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with their customers held immense value, yet they were hampered by data silos across multiple departments and an outdated marketing technology infrastructure.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.