What Generate text can do for your Black Friday messages, and what to check

Black Friday means more on-site messages than any other week: a teaser, the sale itself, a free shipping threshold, a last-day reminder, maybe a signup before it all starts on Enterprise+. Each one needs a description that reads well and is true.

Atomato's Generate text tool drafts those descriptions from a few keywords you type. This post shows you where it lives, what it needs from you, and a short checklist to run before you keep a draft, so the copy on your store is yours and correct.

Where Generate text lives

Generate text works on every plan. In the campaign editor, open a message's Setup tab. It sits at the left of the toolbar above the Description field, for NotiFeed and NotiPop messages, NotiSell messages on Scale and Enterprise+, and each step of a NotiEmail or NotiSMS signup form on Enterprise+. The Title field above it is a plain text box, so titles are yours to write. A title can be up to 120 characters, or 70 on NotiSell, and a NotiFeed description up to 200.

On Scale and Enterprise+, the same button also appears on the description and disclosure fields under Settings, then Translations. There it writes new text from the keywords you type, so type them in the language you are translating into. It doesn't see your original text, so it won't translate it for you. Translate your campaigns covers the rest of that page.

What it does with your keywords

Click Generate text and a box headed Generate description opens. Type the facts the message needs in Features and keywords, up to 120 characters, pick a tone, and click Generate. The suggestion appears a word at a time. When it stops, click Keep to put it in the Description field, or Generate again for a new version. Keep shows up with the first word, so wait for the whole suggestion.

Three things to know:

• It only knows your keywords and the tone. It doesn't know your store, your products or your prices. Anything you leave out won't be in the draft, and a detail it adds on its own may not be true.
• Keep replaces the whole field. Whatever was in Description is gone once you click Keep. Add links and bold text after you keep the text, not before.
• Earlier versions aren't saved. Generate again replaces the suggestion on screen. If you like a version, keep it before you try another.

The tone starts on Casual. The others are Warm, Friendly, Direct, Minimal and Light Playful, and the button shows the one you picked while you try new versions. Whatever the tone, the tool writes short, conversational text rather than hard-sell copy. If a draft doesn't sound like your store, change the tone or reword the keywords. The full walkthrough is in Write campaign text with AI.

A worked example: the same sale, two sets of keywords

The help center's before and after for a feed message shows the principle: a vague title and line on one side, and on the other a specific deadline, free shipping over $50 ending Sunday, and who it applies to. Keywords work the same way. Say your Black Friday offer is 30% off sitewide with the code BF30, from Friday 27 November to midnight on Monday 30 November, with free shipping over $50, and you want a NotiFeed message with the whole offer in one line.

Before. Keywords: "Black Friday sale, big savings, don't miss out". Tone: Casual. The draft can only be as specific as that, so it comes back vague, with no amount, no code and no end date. It may also invent a figure to fill the gap.

After. Keywords: "30% off sitewide, code BF30, Fri 27 Nov to midnight Mon 30 Nov, free shipping over $50". Tone: Direct. A draft from those keywords might read: "Take 30% off everything sitewide with code BF30 through midnight Monday 30 November. Orders over $50 ship free." Every fact in it came from you, so the check is quick.

Write the title yourself, for example "30% off sitewide ends Monday", and point the button at the sale collection. A click to a product, collection or search page gives Atomato the longest window to count a later add to cart.

Six checks before you keep a draft

1. The amount, code and dates match Shopify. Generate text doesn't know your discounts. Create the code in Shopify first, then compare the draft against it word by word.
2. It ends with a full sentence. Suggestions are cut off at about 200 characters, so one can stop mid-sentence. Generate again, or finish the sentence yourself.
3. Nothing was added that you didn't type. A "limited stock" line or a "best sellers" mention that wasn't in your keywords has no source. Cut it.
4. It asks for one action. If the draft mentions two offers, give each its own message. On Scale and Enterprise+, a campaign holds up to six messages. On Starter, each campaign shows one message, and one NotiFeed and one NotiPop campaign can be active at a time.
5. It reads well with the title above it. The title carries the point and the description adds one supporting detail. The tips in Write on-site messages shoppers want to click apply to drafts as much as to text you write from scratch.
6. It looks right on the store. Use Preview on desktop and Preview on mobile; the preview includes your unsaved changes. Preview a campaign before it goes live explains what the preview shows and what it skips.

Building the Black Friday set faster

The tool earns its place when you have several similar messages to write in one sitting. Write a keyword line per message and run them through in turn:

• Teaser, the week before: "Black Friday starts Fri 27 Nov, 30% off sitewide, sign in for early access".
• Sale live: the keywords from the worked example above.
• Free shipping threshold, as a NotiPop with a cart rule: "free shipping over $50, ends Mon 30 Nov".
• Last day: "30% off ends tonight at midnight, code BF30".

Change the tone for the last-day message if the sale message was Casual, and keep the shortest version that passes the checks. Then schedule each campaign on its Schedule tab on Scale or Enterprise+. On Starter, one NotiFeed and one NotiPop campaign can be active at a time, and a second can't be saved while the first is live, so keep the keyword lines in a note and change the live campaign's text at each stage. The dates and the rest of the plan are on the BFCM plan page.

What Generate text doesn't do

• It doesn't translate. On the Translations page it writes new text from the keywords you type, not from your original. Check the draft before you click Keep, as you would in the editor.
• It shouldn't write your consent lines. The Disclosure Language field in the Email Opt-in and SMS Opt-in steps shows the button too, but that line should be the wording you have approved.
• It doesn't report errors. If no suggestion appears, check that Features and keywords isn't empty and click Generate once more. If the spinner keeps turning and the buttons stay grayed out, the request failed: save anything you want to keep and reload the page.
• Your keywords leave Atomato. They are sent to an outside AI provider to write the text, so don't type shopper names, email addresses or other personal details into the box.

Next step

Open the campaign you plan to run on Black Friday, write one keyword line with the real amount, code and dates, and generate three versions in different tones. Keep the one that passes the six checks, write the title yourself, and preview it on mobile before you save.

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