Announce new features on your website or in your cloud app

Here is how it works. A slide-in like this one will pop up from the side of the page at the moment of your choice – without interrupting the user experience. You can use it to drive traffic to another URL or simply announce the update. Another popular option is a sticky bar which is less intrusive and stays in sight until a visitor closes it 👇

In this post, we’ll show you how to add notifications like these to your website without any coding – using an intuitive popup builder named Getsitecontrol.

How to create a new feature announcement using Getsitecontrol (step by step)

To display popups, you will need to connect Getsitecontrol to your website. However, there’s no need to do it right away: you can test the app first. Select a template, design your popup, and if you like it, you can go ahead and follow the installation prompts.

Step 1. Select a template

First off, open the template gallery and select the popup format you’d like to use on your website.

Once in the gallery, click on the templates to see them in action. When you find something you like, follow the prompts on the right-hand side to add the template to your Getsitecontrol dashboard.

Step 2. Type the text of your announcement

When you get to the dashboard, you can change the copy and design of your announcement. To edit the copy, click on it and start typing your text.

Notice that you can change the text on the button as well. You can also remove the button, add a second one, or assign a different action to the button click 👇

For instance, in our example, the button drives visitors to another URL – the page where they can install the app. You can do the same and lead visitors to the URL of your choice or choose to close the announcement upon button click.

Step 3. Adjust the design

To replace the image on the popup, click on it and proceed to Change image. From there, you can either upload your own creative (the Import tab) or select one from the built-in gallery. Just type your keyword, and the app will fetch relevant images.

Notice that at the top of the preview window, there are two more menus for you: Position and Theme. Use the former to change the popup position on the webpage and the latter to change the color theme and font.

At this point, your notification popup is ready. Once you connect Getsitecontrol to your website, the message will go live.

In the following section, we’ll show you how to announce new features on selected pages of your website or display the announcement to a selected audience segment.

When is a good time to display the announcement?

If you’ve designed the notification, it’s time to decide when to start and when to stop displaying it to your website visitors or web app users. Using the controls available in the Targeting tab, you can do just that.

Now, the right moment and format will depend largely on your website type and the nature of your update. Here are some come common targeting examples:

• Display a notification popup after visitors spend some time on the website.
• Place the notification on the pages the update is related to.
• Notify registered users only – by placing the widget in your cloud app.
• Add a sitewide sticky bar that won’t disappear unless a visitor closes it.

In other words, you’re in control of when the new feature announcement pops up and who sees it. Below is a recent example of how we use this exact approach at Getsitecontrol.

This is how we announce product updates to Getsitecontrol users

At Getsitecontrol, we add new features every few months. Some of them are minor changes; others are major updates we want to bring to our customers’ attention. In such cases, we write a detailed blog post and place a notification bar in the admin dashboard to make sure those actively using the app are guaranteed to notice it.

Consider the times when the GDPR law was introduced. Not only did we release the possibility for users to quickly add a mandatory checkbox and collect GDPR consent from new email subscribers, but we also had to update our Privacy policy according to the new requirements. Here is the popup we used to notify customers about the update:

Once a customer clicked the “Got it” button, we assumed they were informed about the update and never displayed that message again. However, many clicked on the link instead to read the new Terms and Conditions.

Wrapping up

Website popups may not be the ultimate tool for announcing major product updates, but they will make a great addition to your email blast. On the other hand, when it comes to smaller updates you probably wouldn’t dedicate a newsletter to, popups are the best way to communicate with your customers.