U.S. Soccer Consolidates Messaging, Unifies Customer Data to Increase Paid Subscriptions by 43% With Braze, Treasure Data, and Shopify

While soccer has globally been the most watched sport, awareness had lagged behind in the United States before becoming a regular part in the American sports consciousness the last 15 years, most notably via the U.S. Men’s and Women’s National Teams (USMNT and USWNT). The U.S. Soccer Federation, the national governing body for all-things soccer in the United States, aims to accelerate the sport’s growth. By understanding fan engagement and who their fans are, U.S. Soccer hopes to create more compelling messaging, experiences, and storytelling and continue introducing new audiences to the sport.

So when it came time to unify their siloed engagement tools, add new channels, better leverage their customer data, and increase revenue, U.S. Soccer looked for a platform that could match the sport’s recent growth and integrate with their core eCommerce and Martech platforms. That’s when they turned to Braze.

How to Understand Every Shopper

Prior to Braze, U.S. Soccer worked with different point solutions for email, push and in-app messaging, but wanted a technology that would consolidate all their communications into a single platform as well as unlock valuable insights into their customers’ behaviors across each of those touchpoints. In addition, U.S. Soccer was looking to create more effective email messages with less effort, add new channels to their messaging mix, streamline their ticketing and merchandising efforts to increase market share and revenue, and boost premium memberships on their Insiders loyalty program to drive fans to exclusive offers, experiences, content, ticket deals, and more.

After adopting Braze, U.S. Soccer started by creating an onboarding Canvas customer journey within the platform, using the Braze customer journey builder, for their Insiders subscription program to encourage new sign-ups and upgrades to pre-existing memberships.

Then, using Liquid personalization—which automatically substitutes relevant data and values related to a given user into messages—they began sending out personalized ticketing presale emails on certain days and times according to each user’s customer attributes and the time periods when they were most likely to make purchases, which previously would have required manually starting and stopping campaigns.

Addressing merchandising goals proved to be a light lift for U.S. Soccer thanks to Braze Alloys technology partners Treasure Data and Shopify. Treasure Data, a powerful customer data platform (CDP), connects seamlessly with Braze. With the integration, U.S. Soccer can send customized emails to customer segments based on previous purchases, conversions, and behaviors. And with Shopify, they can use data from their shoppers to easily create personalized campaigns that secure more market share for their own store, improve loyalty, and drive more sales.

Finally, U.S. Soccer added a new channel to their messaging mix with Braze Content Cards, where marketers can send highly targeted, dynamic streams of rich content to customers right within the apps they love.

U.S. Soccer Results: A Winning Strategy

Since adopting Braze and linking the platform with Treasure Data and Shopify, U.S. Soccer has gained the ability to communicate with their customers on a one-on-one basis, which ultimately helps them sell tickets, jerseys, and tell relevant stories to USMNT and USWNT fans based on their interest level.

Key Takeaway

By personalizing the customer journey to each consumer, U.S. Soccer builds long-term relationships that drive revenue. To learn more about how to use zero- and first-party data to engage shoppers, download the 2022 Retail Customer Engagement Review.

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