Good release notes make it easy for your customers to stay up-to-date with your product. Use our template to create interactive release notes and quickly update users on the latest features and bug fixes.

• Easy to set up. Create beautiful online release notes without having to code anything.
• Fully customizable to your brand. Customize your release notes look and feel and add your branding to really make it your template.
• Interactive and searchable. Organize updates with an interactive table of contents, so customers can jump right to the help they need.
• An easy path to support. Add a contact form anywhere in your release notes so customers can reach your support quickly.
• Powerful analytics. Track engagement, and understand what release notes are most effective.

Create beautiful release notes that drive engagement

Today’s software users expect you to improve your product continuously.

When buying software, customers invest as much in its current features as in the projected product roadmap. As a result, users expect regular updates, bug fixes, new features, and so on.

Your users also have ideas and suggestions on how to improve the product and will likely expect you to act on them.

Publishing release notes is your best way to reveal how you’re sticking to your end of the bargain.

The problem? Writing release notes takes more than sending an email. You need to ensure that users can access them through other channels and quickly find the information they care about.

When writing your product’s release notes, consider using the best release notes template for software brands.

How to write engaging release notes

When written correctly, great release notes have the power to get your customers genuinely excited about using your product. But it takes more than firing off the occasional email with product updates.

In fact, the best and most effective release notes all have certain characteristics that we’ll walk you through on this page. With these best practices, your release notes will inspire excitement, keep customers engaged with your product, alert them to what’s coming next, and more.

What are release notes?

Release notes are documents that tell users about the latest features, app updates, improvements to the existing functionality, and whatever bug fixes you’ve implemented since the last release.

But release notes aren’t just about listing all that you’ve been working on lately. They are one of the most powerful tools to boost engagement and keep users excited about your product.

• For one, release notes tell users that you are actively improving their favorite tool.
• Release notes boost customer service. They show you as a proactive company that initiates communications about bug fixes and user challenges instead of relying on customers to do so.
• Release notes help retain frustrated customers and reduce churn. Showing them you’ve fixed the issues they’ve been telling you about confirms to those customers that you not only heard their feedback, but you acted on it.
• As a result, every software release you publish will further solidify your users' trust in you. They’ll see you as a company that cares about their needs and is willing to go the extra mile.

Those are just a few reasons why release notes are indispensable for any software company. Without them, users are in the dark.

What elements should great release notes include?

Strong release notes should be more than a one-off email with a list of the latest features or bug fixes. And users should be able to access them through different channels.

The communication should also follow a specific structure to inform, engage, and excite users about what’s coming next.

At a minimum, release notes should include the following:

• An engaging title that hints at what information users will find in the content.
• Summary of changes or improvements made to help them quickly learn about what’s changed.
• Overview of new features or functionality. This is the main part of a release note, revealing in some detail the why and how of every new feature.
• Relevant links to blog posts or other content that help users learn more about those updates.
• Hints at any upcoming changes to get them excited about what’s coming next.

Best practices for writing release notes

We’ve discussed what release notes are, how they help communicate your software development efforts, and how you can use our release notes template to create beautiful release notes fast.

Now, let’s talk about the best practices for writing release notes to ensure that they’ll always inform and engage your users.

1. Keep each product release short

Your customers are busy, and most of them likely won’t be interested in the technicalities of every upgrade. That’s why we recommend keeping your release notes short and focusing on the three things they care about:

What’s new

What the upgrade means for them

How they can use it to improve their work or processes

Skip the long-winded explanations, and focus on communicating those core elements in one or two paragraphs. Your customers will thank you.

2. Avoid technical jargon

You don’t send release notes to impress anyone with your technical prowess. Instead, the goal with release notes is to clearly communicate all the updates and newest features. Plain language works best.

Most customers already know you’re technically savvy based on the quality of your product. No need to reassure them further about it in the release notes.

3. Help users understand the value of new features

Communicating bug fixes is easy. You admit that something wasn’t working correctly, and tell users you’ve fixed it.

The situation is different when you’re trying to convince users to adopt a new feature. Granted, some of those customers might have been asking about it. They’ll understand its value and start using it right away.

Others might need some convincing. That’s why you need to explain the new feature and the biggest benefits of using it.

Again, you don’t need to write a novel about it. A paragraph or two should be enough to convey the feature’s biggest value. Just make sure you tell the reader what’s in it for them.

4. Help customers to learn more

Short release notes work best. But what if a feature or a bug fix requires an in-depth explanation? You shouldn’t try to squeeze all that copy into a release note. Instead, create dedicated content and publish it on your site. Then include links to those resources in the release notes.

That way, you'll keep release notes short and ensure that customers can read everything they need about a feature or a bug fix.

Where to publish your release notes

Most of us associate release notes with email. However, there are other channels you should use to communicate updates with customers.

1. Your website. Create a dedicated release notes section on the site where customers can find out what’s been going on with product development.

Some companies publish their entire release notes on the site. Others abbreviate it by listing changes in a changelog style.

Slack, a company famous for its engaging, multi-channel release notes, also includes a list of changes on the site.

2. Social media. Post links to the latest updates on your company’s social media profiles.

3. In-app notifications. Tell users about the changes after they’ve logged in to your product.

Want to provide your users with beautiful, interactive release notes? Use our release notes template for software companies.