How to market features to existing customers (+ mistakes to avoid)
We'll explore how PMs & PMMs can work together for stronger feature launches along with tactics to create awareness among existing users.
What’s as bad as building a feature no one cares about?
Releasing a feature that no one knows about.
Hundreds of engineering hours are wasted due to poor (or non-existent) go-to-market strategies. There’s so much focus on shipping and pushing the product increment out the door that the GTM is left as an afterthought.
Go-to-market strategies for features suffer from a variety of issues:
they tend to repeat a worn-out marketing task checklist rather than a customized plan for the feature.
the PMs hand off the feature to the PMMs, who work on messaging without vital context, which, in turn, affects the quality of distribution campaigns.
the GTM focuses more on acquiring new customers than pushing for adoption with existing customers.
The last problem is pretty common. The journey of an existing customer discovering a new feature is often ignored, especially when there’s executive pressure to keep fueling acquisition numbers. It’s assumed existing client bases will “figure it out” as they do their daily tasks.
Existing customers are the best source of feedback for new releases. After all, they’ve been using your product and can quickly judge whether the new feature makes their lives easier. Moreover, timely feature launches can aid long-term retention.
I remember leading a product for an applicant tracking system where, time and again, we’d hear customers planning to cancel renewals because they thought we didn’t have some critical workflows (whereas, in reality, we had them for a while). We just weren’t marketing them that well.
In this edition, we’ll explore the process PMs and PMMs can follow to keep existing customers apprised of new feature rollouts.
This is a long one, so I suggest you view it online.
But before we begin…
A quick poll:
Also, here are other pieces that you might have missed:
Back to: How to market features to existing customers
Let’s start from the top.
A fair amount of work must be done before the expected launch to ensure an upcoming feature has proper visibility with existing customers.
To keep things simple, I will skip to the point where the PM has already decided on a problem to prioritize and ideated the solution strategy.
1. Problem Alignment
After the problem has been selected and designers have commenced work on charting out a solution, PMs and PMMs need to align on the following areas:
Backstory: What insights or customer anecdotes led to solving this problem?
Which persona is the feature for?
What primary & secondary problem does it solve for the user?
What’s the business goal? Is this a feature that’ll drive retention or upsells? Is this a strategic move to nullify competitive threats? Is it a table-stakes feature?
How are we solving it? How is that better than others?
In this post, I’ll use the example of customer support software to illustrate my points. In this scenario, let’s assume we’re launching a new feature for the product that leverages AI to draft ticket responses automatically.
Backstory: During customer interviews with our key accounts, we realized support staff is overwhelmed with a lot of repetitive tickets. Leadership needs a way to cut down response times by quickly responding to the tickets while keeping them personalized.
Insight: Data revealed 40% of tickets were simple, repetitive inquiries. Tier 1 agents felt bogged down, hindering their ability to focus on complex issues.
Persona: We plan to ease this pain for customer support agents.
Problem solved: Reduce agent workload by automatically categorizing tickets and preparing responses. The goal is to reduce response times.The business goal is twofold:
(a) improve customer retention through better support experiences and
(b) bake this feature in a higher tier to encourage upsellsThe how: We plan to leverage AI to analyze ticket content, assign categories, and pre-load relevant responses. It learns over time, becoming increasingly accurate. Customer support agents will be able to make quick edits and issue responses with a click. Competitors haven’t caught up to this model yet.
2. Segment Your Customers
Missable Mistake #1: Treating all your existing customers as the same.
Your existing customers come in different shapes and sizes. Every feature won’t appeal to all your customer segments and will likely need unique messaging treatments.
How do you segment them?
There are a lot of slices that can be considered based on your product:
Package: The feature may apply to one or more package tiers.
Utilitization: You could segment your base by power users vs. casual ones.
User goal: Segments could be based on the primary use case they use the product for.
and so on.
Analyze the feature and pick a segmentation where the messaging and awareness tactics must be varied.
For the customer support software product:
Selected Segmentation: Split customers by their ticket volume (High support volume vs. Low/Medium support volume)
Rationale:
High Volume: These customers will likely face a lot of repetitive tickets and can be easily sold on efficiency and time savings. We see most of these customers are in the enterprise category, so they would likely have budgets to afford the tier upgrade whereever required.
Low Users: These customers don’t have the volume and need to be sold more on how a single resource would suffice to manager customer support helpdesks with the AI assistant reducing the workload. Sell more on the ease of use too.
3. Sketch the GTM early: Document it in the PRD
With problem alignment and the segmentation finalized, The Product Marketing Manager should start sketching out preliminary messaging and GTM tactics.
Ideally, these should be baked into the PRD. Interestingly, I often see this section missing in most PRD documents.
Missable Mistake #2: Not referencing a high-level go-to-market in the PRD.
The goal isn’t to finalize every minute detail. Instead, a high-level description of the messaging angle and prominent promotional tactics (especially those where the product team might need to do some work) should be highlighted.
