7 Steps to Master AI-Powered Email Writing
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Ever paused to wonder about the secret sauce behind those flawless email campaigns?
For many digital marketers and business owners I’ve talked to, the idea of effortlessly drafting compelling emails remains a distant dream.
Having been in the trenches myself for 5+ years as a content creator, I couldn’t resist exploring the world of AI tools for email writing.
I was really excited to find out if technology could truly take our email game to the next level and finally make writing emails feel like a fun project instead of a constant struggle.
I’ve tested quite a few AI tools and email generators and got absolutely mind-blown by some of them! In this guide, I’ll share my best tips on how to use AI to write emails and what you can do to make the most of AI email generators, depending on your business goals.
Why ignoring AI email writers is a lost opportunity
If you’ve never seen AI productivity tools in action other than ChatGPT, it’s easy to underestimate the power of AI in transforming your email campaigns.
However, if you follow the news, the whole landscape of digital marketing is changing, with AI tools rising as a fundamental component. Failing to adopt them could result in lost revenue potential.
That said, according to this year’s Statista report, only 22% of digital marketers have been actively leveraging AI email generators. I hope by the end of this guide, you’ll get excited about all the possibilities and will consider introducing AI into your email writing process!
Benefits of using AI for email writing
Before diving into the specifics of using AI tools for writing emails, let’s break down why co-writing with AI is such a good idea for your marketing campaigns. Here are four key advantages:
- Time efficiency: Crafting the perfect email takes time. AI email writers expedite this process, allowing you to focus on value propositions, strategy, networking, or other essential areas of your business.
- Consistency: Inconsistent messaging can confuse your audience. With various features like brand voice and email sequence templates, AI tools ensure that each email aligns with your brand’s tone and style, and your readers start to feel like they know you well.
- Personalization: What was once a ‘nice to have’ feature is now a necessity. You can now leverage multiple AI tools for deep customization of your emails based on user preferences and behavior, significantly increasing open and click-through rates.
- Data-driven insights: AI not only generates content but also provides critical metrics. This actionable intelligence can be a pivotal factor in the success of your email campaigns.
So, are you willing to miss out on these benefits? If not, let’s go straight into exploring the capabilities of AI email writers!
How to master AI to write emails: 7 steps
1. Think of AI as your assistant
Many people are wary of AI, fearing that it will replace their jobs. But the more accurate perspective is to consider AI your personal assistant that builds on top of your expertise.
It’s designed to handle repetitive and time-consuming tasks so that you can focus on more creative and strategic aspects of your work. It can also be used as a “second brain” you can pick to brainstorm a solution, understand your audience better, or design new ideas for your upcoming email campaigns.
In fact, multiple email-focused AI assistants have been created relatively recently to help you out with various email tasks, saving you precious time and minimizing the stress factor of managing and writing emails.
AI-powered tools have evolved considerably: not only can they help you draft emails and generate catchy subject lines – some tools are able to generate full-blown drip campaigns, personalize your newsletters for each recipient, and so much more.
2. Identify your most common email types
The first step to leveraging AI in email writing is to identify the types of emails you send most frequently. Are they promotional? Informational? Story-telling? Do you focus on sending cold outreach emails or keeping your subscribers engaged?
Understanding this will help you set up templates or guidelines that the AI can follow, influencing every step from choosing the right tool to writing good-quality prompts.
While some tools are general AI writers that can also help you out with emails, others specialize in certain types of email content. Identifying your specific needs will ensure you select the right software for the job.
3. Choose the appropriate tone
If you’ve been doing email marketing for a while, I’m sure I don’t need to explain to you why the tone of every message is important. The way your brand is perceived can make or break the effectiveness of each email campaign, literally defining the success of your product launches or service offerings.
Whether you need a formal tone for business correspondence or a casual one for customer engagement, defining this upfront can guide the AI in generating suitable content.
If the AI tool you are using doesn’t offer a variety of tone options for email generation, stay away from it. You don’t want to send a funny email to your investors or a super-formal boring invitation for your customers to celebrate your brand’s milestone with you.
Each email should have a purpose and an appropriate tone that makes sense for your brand.
Besides, generic AI-generated emails are common enough now to be easily recognizable. Nobody wants to read another “Hope this email finds you well.” So make sure to read everything your AI tool generates and see if you yourself would respond positively to it.
4. Train AI on your brand voice
Taking the previous tip to the next level, training your AI tool to mimic your brand voice can result in even more cohesive and on-brand emails. Some sophisticated AI platforms allow for detailed customization, down to specific phrases and tone.
Even with ChatGPT (which I use every day for various content purposes), I often feed it a piece of my previous content so it can analyze it in detail and mimic my voice in its outputs.
