July 2024 Bonfire Marketer of the Month: BlaBlaCar’s Linh Vu

Each month, Braze selects one individual as our Marketer of the Month in order to celebrate the exceptional work being done by members of our Braze Bonfire community. Whether it's providing support for their fellow marketers or going above and beyond by sharing their innovative ideas and strategies, these individuals are making essential contributions to their companies, their users, and the customer engagement space as a whole.

This month, we’re recognizing Linh Vu, CRM & Automation Manager at BlaBlaCar. With the mission to be the go-to marketplace for shared travel, BlaBlaCar is the world’s leading community-based travel app enabling 27 million active members a year to share a ride in 21 countries. We spoke to Linh about how BlaBlaCar uses Braze to create successful customer engagement programs, how they’ve evolved campaigns, and the value of a Braze Certification. Let’s dive in!

What is your favorite part of your role at BlaBlaCar?

I love turning our go-to-market strategy for a new product or feature into a tangible customer engagement campaign in Braze. As the Braze expert and owner of the tool at BlaBlaCar, I work hand-in-hand with Product Managers and Product Marketing Managers to turn plans into reality.

For each new product feature rollout, we’ll come up with a strategy that includes specific touchpoints for different moments across many user segments. We then turn that strategy into Canvases and campaigns in Braze, making sure we reach the right user at the right time with the right messages. At that point, we monitor the campaigns to be able to detect and fix any errors as soon as possible, as well as to avoid overlap with other existing communications. This is my most favorite part of the job. With the many Canvas components—Experiment Paths, Action Paths, Decision Split—anything is possible!

How do you see Braze as a career accelerant?

Braze has been significantly accelerating my career by providing a robust and powerful platform to execute innovative, automated communication campaigns and measure their impact in real-time. The versatility and depth of its features has allowed me to constantly learn new things, expand my skill set by exploring more technical solutions, and develop a comprehensive understanding of customer engagement strategies.

Furthermore, being proficient in a leading tool like Braze is a valuable asset in the marketing industry, opening up numerous opportunities for professional growth.

What is one campaign or initiative you have worked on in your current role that you’re most proud of?

One initiative that stands out is using Connected Content to make calls to the BlaBlaCar public API to fetch available rides from the inventory and display the results in our communications. This feature has been successfully integrated into several of our user engagement programs.

Originally, it was built to boost the conversion rate of our cart abandonment program, where we target users who search for rides but do not complete a booking. Within the email, we remind users of the routes they were searching for and display three similar rides leaving on the same day and for the same destinations. Each ride is presented with comprehensive details such as the driver’s name, photo, rating, and departure and arrival times. These rides are sorted by relevance based on criteria like distance, rating, and price, ensuring that the most relevant ride is shown first. Users can then click directly to the specific ride, avoiding the need to search again.

Building on the success of Connected Content in the cart abandonment program, we have extended this approach to other cases:

• Cancellation winback program: In this program, we follow up with passengers whose bookings have been canceled, offering them alternative options. By providing similar rides with detailed information, we aim to recapture the interest of these users and guide them towards making a new booking.
• Publication abandonment program: This operates on the same principle as the cart abandonment program but targets drivers who drop out of the publication flow. By reminding drivers of their incomplete publications and suggesting similar rides that are already published on the platform and attracting passengers, we encourage them to complete their postings.

The use of Connected Content in these programs has significantly enhanced user experience and increased conversion rates. We continue to explore opportunities to replicate this success across various touchpoints to further improve user engagement and retention.

What has your experience been like working with the Braze team and community so far?

Working with the Braze team and community has been incredibly rewarding. The support from Braze has been exceptional, providing us with insights and guidance to optimize our campaigns across the seven years we’ve been a Braze customer. I also love going to events organized by Braze like Grow With Braze or City x City to meet the community and to keep up with the industry standards.

Have you taken any of the Braze certification exams?

Yes! I took the Braze Certified Marketer exam in December 2022. It was a valuable experience that deepened my understanding of the platform’s capabilities and best practices. The certification has also been beneficial in demonstrating my expertise in Braze to colleagues, stakeholders, and my network. I’m very proud to have the Braze Certified Marketer badge on my LinkedIn profile and I’m planning to get the Digital Strategist certification next!

Interested in collaborating to build the future of customer engagement? Join a collective of experts to forge connections, share ideas, and accelerate your career at the Braze Bonfire Community.