CRM 101

Hey there, Braze enthusiasts! This article includes 10 tips and tricks that would level up your workflow in Braze. People at SCHMACK know our way around Braze (contact us here if you need help with all things Braze) and have put together a guide that's all about helping you make the most out of Braze.

From why it's better to build your in-app messages (IAMs) in campaigns to transforming Google Sheets into your Braze sidekick, we’ve got you covered with all the fine knowledge of Braze.

Ready to level up your Braze game with these practical insights? Let's get started! 🚀

Overview

1. Keep up to speed with Braze’s roadmap and product releases

2. Leverage Intelligent Suite for maximum impact with minimum effort

3. Problem solve with User Updates

4. Campaigns over canvases for IAMs

5. Target anonymous users via IAM

6. Prioritise good canvas hygiene

7. Streamline your processes with google sheets

8. Document your custom attributes and events

9. Do the extra work to save yourself time in the long run

10. Setup for significance

(1) Keep up to speed with Braze’s roadmap and product releases

Staying up to date with Braze’s roadmap helps you anticipate upcoming features or changes, enabling you to align your strategies accordingly. New releases often come with enhanced functionalities that can significantly impact your campaigns or workflows.

Stay on top of the Braze roadmap here and bookmark this link for detailed release notes as soon as they’re published!

(2) Leverage Intelligent Suite for maximum impact with minimum effort

Braze Intelligence Suite covers Timing, Channel and Selection. It helps you automate decision-making with data-based insights. From delivery time to multivariate testing, intelligent suite streamlines the process of creating dynamic, cross-channel experiences that truly optimise at scale and help to elevate your presence with your audience.

Read all about Braze Intelligent Suite here.

(3) Problem solve with User Updates

User Updates in Braze allow you to be the boss of your user data without the need for backend support. This flexibility allows for quick troubleshooting, segmentation or iteration, reducing dependencies on other teams. Use the built in UI for updating custom attributes or write your own JSON to trigger everything from API-driven custom events to updating user subscription statuses.

And, unsurprisingly, Braze have excellent documentation on how to use it.

(4) Campaigns over canvases for IAMs

Adding an in-app message (IAM) to a canvas is unreliable. Once sent, it’s queued for a user and displayed the next time they open up the app. The problem is, you have no way to ensure that the user will still be an eligible member of your target audience by the time they next open the app (Okay, yes, you could use delivery validations, but more often than not you don’t want the user to be ejected from the canvas entirely).

That’s why it’s always best to build your IAMs in campaigns; here you have the option of a tick box that will “Re-evaluate campaign eligibility before displaying”.

BONUS TIP: If your IAM is part of a bigger canvas journey, you can send a blank braze to braze webhook in place of your IAM then trigger your campaign to users who have received the webhook when they next start a session.

(5) Target anonymous users via IAM

Targeting anonymous users with IAMs enables you to engage with users who haven’t logged in or shared identifiable information yet. Now you’ve got a platform to create irresistible messages for this segment to encourage conversions or interactions, eventually leading to user identification.

To get started, in your targeting select “External User ID” and choose “is blank”. It’s as simple as that!

(6) Prioritise good canvas hygiene

Creating an efficient canvas in Braze relies on key practices that streamline campaign management. Consider some of the following strategies to optimise your workflow and put an end to those crazy canvases:

• Adopt a naming convention for each canvas step to facilitate easy navigation and troubleshooting

• Keep your canvas concise by minimising unnecessary steps to enhance its manageability, to allow for a more straightforward understanding of the workflow

• Utilise liquid logic instead of multiple sends for different sub-segments or languages to minimise clutter and duplication of work

(7) Streamline your processes with google sheets

Leverage Google Sheets and harness formulas to automate tasks and enhance your efficiency.

One of our favourite shortcuts is to utilise formulas to automate your liquid logic for multi-language sends. By inputting your copy for various languages, a google sheet can generate the complete liquid logic code to paste directly into Braze.

Even this one example can significantly accelerate your campaign building process, allowing for smoother integration of personalised content without the need for manual coding, ultimately saving substantial time, effort and risk of error.

If you are interested in how something like this could be built for you, get in touch with SCHMACK.

(8) Document your custom attributes and events

We’ve all had to ask around to try and understand exactly what a specific custom attribute is for but it’s time to put an end to that. Thoroughly document your custom attributes and events to maintain data consistency, ownership, and clarity across your organisation. This keeps things easy to digest and ensures these elements are used correctly, significantly reducing confusion and errors.

Key elements to document include the attribute or event name, data format (e.g., string, number), event properties, a detailed purpose/description, possible values, designated owner, source (e.g., user update or pushed by the tech team), update frequency (e.g., real-time, daily, one-off), integration date, and any data dependencies associated with it.

(9) Do the extra work to save yourself time in the long run

Commit to the extra effort of establishing clear naming conventions and structured templates. It’s invaluable in saving time and effort over the long haul. It doesn’t have to be as complicated as you might think, try the three simple suggestions below and thank us later!

• Implement a Google Sheet to auto-populate your campaign name based on its criteria

• Consistently update email templates (don’t fall into the habit of duplicating previous sends)

• Utilise content blocks for recurring elements

  
  

I could go on about all the benefits these practices will bring you but in short, you’ll have more time in the long run to worry about smashing your content out of the park and less time digging around in Braze to find last year’s black friday campaign.

(10) Setup for significance

Understand how to measure significance in Braze. This is how you’ll be confident in the effectiveness of your campaigns and making those informed decisions that are vital to your future strategy.

Ultimately, having your Braze setup properly is where you need to begin. That’s everything from global control groups to conversion events to race conditions.

Learn how and why you should implement a global control, and how Braze measures for significance in campaign analytics.