XING is a employment-oriented social network operated by New Work SE that helps users stay connected with their professional contacts as well as find new job opportunities, keep track of companies in related industries, and take advantage of networking events. When XING launched their new app and wanted to take their campaign messaging to the next level, they looked to Braze to help make that vision a reality. With Braze as a cornerstone of their marketing tech stack, they launched Content Cards, a native messaging channel that fits intuitively into an app.

Helping Users Share Their Work Stories

Prior to Braze, XING’s stack consisted of legacy solutions for campaign management and email that were unstable and difficult to maintain. And while those tools were functioning, they didn’t allow for real-time interactions. Plus, XING couldn’t leverage tools to educate customers on their new mobile app’s built-in features, like story sharing.

After using Braze for a few years, XING was looking to revamp their onboarding process to allow for:

• Better education and onboarding to guide users in their app

• Stronger user segmentation to target content

Better Onboarding With Content Cards

XING started by setting up three customized onboarding flows for their new story format: One for users who had seen the story feature in their app but had not created one within three days; a second to give inspiration for what kind of stories to post; and a third to nudge users who had already created a story to add more.

Leveraging Braze Currents—which allows brands to automatically move data between Braze and other layers of their stack—to import data from Amazon S3, XING was able to synchronize real-time attributes and user changes automatically, then analyze and take action on them back in Braze.

With this analyzed data in tow, XING used key-value pairs to display Content Cards, which are designed to allow brands to highlight persistent content within their app or web experience without interrupting customers’ browsing behavior. Using Braze Content Cards, XING targets users individually, such as based on their language or previous interactions. Key-value pairs allow XING to customize the look and feel of those Content Cards to blend directly with their brand experience, as opposed to relying solely on the Braze platform's out-of-the-box templates. For example, XING uses key-value pairs to determine exactly where a Content Card gets placed on their site or app.

Final Thoughts

Back by successful cross-team collaboration, XING was able to improve engagement by implementing a new messaging channel that meets the user in the right context. Adding Content Cards to their current messaging mix gave XING more flexibility and options for future campaigns than ever before. They also have a strong basis for further experimentation, which will continue to enable success.

Want to deliver a targeted stream of app and web content that’s personalized to your users? Learn more about Content Cards, their benefits, and when to use them.