge volumes of data at the user level. So to facilitate ease of navigation and segmentation, you will need to have data configuration. For example, you will group similar apps into a single app group. The iOS or Android version of your app should go into the same group or the paid and free version of the same app will make another app group. After adding your app to a group, you will use its API to make requests between the Braze API and your app.

Segmentation and Delivery Rules

In-app messages in a campaign will be sent to all versions of the app in the same app group by default. For instance, the same message will be sent to mobile and web users if they’re in the same app group. If you want to send the message exclusively to mobile users only, you will have to configure and segment the campaign accordingly.

 

Understanding Key Braze Integrations

Braze integrations create a flexible ecosystem of tech stacks so brands can amplify the value of their tech solutions. Some key Braze integration partners include:

Segment

Segment is Twilio’s own customer data platform (CDP). This software provides the necessary data infrastructure to help you collect, clean, unify, and activate your user data. You can use Braze’s real-time, bidirectional integration to send data from Segment. Or you can also use Currents to seamlessly stream data from Segment.

Snowflake

Snowflake is a data warehouse, which collects and aggregates data from numerous sources and then analyzes it to generate valuable business insights. Braze supports bidirectional integration with Snowflake so you can easily bring data to Braze using Cloud Data Ingestion. From Snowflake’s platform, you can also sync user attributes, purchases, and events and use it in Braze to trigger campaigns, segment audiences, and craft personalized messages.

Databricks

Databricks is a unified data, analytics, and AI platform that helps businesses consolidate and act on enterprise data. Braze offers a bi-directional integration with Databricks to sync real-time engagement data and audience cohorts without middleware. You can also connect custom Databricks AI models directly to Braze to trigger hyper-personalized, 1-to-1 customer lifecycles and measure campaign ROI in real time.

Shopify

If you use this e-commerce platform to sell products online, you can set up your Shopify store with Braze. This allows you to create webhooks around the order lifecycle or transactional campaigns. You get to send timely and personalized messages and optimize customer journeys, which results in reduced abandoned carts and better engagements for your shoppers.

 

Study Up on Braze Documentation

Braze documentation provides a thorough guide for users of the platform. The software also has a Braze developer guide and API guide for people who will take care of the technical side of implementation for your business. Here’s a quick overview of the platform’s documentation:

User Guide

Administrators and marketers can go over this extensive guide to learn everything they need to know about Braze and its features. Popular topics in the guide include:

• Braze Currents
• User Import
• Liquid
• Custom Attributes
• Custom Events
• Managing User Subscriptions
• Making an API Call
• Message Engagement Events
• Customize In-App Messages

 

Developer Guide

Developers can get as technical as they want with Braze’s comprehensive documentation that details all available integrations for this platform. For more resources and support, developers can find kindred spirits on the Braze Developer Portal.

API Guide

This is where you can find all available Braze API endpoints since the platform also provides REST API so you can export data, track users, and send messages.

To accelerate your time-to-value with Braze, partnering with an implementation expert who knows the ins and outs of the platform is a smart choice. They could set up Braze, make custom configurations, provide training, and even ongoing support so you can start launching high-impact campaigns from day one.

 

Connect with Braze Alloys Partner Network

Braze Alloys Partner Network is a carefully vetted ecosystem of technology and solutions partners that can help your organization implement and integrate Braze with other technologies to provide a full-service offering that suits your company.

Technology Partners

Braze integrates seamlessly with other technology leaders to provide brands with a full suite of tools and features to create a more meaningful experience for customers. Here are some of Braze’s popular technology partners:

• Segment
• mParticle
• Snowflake
• Databricks
• Google Ads
• Google Cloud
• Foursquare
• AccuWeather
• Tealium
• WhatsApp
• Twilio
• Zapier

 

Solutions Partners

Solutions partners consist of varied agencies, consultancies, and system integrators that are adept in integrating Braze along with other tech solutions to offer a wide range of services for your brand’s marketing needs.

For example, Stitch is a Braze Alloy that’s comprised of a team of marketers, analysts, strategists, and tech experts that harnesses the dynamic power of Braze and Segment. From strategy, implementation, end-to-end migration, configuration, and data analytics, to training and support, this solution partner offers a wide range of services to help your marketing get to the next level.

 

Invest in Your Brand’s Growth: Understanding Braze Pricing

As for pricing, Braze offers a variety of platform editions to fit your stage in customer engagement.  You can contact the sales team to get an accurate quote for their service. Braze’s price would largely depend on your company’s onboarding plan, the number of users, the number of customers, and data points. 

For its price, you get a feature-rich platform, complete with Braze documentation, as well as other free-to-us editing tools like Braze API Postman. Another thing you have to consider in allocating a budget for this software is the cost of the Braze implementation partner. Although onboarding a solutions partner increases your upfront cost, keep in mind that this will drive value and speed up time-to-value in your investment.