The go-to-market section of a PRD should include:
Target Audience: Who will be intimated about the feature? (personas)
Messaging Vector: The main beats of the value proposition.
Announcement Methods: How will you announce the feature? e.g., blog, Intercom chat prompt, popup modal after login, etc.
Technical Requirements:
What needs to be in place for the launch?
Will the feature be gated for certain package tiers?
Which segment will see this feature as an upgrade? Which existing customers will automatically get this feature?
Timeline: Will this feature be announced immediately or bundled with another upcoming feature? Will the launch be delayed for a bit to capture initial feedback?
For an example, check out Reforge’s PRD and scroll down to page 10 for the GTM plan.
Another example:
Growth & Access Strategy
It’s also important to align where the feature sits in the monetization layer of the product. This has a considerable impact on the user journey and entry points.
For example, it may be decided that an upcoming feature will be:
Universally available to all tiers, e.g., new search experience on a tool like Hubspot.
Available to customers in specific tiers. e.g., Notion’s AI tools.
If the feature falls into the latter category, the PMs and PMMs must collaborate to decide which tiers will have default access. This directly creates a task to update the pricing page closer to rollout.
For example, questions like the following need to be sorted:
Will customers in lower tiers be exposed to the feature and convinced to upgrade? For example, pitching a feature like Single-Sign-On integration to very small businesses might not make sense.
Based on how self-serve the product is, the admins of those customer accounts might be able to upgrade directly OR explicitly request a demo of the feature to engage in a sales conversation.
Alternatively, the feature may offer an opt-in “reverse trial,” in which customers choose to get temporary, unrestricted access to the feature for a limited time before it’s gated again.
The messaging angle for customers with and without immediate access will vary.
3. Develop Your Messaging
With the PRD and development in motion, the Product Marketer can workshop the positioning and messaging. During this process, the product manager needs to validate the accuracy of the technical claim in the messaging.
Missable Mistake #3: Not getting validation for feature-level messaging from the PM.
Taking the customer support software example again, a PMM might decide the following:
For Power Users, the messaging will emphasizes fast response times:
”Empower agents to finish tickets under a minute.”
”Give your agents a head start on each support ticket.”
”Delight customers with record-breaking response times.”For casual users, the messaging will emphasize ease of use and resource constraints:
”Simplify Your Support, Reclaim Your Time" and
"1 Support Rep is enough for an army of customers."
”Support so easy that it removes the need for extensive typing.”The PM could chime in here and suggest tweaks. For example, they may share that the answer pre-population may happen only on certain ticket categories or it will work well only when the AI is trained on a large body of knowledge base articles of past tickets.
4. Decide on Launch Levels & Rollout Strategy
Every feature you’re releasing doesn’t need the same level of intensity.
A table stakes feature can be merely announced to the user base.
But a game-changing innovation needs to be shouted from the rooftops.
An incremental improvement needs to be communicated meaningfully without going overboard.
Missable Mistake #4: Using the same marketing checklist for all features.
Product marketing experts recommend launch tiers or levels.
A Tier 1 launch means marketing a feature that might fundamentally change the product's complexion. This mandates various distribution mechanisms, from press releases to social media campaigns. Canva’s Magic Suite is a great example.
A Tier 2/3 launch means you’re announcing a compelling feature that the customer needs to know about through primary channels but doesn’t necessitate a massive marketing investment.
Deciding on a launch level is critical to deciding on the awareness tactics.
Ok. So, what’s a rollout/release strategy then?
Missable Mistake #5: Thinking features should be made
available to ALL users at the time of launch.
When features are taken to production, they may not be available for all users simultaneously.
It may be an opt-in beta, where customers switch to the new experience for a limited time to provide feedback. For example, Hubspot often uses this when re-designing its CRM tools.
Alternatively, it could be a rolling thunder launch, where users roll out the feature in batches.
It could also be geo-fenced for certain geographies. For example, Google’s AI snippets on SERPs were limited to the US for a while.
Rollout strategies often require the involvement of both development and infrastructure teams and the PMs.
5. Create Your Launch Calendar and Tactics
The PMM now drafts a detailed launch calendar outlining the specific tactics.
This calendar needs a thorough PM review, as it might require additional work items for the development team. It's essential to anticipate the expected traffic to the new feature and adjust product microcopy based on each segment accordingly.
Regarding tactics, many product folks think producing content is sufficient for creating awareness.
For example, a “blog” article or demo video alone won’t do much. Most customers won’t open your blog daily to check for updates, and they also won’t tune into your marketing site or YouTube channel to watch demos.
Missable Mistake #6: “Producing” launch content without a “distribution” plan.
Therefore, a blog or demo is half the job done - it’s a content production activity. You must pair it with a distribution channel to get it in front of the right customer segment.
When it comes to distribution mechanisms for existing customers, there are three types to consider:
Off-platform: These are awareness tactics that happen outside the product
Example: an email or newsletter.
Interruptive: These in-app mechanisms grab immediate attention while the user is engaged in another user flow on your product.
