If you’re running enterprise B2B marketing and you need something smarter than scattershot email blasts and clunky CRMs, you’ve probably heard of Braze. This guide breaks down what Braze actually offers B2B teams, how it stacks up against the competition, and where it genuinely delivers—or falls short. If you’re tired of vague promises and want to know if this thing is worth your team’s time and money, read on.
What is Braze, Really?
Braze started out targeting B2C brands—think apps and retail. But lately, they’ve been courting B2B marketers who want to up their game in customer engagement and automation, especially for go-to-market (GTM) teams. At its core, Braze is a customer engagement platform: it helps you orchestrate messaging (email, in-app, push, SMS, etc.), segment audiences, and analyze how campaigns perform.
Not Just for Apps Anymore
Braze is trying to move beyond mobile-first use cases. For B2B, the pitch is that you can run personalized campaigns across all channels, automate onboarding, and nudge users with data-driven triggers—without cobbling together five different tools.
Who Should (and Shouldn’t) Use Braze?
Braze isn’t the cheapest or simplest option. Here’s who gets the most out of it:
- Enterprise marketing teams with complex campaigns and lots of data.
- Product-led B2B SaaS companies that want to automate onboarding and retention.
- Teams with tech resources—Braze is powerful, but it’s not plug-and-play.
Don’t bother if:
- You’re a small team without much technical muscle.
- You just need basic drip emails and newsletters.
- Your data lives in messy, disconnected silos you can’t clean up.
Braze B2B Features: What’s Actually Useful?
Here’s what matters for B2B marketers, and what you can safely ignore.
The Good Stuff
- Cross-channel orchestration: Build campaigns that blend email, SMS, push, and in-app messaging. Great for multi-touch journeys (and not just for app users).
- Segmentation and personalization: Use real-time data to target by account, company role, product usage, or just about any custom event you care about.
- Event-based triggers: Automate outreach based on what users do (or don’t do). Handy for onboarding, feature adoption, or sales handoffs.
- Flexible APIs and integrations: Connects to data warehouses, CRMs, CDPs, and product analytics tools (think Salesforce, Segment, Snowflake, etc.).
- Reporting and analytics: Decent dashboards, A/B testing, and cohort analysis. Not always beautiful, but gets the job done.
What’s Overhyped or Annoying
- “No-code” campaign building: Sure, you can drag and drop, but anyone running serious campaigns will end up writing SQL or custom code. The learning curve is real.
- In-app messaging for web: Works, but not as slick as competitors like Intercom or Pendo for web-first B2B products.
- Mobile push for B2B: Unless you have a mobile-heavy product, skip this. Most B2B buyers aren’t tapping push notifications at their desks.
- “AI-powered personalization”: It’s basic predictive logic, not magic. Set expectations accordingly.
How Braze Compares to Other Enterprise Marketing Automation Tools
There’s no shortage of competition. Here’s how Braze stacks up against the usual suspects:
1. Braze vs. HubSpot Marketing Hub
- Braze: Stronger at complex, cross-channel campaigns. Better event-triggered automation and richer segmentation.
- HubSpot: Easier setup, all-in-one CRM and marketing. Less flexible for product-led or usage-based journeys.
- Bottom line: If your GTM motions are simple and you want everything in one place, HubSpot wins. If you need power and flexibility, Braze is better—but harder to master.
2. Braze vs. Marketo (Adobe)
- Braze: Modern UI, easier API integrations, faster to build new journeys.
- Marketo: Deep roots in email, powerful lead scoring and nurturing, but feels dated and clunky.
- Bottom line: Marketo is entrenched in old-school B2B. Braze is more agile, but you’ll have to rebuild some legacy processes.
3. Braze vs. Salesforce Marketing Cloud
- Braze: Faster to launch campaigns, better data-driven triggers.
- Salesforce: Deep CRM integration, but can feel overwhelming and expensive fast.
- Bottom line: If you’re all-in on Salesforce, the integration is hard to beat. Otherwise, Braze is less bloated and more focused.
4. Braze vs. Iterable and Customer.io
- Braze: More mature analytics, better enterprise support.
- Iterable/Customer.io: Cheaper, easier for smaller teams, but can struggle with scale.
- Bottom line: For big B2B orgs, Braze is sturdier. For scrappy startups, Iterable or Customer.io might be enough.
Real-World Setup: What You’ll Actually Deal With
Braze isn’t a tool you spin up in a weekend. Here’s what to expect:
Integration (and Data Headaches)
- You’ll need clean, connected data. If your product usage, CRM, and marketing data don’t play nicely, Braze will frustrate you.
- Expect a “discovery” phase with their solutions team. Translation: you’ll need to map out data flows and custom events before you can do much of anything.
- Their documentation is solid, but some features are sparsely documented (especially newer B2B stuff). Be ready to lean on support.
Building Campaigns
- The visual builder is decent once you get the hang of it. But for advanced logic—like branching by account status or product tier—you’ll probably end up writing code or using SQL-like filters.
- Pro tip: Start with one channel (usually email), get your segmentation right, then add more channels later. Multi-channel orchestration is powerful, but easy to mess up if your data is off.
Reporting and Analytics
- Out of the box, Braze gives you basic dashboards and A/B test tracking.
- For serious BI, you’ll want to push data to your warehouse and use something like Looker or Tableau.
- Don’t expect Braze to magically tell you why users aren’t converting. It’ll show you the numbers, but you’ll still need to dig.
Pricing: What You’ll Pay (and What’s Hidden)
Braze doesn’t publish pricing, which usually means “expensive.” You’re looking at an annual contract, and the final number depends on:
- Number of active users/contacts
- Channels used (email, SMS, in-app, etc.)
- Volumes of messages sent
- Integration and support level
Hidden costs: - Heavy implementation support is often extra. - Advanced analytics or custom integrations may require more services. - You’ll need at least one person (probably more) to own the setup and ongoing maintenance.
If budget is tight, get quotes from at least two other platforms before committing. Don’t be afraid to negotiate—Braze sales teams have targets, like everyone else.
Honest Pros & Cons
What Works
- Handles complex, multi-touch B2B journeys better than most.
- Real-time personalization and event-triggered automation is solid.
- Integrates with most enterprise data stacks.
What Doesn’t
- Steep learning curve—don’t expect to “set and forget.”
- Expensive, both in dollars and staff time.
- Some features (especially for web in-app) feel tacked-on for B2B.
What to Ignore
- Don’t get hung up on “AI” features—they’re fine, but not a silver bullet.
- If you don’t have a strong data foundation, fix that first. The fanciest automation won’t help if your data’s a mess.
Wrapping Up
Braze is a real contender for B2B enterprise teams who want to move beyond basic email and actually orchestrate complex, multi-channel campaigns. It’s powerful, but you’ll pay for that power—in dollars, setup time, and ongoing effort. My advice: keep your first campaigns simple, focus on clean data, and resist the urge to automate everything out of the gate. Iterate, measure, and don’t let the tool drive your marketing strategy—let your actual needs lead the way.