In-app messages and content cards — onboarding, feature announcements, surveys, promotions, persistent content feeds. Covers strategy, design, triggering, and analytics across Braze, Iterable, Intercom, Pendo, Appcues, Customer.io, MoEngage, Whatfix and Chameleon. Use when users aren't completing onboarding, in-app messages have low engagement, not sure which in-app messaging tool to pick, feature announcements go unnoticed, employees aren't adopting enterprise software, or unsure whether to use in-app messages vs push vs email for a use case. Do NOT use for push notifications (use /sales-push-notification), email marketing (use /sales-email-marketing), live chat widgets (use /sales-live-chat), or cold outbound (use /sales-cadence). For Braze-specific help, use /sales-braze.
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In-app messages and content cards — onboarding, feature announcements, surveys, promotions, persistent content feeds. Covers strategy, design, triggering, and analytics across Braze, Iterable, Intercom, Pendo, Appcues, Customer.io, MoEngage, Whatfix and Chameleon. Use when users aren't completing onboarding, in-app messages have low engagement, not sure which in-app messaging tool to pick, feature announcements go unnoticed, employees aren't adopting enterprise software, or unsure whether to use in-app messages vs push vs email for a use case. Do NOT use for push notifications (use /sales-push-notification), email marketing (use /sales-email-marketing), live chat widgets (use /sales-live-chat), or cold outbound (use /sales-cadence). For Braze-specific help, use /sales-braze.
Help the user with in-app messaging — from strategy and message type selection through trigger design, content cards, onboarding flows, and analytics. This skill is tool-agnostic but includes platform-specific guidance for Braze, Iterable, Intercom, Pendo, Appcues, Customer.io, MoEngage, Whatfix and Chameleon.
Step 1 — Gather context
If references/learnings.md exists, read it first for accumulated knowledge.
Ask the user:
What do you need help with?
A) Strategy — planning an in-app messaging program
B) Onboarding — new user walkthroughs, tooltips, feature tours
C) Feature announcements — introducing new features to existing users
If the user's request already provides most of this context, skip directly to the relevant step. Lead with your best-effort answer using reasonable assumptions (stated explicitly), then ask only the most critical 1-2 clarifying questions at the end.
Step 2 — Strategy and approach
In-app message types
Type
Best for
Display
Duration
Modal
Important announcements, permission requests, promotions
Complex interactive experiences, mini-games, embedded forms
Custom placement
Custom
Survey
NPS, CSAT, feature requests, feedback
Modal or fullscreen
Until submitted
When to use in-app vs other channels
Scenario
Best channel
Why
User is active in the app right now
In-app message
Immediate, contextual, no permission needed
User hasn't opened the app in days
Push notification
Brings them back to the app
Long-form content or tutorial
Email
More space, user can read at their pace
Time-sensitive alert for inactive user
Push + SMS
Reaches them outside the app
Persistent content they can revisit
Content Card
Stays in their feed until they engage
Feature announcement for web SaaS
In-app + email
In-app for active users, email for others
Trigger design principles
Trigger on context, not time — show a message when the user is on the relevant screen/feature, not just "after 5 seconds"
Event-based triggers: Session start, specific screen visited, custom event (completed purchase, used feature X times), reached milestone
Behavioral conditions: Only show to users who haven't used feature X yet, or who are on free plan, or who signed up > 7 days ago
Display limits: Show once per session, once per lifetime, once per week — avoid message fatigue
Priority and queue: If multiple messages could trigger at once, define priority order (onboarding > promotion > survey)
Onboarding best practices
Progressive disclosure — don't show everything on first session. Introduce features as users reach them.
Contextual tooltips > walkthroughs — pointing at the actual UI element they should use is more effective than a 5-screen tutorial they'll skip
Action-triggered, not time-triggered — show the next onboarding step when they complete the previous one
Allow skip — always provide a dismiss/skip option. Forced walkthroughs create resentment.
Measure completion — track how many users finish each onboarding step, not just "saw the message"
Empty states — when a feature has no data yet, use the empty state as an in-app message explaining what to do
Step 3 — Platform-specific guidance
For platform-specific in-app messaging guidance (Braze, Iterable, Intercom, Pendo, Appcues, Customer.io, MoEngage, Whatfix, Chameleon), read references/platforms.md. Answer using only the section relevant to the user's tool.
Step 4 — Actionable guidance
Implementation checklist
Define use cases — list every scenario where in-app messaging adds value (onboarding, feature adoption, promotions, surveys)
Choose message types — match each use case to the right format (modal, tooltip, content card, etc.)
Design triggers — for each message, define the event/condition that shows it
Set display limits — how often can each message show (once ever, once per session, etc.)
Build templates — create reusable designs in your tool's editor
Define priority — if multiple messages could trigger, which one wins?
Test — preview on all target devices (iOS, Android, web, dark mode)
Launch to small segment — roll out to 10% of users first, check metrics
Don't show modals on app launch — a fullscreen modal the moment the app opens feels aggressive. Wait for a meaningful trigger (screen visit, completed action, X sessions). Exception: critical announcements (terms of service change, mandatory update).
Don't stack multiple messages — if a user triggers 3 in-app messages at once, show only the highest-priority one. Most tools have queue/priority settings — use them. Multiple simultaneous popups = instant dismissal.