Examples: Pop-up modals, in-app notifications, and Intercom chat prompts.
Explorative: These are placed within the product for natural discovery.
Examples: Hotspots, contextual tooltips, and opening up a product newsletter.
You want to aim for a balance.
Too many interruptions annoy users, leading to banner blindness or notification fatigue. At the same time, some users may not actively seek new features, making interruptions a valuable option.
Missable Mistake #7: Using only interruptive tactics to announce features and using them for an extended period.
6. Finalizing awareness tactics
Here are a few channels that product teams can use to create awareness among existing users:
1. Segmented Email Campaigns
This entails sending targeted emails to customer segments, highlighting the new feature's benefits relevant to their needs.
PMM: Crafts the email copy (with help from a content marketer), segments the audience, tracks email performance metrics, and ensures the message resonates with each segment.
PM: Ensures the feature is ready for use and the call-to-action in the email aligns well with the product journey.
Missable mistake #8: Sending generic emails to a massive customer base without segmentation. (unless the product footprint is small or extremely homogenous)
2. In-Product "What's New" Section
This dedicated area within the product interface showcases new features and updates. It lights up with a notification when a new update is added.
3. Login Page Banners
Since all customers have to log in, a banner announcing the new feature on the login page can be helpful. I wouldn’t say it’s high-impact, as it’s not a place for deep education, but it can evoke curiosity.
Missable Mistake #9: Overusing banners, causing banner blindness among users.
4. Mobile App Push Notifications
A push notification can inform users about new and significant features if the product has a mobile app.
Missable Mistake #10: Overusing push notifications for every feature launch.
5. Pop-Up Modals
These are in-app modals that appear after login to announce the new feature.
6. Updated Navigation Menus
This involves adding a new label to the navigation menu item to highlight the feature.
7. Live Stream Webinars on Social Media
For more significant features (e.g., Hubspot Forecasting or Canva Magic Tools), hosting a live video presentation on platforms like Facebook or YouTube can create timely awareness. The assumption is that many of your customers are subscribed to your socials and would be prompted to RSVP to the event or would see the live session notification in their feeds.
Missable Mistake #11: Using webinars to discuss technical specifics of the feature and not the problem, context, and use cases.
8. Paid Ads Targeting Existing Customers
Occasionally, retargeting ads on platforms like Google or Facebook are run to reach existing customers and promote the new feature.
PMMs work with marketing to manage the ad campaign, monitor performance, and adjust targeting and bidding strategies as needed.
9. Customer Success Outreach
Proactive outreach from customer success representatives to inform customers about the new feature and its benefits. This is probably the one that delivers a lot of impact. At the same time, CSMs can’t keep highlighting every new feature in every call - so they have to be thoughtful in matching the right features to the customer in question.
The PMM must arm the CSM with the right messaging angle for these features.
Missable mistake #12: Failing to equip customer success with the knowledge and resources they need to effectively communicate the value of the new feature.
10. Cross-Selling Through Existing Features
This may require development but offers a lot of visibility.
If the new feature you rolled out is adjacent or linked to existing features, then surfacing mentions about the new release after an aha moment can pique the customer’s interest.
A great example is when Slack prompts users to leverage their Google Drive integration every time they drop a Google drive link in the chat.
Similarly, when a user creates a complex project in Asana, they are told about their portfolios feature.
7. Post-Launch Analysis and Integration
After the launch, the PM and PMM should collect quantitative and qualitative feedback from every segment of existing customers.
There are two levels of metrics you’re looking at: awareness and utility metrics.
Awareness metrics indicate whether customers were exposed to the feature in some capacity.
This involves tracking the efficacy of the tactic applied, e.g., the number of people who clicked on a popup modal to view a video, clicked through a dedicated email to learn more, engaged in a webinar, or tapped on a push notification.
In addition, for customers in lower tiers, you’d look at the number of them who enrolled in reverse trials, completed an upgrade, or requested a sales assist.
Utility metrics indicate how much value the customers are deriving from the feature.
In this case, you’d look at utilization metrics of customers who are already eligible to use the feature, e.g., how many customers used AI responses to respond to support tickets.
Moreover, after a certain volume of usage, you would also want to issue an in-app Customer Effort Score (CES) survey to assess the ease of the interaction.
Missable Mistake #13: Announcing the feature once
and never referencing it again or marketing it over time.
The biggest problem I see with Tier 1 or Tier 2 feature releases is that teams focus too much on the hype during launch days. There is no effort to re-market the feature over a longer period to recoup the investment in building it.
Ideally, the feature must be evaluated and woven into the marketing fabric. For example, assets like landing pages, site copy, sales talk tracks, pitch decks, and demos should be updated to reflect the feature’s promise.
That’s a wrap. I hope you found this helpful.
If you have any feedback or questions, drop me a comment or write to me at aatirz@gmail.com.
Till next time,
Aatir
This is just way too much value for free. Hot damn.
Great read! Thanks Aatir