Release notes should be presented to users in a way that encourages enthusiasm, engagement, and education about the new feature and encourages users to push for more. Be careful to use your internal jargon, turn notes into red checklists, and make your point of view clear, but do not stress the benefits for users. By changing the way you think and execute Release Notes, you and your team can change how your team uses new product updates to increase user engagement, enthusiasm, and satisfaction.
Think about how product announcements can help raise feature awareness and engage users with new features. Sharing your public roadmap before the announcement is a great way to show potential customers how to improve. To ensure that you are familiar with the changes we have written a blog post that will help guide you through user segmentation.
# Communication with customers about new features
Communication with customers about new features and product updates is crucial to maintaining a satisfied and engaged user base, and thus, remains critical. New features that solve a problem in a new and better way offer you a great chance to attract new customers so that you know that you are screaming about it.
Communication delivers and keeps customers excited about your product roadmap, provides companies with a steady stream of new values to justify their investment in your solution, and gives you the ability to engage your customers on your terms. The bottom line is that the introduction of product changes of any kind requires consideration, orientation, and diligence. In this article, we all discuss how product changes can be prepared and implemented to ensure that no one has to stay at home.
As Product Manager of Software as a Service (SaaS), I have a clear motivation to ensure that new features are visible to the user. The problem is that users leave your product after overlooking the most interesting and valuable features. The rest of your customers get to know the existing functionality of your products, but the new functions do not exist.
When you improve your product, you can pin announcements of features and the onboarding of users. This means communicating relevant values in context, at the right time, and with the right message. Features can be effective, but an announcement/user onboarding strategy is not just about features.
Sales success and support need to be reconciled not only with the feature but also with why it is important for the user. When you inform users about a coming feature and its release date, don't be afraid to share useful information about the feature that users can read to learn more about it.
Your beta testers are a great source of information that can help make your new feature announcements more exciting and compelling for your users. Testimonials they share after you announce a new feature can provide social proof that users have been compromised by trying out the new functionality. Blog posts written to support new feature introductions can serve as a resource for capturing important search engine parts and raise awareness of your product.
In-app feature announcements (opens new window) provide important contexts, instructions, and information that you can send to your users to enable immediate action. Often referred to as feature roundups, product information provides users with a comprehensive account for new features and other product updates. A new feature announcement, delivered to users in Facebook's Creative Hub, announces the addition of a team collaboration feature.
If you use a ton of channels that you use to announce product updates, you want to make sure that communication frequency for at least one customer is at an acceptable level. Not every user watches all of these channels, so you need to make sure they get the memo.
There's a fine line between making sure everyone hears the memo and bombarding them with it. The easiest way for a user to stop using their product is to make them feel that they are crying out into the void and that they are not heard.
Tips & Templates for Truly Memorable Product Announcements (opens new window)
Product announcements are the first marketing activities aimed at promoting a new or updated product. Release notes and product announcements act as personalized letters to users, telling them that your team has heard their concerns, has listened to their feedback and is working to fix the issues they have had to make the product great. Thanks to your users for the release notes, product announcements, and feedback as you continue to customize and iterate your product.
Your organization has spent time and money researching, developing, and implementing a great product. A product announcement raises awareness of the efforts your brand has made to improve the user and customer experience at a higher level. The efforts that have the greatest impact are the efforts that are invested in your product announcement strategy.
For example, when we published the assignment rules for a new feature in our Resolve product it was easy for us to send a message to all users who had access to the rules. We were able to refine the audience of users who needed the feature based on the volume of conversations they responded to over the intercom and the number of their teammates.