Tech companies are launching advanced innovations left, right, and center. Every business is looking for efficient software to improve performance to counter the stiff competition.

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Amid all the growth, chaos, and changes, loyal customers are waiting to see what you come up with next! For such a segment, your latest feature could be a lifesaver.

However, there’s a group of prospective customers that don’t even know your product or its feature exists. To help this segment learn about the new feature, you need to conduct an effective announcement. The strategy is to include the users to smoothen the adoption process while saving your resources.

Feature Announcement Framework and Its Importance

Although designing a new feature is important, how you launch it will determine your success or failure. Since the feature is product improvement, ensuring user onboarding during the announcement stage will allow for effective adoption. This means context communication should be effective by sharing the relevant information at the right time.

Feature announcement should improve traction towards the product, therefore, becoming a reliable marketing strategy. This is because it will:

• Increase user loyalty
• Boost customer retention
• Reduce churn from previously unsatisfied users.

What does a great feature announcement framework should have?

A Goal

Launching a new feature is like releasing a new product for SaaS companies hence the need for a laser-focused strategy. Your goal should be to get the users to discover, adopt, and love the new feature. A goal gives you a clear focus and guides the marketing to measure the success of the launch.

The Target User

Product users vary in their personalities and objectives so, they will relate differently to various features. Before designing a new feature, you must have identified with the users to determine what they want to improve. As such, a successful feature announcement framework should show who will benefit from it.

Feature Priority

When aiming to release several features, you have to decide which need more sensitizing than others. The features that need to stick more can undergo promotion through several channels, while the low priority features can use a single channel.

Target Channels

Now that you know the target users, your goal, and when/how to release the new features, it’s time to decide on the channels to use. Some of the most effective feature announcement channels include:

• Product UX: Making changes to the UX like labels or product tours is a great way to highlight new features for users. Product tours, for instance, direct users to the new feature while providing segmented messages for adoption.
• Blog posts: You can share notes, case studies, or user testimonials about the new feature on blog posts for user education. You can also turn to using a press release distribution service to communicate the new feature launch.
• Email: You can conduct drip campaigns or make announcements to engage users on the new features. Churning users will discover new features that can make the product better.
• In-App messaging: This channel is more effective than emails since they reduce friction. You can design the feature announcements in segments and set them to appear at specific times.

Takeaway

User mentality affects the success of feature announcements since most of them are afraid to try new things. However, product marketers have the task of introducing new features to customers and getting them to adopt them. The timing and messaging have to be right to ensure effective user engagement.

Every feature announcement channel has its pros and cons, so take time to determine when to use what means.