In the hustle of building and shipping features, it’s easy to overlook one of your most powerful, low-effort growth levers: regular, well-crafted product updates.
Often treated as an afterthought, product updates can be a secret weapon. They don’t just keep current users in the loop—they can help retain existing customers, attract new ones, justify future price increases, boost expansion revenue, build trust, and even generate valuable customer testimonials.
As one seasoned product professional noted: “You’re leaving money on the table by not publishing frequent, benefits-focused product updates.”
In this guide, we’ll break down 5 ways to turn your product updates into a customer magnet, pulling insights from extensive research and real-world examples. Let’s turn your product updates from “meh” status reports into must-read growth engines.
About the Author
"Who are you, and why do you care about updates so much?"
Great question. I’m Brian Sierakowski, and I’ve run a bunch of saas products over my 15 year career. During my time as the CEO of Baremetics I had the good fortune to meet with tons of entrepreneurs looking to improve their metrics, and after dozens of calls I realized that the raw math of growing a saas business came down to a few “growth pillars.”
You can only grow by: getting more new customers, increasing revenue from existing customers, reducing churn, increasing reactivations, and reducing downgrades.
Most things you can do as a business can improve one or two of these areas, but as I kept meeting with founders (and gaining first hand experience) I realized that there’s one criminally underused resource that can improve all of the above: frequently updating a public changelog.
The rest of this article covers five insights on how to make your product more “magnetic” by attracting new customers and keeping the ones you already have close.
The Key Insights
The five insights are how to:
- Turn customer updates into a churn-prevention tool.
- Attract new customers by making updates public.
- Use updates to drive expansion revenue.
- Set the stage for price increases.
- Build trust and earn testimonials with your changelog.
1. Turn Updates into a Churn-Prevention Tool
Key Insight: Without frequent updates, customers may assume your product is stagnating. Product updates serve as tangible evidence that you’re working hard to improve the tool they pay for. We have two quotes we share all the time:
- You need to get credit for your code.
- You need to send more updates than invoices.
For product managers, this is crucial. Customers who see a constant stream of improvements are more likely to feel your team is invested in their success. This consistency sends a subtle yet powerful message: “We value you and are actively working to enhance your experience.” It’s a moment of re-selling your product at every invoice cycle.
Action Step: Create a simple, repeatable process for updating customers at least monthly—whether it’s a short blog post, an in-app message, or a release note email. Even small improvements (“faster page load times,” “bug fix for easier admin access”) remind customers you’re invested in their success.
(Or use Changebot to write your updates for you.)
2. Attract New Customers by Making Updates Public
Key Insight: Potential customers review past product updates before deciding to buy.
This insight is shared with great detail in our ebook “The Art of The Update” ← if you want to read more, this link sends you directly to the section “why should we send customer updates?”
To paraphrase for the purpose of this section: Prospective customers aren’t using the product and may not understand the significance of each update, so their evaluation is binary: ‘Do they frequently improve the product, yes or no?’
As a PM, ensure that updates are visible not only to existing users but also to prospects. Public, easy-to-find product updates signal to newcomers that the product is actively maintained and improved. This helps differentiate you from competitors who appear stagnant.
Action Step: Maintain a public changelog or “What’s New” page linked from your marketing site. Consider surfacing recent highlights directly on your homepage or pricing page. When sales or marketing teams talk to leads, encourage them to mention frequent updates as a key differentiator.
Changebot provides a hosted public updates page so you can share your updates with the world instantly.
3. Use Updates to Drive Expansion Revenue
Key Insight: “As the complexity of a product increases, the proportion of customers familiar with all of its features decreases.”
Your updates can spotlight features customers haven’t fully explored—especially ones in higher-tier plans or paid add-ons.
For product managers, this is your chance to re-introduce underutilized functionality. Frequent reminders can be the nudge customers need to upgrade or purchase an add-on they didn’t realize existed. An ex-customer once told the original author: “We would have stayed if we would have known that (feature) existed.”
Don’t let good customers churn on your watch.
Action Step: Include a brief highlight of a lesser-known feature or add-on in each update. Clarify who can access it (“Available to Business plan customers and above”) and how it enhances their workflow. Over time, these reminders can prompt organic expansions and upgrades.
Changebot considers your entire product deployment history with each update, automatically referencing other related (but potentially hidden features.)
4. Set the Stage for Price Increases
Key Insight: Down the road, you may need to raise prices. Without a track record of frequent, meaningful improvements, justifying a higher cost is tough. With a robust history of product updates, you can confidently say, “Look at the value we’ve delivered over time.”
By communicating improvements consistently—features, speed boosts, integrations, user experience enhancements—you build a narrative of continuous improvement. When price increase season rolls around, customers can see for themselves that they’re paying more for a product that’s measurably better than it was when they first signed on.
Action Step: Keep your updates archived and easily accessible. When announcing a price increase, link to these past updates or include a summary of your most significant achievements. This transparency helps customers understand the “why” behind the new price point.
Changebot keeps your updates in a publicly accessible place, and the Update Engine is tuned to maximize the number of updates written, ensuring that anyone looking through is blown away by the number of improvements.
5. Build Trust and Earn Testimonials
Key Insight: “Frequent customer updates start a conversation. Each customer interaction is a lottery ticket, and the jackpot is them responding: ‘This is great!’” Over time, these positive responses can yield testimonials, referrals, and case studies.
For product managers, trust is currency. Customers are more likely to share feedback, respond to surveys, and even help with beta tests when they’ve seen genuine care and consistency from your team. A steady cadence of updates fosters an environment where customers feel heard and appreciated.
Action Step: After sharing each update, invite feedback—“We’d love to know what you think!”—and capture positive responses as testimonials. Over time, you’ll build a backlog of social proof that marketing and sales can leverage. This positive feedback loop helps PMs strengthen their roadmap decisions and align features more closely with customer needs.
Changebot writes the update so you can focus on looping in key quotes from customers and team members.
Conclusion: Your Updates = Your Competitive Edge
Product updates aren’t just housekeeping. They’re the heartbeat of your product narrative, showing that you’re listening, evolving, and investing in your customers’ success. By embracing a schedule, making updates public, highlighting expansions, preparing for future price changes, and using them to build trust, you’re transforming ordinary release notes into a magnet for customers new and old.
As one product leader put it: “Remember, you’re already improving your product; you deserve credit for that hard work.” With these five strategies, your updates can become a secret weapon—turning routine communication into a source of sustainable growth.
If you haven’t noticed the notes throughout the article—I’m a bit biased but I happen to think that Changebot is a critical tool for busy teams shipping a lot of code.
If you’re interested in checking us out, try a free trial here, or book some time with me to discuss how you can implement customer update best practices.
