How to implement AI in your email marketing strategy
AI has many different applications within email marketing, contributing to a wide range of possibilities you can integrate into your strategy.
We have outlined some of the most common areas where artificial intelligence can contribute effectively:
- Data analysis: AI makes it possible to analyse past email performance to identify optimisation opportunities. This includes, among other things, send times and the most effective subject lines based on previous click patterns.
- Content tailoring for specific audiences: By analysing consumer data, AI can deliver and target customised content that directly appeals to the audience's interests and needs.
- Cleaning inactive email lists: AI can identify inactive subscribers who could potentially harm your deliverability. By removing these subscribers, you can increase the chances of your emails reaching the recipient's inbox rather than ending up in spam.
- AI-generated content creation: AI can produce high-quality written content, serve as a source of inspiration for idea generation, perform proofreading and translation, and create and edit visual content.
- AI-driven personalisation and segmentation: AI makes it possible to automatically include relevant customer data in your emails. The technology can also divide your campaigns into different segments and generate product recommendations based on customers' previous behaviour.
AI-driven content optimisation for emails
While many businesses compete for attention in a crowded inbox, it can be challenging to create compelling content that stands out from the crowd. But as artificial intelligence continues to evolve, it is now possible — with the help of OpenAI — to create more personal and engaging content across various aspects of your email campaigns.
In particular, ChatGPT has played a decisive role in this development and has revolutionised how we can leverage artificial intelligence to improve email marketing.
Using the Code Interpreter plugin, it is possible to upload various forms of data and documents, which the system can analyse, process and provide suggestions for potential optimisation measures. These suggestions can subsequently be implemented in email campaigns to increase effectiveness and targeting.
Beyond this, the language model can, among other things, help identify trends and patterns in email campaigns, provide alternative versions of emails for testing purposes, act as a helping hand for idea generation, and divide your email list into relevant segments.
AI-driven email copywriting
ChatGPT covers a broad range, but there are also other AI tools that can be used in connection with content creation and that can support the copywriting process.
- What these tools generally have in common is that the technology can help overcome writer's block by generating ideas and drafts that can form the basis of your emails.
- In addition, AI can help create a coherent thread and approach to your emails by tying them together under an overarching theme or umbrella topic.
- It can also assist in crafting compelling subject lines and CTAs that increase the likelihood of recipients opening and engaging with your emails.
- AI is furthermore capable of performing proofreading and converting blog posts into sections that can be used in newsletters.
There is no doubt that artificial intelligence can be a valuable asset in your email marketing strategy. However, it is essential to remember that the quality of the output depends on the amount of knowledge, information and context you provide it with. It is therefore crucial to actively work on helping the technology understand your target audience and business as precisely as possible.
AI-driven creatives and graphics
Just as AI has had an impact on written content and copywriting, development has also accelerated within visual and creative elements, which is equally relevant in the context of email marketing.
Using third-party tools such as Midjourney and Canva AI, you have the option to upload various product images that still require editing, and have the technology remove backgrounds, shadows and various flaws with ease — enabling a faster and more convenient process.
The technology can also contribute to creating visual elements, enhancing current designs and providing alternative suggestions and ideas for new versions that can be used in connection with selected campaigns.
If you manage to implement and use the technology in line with your goals and needs, AI has the potential to improve both the efficiency and quality of your copywriting process as well as the creation of visual creatives for future campaigns.
Personalisation and segmentation with AI
Personalisation and segmentation is very much an area where AI has also had a major impact on the optimisation of email campaigns. The technology enables the automatic integration of extensive customer data into emails.
Based on relevant and thorough data analysis — such as customer behaviour, purchase history and demographic information — AI algorithms can generate more personalised and targeted content tailored to individual recipients and specific segments.
In this way, the likelihood of engagement increases, as the content becomes more relevant to each individual recipient. This includes the possibility of personalising subject lines, adapting to the devices on which emails are opened, the content that individuals have shown interest in, and even selecting the most appropriate send time. Data linked to consumer behaviour thus inspires hyper-personalised emails with content that resonates with each recipient's unique preferences.
This AI technology is primarily based on machine learning and has improved significantly in recent years. This has resulted in more effective algorithms and automated product recommendations that have, among other things, made it possible to personalise product assortments based on customers' interactions on the website, which greatly strengthens retargeting.
Examples of developments within automated personalisation include tools such as Clerk.io and Alvas.ai. These are examples of generative AI tools that specialise in analysing, categorising and generating hyper-personalised content for emails.
By conducting a qualitative persona analysis that takes into account various factors such as gender, the purpose of the product purchase, the person's place of residence and even the weather conditions at that particular time, the technology is able to create hyper-personal text messages tailored to the individual recipient. This is based on tone of voice, personal characteristics and unique product interests.
Benefits of AI in email marketing
Incorporating AI into your email marketing workflows brings a number of benefits that can improve the effectiveness of your email strategy. When you allow AI to perform in-depth analyses, generate creative content suggestions and automate multiple tasks, valuable time is freed up that can be invested elsewhere.
Furthermore, the technology contributes to better content — both in terms of copywriting and creatives — by delivering more personal and relevant content that encourages greater engagement and increased sales. This creates incentive for a higher ROI alongside a reduction in the number of irrelevant and ineffective emails.
Overall, AI in email marketing helps streamline the process, deliver better results and ensure that you are sending targeted and relevant emails — areas that ultimately improve your campaigns, both in terms of open rates and click-through rates.
Get started with streamlining your email strategy
Although AI can be considered a valuable collaborator, it cannot replace the human factor in your email marketing strategy. AI can perform tasks efficiently and help make data-driven decisions, but it cannot think strategically, understand your brand's unique voice or build close relationships with customers. Human oversight and editing are still necessary to ensure that your email marketing aligns with your company's vision.
The technology can be useful throughout every stage of the customer journey, but make sure you are clear on the purpose of your email campaigns so that you can set the right criteria for the AI — which, based on data, can generate the best possible outcome.
If you manage to take advantage of the many benefits AI offers, you can create more personal and relevant content, contributing to better results and a stronger connection with your target audience. So if you have not already incorporated AI into your workflows today, there are plenty of good reasons to start exploring which AI-driven opportunities can create value for your email marketing.
Read more about how we can grow your business with email marketing here.
