A new feature announcement is the perfect way to get the word out about improvements in your app. However, all too often, new features are introduced with a whimper rather than a bang, leading to low feature adoption that hurts your product.
Don’t let your hard work go to waste. Here is how to create new feature announcements that drive feature adoption.
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| Image by Freepik. |
Why are feature announcements important?
New features are exciting.
For your team, a new feature is the culmination of their hard work; for your users, they add extra functionality to your app, and in many cases, they’re the result of feedback or requests for how the app can solve their pain points more effectively.
Introducing new features for your product has a lot of essential benefits, including:
Improving your value proposition: New features that solve user pain points increase the perceived value of your solution relative to your competitors.
Increased user retention: When your offering keeps getting better and better, you can attract new users and retain your existing customers for longer. This scenario leads to increased revenue by boosting customer lifetime value (CLV).
More user engagement: New features means new functionality. The more that your product can do, the more your users will engage with it.
Drive loyalty: Users build relationships with apps that grow with them. Failure to evolve is a huge risk that your competitors can punish.
Better monetization options: Another huge benefit of releasing new features is that they can help you sell your premium tier subscriptions or charge for add-ons. What’s more, they can help you justify price rises, secure renewals, or up and cross-sell to your existing customer base.
Critical improvements can strengthen your position in the market while driving retention, engagement, and revenue. Failing to communicate new features cuts you off from these massive business benefits.
A new feature announcement helps you shout your progress from the rooftop and unlock these benefits.
New features are designed to make your application as good as it can be. However, over and over, apps introduce new features, but their users barely notice. If you’ve done your research and listened to your users, low feature adoption rates can be very frustrating.
Of course, low feature adoption doesn’t necessarily mean disinterest from your users. Many times, it’s because these improvements go under your user's radar. However, there are consequences for both users and developers when new features are communicated poorly.
How missed feature announcements impact users
Users feel out of the loop and less connected to your product
Users don’t know how to get full value from your solution and may look at competitors who provide this solution
Feature adoption is reduced, which can hit retention and satisfaction hard
User productivity can decline
Users don’t get a sense of progression and growth
How missed feature announcements impact developers
You waste time and money on developing unused features
You reduce your competitive advantage
Your solution can attract negative reviews and sentiment
No one wants to deal with these consequences. Thankfully, in-app product announcements are here to help.
How to announce new features
Thankfully, you have a number of options when you want to share the word about your new features. While email and social media can help you communicate changes and updates, the problem is that this messaging won’t always get to all of your users.
It’s clear that developers need a range of tools at their disposal if they want to tell their users about improvements to their products. Here are some of the best ways to create new feature announcements that make an impact.
#1 Banners and in-app announcement
A product banner or in-app announcement is a fantastic way to ensure your regular users are up to date about new features. These features straddle the line between being discrete but still visible to your users because they are hard to miss because they don’t occupy the screen like a modal window.
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| An example of Canva using a Banner to announce their policy updates. |
Banners are great for a wide variety of product announcements, like promotions, discounts, service disruptions, and new feature announcements.
One of the most interesting things about banners is that they allow you to craft personalized information based on user segments. For example, you can promote specific features based on usage, job roles, demographics, and more.
In the past, you needed coding expertise to put a banner in your product. The big problem is that the process was time-consuming and expensive. However, thanks to the rise of no-code tools, you can build slick and professional-looking banners that instantly match your product brand.
👉Read here to see how easy it is to make banners and in-app announcements with Usetiful.
#2 Hotspots
Hotspots — also called beacons — are a simple and discrete UX element that helps you convey information to your user without cluttering up your screen. These elements are colored (typically red or blue) or pulsating dots that draw the user's attention toward a designated point on the screen. For example, if you have a new feature on your app, a pulsating red hotspot can be overlaid on the feature's icon, urging your user to explore.
One of the best things about hotspots is that they are non-intrusive. While you can use modal windows or popups for your feature announcement, these methods can disrupt user flow. While users are generally excited about new features, they may become frustrated if an announcement gets in the way of their immediate goal.
Hotspots are perfect for different features, both big and small. In addition, they are visual and engaging, making them perfect for products with clear designs.
Usetiful allows users to build a diverse range of hotspot beacons that are suitable for different purposes. For example, you can add a pulsating dot, like we mentioned above, or try a question mark or an info icon. Here’s how you can add these elements to your website or app.👈
#3 Smart tips
Smart tips a.k.a tooltips are one of the simplest ways to convey information to your user without cluttering up the screen. These contextual popup messages are triggered when a user hovers over an area of the screen or a specific element.
While you can use smart tips for highlighting key features of your app or giving out subtle instructions to reduce the demand for support, they can also help you announce new features.
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| Calendly uses tooltips to announce its new feature without disrupting user workflow. |
Smart tips, just like hotspots, are useful because they are very subtle. Again, they are best employed for minor updates that the user can discover while moving around your app. Big changes or updates generally deserve their own in-app announcement, but smart tips can be used to augment these notifications.
While smart tips are most frequent for things like adding messages into data fields, such as what type of passwords are valid, they are pliable enough for a range of use cases.
👉Read here to see just how easy it is to create no-code smart tips with Usetiful.
Product walkthroughs
Product tours and walkthroughs are a great way to help your users get to grips with new software tools. However, you can also apply them on a more granular level to help you announce new features.
As mentioned above, hotspots and smart tips are a good choice for minor new features. However, if you’ve got something a bit bigger going on, and it really ups the value proposition of your app, you can use a product tour or walkthrough as your in-app announcement.
The idea here is that you can build a step-by-step guide that shows users how they can benefit from the new feature. Interactive product tours are particularly good at guiding users because they can learn while engaging with the app in a more practical manner.
Product tours have a lot of advantages for user learning and development. They are far superior to traditional modes of learning, such as user manuals or PowerPoint presentations, because they are visual and engaging, and they allow users to learn at their own pace.
What’s more, your users can replay them time and again or only access them when they need a particular feature. Even when your new feature is no longer “new” to most of your user base, fresh customers can use this onboarding material.
Creating no-code product tours and walkthroughs is one of the most compelling reasons to try Usetiful. Here is how you can build a product tour for your exciting new features.👈
Of course, if you already have an effective product tour, you might just want to augment it to reflect your updated features. Here is how to update an existing Usetiful product to add a new feature. 👈
Final thoughts
Usetiful is a powerful tool for user onboarding, retention, and satisfaction. However, it can also meet your feature announcement needs thanks to tooltips, hotspot beacons, banners, and product walkthroughs. With such a flexible range of options, you can choose the method that aligns best with your user base and the feature in question and start driving your adoption to the next level.