In the past few years, AI has revolutionized…well, everything. Tech giants like OpenAI, Google, and Microsoft have launched and refined their generative AI tools, offering marketers a wealth of options to explore and integrate into their email marketing strategies. From AI-powered subject line generators to personalization tools that enhance customer engagement, these advancements can significantly improve campaign performance.
As a marketer, it’s crucial to take a proactive approach. Consider conducting a trial run of an AI tool to see firsthand how it can empower you to work smarter, achieve better results, and stay ahead of the curve in the ever-evolving digital landscape.
Confused about how AI can transform your email marketing? Don’t worry; we’ve got you covered.
We’ll break down the key benefits and limitations of AI technology. We’ll also show you how to leverage these tools to create a winning email marketing strategy, streamline your workflow, and boost your results.
Here’s why now is the perfect time to embrace AI in your email marketing efforts.
The power of Large Language Models (LLMs)
Breakthroughs in AI have brought us Large Language Models (LLMs)—powerful tools that can understand and generate human-like text. Think of them as supercharged chatbots that can hold conversations, answer your questions with relevant information, and even assist you with creative tasks. ChatGPT, Google Bard, and Microsoft Copilot are all leading examples of LLMs. Each excels at natural language processing and conversation facilitation.
Many companies offer paid versions of their LLMs that unlock additional functionalities. These advanced models can connect to external services, perform web searches, read PDFs, and even write basic code—all by following your instructions.
Stuck on a subject line? Simply provide a prompt outlining your message and target audience, and the LLM will generate creative options for you to choose from. Need a roadmap for a new email campaign? Feed the LLM your goals and target demographic, and it can help you craft a strategic plan with content suggestions and scheduling recommendations.
While these advancements might seem like AI is taking over, it’s important to remember that LLMs still require human guidance. You provide the prompts, evaluate the outputs, and ensure they align with your goals. Think of them as supercharged assistants—they can’t replace your marketing expertise, but they can significantly boost your efficiency and creativity.
If you haven’t explored LLMs yet, you’re missing out on a valuable tool! These AI assistants can streamline your workflow and spark new ideas.
Try this ChatGPT email marketing prompt: “You are an email marketing specialist, and you are helping me launch a brand-new email campaign. Our end goal is to have a subject line, a pre-header text, a content outline, segmentation criteria for the email list, and a timeline for launch. Be sure to consider email marketing best practices so that IP and domain reputation are not impacted in a bad way. Ask me questions so we can brainstorm ideas to make this a success.”
Unlocking email hyper-personalization
Artificial intelligence doesn’t know everything—yet.
But it does know how to make your customers feel like the brands they love pay attention to them and take their preferences into account.
Email personalization is no longer a nice-to-have for marketing campaigns—it’s a must. Seventy-two percent of consumers now say they will only engage with brands that deliver personalized messaging.
Using AI technology to personalize campaigns helps brands ensure their messages are relevant, engaging, and effective for the intended customer.
Think of how Netflix uses account activity to personalize email campaigns. The company leverages AI to analyze behavior patterns (e.g., viewing history) to deliver individualized recommendations for what to watch next.
For marketing teams, AI can analyze content downloads, customer service tickets, and browsing patterns to keeps tabs on what your customers have done, what they’ve said they like (and don’t like), and even the time of day they prefer to receive emails or look at promotions.
In other words, AI helps marketers pre-analyze this data. Imagine it as a treasure trove of customer insights, neatly organized and stored alongside each email address. This rich information becomes the foundation for hyper-personalization, allowing you to tailor email content and timing to each individual customer’s preferences.
Armed with this information, it’s easier than ever to send the right message to the right person at the right time:
- Content personalization: Use placeholder tags in your email body and subject lines, and your email sending platform replace them with the relevant AI generated content for each recipient.
- Targeted send times: Schedule campaigns with filters based on the AI generated “time of day” data point, this ensures your emails land in inboxes when your customers are most likely to open and engage.
Try this ChatGPT email personalization prompt: “I use [Name of ESP] to send email marketing campaigns and I have a file CSV file containing columns: email addresses, name, and recommended products. How can I go about sending a personalized campaign to each email address, having names replaced in the subject line and the recommended product offered in the content?”
AI and list segmentation
Marketers have long used list segmentation to engage with customers.
It’s easy to see why: Research shows segmented marketing campaigns generate 14.64 percent more opens and almost 60 percent more clicks than non-segmented campaigns.
But the segmentation process is typically time-consuming and prone to human error.
With AI, marketers can go beyond simple segmentation by location or age, and segment lists using more specific attributes—like a customer’s purchase history and interests.
Some AI tools go even further, leveraging advanced algorithms to predict future customer behavior. This allows you to create segments based on a customer’s propensity to convert or churn. Imagine targeting customers who are at risk of leaving with special win-back offers or identifying high-potential leads for nurturing campaigns.
This enables marketers to send more targeted emails and increase those all-important engagement rates, maximizing customer retention, reducing churn, and ultimately driving more sales.
Try this ChatGPT list segmentation prompt: “You are an email marketing specialist, and you are given a list of email addresses that contains the following columns: email address, registration date, last open date, last click date, last login date, age, city. Give me some ideas on how to segment my list and be sure to consider email marketing best practices so that IP and domain reputation are not impacted in a bad way.”
AI for subject line magic
In the past, marketers sent emails with generic subject lines and blindly hoped they’d get noticed in subscribers’ inboxes.
