What’s a Solutions Partner?

As customer expectations increase and the edge of what’s possible expands, creating high quality consumer experiences gets harder and harder. To accomodate, brands are leveraging partner expertise to support changing needs as they move away from all-in-one suites to best in breed solutions. Bottom line: It’s not always realistic—or effective—to do everything in house and many brands are taking note.

That’s where solutions partners come in. Whether it’s a lack of engineering resources, a need to execute quickly, or a team bandwidth issue, agencies and consultancies present a major opportunity to help create rich, personalized, real-time messaging at scale. In order to better facilitate this growing ecosystem, we debuted the next generation of Braze Alloys at this year’s LTR conference. We’re excited for our roster of high quality, innovative solutions partners.

But What Exactly is a Solutions Partner?

At the core, a solutions partner is an agency or consultancy that uses their expertise to help your brand accomplish a specific goal or set of goals. While technology partners can supplement your brand’s data, analytics, channel extension, and/or platform connectivity needs, solutions partners support strategy, tactical implementation, and hands-on operation. They are results-oriented, focused on helping you demonstrate ROI, get to benchmarks quicker, or develop (and hit) the right KPIs.

Are There Different Types of Solutions Partners?

While solutions partners can have a wide variety of expertise and skill sets, there are three main categories, each with their own unique benefits.

• Marketing Solutions Partners: These partners are obsessed with strategy and execution. They can create customer lifecycle journeys, set up Canvases, audit and optimize campaigns, and evaluate lifecycle marketing success. They often work directly in Braze day-to-day on behalf of their clients.
• Engineering Solutions Partners: Focused on the technical side of things, these partners help brands organize and implement their tech platforms. For example, they can completely handle the migration off legacy tech and the setup of a new system.
• Full Serve Solutions Partners: A blend of the first two types, these partners are a one-stop shop to support your organization across both marketing and engineering competencies.

Is a Solutions Partner the Right Move for Your Brand?

Brands in many different situations can benefit from the expertise of a solutions partner. Whether you’re looking for creative HTML support, migrating from a legacy marketing suite, or have too much data and too little time, you should first identify the goals you’re trying to accomplish and assess if your team has the requisite resources, time, and skills to achieve those goals. According to Gartner’s 2019 Marketing Organization Survey, 24% of respondents said that marketing tech strategy, adoption, and use is one of their company’s top three weaknesses in regards to driving customer acquisition and loyalty. Solutions partners are a great way to accelerate growth and success while accommodating your team’s skills and resources.

More than just satisfying an immediate need, leveraging outside expertise can provide a powerful long-term benefit. Some of the most innovative marketing campaigns of the past year were accomplished with the help of solutions partners. Check out how Burger King used solutions partners to boost usage of their mobile app by over 50% with their award-winning Whopper Detour campaign.

Final Thoughts

You don’t have to go it alone. From optimizing tech integrations to developing a marketing blueprint for success, solutions partners can help adapt to shifting demands and create high quality consumer experiences that set your brand apart from the noise.

Interested in learning more about how solutions partners can work with the Braze platform? Check out our Braze Alloys solutions partner hub.