Think Summit 2022: How Braze Makes Memorable Customer Experiences

A human connection creates a memorable experience.  So if marketers want to make a lasting impression, they need to deliver the authentic connection their customers crave.

Memorable marketing goes far beyond sales-first messaging. As discovered in Braze and Tinuiti’s webinar ​​Lifecycle Marketing in a First-Party World, customers want to feel connected through relevant (67%), cohesive (72%), mobile-first (80%), and personalized (90%) 1:1 messages.

Brands know that customers want a tailored experience, but executing it at every digital touchpoint is a tall order.

Matt McRoberts, Braze SVP of Global Alliances, unpacked this challenge at Think Summit 2022. With the right digital infrastructure, Matt showed the audience how any brand can transform their messaging into customized experiences that engage first-time buyers and loyal customers alike. 

With the powerful duo of Braze and Movable Ink, brands can process first- and zero-party data, activate that information, and translate it into personalized, visual experiences that are easy to deploy. To round it out, the Braze platform’s interactive feedback loop enables brands to keep learning about their customers with every message and interaction and to develop iterations that are more accurate every time. 

Catch a glimpse of some of the brands that have transformed their marketing and learn how they did it in this Think Summit recap.

Make Customers Feel Welcome

You don’t get a second chance at a first impression. When a customer first meets a brand, marketers need to deploy a highly relevant welcome series—especially when these campaigns result in 4x open rates and 5x click rates compared to the typical marketing email. 

Welcoming a customer effectively takes more than a formulaic email with a cursory hello and a slim discount. Capture customers’ attention after that initial sign-up by delivering an onboarding series uniquely made for them. 

In Happn’s welcome series, the brand initially faced challenges in user sign-ups. Because many customers signed up using their Facebook login, their Happn account was often linked to outdated email addresses. With a helping hand from Braze and Movable Ink, Happn was able to transform the onboarding flow by implementing in-app messaging that collects updated emails from customers. With this key message alone, Happn saw email deliverability skyrocket by 3X coupled with a 42% decrease in bounce rate.

Keep the Relationship Growing

Building a customer-brand relationship that stands the test of time is crucial to retaining loyalty. Make customers feel remembered with strategic messaging that celebrates their unique milestone moments.

From end-of-year recaps to holiday trends and birthday acknowledgements, every message is an opportunity to show customers how much you value them. Here, each message is personalized to the customer’s previous activity, letting the brand help them learn a little more about themselves.

Maximize conversion by 2.7x with messaging based on user behavior. On the left, marketers send an extra grace-period as a free trial is ending. Not only does the customer have more time to make an informed decision, they’re also reminded of the value they experienced during the trial. 

For customers who’ve already converted, the brand’s messaging helps them make the most of all the benefits included in their subscription. By onboarding customers for every feature and generating the best possible experience, the likelihood of churn plummets.

But all is not lost when it comes to churned customers. With every round of feedback, brands have the opportunity to improve the customer experience. Not only can you enhance the experience for present and future users, but the win-backs will rise as you implement feedback.

Whether it’s getting feedback from lapsed users or receiving glowing reviews from active customers, every data point is another springboard for even more sophisticated strategies. With Braze and Movable Ink, brands can gather that data across every stage of the customer lifecycle and generate nuanced messaging that only gets better.

Tell a Consistent Brand Story

People think in narratives, and it’s those stories that create a connection. For memorable marketing communications that build trust and maximize customer-brand interactions, marketers need to tell their story consistently across channels.

Here, Overstock’s campaign was reflected consistently across every digital touchpoint. With a cross-channel campaign, marketers capitalized on personalized, real-time messaging that boosted conversion rates by 21% and open rates by 38%, all while decreasing overall messaging sends. With the power of Movable Ink to support more targeted campaigns and the Braze platform’s deployment capabilities, Overstock’s unique clicks skyrocketed to a staggering 9x above industry benchmarks.

Stay Accessible

Brands need to be accessible to maintain a good connection. That means marketers must hone in on customers’ most used device: their phone.

Take Viki Rakuten. By partnering with Braze and Movable Ink, Viki deployed an engaging mobile campaign that drove a 3-7% lift in contributors. In the push notification on the left, a reminder to renew premium status is paired with a countdown clock displaying how long they have until the next purchase cycle drives urgency. On the right, the push notification displays how many more contributions Camille needs to make to retain her premium status along with a CTA to add a reminder to her online calendar.

Personalization is the Foundation

Personalization makes a customer feel seen, heard, and confident. For consumers at every stage and on every device, experiencing unique messaging is what keeps them coming back and builds a lasting customer-brand connection. 

Here, Rakuten Viki drives user watch time through personalized content recommendations. By gathering data from previous watch history and activity, the brand makes the perfect suggestion for that next binge-worthy show. Viki adds to the experience by adding a scratch-off capability, making the next show suggestion a fun surprise for the customer.

Through recommendations that perfectly accord with customer preferences, Viki saw engagement skyrocket across devices: a 500% increase in CTR via email, a 22% increase in CTR through in-app messages, and a staggering 17% increase in video play conversion.

Sophisticated personalization goes far beyond recommendations. For Canva’s millions of users, the brand increased open rates by over 30% and engagement rates by 2.5% all while maintaining 99% deliverability. 

How did the design brand accomplish this? By deploying campaigns with content that is tailored to customers’ interest and customized to their location. With leg up from Movable Ink and Braze, Canva increased weekly email volumes from 30 to 50 million all while improving their personalization and speed to market.

The partnership of Braze and Movable Ink empowers brands to transform their digital communications into memorable moments that build a human connection. Through data-driven personalization, customers can feel understood by the brand, leading them to lifetime engagement.

Want to hear more brand success stories and learn how they did it? Watch all of the groundbreaking Think Summit presentations on-demand today.