In 2024, this doesn’t fly. Especially now that inboxes are more crowded than ever.
Now that AI is being used to analyze massive volumes of customer data, marketers can personalize their email campaigns and boost the chances of their emails being opened.
This starts with writing a clickable subject line.
Writing good email subject lines is tough. Luckily, our robot friends make the process easier for us.
Tools like Cloud Natural Language and Tone Analyzer give senders insights into the tone, structure, and sentiment of their subject lines and offer suggestions for improvement. You might be surprised to learn that your text comes across as negative or overly formal.
Other tools like StoryLab.ai generate content ideas for you. All senders need to do is enter their company name, describe their email content, and hit the ‘Inspire me” button to get a list of subject line ideas.
Try this ChatGPT subject line prompt: “Give me ten subject line and pre-header text ideas for a [describe campaign] email marketing campaign. It needs to be shorter than 50 characters, include an action word at the start, and make the reader want to open the message. Be sure to mention [what needs to be mentioned]. Tone suggestion: just a bit funny [or intriguing, professional, witty, etc.].
Automating copywriting
Keeping brand language interesting and engaging can be a struggle.
To overcome pesky writer’s block, some companies are using artificial intelligence tools to conduct surveys or tests, and then write content based on the results.
This lets marketers easily tailor content for different audiences without having to write a copy themselves.
Tools like Copymatic, Copy.AI, Persado, and Phrasee focus on writing marketing emails and social media posts. They’re particularly excellent at generating short sentences and headlines.
This is extremely valuable for the average email marketer. After all, when you write for these mediums, your goal is usually to write short, snappy sentences that attract people to your content.
As a bonus, AI writing tools like these free up traditional copywriters to focus on bigger-picture creative thinking, strategy, and campaigns.
Try this ChatGPT copywriting prompt: “You are an email marketing specialist, and you are creating the content for a new email campaign. The goal of this campaign is to [insert goal here], and the audience being targeted has the following characteristics: [list what you know about the audience]. Let’s brainstorm on the content of this campaign. Start by creating an outline, and we’ll work from there. Be sure to consider email marketing best practices so IP and domain reputation are not impacted in a bad way.”
Challenges and limitations of AI in email
Artificial intelligence is a powerful tool for improving email processes and increasing efficiency. But it has its limitations. Organizations should be aware of the following hurdles before they implement AI-powered tools.
Data quality
An organization’s data can be inaccurate, which can lead to flawed or biased AI algorithms or applications. Others must search through the various silos at their companies to find the data they need to train AI models and come up with incomplete data sets. This is a problem. After all, feeding an AI system low-quality data generates low-quality outputs.
It’s absolutely essential that marketers clean and consolidate their CRM data before using it to train AI models.
Lack of expertise
Since AI is still relatively new, the talent pool of workers familiar with AI is limited. Many companies don’t have employees with the necessary skills required to develop and deploy AI systems. To fill this gap, some must hire temporary consultants or contractors, or send staff members to training programs where they can learn new skills on the job. These knowledge gaps can delay marketing initiatives as users get up to speed on the technology.
Privacy and regulations
AI is still a new and evolving industry, so there aren’t many regulations governing its use. However, given the growing concerns about consumer privacy, signs indicate that AI regulation is coming soon. Since 2017, over 60 countries have adopted some type of artificial intelligence policy, with the UN taking a global step in March 2024. Their resolution, co-sponsored by over 120 nations, prioritizes human rights, data protection, and responsible AI development.
In the US, President Biden issued an Executive Order on “Safe, Secure, and Trustworthy Artificial Intelligence“. This directive aims to ensure responsible AI development by focusing on safety, security, privacy, equity, and fostering innovation. It outlines key areas like setting new safety standards, protecting privacy rights, and promoting responsible AI use across various sectors.
Across the pond, Europe takes a stricter approach with the AI Act, imposing regulations, and potential fines on companies in the EU. Meanwhile, the UK prioritizes innovation, collaborating with international groups to shape global AI governance.
Organizations must consider the impact that future regulatory shifts might have on their AI strategies for email marketing.
Explainability
Usually, organizations don’t need to understand every aspect of how their software systems work to use them effectively. However, “explainability” becomes important when dealing with AI systems.
Why? Because these tools can sometimes make decisions that seem illogical or even irrational.
Especially since these tools can be prone to biases, which can occur if an organization trains a model based on data collected under certain conditions. (For example, training a tool based solely on organizational data collected during COVID-19 conditions.)
Developers need to find ways to gain user trust by ensuring AI systems are explainable enough that users can see how and why decisions are made. Otherwise, serious problems can arise when users lack confidence in the system’s decisions.
Enter Explainable Artificial Intelligence (XAI), a set of tools and frameworks designed to help users understand and interpret predictions made by machine learning models. The goal of XAI is to ensure humans can fully understand the “why” behind the “what” in AI-driven decision making.
Ready to leverage AI to transform your email marketing?
As technology continues to evolve, we can expect even more exciting possibilities for personalized experiences, data-driven decision-making, and streamlined workflows. Global sending volumes are at all-time highs, competition in the inbox is fierce, and new pressures like Apple’s Mail Privacy Protection have made go-to performance metrics less reliable.
To stay ahead, ensure your emails reach inboxes with Validity’s email deliverability platform, Everest.
Or, for more expert insights to master email marketing in 2024, check out Validity’s latest report, “The State of Email in 2024: Keeping Ahead of the Curve.”