Send update emails

Listen users with Manager permissions can update visitors about the status of feedback items and ideas by sending them an update email.

Prerequisites

Before you can use this functionality, an admin user must do the following:

• Ensure Email functionality for Listen is turned on in subscription settings. This is typically on by default. For more information, see Subscription settings.
• Set up domain settings. For instructions, see Set up and verify an email domain in Pendo. This can take a few days to get verified.
• Check that visitor email is mapped to a metadata field that contains your visitors' email addresses. Admin users can check this in the Mappings table in Settings > Metadata > Visitor-level data. For more information about data mappings, see Metadata and data mappings.
• Save a sender ID for update emails. The sender ID defines the default name and address used for outbound communications.

Step 1: Start an update email

There are three ways to create and send an update email for a feedback item or idea:

1. When you update an idea's status to 'Now Available' from the feedback or ideas details panel. A pop-up reminds you to create an update.
2. By selecting the Actions > Updates > Create new from the feedback or ideas details panel.
3. By selecting the Send update link from the feedback or ideas details panel.

All of these options take you through the following steps to create and send an update email.

1. In Listen, find and open the relevant feedback item or idea.
   • Find feedback items in Listen > Feedback > All feedback, then select the Feedback items tab. For instructions, see Manage feedback in Listen.
   • Find ideas in Listen > Ideas. For instructions, see Create and manage ideas.
2. Depending on whether you've sent an update email for the feedback item or idea before:
   • Select Send update to create your first update email next to the status dropdown menu in the feedback item or idea. The Send update window opens.
   • Select View update next to the status dropdown menu in the feedback item or idea. You then need to select Create new update in the bottom-right corner of the page. The Send update window opens.
3. Check the default sender address. If you want to edit the default address, or if you want to use a custom address, follow the instructions under Edit sender address in this article.

Step 2: Configure email details

The first part of sending an update email is configuring the sender and recipient details.

Edit sender address

You can edit the default sender address, or create a custom one. The default sender is used for all Listen email communications unless you choose to edit the default or use a custom identity for the email that you're creating.

If you want to edit it or use a different sender, select Manage sender above the text field and either:

• Select Listen default to use or edit the existing default address by selecting Edit Listen default at the bottom.
• Select Custom to enter a different, one-off email address.

Then enter the following:

• A domain, for example, @acme.com.
• A sender name, for example, Product team.
• A "from" email address, for example, product@acme.com.
• A "reply-to" email address, for example, no-reply@acme.com.

Note: Update emails are intended to be one-way communication with visitors. If your organization wants to allow replies, first agree on which team monitors and responds to those messages. If you don't want to monitor the replies, the "from" and "reply-to" email addresses should be no-reply.

Optionally, select Send this update to new voter automatically, to email any new visitors who meet the voting criteria explained in the Email recipients section. If selected, voters who engage with an idea after the current email is sent are automatically sent the latest status update. This ensures they stay up to date on the items they care about without requiring manual follow-up.

Email recipients

The number of visitors who receive an update email is often lower than the total number of votes on an idea. This is expected behavior based on how votes and recipients are counted.

• For feedback items, update emails are sent only to the visitor who submitted the feedback, either directly through a form, survey, or other connected feedback source, or when a Pendo user submitted feedback or selected a vote on their behalf.

• For ideas, update emails are sent to visitors who:

  • Voted Must have or Nice to have on the idea, either directly or on their behalf by a Pendo user.

  • Had their feedback linked to the idea by a Pendo user.

Each piece of feedback is counted as a vote, so a single visitor can contribute multiple votes across different submissions.

Emails aren't sent when any of the following apply:

• The visitor hasn't been active in Pendo in the last 12 months.
• The visitor unsubscribed from a previous update emails about the feedback item or idea.
• The visitor unsubscribed from all product update emails.
• The visitor's email address is no longer valid.

For more information about how visitors interact with ideas and vote on them, see Gather evidence for ideas.

