Overview

Pick the message type that fits where you want to reach people and what you want them to do next. Featurebase Outbound brings Chat, Banner, Email, Survey, and Updates into one place, so you can match each announcement, prompt, or question to the right format.

Use Chat, Banner, or Survey when the message should appear while someone is using your product or website. Use Email when you need to reach users in their inbox. Use Updates when the announcement should live on your Updates page, widgets, and subscriber notifications.

Quick comparison

Use this table as a starting point when choosing a message type:

Use Chat for conversations

Choose Chat to reach and start a targeted Messenger conversation with people while they are using your product or website. Unlike email, these messages deliver in the right context.

Chat works well for:

• Proactive onboarding prompts

• Contextual help on a specific page

• Announcements where replies are useful

• Follow-up messages that should create an Inbox conversation

For example, you can send customers a message about how to invite a teammate, right after they create their first project.

Chat can be targeted by page URL, time-on-page, and CSS selector triggers, then follow the schedule you configure for recurring and every-match delivery.

Use Banner for important notices

Choose Banner for important messages that should stay visible on your product or website. Banners are meant to notify and don’t enable conversation.

Banner works well for:

• Maintenance notices

• Limited-time announcements

• Upgrade prompts

• Important product or account reminders

Just like Chats, Banners can be targeted by page URL, time-on-page, and CSS selector triggers, then follow the schedule you configure for recurring and every-match delivery.

Use Email for inbox reach

Choose Email when you need to reach users even if they are not currently in your product. Email is the perfect channel for re-engaging customers who are slipping away and bringing them back into your app.

Email works well for:

• Re-engagement messages

• Time-sensitive product announcements

• Customer education campaigns

• Messages that need a subject line, email template, and inbox delivery

Email messages can only target Users. Emails can be targeted using user attribute matching, scheduling, and subscription topic checks.

At Featurebase, we use it for billing, re-engagement, and one-off, time-sensitive announcements. It’s great for sending critical communications you want to ensure all your customers receive.

Use Survey for structured feedback

Choose Survey when you need structured answers instead of an open conversation.

Survey works well for:

• Asking why someone did or did not complete an action

• Collecting product feedback after someone visits a feature

• Running short research prompts in your product or website

• Measuring interest before following up with specific users

Surveys use Dynamic audiences only. They support page URL, time-on-page, and CSS selector triggers, plus one-time, recurring, and every-match scheduling.

Use Updates for announcements

Choose Updates when the announcement should become part of your product update history, not just a one-time message.

Updates work well for:

• Feature launches

• Product improvements

• Release notes

• Announcements that subscribers should be able to find later

Creating an Update from Outbound opens the existing Updates editor. Updates can appear in the Outbound list, but they do not use Outbound audiences, page triggers, scheduling, or Outbound message analytics.

Updates use the existing Updates delivery model: Updates page, widgets, categories, locale behavior, subscribers, and notification emails.

Next steps

After choosing a message type, use the focused setup guides for the rest of the flow:

• Creating an outbound message - create a message from scratch or from a template

• Outbound message rules - choose who can receive the message and where it can appear

• Dynamic and Locked audiences - decide whether the audience should keep updating or lock at activation

• Scheduling outbound messages - set start dates, stop conditions, frequency, and delivery windows

• Outbound messages in multiple languages - add translated message content

• Outbound analytics - review delivery and engagement after a message starts sending or showing

FAQs