More and more marketing tools incorporate AI now. But despite its usefulness, AI is still not a complete solution. While you may find claims that AI can build your marketing emails without human intervention, it is wise to be cautious. The consensus is that high-quality email campaigns need human oversight and should use AI to assist with tasks.

One place AI tools excel is in completing the busywork – those time-prohibitive tasks that are so labor-intensive or complex that completing them manually is much less productive. AI can transform these tasks by automating processes and leveraging large amounts of data to generate insights quickly. Examples include:

• Advanced personalization: AI tools can analyze customer preference data and behaviors to create hyper-personalized content for each individual recipient.
• Predictive analytics: AI can process significant amounts of complex customer data and provide accurate predictions when it comes to customer behavior to inform email strategies.

AI in Email Marketing

AI can play a critical role throughout your email campaign, helping you save time and identify trends that can shape its flow. However, it’s important to remember that AI is meant to assist, not take over the role of a human being.

AI technology varies depending on the stage of the email production process you use it for.

Creative Processes

Generative AI is particularly useful in email production’s early, creative stages, such as conception, copywriting, design, and development. It can assist in generating creative content, designing visuals, and even coding interactive elements.

• Conception: Once you know your campaign’s audience and goals, AI can help analyze data to identify trends, predict audience preferences, and suggest campaign ideas. Marketers can use it to identify themes, develop variations, and build personas.
• Copywriting: Given the right prompts, AI can help copywriters craft compelling subject lines, preview and body text that will resonate with target audiences. AI can also be used to tweak text to fit different audience segments to offer personalized messaging. AI can also automate the testing process by conducting A/B tests quickly, identifying the most effective variations.
• Design: The visual elements of an email need to be attention-grabbing. AI-powered design tools can be used to create the wireframe for your email campaign, suggest images, and insert interactive elements where necessary.

Analytical & Optimization Processes

Machine learning is highly effective in the audience select and send stages as well as for providing in-depth insights into campaign performance. It can optimize send times, segment audiences more accurately, and even predict the best times to send emails to maximize engagement.

• Development: AI tools can carry out much of the heavy lifting in the development stage by generating code snippets and templates that are optimized for different email clients and devices. It can also be used to run tests for rendering, accessibility, and more and suggest changes as necessary before your campaign even launches. This can provide a seamless experience for recipients once your campaign is launched.
• Audience selection: Segmenting email lists and targeting specific audience segments based on various criteria can take a lot of time. AI-powered segmentation tools consider factors like past behavior, preferences, and demographics to identify audience segments. Predictive analytics are used to forecast customer behavior and preferences, allowing marketers to anticipate needs or the potential for customer fatigue and tailor their campaigns accordingly. This targeted approach increases the likelihood of engagement and conversion.
• Pre-launch checks: AI can provide automated quality checks and compliance assessments.
• Send stage: Instead of manually inputting send times for various demographics, AI can trigger optimum send times for emails by analyzing historical open and click data. It can also be used to streamline the creation and sending of triggered emails, such as welcome emails, abandoned cart reminders, and personalized follow-ups. Omnichannel integration can provide a cohesive customer experience from email to in-store interactions and beyond.
• Campaign analysis: AI-driven analytics tools can provide in-depth insights into key campaign performance metrics such as open rates, click-through rates, and conversions. Marketers can use these analyses to drive future campaigns.

Get in touch with our team to discover AI tools that can help you optimize your email campaigns.