Use Case

New feature announcements are essential for getting users to try, adapt, and rely on the solutions you deliver. It allows you to clarify the problem you've solved and showcases the value that users will receive from each new release. How? By:

Showing what the feature looks like, what it does, and how your users can use it in their workflows
Informing and educating users on why this change is better for them and how they can navigate the new system
Getting real-time feedback from reaction to these announcements and collecting insights for future feature prioritization

This guide will focus on building a Feature Announcement Modal to announce a new feature to increase feature adoption. We'll cover:

Creating the announcement modal
Targeting the correct users
Testing the experience
What metrics will this impact?

The final look of your modal will look similar to the example we created below:

Creating the Announcement Modal

Let's begin by creating the actual content.

1-) Launch the Chrome Extension to create a new Guide

Navigate to the page in your platform where you'd like to show the feature announcement, and open the Chrome Extension.

Then, click + Guide, enter Guide's info, add a new step and select the "Side Notification" template under the Modal section.

Note: Side Notifications are an excellent choice for new feature announcements since users can continue to interact with the page. However, for major product announcements, we suggest using Modals.

Write a direct headline that contains essential information for skim-readers and a body that focuses on the benefits instead of the functionality itself.

Add a CTA in the slideout that redirects users to a particular URL or triggers a flow (add a second step (tooltip) starting after the first side notification), as shown below:

2-) Customize

UserGuiding gives you the ability to customize the announcement experience fully.

If applicable, you can add media (gif, image, or video) to highlight the new feature.
You can also fully customize the look & feel of the Guides with Customized Themes.
If you have a Theme you're ready to use, make sure this modal is using it.

3-) Triggering your feature announcement conditionally

You can control for which user segment and under which conditions your announcement triggers. You can also select the page(s) where it would appear.

You can also set an appearance frequency for your announcement. For example, it could trigger only once when a user from the selected segment arrives at the target page.

Targeting the correct users

For feature announcements, targeting users that are familiar with your product is preferred. You can achieve this by sending a property to UserGuiding when the user signs up.

Alternatively, you can segment users based on the actions they have already taken. Or, if you think the new feature will benefit only a specific group of users, you can segment by user type.

Once you decide on the segment, don't forget to set it to the Guide you've created.

General Announcements

If you want to make a general in-app announcement for all your users on every page, set the audience segment to "All Users" and select an appropriate targeting rule. (i.e., contains Product Name)

Testing the experience

Setting the audience to Only Me will limit the new feature announcement only to be displayed for you and your colleagues.

You can navigate to a page where the announcement should display, test it to see what your it will look like, and publish your notification when you're ready.

What metrics will this impact?

Retention by re-engaging users that are considering switching to a competitor or unsatisfied with existing limitations.
New feature adoption and product engagement by getting users to adopt a feature that helps them solve a crucial problem.
Customer satisfaction by proving to your existing users that you are listening to their needs and acting accordingly.