The Announcements module displays announcements in the Resource Center, giving visitors a central place to view in-app updates. It's well-suited for new feature releases, release notes, system updates, and promotions. Adding an announcement to the Resource Center may work well if you want to share information in a way that’s less disruptive than a standard guide overlay.
You can control who sees announcements at both the module and individual announcement level. Apply a segment to the entire module to target a broad audience, or apply different segments to specific announcements to customize the content for different visitors.
Prerequisites
Before you begin, you must:
- Be a subscription admin to add an Announcements module to the Resource Center.
- Have guide creation permissions to create new announcements.
- Have an active Resource Center.
- Be on web SDK version 2.18.5 or later to access the Announcements module.
- Be on web SDK version 2.99.0 or later to reorder announcements.
For information about upgrading your web SDK version, see Pendo Web SDK settings.
Add an Announcements module
To create an announcement, you must have an Announcements module in your Resource Center. You can use an existing module or add a new one.
To add a new module:
- In the left-side menu, select Guides > Resource Center.
- From the list, select the required Resource Center where you want to add the announcements module.
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Hover over the Resource Center tile and select + Add module.
- On the Resource Center page, hover over the Announcements tile and select the module.
- In the bottom-right corner, select Add Modules. The module is now available in Draft state in the Resource Center view.
Add content to a module
After you add an Announcements module, you can create the content that appears in the Resource Center in one of two ways:
- Create a new announcement
- Add an existing announcement
Note: When you add content to a module, the date block defaults to the current date. You can update it in the Scheduling section of the announcement details page before publishing.
Create a new announcement
After you add a new announcement module, you can create an announcement from its details page.
- Use the arrows to scroll through your modules and locate the announcement module where you'd like to add your announcement.
- Hover over it, then select View Module Details.
- Select + Create Announcement if you have no existing announcements, or select Add Announcement > Create new if announcements are already listed on the page.
- In the Select Layouts page, hover over a layout and select it. This opens the announcement details page.
- In the Content area, enter the application URL where you want to open the Visual Design Studio and select Launch Designer, or select Edit in my app. The designer opens in a new tab. See Creating a Guide for more details.
Add existing announcement
If you have already created an announcement and want to include it in the module:
- Select the Add Announcement dropdown arrow and select Choose from existing in the Announcements module in the Resource Center.
- Select the existing announcement from the dropdown menu or type to search for your announcement.
- Select Save to add it to the module.
Edit your announcement
Your editing experience is similar to creating a guide in the Visual Design Studio. Each announcement is made up of building blocks. The following are available to announcements:
- Text
- Button
- Multi-Button
- Image
- YouTube Video
- Date
- Custom Code
Building blocks
You can access the building blocks menu by placing your cursor inside a guide and selecting the blue horizontal line that appears.
Edit your announcement and select Save after editing.
For more information about building blocks, see Add guide content using building blocks.
Stage or test your announcement
Before you make an announcement public, you have the option to test it to see how it appears to visitors.
Option 1: Test with a personal segment
Before you publish the announcement, create a segment that includes only you. Then apply that segment to the announcement before making it public.
- Go to Segments.
- Select + Create segment.
- Add a rule where Visitor ID equals your own Visitor ID.
Your Visitor ID is the value configured in Pendo for your visitor record. For some subscriptions, this is an email address. For others, it might be a randomized alphanumeric string.
- Select Create segment to save.
- Open your announcement.
- Apply the new segment to the announcement.
- Change the status to Public.
- Only visitors in this segment (you) can see the announcement.
When you're ready to show the announcement to your intended audience, update the segment to the appropriate audience.
Option 2: Stage the announcement
If you have a staging environment set up, you can stage the announcement instead of publishing it to production.
- Open your announcement.
- Change the status to Staged.
- The announcement appears in your staging environment only.
Note: If this is your first time creating a Resource Center, you must promote the Resource Center to Staging before you can view staged announcements.
Publish or schedule your announcement
When you're ready to make your announcement available to visitors, use the announcement details page to either publish it immediately or schedule it for later.
Publish now
To make the announcement live immediately:
- Open the announcement details page.
- Change the status to Public.
The announcement is available to the selected segment right away.
Schedule for later
Set a future date and time for the announcement to go live. You can also choose when it should stop displaying.
- Open the announcement details page.
- Select the option to schedule the announcement.
- Choose a start date and time.
- (Optional) Set an end date and time.
- Save your changes.
Manage announcements
When the announcement is finished, you can see it listed in the Content tile on your Announcements module's details page.
From there, you can select the name of your announcement to open the details page again. If you have Web SDK 2.99 or later, you can also drag and drop announcements in the list to reorder them.
Frequently asked questions
Can I style an individual announcement using CSS?
Yes. You can add a custom code block to style the announcement as needed.
Can I localize my announcements?
Yes. If you have localization turned on, you can localize your announcement just like a guide. However, if you have media (for example, links, images, or even custom code) in your announcement, you can't localize those elements.
What if I have a module with no content?
If you have a module with no content and push the updates to production, the module won't display to your end users.