Guidance & Nudges: A Complete Guide to Creating, Configuring, and Publishing Nudges

What is Guidance & Nudges?

Guidance is a product feature that ‘nudges’ your customers in the right direction. It uses tracking information from your product to dynamically inject proactive nudges to alert, guide, and inform users throughout your customer journey. A nudge is a personalized notification designed to guide users toward easy self-service options or important information.

Guidance is designed to be easy to set up and track. It requires a minor investment of time up front to set up, and from there it is simply maintenance or tweaking depending on use cases. With each nudge set up, there will be analytics to show how many people have viewed the nudge, clicked it, and dismissed it.

When to Use Nudges

• Proactive Communication: Use this guide when you need to proactively communicate with users. This is ideal for announcing new features, providing contextual help, or directing users to specific resources.
• Outage Notifications: You may be experiencing an outage and want your customers to know about it immediately. You can set up a guidance notification to hit every customer's webpage that will notify them of this until you decide to take it down or update it with “resolved”. You are also able to add a CTA (Call to Action) link in there which can guide your customer to a help article.
• Informational Alerts: Enable the auto-dismiss feature for informational nudges that do not require a direct action from the user. This is useful for preventing non-critical notifications from permanently cluttering the user's screen.
• Targeted Messaging: Use the "Apply condition" feature when you want to deliver highly targeted messages. For example, you can show a nudge only to new users, users on a specific subscription plan, or users who have visited a certain page on your site.

How to Create and Publish a New Nudge for Your Users 3000x1610

How to Set Up a Nudge: Step-by-Step Instructions

Click Guidance or Nudges on the left navigation in the Brainfish portal (sitting below actions and knowledge).

Step 1 - Create a New Nudge Click the Create new Nudge button, usually in the top-right corner. You can save your progress at any time by clicking the Save as draft button. It will appear under the "Drafts" tab for later publishing.

Step 2 - Enter a Title Type in the title of your nudge in the "Title" field. This will be what will draw your customer in initially, so put yourself in their shoes. As you fill in the Title and Body fields, a live preview of the nudge is automatically displayed on the right-hand side of the creation page.

Step 3 - Pick an Icon Pick the icon you want to use for the nudge. For example, if it’s an outage you may want to use one of the “warning signs”. You can describe the type of icon you would like rather than just scrolling (similar to emojis on the iPhone). Then you can change the colour to make sure it’s in line with your company branding.

Step 4 - Compose the Body Fill in the body of the nudge in the "Body" text box. This is the main content of your message. Note that both the "Title" and "Body" fields are required to publish a nudge.

Step 5 - Set Scheduling and Display Source

• Date and Time: You can set the date and time that the nudge is present. This is optional; nudges can also sit there permanently.
• Display On: Scroll down to the "Display on" section and select the specific widget or source where you want the nudge to appear. You can select one or several.

Step 6 - Set up your CTA (Call to Action) This is where you are able to embed a clickable link for the customer to follow, guiding them to a help article or another valuable area.

Step 7 - Configure Advanced Options

Auto Dismiss This feature will cause the notification to disappear on its own after 10 seconds if the user has not interacted with it.

• How to enable: Scroll down the nudge configuration page until you find the "Auto dismiss" option and click the toggle switch to the "on" position.
• When to use: Enable this for informational nudges that do not require a direct action from the user to avoid cluttering their screen.
• Behavior: If disabled, the user must manually click the dismiss button (the 'x' icon) to close the nudge. Users can manually dismiss the notification at any time, even when auto-dismiss is enabled.

Apply Condition This feature allows you to control the visibility of your nudges by targeting specific audiences based on rules.

• How to enable: Scroll to the bottom of the configuration page, find the setting labeled "Apply condition," and click the toggle switch to the "on" position. This will reveal further options to define the specific conditions.
• Defining Conditions: Set the specific conditions, such as user segments or paths, that must be met for the notification to be displayed. If no conditions are applied, the nudge will be shown to all users who visit the location specified in the "Display on" setting.

Step 8 - Set Live Click the Publish nudge button at the bottom of the page to make it live. A confirmation message will appear, and your new nudge will be listed under the "Active" tab. Please note once published this Action will be live for your users.

After publishing, you will be taken back to the dashboard of all the events created. Events can be enabled or disabled from this view.

Common Questions (FAQs)

• What is a nudge? A nudge is a personalized notification designed to guide users toward easy self-service options or important information.
• Can I save a nudge without publishing it? Yes, you can click the "Save as draft" button to save your work and publish it later. It will appear under the "Drafts" tab.
• How can I see what my nudge will look like? As you fill in the Title and Body fields, a live preview of the nudge is automatically displayed on the right-hand side of the creation page.
• How long will the nudge stay on screen with auto-dismiss enabled? The notification will automatically disappear after 10 seconds without any user action.
• What is the default behavior if auto-dismiss is disabled? If disabled, the user must manually click the dismiss button (the 'x' icon) to close the nudge.
• Can a user dismiss the nudge before the 10-second timer is up? Yes, users can manually dismiss the notification at any time, even when auto-dismiss is enabled.
• What kinds of conditions can I set? The platform allows you to set specific conditions based on criteria such as user segments or user paths (the pages they visit).
• What happens if I do not apply any conditions? If the "Apply condition" toggle is left off, the nudge will be shown to all users who visit the location specified in the "Display on" setting.

Troubleshooting Tips

• "Publish nudge" button is grayed out: Ensure that you have filled in both the "Title" and "Body" fields, as they are required to publish a nudge.
• Nudge is not appearing for users: Double-check the "Display on" settings to ensure you've selected the correct source. If you've applied conditions, verify they are configured correctly to target the intended users.
• Nudges are not disappearing automatically: Navigate to the specific nudge's edit page and ensure the "Auto dismiss" toggle is switched to the enabled (on) position.
• A nudge is disappearing too quickly: The auto-dismiss feature has a fixed 10-second timer. If you need the user to take a specific action, consider adding a Call-to-Action (CTA) button and disabling auto-dismiss.
• Nudge is not showing to the correct users: If your nudge is not appearing for the intended audience, edit the nudge and carefully review the conditions you have set. Ensure they accurately match the attributes of the target user segment or path.
• Nudge is shown to everyone: Check the nudge's configuration and confirm that the "Apply condition" toggle is enabled. If it is disabled, the nudge will display to all users regardless of segment or path.