Several email AI tools I tested offer this as a built-in feature. This way, you:
a) don’t need to write prompts yourself, and
b) AI always remembers your style and “keeps it in mind” for every campaign
By training the AI on your brand voice, you not only maintain consistency but also strengthen your brand identity. Emails become another touchpoint where customers interact with your brand, thereby enhancing their overall experience and relationship with you.
5. Define the intention of the email
Before you let AI take the wheel, you should define what the email aims to achieve. Is it to inform, persuade, or entertain? Having a clear intention will guide the AI in creating content that aligns with your objectives.
Having a clearly defined intention not only helps in generating appropriate content but also aids in measuring the email’s success. Metrics like open rates, click-through rates, and conversions can be more accurately assessed when the email’s purpose is well-defined.
6. Use AI to draft email replies
As I said, AI tools aren’t just for sending out emails. Some of them are equally good at helping you manage incoming emails.
For example, AI assistants like TextCortex offer a handy browser extension that smoothly integrates with your email platform and helps you out with your day-to-day correspondence.
Instead of your usual struggle with the blank page, AI can analyze the context of the incoming message and draft a reply for you that requires minimal editing before sending.
Some tools need you to write a short draft, while others automatically offer quick suggestions. Which tool works best for you depends on your preferred workflow and the type of emails you tend to get.
Using AI for drafting email replies can significantly speed up your response time, improving customer satisfaction and your business relationships.
7. Generate full email sequences
Imagine AI being able not just to write a one-off email but an entire sequence aimed at lead nurturing or customer engagement.
This was one of the coolest things I discovered when I was testing different AI email tools! These new AI capabilities are truly mindblowing to me.
Take HoppyCopy, for example. In just a few seconds, it can generate full email sequences that guide your prospects through a predefined journey, from awareness to conversion. How cool is that?
Having an automated yet personalized email sequence can dramatically improve your marketing funnel’s efficiency. It ensures that potential clients or existing customers receive timely and relevant information, making them more likely to take the desired action.
Bonus: 3 Pro Tips for creating awesome emails with AI
1. Embed personalized videos
We are so used now to email personalization being a standard in the industry. Personally, if I receive an email that doesn’t address me by name, it goes directly into the trash (and sometimes spam).
With AI, email personalization doesn’t stop at text. How about videos?
Incorporating elements like personalized videos can exponentially increase user engagement. Your recipients instantly feel special when they see a video with their name on it!
Psychologically, this makes them warm up to you or your brand much faster and potentially be more inclined to interact with your offers or your upcoming emails.
Tools like HippoVideo let you easily embed personalized videos into your emails. Make sure to give those a try (I’m sure you’ll be impressed)!
2. Let AI generate catchy subject lines
The subject line is the first thing your audience sees and often determines whether the email is opened at all.
AI tools can analyze past performance data, your competitors’ headlines, or your specific guidelines to generate subject lines that are more likely to result in higher open rates.
Utilizing AI-generated subject lines takes the guesswork out of one of the most crucial aspects of email marketing. It’s also a good idea to A/B test different subject lines and compare engagement rates, identifying what your users are more likely to click on.
3. Send personalized newsletters
Personalized newsletters take email marketing a step further by providing content tailored to each subscriber.
Tools like Rasa.io can help you send newsletters filled with curated content based on user behavior and preferences.
Let’s say someone often clicks on articles about vegan recipes in your food blog newsletter. Rasa can automatically prioritize and feature similar content in future emails to this subscriber, making the newsletter more engaging for them.
Such extreme personalization ensures that your newsletters provide laser-focused value, increasing not only open rates but also customer loyalty. It’s a strategy that goes beyond generic updates and evolves into a valuable resource for your audience.
Top 3 AI tools you can use to write emails faster
HoppyCopy is designed to accelerate your email writing process. It can generate content for a variety of email marketing campaigns, drips, and newsletters in seconds.
With over 50 Email AI Templates using scientifically proven formulas, HoppyCopy helps you create high-converting emails that range from product launches to lead nurture campaigns.
Additional features like spam keyword checks and tracking competitors’ email strategies make it a must-have tool for email marketing.
AWeber integrates AI directly into its email marketing platform to help you overcome writer’s block and boost creativity.
You can get a first email draft almost instantly and quickly edit it with AI suggestions to align with your brand voice.
AWeber aims to make the email writing process more streamlined and effective, giving you more time to focus on your core business goals.
Mailmodo leverages the advanced GPT-4 algorithms to assist in your email creation tasks.
This tool specializes in high-converting email campaigns that can be crafted in minutes. It can also generate subject lines and use custom templates to expedite your email production.
Mailmodo allows you to generate multiple campaigns rapidly, thereby scaling your email marketing efforts effectively. Furthermore, features like A/B testing ensure you’re getting the most out of each campaign.
Final thoughts on AI-powered email writing
So there you have it, all my best tips on using AI to make your email campaigns pop. Are you as blown away as I am after seeing what’s possible with AI today?
All that’s left is for you to seize this untapped potential and skyrocket your email results.