How do you write email product updates that users actually enjoy?
by•
I keep finding reasons to build more features and bug fixes before sending an email update to our 10k users. In the end, it’s been almost 5 months without sending any update.
Would love your tips on how to send email updates that the users actually enjoy and care about. Also at what frequency?
As a developer I love bare change logs but I’m sure it’s not optimal for a broader audience. (we are building a video editing app, tellers.ai)
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The biggest miss I have seen from the product companies is-- not communicating a quantitative message on the value being delivered by their product. Many stakeholders/users in your client groups will need it even for internal communication (read 'credit')
The other thing missed is getting your users to participate in defining your product roadmap - maybe use an informal set-up or some fun event for that. And even announce who contributed to that idea in your product roadmap.
Backroom stories are also a good way to communicate what's coming up next.
So, really it should not be just features and bug fixes but beyond that...should be quarterly at least.
Tellers.ai
@rguignar If it is online, then it depends on how distributed your user base is ...also you have to keep it limited users at a time. But if it possible, order Pizzas or something for a small online lunch party or even morning muffins.
IXORD
According to statistics, users like short messages about updates more than a lot of text that they don’t want to read in order to save time
Totally get this, Robin. I used to wait until we had “enough updates” before hitting send — but I’ve realized that consistency > volume when it comes to product updates. Even a small note on one meaningful improvement can build momentum and user trust.
A few things that worked for us at Growstack:
Narrative > Changelog – Instead of a dry list of fixes, we try to frame updates as part of a journey: “Here’s what we heard, what we fixed, and what’s next.” It makes the user feel like they’re building with us.
One core theme per email – Don’t cram. If it’s a big performance boost, make that the hero. If it’s a UI tweak, explain why it matters.
Screenshots or gifs – Especially for a product like yours (video editing), visual updates can do the heavy lifting. It turns updates into mini demos.
Call to action – Invite users to try the feature, give feedback, or even just hit reply. It helps with engagement and creates a feedback loop.
In terms of frequency — monthly works well for us. Weekly is too much unless you're shipping like mad, and quarterly tends to feel like a dump. And if it helps, we now repurpose our updates across email, in-app, and LinkedIn — same content, different tone.
Hope that helps! Curious to see how you approach updates for Tellers — sounds like a cool product.