Content Cards are not push notifications — Content Cards sit passively in a feed. Users must open the feed to see them. Don't use Content Cards for time-sensitive messages that need to interrupt the user. Use push or in-app modals for urgency.
In-app messages require the app to be open — unlike push or email, in-app messages only reach users who are already in your app. For dormant users, in-app messaging is useless. Use push to bring them back, then in-app to engage them.
Web SaaS tooltips break on UI changes — if you position a tooltip on a specific button and then redesign the page, the tooltip points to nothing. Use tools with visual editors (Pendo, Appcues) that automatically detect UI changes, or tie tooltips to CSS selectors that are stable.
Self-improving: If you discover something not covered here, append it to references/learnings.md with today's date.
Before recommending a specific platform skill
This skill covers a strategy domain across many platforms. Before pointing the user to any specific platform skill (any /sales-{platform} listed in ## Related skills, e.g., /sales-mailshake, /sales-klaviyo, /sales-apollo), read that platform skill's actual SKILL.md first. The 1-line description in ## Related skills is enough to identify a candidate — it's not enough to commit to it or to write a prompt that invokes it well.
How to read it:
If ~/.claude/skills/{skill-name}/SKILL.md exists locally, Read it.
For sales-* skills, WebFetch directly from this repo: https://raw.githubusercontent.com/sales-skills/sales/main/skills/{skill-name}/SKILL.md — e.g., for sales-mailshake: https://raw.githubusercontent.com/sales-skills/sales/main/skills/sales-mailshake/SKILL.md.
For non-sales-* skills (third-party), look up {org}/{repo} in ~/.claude/skills/sales-do/references/skill-sources.md if installed and fetch the same skills/{skill-name}/SKILL.md path under that repo.
After reading, ground your recommendation in something concrete from the SKILL.md (its scope, a sub-flow, its argument-hint shape, or a "Do NOT use for..." negative trigger). Align any generated invocation with the platform skill's argument-hint. If the platform skill turns out not to fit the user's situation, swap to another or handle the question here directly rather than recommending a poor fit.
/sales-email-marketing — Email marketing strategy (coordinate with in-app)
/sales-live-chat — Live chat and chatbot (Intercom combines both)
/sales-do — Not sure which skill to use? The router matches any sales objective to the right skill. Install: npx skills add sales-skills/sales --skill sales-do
Examples
Example 1: Designing a SaaS onboarding flow
User says: "We're a B2B SaaS app and our activation rate is low. How should we use in-app messages to guide new users?"
Skill does: Designs a progressive onboarding flow: Step 1 (first login) → welcome modal with 3-step overview. Step 2 (reaches dashboard) → tooltip pointing at key feature. Step 3 (first feature use) → success slideup + next step tooltip. Checklist widget showing 5 setup tasks with completion tracking. Includes trigger design, display rules, and completion metrics.
Result: Onboarding flow with contextual tooltips, checklist, and activation metric tracking
Example 2: Promoting an upgrade within a mobile app
User says: "How do I show an upgrade prompt to free users who've hit their usage limit?"
Skill does: Designs a non-intrusive upgrade flow: trigger when user hits limit → show modal explaining what they can unlock on paid plan → action buttons ("Upgrade" deep links to payment screen, "Maybe later" dismisses). Display rule: show once per week max. A/B test: feature-focused vs pricing-focused copy. Fallback: after 3 dismissals, switch to subtle banner instead of modal.
Result: Upgrade prompt campaign with A/B test, frequency capping, and escalation strategy
Example 3: Building a Content Card notification center
User says: "We want to add a notification inbox in our app using Braze Content Cards"
Skill does: Walks through creating Content Card campaigns in Braze: card types (classic for text updates, captioned image for promotions, banner for announcements), expiration settings, pinning important cards, targeting segments, and building a custom Content Card feed UI in the app. Includes API integration for marking cards as read/dismissed.
Result: Branded notification center powered by Braze Content Cards with custom UI
Troubleshooting
In-app messages not showing
Symptom: Message configured but users don't see it
Cause: Trigger event not firing, display limits reached, segment targeting too narrow, or SDK not initialized
Solution: 1) Verify the trigger event is actually occurring (check event logs in your tool). 2) Check display limits — message may have already been shown to this user. 3) Verify the user matches the target segment. 4) Ensure SDK is properly initialized and user is identified. 5) Test in a debug/preview mode on your own device.
Low click rates on in-app messages
Symptom: Users see the message but don't tap the CTA
Cause: Weak CTA, message not relevant to the context, or CTA button not prominent enough
Solution: 1) Make the CTA specific and action-oriented ("Start free trial" not "Learn more"). 2) Ensure the message appears at a contextually relevant moment. 3) Make the button visually prominent (contrast, size). 4) A/B test copy, button text, and message design. 5) Consider a slideup instead of a modal if the content is lightweight.
Users dismissing messages immediately
Symptom: High dismiss rate (>50%) on in-app messages
Cause: Message appearing at the wrong time, too intrusive, or shown too frequently
Solution: 1) Review trigger timing — is the message interrupting a task? 2) Consider less intrusive formats (slideup vs fullscreen). 3) Reduce display frequency. 4) Make the message valuable — does it help the user or just promote something? 5) Add a "remind me later" option instead of just dismiss.
