A good software product means a good set of features.
Companies keep developing new features on a regular to increase the experience provided by their product.
But, developing fantastic new features for your product is just not enough.
If you don’t have a good strategy to announce new features with the right content at the right time,the fantastic feature you’ve just released will more likely go walkies. Eventually, it might lead to lower levels of product adoption.
This is why companies should announce new features to their users effectively.
In this article, we are going to discuss how to make a good feature announcement to increase product adoption as hell 🚀
Why Feature Announcement Is Curical?
Software products are subject to improve and evolve more than any other product. This characteristic of software products makes it impossible to increase product adoption without having a good strategy to announce new features.
- It Educates Your Audience and Raises Awareness
It is important to inform and educate the users, potential users, and other audiences about the new features. People are tend to trust on what they know well. Otherwise, it won’t raise awareness over the new feature and therefore your product. - It Helps to Reduce Churn and Increase User Engagement
A well-thought feature announcement can help you to reduce churn and increase user engagement because it shows that your product is keep improving and the development team is working hard to make customers happy.
5 Strategies to Make Fantastic Feature Announcements
1. Set a Clear Goal
You improved a fantastic feature that you think will boom your product and make your customers happy. Now it is time to define a clear goal that you can state in your announcement.
The goal is important to measure your success with the relevant feature. If you are sincere with your customers, they will more likely trust you and your product.
2. Identify Your Target Audience
You cannot be all things to all people.
Michael Porter
Not all features are interesting to all of your audience. Some features are more interested in by your different kinds of customers, or some are more appealing to your visitors.
You should think about the benefits of the feature, not just the features while choosing the right audience. So, to increase product adoption while announcing a new feature, it is important to identify your audience. Basically, your audience can be considered as two groups;
- Customers
It is always easier to please the existing customers with new features as they already have a relation with your product and seek for more. But even though they can be bring together under the same roof, their use of product varies.
By evaluating their activities, needs and feedback, you can choose your target group of customers to announce new features. Or, market segmentation also might help you to define your customers. - Visitors
People often think of new feature announcements should primarily be made to existing users. It is true that the new feature will benefit your existing customer -visitors who’ve just entered your site might not care too much about your new feature; everything is new to them.
But, there may be someone outside who might be specifically interested in this new feature. So reaching out to them will increase your future product adoption.
3. Point Out the Benefits of the New Feature
Even if you are a marketing manager or technical founder, you may fall into the trap of talking features, not benefits.
Customers are interested in the new feature if they know what it can do for them. No customer will care about how much hard work you did or how long it took to build new features. They care about how it will enable them to do their job better.
Avoid making announcements like, “After hours of work, we did it! We finally developed [feature]”. People will be like, “So what?” Instead, your announcement should describe the benefits of the feature and how customers try it out effectively.
Problem-Solution-Benefit
You should start by addressing the problem. You then mention how this new feature is solving it and then describe the benefits. This structure is persuasive and effective.
4. Build a Killer Help Center Article or Add a Walkthrough in Your Announcement
A killer help center article or a great walkthrough can demonstrate great value, educate your users about the latest feature, help users better appreciate your product, and increase product adoption.
If people think that they do not have enough sources to understand the feature fully, they might walk away.
Check this example out to get inspiration. Intercom is the best tool to deliver help content to customers and scale your support with an integrated knowledge base.
5. Use an In-App Environment for Your Feature Announcement
The best moment to announce features is when someone is inside your app and in a position to use it. You need to think about where it makes sense to announce your new feature to active customers or even visitors.
Therefore, an in-app environment for features announcements is so essential. An all-in-one platform to announce product updates like AnnounceKit helps you to make it possible.
They provide you with different kinds of in-app notification widgets to allow your customers and visitors to overview your latest updates quickly. Don’t you like to see a cute count badge on your site?
Ending Announcement 🤪
To introduce new features in a way that will drive product adoption, you need a full-fledged feature announcement strategy.
By setting a clear goal, identifying the audience, pointing out the benefits, and adding a walkthrough, you can make your customers more engaged with the feature. Last but not least, never forget that in-app feature announcements are more efficient than any other medium.
To make it easier for you, we also shared some examples and templates about keeping a changelog to help you to make your changelog a work of art.
There are also a few other mediums to announce new features and product updates. Wanna know?