When you're done creating the default sender address and reviewing the recipients, select Next: Content to continue with the email setup.

Step 3: Add email content

When creating or modifying an update email, you can customize the following:

• Template (optional). Templates contain pre-defined content and styling that can be applied to an update email. Templates can be associated with specific statuses, such as 'Under consideration'. Admin users can configure email templates in Listen > Listen settings.
• Theme (optional). You can override the theme associated with a selected template, or apply a theme directly if no template is used. All themes are pulled from Guides. We recommend creating a default Listen theme in Guides to ensure a consistent, product-neutral design across all update emails because ideas can have voters across multiple apps. When creating or selecting a theme, consider accessibility and legibility, such as color contrast. For more information about Guides, see Manage guide styling with themes.
• An email subject line. Provide a short, clear subject line for your visitors.
• The main content of the email. If you select a template, the body content is automatically populated, but you can still modify it as needed. If you don't select a template, add the content manually.
• A banner and footer image (optional). If you select a template, the banner or footer images from the template are applied, but you can replace or remove them here as needed. Use a default banner or footer image, an idea’s cover image, or upload a new image.

A preview of your email appears on the right as you edit. You can also send yourself a test email to verify formatting and appearance before sending the final version.

Tip: You can open the original idea in a new tab by selecting the Idea. This allows you to verify what the idea contains and what should be communicated in the email.

To add content to your email, complete the following steps:

1. Select a Template from the dropdown list.
2. Optionally, select a Theme from the dropdown list. This overrides the theme used in the template.
3. Add a Subject line for your update email.
4. Choose either a banner or a footer image, or both.

   • You can use the existing banner or footer image from the template.

   • If there's no banner or footer image, upload one and choose whether you'd like to make it the default image by selecting Make default for Listen.

     Note: For best results, follow the image size and file type requirements: minimum 650×244px, maximum 5MB, JPG or PNG format.

5. In the Body content field, enter or edit the content for your update email.
6. (Optional) Select Save template if you have created a new template you wish to reuse for future emails.
7. (Optional) Select Save and exit to return to your draft email later.
8. Select Send test email to preview your email before sending. We recommend this step as it allows you to review the content before sharing it with visitors.
   • If sending a test email, enter the email addresses that you want to send the test email to, then select Send email.

When you're ready to send your email, select Next: Confirmation.

Step 4: Confirmation

Confirm the details of the email before sending.

• Share draft. You can verify the email and its contents with your team by sharing the link. This enables you to complete any internal review or approval process before sending.
• Subject line. Review the subject line of the email. Select Back if you need to make changes to the email.
• Recipient list. Review the list of recipients in the table. You can search for specific emails to confirm the list is correct.

When you've reviewed and verified the email with your team, select Send email. The email is sent to all recipients listed in the email configuration step.

Important: There is a limit of 5x your monthly active users (MAU) for idea and feedback update emails. This limit applies to all subscriptions. If you think you're approaching this limit, contact support.

Step 5: View email update log

You can view both sent and draft update emails for any feedback item or idea. This provides a complete log of communications and helps you track all notifications sent to visitors.

1. In Listen, open the relevant feedback item or idea.
   • Find feedback items in Listen > Feedback views > All feedback. For instructions, see Manage feedback in Listen.
   • Find ideas in Listen > Ideas. For instructions, see Create and manage ideas.
2. Select View update next to the status dropdown menu in the feedback item or idea. This opens the View update page where you can see:
   • The content of the update email.
   • Who created or sent the update email.
   • How many subscribers the email was sent to. You can also select this number to see a full list.
   • The date the last update email was sent. 
3. If an update email is in draft, or if multiple updates have been sent for this feedback item or idea, select Update log next to the status dropdown menu. The window lists all emails associated with the item, including:
   • The subject line of the email.
   • The status of the email, for example 'Draft'.
   • The creation date and author.

Note: If you haven't yet sent an update email for the feedback item or idea, you can either select Send update directly in the idea or feedback item. Alternatively, you can select Update log, and select the email in this view.