Your team just launched a new feature — Hooray!
Customers will now come running to use it!
Well, maybe. Did you tell customers about the new feature?
A common problem teams face is forgetting about the value of communication with their customers and prospects when new features are being released.
Customers want to know or may need a polite nudge, to engage with your product, but new features are a great way to pull them back in.
Even if customers use your product daily, they are focused on their jobs, not when new features are released, so it’s important to set expectations on when they will receive new things.
What is a feature announcement, and where do you see them today?
A feature is something that delivers values in your product to your customers and prospects.
A new feature announcement is when your team shares the news about that new feature to your audience.
A feature announcement is a valuable tool for companies to leverage for multiple reasons.
First, it draws attention to your brand.
Companies that are actively solving problems for their customers gain momentum. Their customers will tell others, which drives leads and new business.
Marketing teams can use new features to keep prospects thinking about your brand when they run into the problems you are solving.
Next, it keeps current customers engaged with your product. There’s nothing worse than buying a new tool but it doesn’t keep up with your changing needs as a customer. Product teams who are actively doing discovery uncover deeper levels of the problem that needs to be solved and how the product can make their customers’ lives better. This leads to new features being built and customers staying retained.
Lastly, feature announcements build trust and loyalty between your brand and your customers.
Also Read:
What is the New Feature Discovery Process & Examples
Customers know when they can expect new features to be launched and look forward to helping your product and company grow. Having this ongoing communication between your company and your customers solidifies that loyalty to reduce churn.
As a consumer, you are constantly being exposed to feature announcements in the everyday products that you use. Go open your email inbox and you’ll see multiple messages announcing something new for you. Open your phone to see push notifications or open your favorite app to find a pop up message drawing you back in to use that product more.
Despite seeing feature announcements often, there are best practices that many companies operate with.
1. Example: Figma – In Product Feature Announcement
One company that stands out with in-product feature announcements is Figma. If you don’t use Figma, it’s a design tool that does much more than your average daily designing, such as prototyping, collaboration, and their newest tool FigJam AI.
Figma announced this new feature by grabbing the attention of their customers as soon as they login.
Why is this great?
- It appears at login so customers don’t miss it.
- It focuses on the value it will deliver for the customer – generation, sorting and summarizing
- It links out to additional content if the customer wants to learn more or is ready to use the feature.
2. Example: Microsoft Teams – What’s New Section
Sometimes you have more than one new feature to announce to your customers and you don’t want to overwhelm them with in-product messages or emails.
Many companies, like Microsoft Teams, host their feature announcements in a place where customers can access it directly in a “What’s New” section.
Why is this great?
- It gives customers a one-stop view of all the enhancements and announcements, including any they may have missed.
- It organizes your feature announcements based on date so customers know when things changed.
- It gives Product and Marketing teams a way to engage current customers to drive to additional content like FAQ pages or helpful blogs sharing more details.
3. Example: Airbnb – Email Announcements
Airbnb is known for keeping their customers informed of upcoming features to drive more rentals through their platform. One way to do this is grouping the release of customer facing features into an emailed newsletter.
Why is this great?
- It’s sent directly to your customers’ inboxes to engage them with your platform.
- It sets expectations with customers on when they can expect new features to be released. Ie: Quarterly, monthly or seasonal feature release newsletters.
- It allows the Product and Marketing team to group together multiple features announcements into a single message so you don’t spam customer inboxes.
4. Example: Usersnap Feature Announcement Templates & Tips
Crafting the right feature announcement doesn’t have to be tough. Partners like Usersnap make it simple to find, create, and launch feature announcements using templates designed with best practices in mind.
Why is this great?
- It’s easy for your team to create and launch, in as quick as a few minutes!
- You can set up your announcement to collect feedback with a website feedback widget from your customers about the new feature
- You can link directly to additional content like blog posts or FAQs
Learn more and check out the template here.
Email marketing: New feature announcement example & samples
Email is one of the most popular ways for companies to announce new features.
Customers have opted in to receive your business emails, so you know they are likely to open them and see what’s new.
Emails allow you to provide screenshots or video of the feature, some longer written value props on why this feature will be valuable and a specific CTA (call-to-action) for your customer to take next.
Emails are excellent for reaching prospective customers and driving new leads for your Sales teams too.
