Best Practices for Launching your Pack

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Best Practices for Launching your Pack

Perfecting your Pack listing page
Perfecting your Pack listing page

Create a high-converting listing page in the Gallery.

Create a high-converting listing page in the Gallery.

Your Pack listing page

The Pack listing page is what makers will see when they click on your Pack in the Gallery; think of it like a storefront. Here is where you should highlight what your Pack does, and Coda will automatically show documentation of your Pack’s formulas, tables, buttons, and actions, so makers can get a sense of what’s possible.

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Editing your Pack listing page

If your Pack is already on Coda (shared or private), then you can edit its listing information in the Pack Editor. Everything about your Pack is contained in the Pack Editor, from its code to the listing details.

You can access the Pack Editor through the home screen at

coda.io⁠

when logged in. Navigate to Packs in the lefthand panel. To edit the Pack listing page, navigate to the Listing tab, as shown below.

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If you don’t see a specific owned Pack in your list, make sure your team has shared the Pack with you and/or your workspace in the Pack sharing settings.

Pack listing page elements

Pack Editor > Listing allows you to edit the components of your public Pack listing page:

Pack name

This is the public name of your Pack.

Tagline

The short description of your Pack.

Icon

Your Pack’s icon that will accompany the name and tagline in Coda. In Coda’s formula builder, the icon will take place of the Pack name (see second image), so it is best practice to set your icon to something clear and unique.

Header image

Pack header images are displayed in the Gallery, on the Pack listing page, and in social embeds. They help create a branded space for your Pack. This is a place you can get creative, but if you’re not feeling particularly creative right now, Coda has created a header image toolkit in Figma for you to create fun, engaging header images.

Description

This is a longer description of what your Pack is capable of. This is your place to explain to your audience what the Pack is for and why they should use it. This description also provides some SEO benefit for your Pack, so we recommend using the Pack name and ‘Coda’ in your description. This can also be a great place to solve common user errors and FAQs. See the next section for more tips.

Categories

Categories that your Pack will be associated with in the Packs Gallery. Choose categories that are a natural fit with your Pack. While this is optional, it will make your Pack more discoverable by users.

Makers

Who the Pack was made by. If the Pack maker is an individual, the account will need to create a Maker profile. Instructions here. If the Pack maker is an organization, create a new Coda account for the organization. We recommend using an email address that will never be associated with an individual maker’s account. Only those who have Edit access can be listed as a Maker.

Support email

The email address you will use to field Pack support inquiries. Coda will provide broad Packs platform support to both Pack creators and those that use them, however we expect you to support specific issues and questions with the Pack you created.

It's important for you to have an agreement setting out terms with your end users to set the conditions for which a user may use your Pack, limit your legal obligations, restrict abuse of the Pack and explain how the Pack is licensed. Coda has provided a Default EULA, and you can use that if you would like. If there are any additional terms you would like to include or things you would like to change in the Default EULA we encourage you to supply your own terms. As your business on Coda continues to grow we also encourage you to reach out to counsel to help you with these documents. None of this is intended to be legal advice and you should consult your own lawyer for advice as you put these together.

Privacy policies are important for compliance with different privacy legislation and help set expectations with your website visitors, which is why we require that Developers include a Privacy Policy on their listing page. It must: Notify Pack End Users that you (and not Coda) are responsible for the privacy, security, and integrity of all End User Data processed by you or your Packs. Provide clear and complete information to Pack End Users regarding your access, collection, and processing of End User Data, with whom you share it, and in which countries it will be stored or processed, along with all other disclosures required by applicable law. Your Privacy policy will need to be drafted to accurately reflect your actual privacy practices, and you therefore may have separate privacy policies for different Packs. There are many sites that can help you draft a Privacy Policy, and this site aggregates a few of them. As your business on Coda continues to grow we also encourage you to reach out to counsel to help you with these documents. None of this is intended to be legal advice and you should consult your own lawyer for advice as you put these together.

Pack name

Description

This is the public name of your Pack.

Image

Specifications

Max 50 characters

Required

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Drafting your Pack’s description

To ensure that your description is informative and digestible, we recommend structuring your description into four small sections. Makers tend to scan for the information they need; dividing your description into clear headers with bullet point underneath helps readers quickly find what’s relevant to them.

Why I’m building this?

Start with why: Telling the story of why you created this Pack helps illustrates the pain points your Pack solves and makes your Pack memorable

Keep this section short and punchy. A few sentences should be enough.

Who is this for?

Identify your audience through pain points; highlight why someone would want to install your Pack

Tip: Avoid job titles in this section. Instead lead with common problems that your audience encounters and would use your Pack to solve.

For example: “This Pack is for makers who spend endless hours copying and pasting emails to clients”

How it works

Explain the benefits of your Pack; detail the solutions your user gains from installing it in their doc

For example: “Send dynamic follow up emails to your clients, prospects, and partners with the click of a button”

FAQs

Answer any anticipated questions in this section

Update this section often as you receive more feedback

Creating a Pack header image

These header images display both in the Pack Gallery and on the Pack’s own listing page. They help give some visual interest to the page and create a branded space for your Pack.

You’re welcome to get creative here, but if you’re not feeling particularly creative right now, we have created a

header image toolkit⁠

in Figma so you can create fun, engaging header images.

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Adding Pack makers

You can attribute additional makers to your Pack from the listing tab. By default, the Pack maker field is left blank, so to credit others:

Share the Pack with the account who you want to add as a Maker.

Note, only makers with Edit access can be added. See below for instructions.

Go to the Pack listing tab, click in the “Makers” field

You should see a list of Makers who have access to your Pack. Select those that you want to add as Makers.

Remember, you can share a Pack with any Coda user account and add them as a Maker. This means if you want to add a brand account to the listing just set up a new Coda account with your brand profile and share the pack with it.

Share ‘Edit’ access with others

If you want to add a new Maker, you’ll first need to provide Edit access.

Under Makers, click “Add an Editor”

Type the person’s name in the “Invite” field

Make sure “Can edit” is selected, and click “Share” to complete

You’ll now be able to add that person as a Maker

Here’s how the Makers of the Pack will be displayed on the Pack listing page.

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Creating a published doc for Pack

Last but not least: before you publish your Pack to the world, make sure you demonstrate how it works with an accompanying published doc.

When you first publish, your doc will be displayed on the right hand side of your listing page under “Docs using this Pack.”

For makers, the doc that demonstrates your Pack’s use case helps...

Illustrate what problems your Pack solves

Demonstrate how your Pack works

Serve as a starting point for makers - instead of building from scratch

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In our experience, Packs are used more by makers when a Coda doc clearly highlights at least one of the Pack’s use cases. For this reason, we recommend publishing at least one Coda doc by the time of launch to make it easier for makers to see the benefits of using your Pack.

While this is an important part of creating a high-converting listing page, published docs don’t need to be exhaustive—they can be as simple as a table that illustrates the use case—so don’t overthink it.

Just put yourself in your user’s shoes. What do they want to learn? What’s in it for them if they try what you’re recommending?

Pro tip: Consider recording a Loom to walk your audience through the ins-and-outs of your Pack. This not only brings your Pack to life, but gives you the opportunity to actively pitch makers. Think about adding this element to your instructions page so it can easily be deleted when users copy your doc.

If you want more information on publishing Coda docs, you can read

this article⁠

Related doc examples