Using AI for email marketing: Dos and don’ts

8 min learn time

Electronic mail advertising: go together with viewers segments or go residence. The extra personalization you’ve per section, the extra profitable your emails might be… nevertheless, the extra personalization you’ve per e-mail, the extra work you’ve.

Enter AI to avoid wasting the day… or only a bunch of time. Nonetheless, there are some advertising slip-ups that may happen when AI is not used proper.

Listed here are the dos and don’ts of utilizing AI for e-mail advertising content material—are you responsible of any of the Don’ts?

✅ Dos: Learn how to use AI for e-mail advertising content material

1. Customized topic strains at scale

   So, you wish to ship customized topic strains at scale? That is nice… how about making your life simpler and getting AI to assist? Enter particular insights and knowledge about every viewers, {industry}, or area you wish to goal and customise your content material for, and let AI fly with it.
   
   Instance immediate: “Generate 10 customized topic line variations for our summer season sale e-mail that might enchantment to totally different buyer segments primarily based on their earlier buy historical past: frequent customers, occasional consumers, and first-time prospects”

2. Optimized e-mail ship instances

   If you ship common emails, in addition to lots of totally different sorts of emails (eg. newsletters, outreach, product updates… the record goes on), you get a superb quantity of helpful knowledge again. The one downside is, knowledge can take lots of time—and a headache—so that you can undergo.

   Use AI that will help you spend much less time on trawling via datasets (and spend much less cash on painkillers) and report again with tremendous useful info just like the time of day that sees the very best open charge.

   Instance immediate: “Analyze our e-mail engagement knowledge from the previous 6 months and suggest optimum ship instances for every section of our viewers, contemplating time zones, {industry}, and previous open patterns”

3. Electronic mail copy variations

   Do not you simply adore it if you lastly completed an ideal sequence of emails? However then, out of nowhere, a request seems…

   Alexa, play the Jaws theme tune.

   “Can we have now an A/B take a look at for each topic line, and check out totally different industry-specific content material versus extra generic in each single one of many emails, please?”. It is okay, entrepreneurs—do not cry, AI may help you create a number of variations of your e-mail copy to assist along with your testing wants. Simply be sure you’re modifying or watching over the content material that’s being despatched out; you do not need your emails sounding like they have been written by a robotic.

   Instance immediate: “Create three variations of this product announcement e-mail: one emphasizing time financial savings, one specializing in value advantages, and one highlighting modern options. Every model ought to preserve our skilled but conversational model voice”

4. CTAs (that truly convert)

   Deciding which of the gazillion totally different CTAs you may select in your emails is a prolonged course of in itself. Make it rather less painful by letting AI digest your already-written contnet and make recommendations on a CTA that might work.

   However do not get too carried away—the very last thing you need is on your CTAs to sound determined or pushy. Maintain it as pure and flowy as potential, and you will (hopefully) see these click-throughs and conversions soar.

   Instance immediate: “Counsel 5 high-converting CTA choices for our webinar invitation e-mail that transcend ‘Register Now.’ Embrace each the button textual content and a quick line of supporting copy that creates urgency with out sounding pushy”

5. Course on your subsequent drip marketing campaign

   Drip campaigns are a good way to nurture leads, however we are able to all agree: they take up various your time. More often than not, drip campaigns may have one intention, which implies writing the identical (or related) factor in numerous methods, a number of instances. Save your mind from imploding and get AI on the case.

   Give your AI instrument all the data you’ve, together with a quick, target market insights, tone of voice prompting, and so forth. Why? As a result of should you preserve it generic, they will be unsubscribing sooner than you possibly can say “AI”.

   Instance immediate: “Design a 5-email nurture sequence for brand spanking new subscribers who downloaded our UX design information. Embrace really useful timing between emails, topic line concepts, essential speaking factors for every e-mail, and logical subsequent steps that lead towards a product demo request”

6. Electronic mail accessibility

   AI may also assist you to make your emails extra accessible, which is tremendous vital. You wish to be sure your emails might be consumed successfully by everybody, together with these utilizing assistive applied sciences.

   Instance immediate: “Assessment this promotional e-mail and counsel enhancements for accessibility, together with various textual content for photographs, higher colour distinction suggestions, and extra display reader-friendly formatting”

7. Cross-sell and upsell opps

   With the fitting AI instrument, you may make certain your e-mail content material is profiting from any cross-sell or upsell alternatives, with no need to get gross sales or product concerned. Genius. Feed your AI instrument with buyer knowledge, in addition to product particulars, knowledge, and extra information to assist it spot applicable moments for a sneaky product advice.

