BandLab Uses Cross-Channel Strategy to Drive Memberships

BandLab’s mission is to shape the future of music by building tools for a new generation of music creators and fans. The brand accomplishes this by offering a free online Studio to empower musicians to make music anywhere, anytime, and a platform to help connect and collaborate with other musicians and fans, release tracks, and earn money.

Building a network of music creators and community is core to BandLab’s vision. This means customer engagement is extremely important and takes center stage, especially when it comes to helping customers nurture and grow their appetite for creating and discovering new music. BandLab’s job is done, they say, once they’ve helped music creators achieve their musical dreams.

To help users realize their goals, BandLab turned to Braze. According to BandLab, Braze was an easy choice because the head of marketing used the platform to drive success at previous companies.

Voice Cleaner: Introducing features musicians didn’t know they needed

With more than 100M registered users, BandLab was looking to target highly active users engaging with their free Studio product with messaging to encourage subscriptions and trial sign-ups. Their goals were to:

• Convert free, active users into new Membership subscribers
• Convert power users to start a Membership trial
• Promote paid features via their in-app inbox and social feed

Key components of their strategy included:

• Weekly slide-up in-app messages and Content Cards with fresh copy
• Midweek messaging with copy variants
• Always-available Content Cards in a “From BandLab” app inbox
• Content Cards in the in-app social feed

For example, BandLab promoted their Voice Cleaner feature via slide-up in-app messages, Content Cards, and push notifications, all targeted to users who had never attempted a membership trial but were active within the free BandLab Studio. The brand also began a small experiment to promote Voice Cleaner using Personalized Paths in Braze Canvas, our no-code journey orchestration tool.

Here’s a view into BandLab’s campaign, set up in just two days:

1. First, BandLab used Braze tech partner Amplitude to funnel cohorts of users into Braze for targeting.

2. BandLab created their weekly Voice Cleaner communications via campaigns in Braze so that they could regularly refresh messaging. Each week they duplicated an in-app message or Content Card, and updated the copy to retarget active users who were not currently in a Membership trial.

3. BandLab also experimented with a slide-up message featuring the Voice Cleaner feature, testing different copy variations with “background noise. Using Personalized Paths, they sent users the variation they were most likely to resonate with.

4. The slide-up message is triggered each Monday, along with a Content Card. For example, messaging might appear to a user as follows:

5. Using Experiment Paths, they tested new variants, featuring copy around “background noise.” BandLab found that this copy variant performed better in terms of clicks and paywall opens.

The power and versatility of Content Cards

BandLab now uses Content Cards for a variety of purposes including feature promotion and monetization. The brand’s marketing team integrated Content Cards within the BandLab app in a way that feels native, not intrusive, to the user.

For example, this “From BandLab” inbox showcases a feed of Content Cards a user can always engage with or return to for reference:

BandLab finds that Content Cards have a high click-through rate averaging ~6% on Impressions to Clicks. The brand has also had success driving subscription trial activations via Content Cards—especially with power users. In the above example, BandLab promoted the Voice Cleaner feature to power users via Content Cards and saw an 8.5% conversion rate from Click to Trial Start—higher than all other channels.

BandLab is currently rolling out Content Cards within their “social feed” tool, with an aim to further boost engagement and monetization.

“Braze has helped us reach our users more effectively and efficiently. With help from data partners like Amplitude, we’re able to get real-time data flowing through Braze and can create complex and sophisticated flows that make the most impact. Additionally, the seamless integration of Content Cards into our app allows us to easily create personalized experiences that drive subscriptions and enhance user engagement.”

Reuben Raman

Head of Marketing, BandLab

As successes stack up, BandLab applies Braze throughout the customer lifecycle

BandLab began with a specific goal—to identify active and power users who had never attempted a Membership trial. By leveraging Braze and Braze partners like Amplitude, they were able to bring this data into Braze to create the right segments and test messaging through different in-app channels.

BandLab found Content Cards to be especially effective, earning an average 12.1% Impressions to Clicks rate. With their power users segment, they saw an 5.1% conversion rate from Click to membership, compared to 5.1% for other users. This comparison was between the same time period of July 1 to December 2023 and July 1 to December 2024.

Content Cards are now in use within several locations within the BandLab app.

Key takeaways

1. Begin with a clearly defined project. BandLab started out with a well-defined plan, clear objectives, and a clean data import, which allowed them to design targeted campaigns for the users most likely to be responsive.
2. Try different channels. Sending messaging across different channels may feel like you’re hitting your users too hard with the same message, but chances are they’re not going to see the message in every channel. A multichannel approach allows you to learn where and how your target customers prefer to interact.
3. Refresh, refresh, refresh. BandLab refreshed its messaging each week to engage users and learn from the results. The brand used Experiment Paths in Canvas to test different messaging variations in its in-app messages, Content Cards, and push notifications. There was a clear winner!
   

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