Braze

Overview

Braze is a customer engagement platform that provides tools for personalized messaging, journey orchestration, and real-time data activation across multiple channels. Founded in 2011, Braze focuses on helping enterprises deliver targeted customer experiences, particularly for mobile-first engagement strategies. The platform unifies customer data from various sources into a centralized profile, which then powers segmentation, targeting, and automated customer journeys.

Developers and technical buyers utilize Braze for its extensive SDKs and APIs, which facilitate integration with existing applications and data infrastructure. Supported SDKs include those for iOS, Android, Web, React Native, Flutter, Unity, Roku, tvOS, and Cordova, enabling broad coverage across different client environments. This allows for the collection of behavioral data and the delivery of in-app messages, push notifications, and content cards directly within applications. The platform's API documentation outlines methods for data ingestion, user profile management, and message dispatch, supporting various programming languages such as Swift, Kotlin, JavaScript, Python, Ruby, Java, PHP, and Go through REST API calls. Braze's API reference provides detailed endpoints and examples for these operations.

Braze's core products include a customer data platform (CDP) component that aggregates and processes customer data in real time, a journey orchestration engine for designing multi-step customer flows, and various messaging channels such as email, push notifications, in-app messages, content cards, and SMS/MMS. The platform is designed for scenarios requiring large-scale personalized messaging and complex omnichannel customer journeys, making it suitable for enterprises seeking to consolidate their customer engagement efforts. Compliance certifications include SOC 2 Type II, GDPR, CCPA, ISO 27001, ISO 27018, and HIPAA readiness, addressing data security and privacy requirements for a range of industries. For instance, the HIPAA readiness of Braze helps organizations in healthcare meet stringent regulatory requirements for handling protected health information (PHI) in their marketing efforts, a feature also offered by some competitors like Salesforce Health Cloud.

Braze aims to provide capabilities for real-time data processing and segment creation, which allows for dynamic adjustments to campaigns based on user behavior. This real-time activation is critical for scenarios where immediate responses to user actions are necessary to maintain engagement. Webhooks are also available for custom integrations, allowing developers to extend Braze's functionality and connect it with other systems for more specialized workflows.

Key features

• Customer Data Platform (CDP): Unifies customer data from various sources into individual profiles for segmentation and targeting.
• Journey Orchestration: Provides a visual builder to design and automate multi-step customer journeys across channels.
• Email Marketing: Tools for creating, sending, and tracking personalized email campaigns.
• Push Notifications: Enables sending targeted push notifications to mobile devices and web browsers.
• In-App Messages: Delivers contextual messages directly within mobile applications to engage users.
• Content Cards: Persistent, customizable messages displayed within an app's feed or inbox.
• SMS/MMS Messaging: Supports sending text and multimedia messages for transactional and promotional purposes.
• Webhooks: Allows for custom integrations and triggering external systems based on platform events.
• A/B Testing & Optimization: Tools to test different message variations and journey paths to improve performance.
• Analytics & Reporting: Provides dashboards and reports to monitor campaign performance and customer behavior.

Pricing

Braze offers custom enterprise pricing for its customer engagement platform. Specific costs are determined based on factors such as the volume of monthly active users (MAUs), desired feature set, and support level. Organizations interested in Braze typically engage directly with their sales team to receive a tailored quote.

For detailed pricing inquiries, prospective customers are directed to the Braze pricing page to contact their sales department.

Common integrations

Braze provides various methods for integration, including SDKs, APIs, and webhooks. Key categories of integrations often include:

• Customer Relationship Management (CRM): Connecting with systems like Salesforce to synchronize customer data and activity. Braze Salesforce integration documentation.
• Analytics Platforms: Integrating with tools like Amplitude or Mixpanel for deeper behavioral analytics and data export. Braze Amplitude integration guide.
• Data Warehouses/Lakes: Connecting to platforms like Snowflake or Databricks for advanced data storage and processing. Braze Snowflake integration details.
• E-commerce Platforms: Integrating with platforms such as Shopify or Magento to track purchase history and personalize offers.
• Advertising Platforms: Syncing audiences with platforms like Facebook Ads or Google Ads for retargeting campaigns.
• Helpdesk/Support Systems: Connecting with tools like Zendesk to align customer communication and support efforts.
• Identity Providers: Integrating with SSO solutions for secure user authentication.

Alternatives

• Iterable: A growth marketing platform specializing in personalized customer engagement across various channels.
• Salesforce Marketing Cloud: A comprehensive suite for digital marketing, including email, mobile, social, and advertising.
• MoEngage: An insights-led customer engagement platform for mobile-first businesses.

Getting started

To begin using Braze, developers typically integrate one of the provided SDKs into their application to track user behavior and deliver messages. The following Swift example demonstrates basic Braze SDK initialization for an iOS application and logging a custom event, which is fundamental for personalized engagement.

import BrazeKit

class AppDelegate: UIResponder, UIApplicationDelegate {

    var window: UIWindow?

    func application(_ application: UIApplication, didFinishLaunchingWithOptions launchOptions: [UIApplication.LaunchOptionsKey: Any]?) -> Bool {
        
        // Initialize Braze SDK
        let configuration = Braze.Configuration(apiKey: "YOUR_BRAZE_API_KEY", 
                                                endpoint: "YOUR_BRAZE_SDK_ENDPOINT")
        Braze.shared.start(configuration: configuration)
        
        // Set a user's ID (optional, but recommended for persistent user profiles)
        Braze.shared.changeUser(userId: "user_12345")
        
        // Log a custom event
        Braze.shared.logCustomEvent(name: "Product Viewed", properties: ["product_id": "SKU001", "category": "Electronics"])
        
        return true
    }
}

This snippet initializes the Braze SDK with an API key and endpoint, sets a user ID, and logs a custom event, which can then be used to segment users and trigger personalized campaigns within the Braze platform. Further integration steps involve configuring push notifications, in-app messaging, and integrating data from other sources using Braze's APIs. More detailed instructions and SDK specifics are available in the official Braze documentation.