Hi startuphome,
Ever notice how so much of the tension in all of Game of Thrones came from those three simple words?
Winter is coming.
What if I told you how to use a similar trick to create killer push notification campaigns?
The catchphrase was terrifying because the audience had no idea what "Winter" meant.
Especially when the characters in the series ALL seemed to know exactly what it was.
But how's that helpful for you?
Simple: It's a writing technique that you can use on your campaigns.
In copywriting, this is what you call an open loop.
When you start a narrative and leave your audience hanging, it makes them super curious.
That's what an open loop is. It's an incomplete subplot in your story.
And when you build up that tension over multiple segments or episodes before the big reveal, it can be super satisfying.
There's real science behind this as well.
Every time you feel pleasure, your brain releases a chemical called dopamine (a.k.a. the happiness drug).
Most people belive that dopamine gets released in your brain when something satisying happens.
But that's not true.
Your brain releases dopamine when it anticipates that something's about to happen.
An open loop in your writing creates anticipation in your reader's mind.
See where I'm going with this?
Here's the catch: You can only achieve this using a sequence of messages.
For push notifications, you'd need to create a drip sequence.
The next time you create a drip push notification sequence, try this out.
Foreshadow a big reveal in the first push notification.
But don't spill the beans.
In the next notification or a the next few ones, only mention that something big's about to happen.
Then, do a full reveal in another push notification and watch your engagement rates go through the roof.
If you follow this general pattern, you can write push notifications that are as addictive as an episode of Game of Thrones!
You can thank me later. Go try it out right now.
Love and luck,
Nirvana Guha
Product Educator at PushEngage
P.S.: Once you get the hang of using open loops, you can use open loops inside open loops. Start building up tension in your push notifications. Then, right before you do the big reveal, open another loop. Your engagement rates are going to be insane! | |