In addition to Airbnb, here are a few other ways to think about email feature announcements.
Rolled up feature announcement
Fullstory, a digital experience platform, announces their new features every quarter in a rolled up email message.
This is a great way to group new features that may interest a wide range of customers.
For example, in FullStory’s Q3 release, they announced updates to their conversion flow, mobile app and metrics pages.
All of these are important to their customers, but some help drive experience while other features focus on the ROI of using a tool like FullStory.
Fun email feature announcements
Feature announcements don’t have to be dry or even overly structured. Many companies make it an exciting and fun way to keep customers happy to use your products.
One example of that is Trello, a work organization tool, that adds silly photos and bright colors to their email marketing messages.
Tips for subject lines and call-to-actions
Crafting the perfect subject line and call-to-action is crucial for the success of any feature announcement.
For email, draw in your audience with a catchy subject line focused on the value of the new feature. Then use your subheader as a way to give additional details around what they can expect to see after they open the email.
Example Subject Lines:
- Save time and plan ahead using the new Scheduled Message.
- Your team will love you when they can plan in advance!
- Unsure what message goes next? That’s no longer a problem with Scheduled Messages.
A Call-To-Action (CTA) may be the most important part of any feature announcement. This is the link or button to drive your customer to take action.
Depending on your new feature, the CTA may be directly into the product to use the feature, learn more or a way for a prospect to sign up for your product.
It’s important to keep these short and direct so customers aren’t confused on what you want them to do next.
Examples of strong CTAs:
- Learn more
- Check it out
- Sign up today
Airbnb incorporates CTAs that are related to their business and industry to make sure customers know what they should do next, like “Find a stay” within their Airbnb business plan strategy.
Designing good UI & UX for new feature announcements
Any good feature announcement will focus on the value the feature is delivering for the customer. That is the reason the team built it and why a customer would be excited.
However, most human beings are visual and want to SEE what it looks like before diving in to learn more.
For that reason, the content of the announcement and how the announcement looks are both extremely important.
Luckily, many times you can include an image or video of the feature itself to get customers excited about the announcement. Other times, if the feature isn’t something visual, think faster download speeds or reporting, you can work with your design team to create icons or graphics that will still make your feature announcement beautiful.
For example, Trello’s announcement around their new AI isn’t the product but it is still visual. There isn’t a way to show that computing power and good chance it looks very similar to their current product so there isn’t anything to show off that way. But their design teams didn’t worry, they crafted this fun space image to depict the ‘future’ power they are now unlocking.
Another example is if you don’t have much space for a full product image. This is an opportunity to create icons or smaller graphics that still break up the content into easy to read design for customers and add some of your brand personality to the message.
In Bubble’s October Release, they highlighted their top three updates with fun images.
Always pull in your Marketing and Design teams as your team prepares for a new feature announcement to make sure you are delivering on customers’ informational and visual excitement.
Step-By-Step feature announcement process
Crafting a feature announcement doesn’t have to be a cumbersome process. It may depend on the teams you have at your company but for the most part you can follow a simple process like this.
1. Identify the upcoming features
This will most likely be a partnership between your Product and Marketing teams to understand the product roadmap and why certain features have been prioritized.
2. Select announcement channel
Your Marketing Team will have the most influence here as they decide if this feature makes sense to be shared via email, social media platforms, push notifications, or in-product. It will greatly depend on if your company wants to use this new feature to attract new customers or to keep current customers engaged.
3. Create feature content
Now you know why this feature is important and what channel you’ll use to promote it, it’s time to create content for that channel. If it’s a simple feature, you may be able to drive customers directly into the product. If it’s a bit more complex or has multiple value props, it may make sense to create videos or longer-form blog content.
4. Make an announcement plan
Coordinate between the Product team on when the feature will be ready for Production and your Marketing team on when content will be ready to release. Craft a calendar on how far in advance you want to start promoting the feature and what the communication plan is for when it’s live.
Conclusion
New features are exciting for both your company and your customers.
It may feel daunting but the point of doing a feature announcement is so you can share with your customers that you have created something that will benefit them.
Need a partner in your new feature announcement journey?
Explore Usersnap’s feature announcement template to get ideas or an extra hand to make yours the most successful.
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