Lately, we have been sharing tips and tricks for developing an effective push notification strategy, from adding personal elements to your message to timing its delivery for maximum impact. In many ways, these are the easy parts. The hardest part is often the writing process itself. As a frequent contributor to the Amazon Developer Blog, I can relate! So today, I wanted to share some of my tips for finding—and keeping—creative inspiration.
Before putting pen to paper, there are some tasks you should complete to help you maintain focus. In our latest eBook, Push Notification Best Practices, we share details on getting to know your audience, so I won’t cover it here. However, if you haven’t read the eBook, it can be summarized as: know your audience!
You should also know thyself, or rather, know thy app. It is a common practice for many marketers to develop a persona for their product. Take some time to think about who your app would be if it were a person? Would they be cheerful? Funny? Full of facts? Overly confident? Robotic? Defining your app’s persona will help keep your writing focused. It also makes the writing process a lot more fun.
Finally, define your goal. Make sure to craft every push notification with a specific reason in mind. Some example goals might include, “to inspire purchasing,” “to complete key onboarding actions,” or “to encourage social sharing.” No matter what it is, make sure you write it down as a reminder.
If you have defined your persona and your goals and are still looking at a blank page, here are some go-to starter ideas to help get those creative juices flowing.
If you are doing it right, you will have a laundry list of half-baked copy ideas, bad puns, and nonsensical notes about Game of Thrones you were pretty sure were on-point at the time. Don’t throw these away. Keep them in a copy bank that you can refer to from time to time to help you get inspired. You will be surprised how often a nugget of a thought becomes your next best sentence.
You will feel compelled to be always come up with creative, new, and fresh ideas. Resist that urge. Chances are, a lot of the copy you have already written is great and compels your users to act. When you find copy that consistently performs well, use it again and again until it stops producing results.
A blog on “how to write effectively” would be incomplete without a quick reminder about the basics of good writing. Here are the main four:
Now, make it so! If you want to learn more about Push Notification Best Practices, you can download your free copy here: