In-product banners. Straightforward and uncomplicated, right? That’s the idea. Banners are an excellent way to easily communicate important information to a large audience, directly in your product. They are highly visible, yet non-intrusive and user-anticipated, which means there’s a high likelihood of getting your message across. Using banners effectively is a great way to communicate with users–without interrupting their workflow. 

So, what are in-product banners?

Banners, as we’ll talk about them, are a full-width UI pattern fixed to the top of a user's screen. 

Top ways to use banners

With that definition in mind, how can companies use in-product banners effectively? Here are a few ideas:

1. Make an announcement

Promote new product features, events, or other exciting notifications that you want your users to be aware of. For new features and capabilities, use the banner to kick off a flow that shows users how to use it.

Bonus idea: Schedule the banner so that you can get it live automatically based on a key date.

2. Communicate important information

One of the most common ways organizations use banners is to let users know about upcoming changes or updates to the software. Share details on upcoming product maintenance, new changes, or a known outage.

3. Share notifications at scale

Alert users about key dates and actions needed, like when their trial is coming to an end, their subscription is up for renewal, there has been a change in terms, or their payment has failed. 

Bonus tip: Connect Appcues to your CRM like Salesforce or HubSpot so that banners can be customized based on a user’s subscription information, plan details, and other custom fields.

4. Prompt users to act

Because banners are highly visible, you can use them to encourage users to take an explicit action. Motiviate them to read a notice, register for a webinar or an event, or upgrade their account.

There you have it–short and sweet! By using in-product banners effectively (either as a stand-alone or alongside other UI pattern types, you can use banners to add value to the user experience. And Appcues makes it quick and easy to design ones that match your brand and target specific audiences. See for yourself!