   Instance immediate: “Primarily based on buy patterns in our buyer database, create an e-mail template that dynamically recommends complementary merchandise to prospects who bought our residence workplace furnishings, with separate advice logics for various worth level consumers”

❌ Don’ts: Learn how to NOT use AI for e-mail advertising content material

1. Utilizing templates with zero customization

   
   Danger: Yeah certain, you should utilize AI to create e-mail templates which are simply able to go if you want them, however you threat generic and typically repetitive buyer experiences. This may result in your viewers disengaging in your e-mail content material, reducing your click-through charge, open charge, and finally, making your unsubscribe numbers rocket. 📈

   Resolution: All the time present AI with particular model pointers, examples of profitable previous emails, and clear targets. Be sure to’re reviewing and refining all AI-generated content material to make sure it aligns along with your distinctive voice and marketing campaign objectives.

2. Forgetting all of us recognize that human-to-human interplay most

   
   Danger: As a result of we stay in a world of AI hype, crammed with AI-generated content material, we’re beginning to know how to detect AI content fairly simply. This has result in us craving that clear human connection greater than ever; with out it, content material (together with your AI-generated emails) as a result of off-putting and not-so-fun to learn.

   Resolution: Use AI to deal with personalization at scale, however guarantee your emails nonetheless really feel human by retaining a human editor within the e-mail workflow. Give attention to story-telling, worker views, and real model persona that AI alone can not replicate.

3. Going together with deceptive or clickbait topic strains

   
   Danger: 47% of individuals will open an e-mail primarily based on the topic line alone. If you’re coping with a mean AI instrument, you are most certainly coping with one thing that simply crawls the web for one thing related to say again to your immediate, missing a real understanding of your model, greatest practices, and your target market. With out the fitting info, you may find yourself with clickbait topic strains that make your prospects click on ‘Delete’ in your latest e-mail immediately.

   Resolution: Practice your AI on examples of sincere, value-driven topic strains which have carried out properly, or possibly even ones you’ve got appreciated out of your rivals or private emails. Set up moral pointers for AI use that prioritize transparency and buyer belief over short-term metrics.

4. Sending extreme emails as a result of AI makes it simpler to create the content material

   
   Danger: We’re the final ones to complain about the advantages of AI, particularly the way it helps entrepreneurs’ productiveness… HOWEVER, simply since you’ve saved your self a bunch of time in your e-mail advertising content material by introducing AI does not imply extra emails. No buyer desires to be spammed.

   Resolution: Use AI to optimize your e-mail cadence primarily based on engagement knowledge, not simply to supply extra content material or create content material sooner. If you have not already, it’s best to have frequency caps and choice facilities to respect subscriber boundaries. Lengthy story brief—do not overdo it.

5. Ignoring deliverability elements when optimizing for engagement

   
   Danger: There are a bunch of metrics that you should utilize to trace the success of your staff’s AI utilization, however one which may be missed is deliverability. Should you aren’t maintaining a tally of your e-mail deliverability, all of your arduous work might be shortly wasted.

   Resolution: Embrace deliverability metrics in your AI optimization objectives, and prepare your AI techniques to flag potential spam triggers and steadiness engagement techniques with deliverability greatest practices.

6. Failing to check AI-generated content material earlier than deployment

   
   Danger: We’re all about customized content material—the extra customized, the higher. Nonetheless, you wish to guarantee that your AI-generated content material is not going a bit too far. Keep in mind, it would not naturally have the identical widespread information as you, the marketer.

   Resolution: Set up clear boundaries with regards to personalization and ultra-personalized emails. Use AI to determine the extent of personalization that drives engagement with out triggering privateness issues for various segments of your viewers.

7. Making a disjointed buyer expertise throughout e-mail and different channels

   
   Danger: You might need a superb factor occurring between your emails and AI, however is it aligning with your other marketing channels? Differing tones of voice, sorts of content material, and product focus throughout your advertising division results in messy advertising, content material chaos, and normal dangerous (and complicated) vibes with regards to buyer expertise.

   Resolution: Use AI to assist guarantee consistent messaging throughout the board, provides, and tone throughout all buyer touchpoints. Develop complete prompts that reference your omnichannel technique and buyer journey maps.

   Try our fast information to using AI for content consistency.

AI for e-mail advertising: What’s subsequent?

AI can be utilized in each advertising division, serving to the entire staff work extra effectively, productively, and creatively. Not solely that, however AI can be utilized at each step of the advertising lifecycle too.

Try full AI for marketing: Dos and don’ts content material sequence (and see should you’re making any of those errors).