As we continue to make significant advancements in futuristic technologies like artificial intelligence, their practical applications are swiftly emerging. AI-powered tools are used in every major industry today, from healthcare and finance to education and robotics. One area with a noticeable spike in AI implementation is marketing. As more businesses harness the potential of artificial intelligence to improve their marketing campaigns, the demand for AI-powered strategies will continue to skyrocket.
If you watch the trend, 64% of marketers acknowledge using AI email marketing. 38% of marketers using AI use it to write emails and 41% claim they are making more money with AI. Email marketers today are using AI throughout the customer’s journey, from improving sender reputation and reducing spam complaints to ensuring that the emails reach the recipient’s inbox.
But what does AI implementation mean for the future of email marketing, and how will it affect future marketing campaigns? In this article, we explore the potential uses of AI in email marketing and how you can use it to improve email deliverability.
How Can Artificial Intelligence Help with Email Marketing?
While there are several uses of AI in email marketing, as you’ll soon discover, it’s difficult to quantify the number of applications for two reasons. One, technology is still in its infancy, and two, your imagination is the only restriction. Therefore, it will be a while before marketers run out of new ways to leverage AI to create better email experiences.
Having said that, current AI applications can be broadly classified into three groups. Let’s explore them in more detail.
Automation
One key area where AI can streamline your email campaigns is automation. Robots can reduce a significant portion of the manual labor involved in setting up your email campaigns. For example, AI tools can autonomously adjust your email marketing strategy based on real-time performance data. Manually replicating AI’s capacity to analyze large data volumes will be difficult.
However, there’s still time before AI gets fully autonomous and operates without human input and analysis when developing email sequences, funnels, and strategies.
Personalization
Even a decade ago, marketers believed adding the recipient’s first name was the only step in email personalization. Fast forward to today, and there is a checklist that every experienced email marketer follows or at least considers when personalizing email campaigns. However, with AI, the scope for personalized emails is even greater.
For example, humans can’t process years of customer data down to every minute detail. While businesses will be aware of significant challenges like server downtimes, finer problems like a leaky funnel are much harder to detect manually. Meanwhile, AI can autonomously process the entire data, identify problem areas, and recommend solutions for arresting funnel leaks more efficiently than humans.
Optimization
AI is incredibly efficient at optimizing email campaigns through constant improvements based on real-time data. With the help of AI, marketers can monitor and measure the performance of different variables in a single campaign, run A/B tests, and make informed decisions about the best way forward.
AI can test different elements of your email marketing campaigns. From subject lines to offers and promotions and the best time to email subscribers, it can streamline your email marketing efforts. Using AI, you maximize your chances of reaching the intended recipient’s inbox instead of the spam folder.
How to Use AI for Email Marketing
Here are top 10 effective ways to supercharge your email marketing campaigns using AI:
Write Attractive Subject Lines
According to independent research, 33.90% of recipients open an email after reading the subject line, meaning 1 in 3 emails you send is opened based on your writing. This should be reason enough to write attractive subject lines.
AI assistants like ChatGPT, Microsoft Copilot, and Google Gemini can help you save time by writing creative email subject lines. Feed relevant information about your email campaign into the generative AI tool to get unique ideas. Test the two best subject lines on parallel campaigns to determine which one gets the maximum response.
Maintain Subscriber List Hygiene
Cleaning your email lists frequently is crucial for maintaining a good sender score. AI can help keep your contact lists free from inactive subscribers, invalid email addresses, spam traps, and other bad actors, so you can avoid tripping internet service providers’ or email service providers’ spam filters.
Alfred by Email Industries is an all-in-one threat detection and email validation tool powered by Blackbox. Alfred can help you connect with active subscribers and reduce marketing costs by sending emails only to those who want to hear from you.
Manage Your Contact List
Segregating email lists according to the audience’s needs and wants will improve your email deliverability. Since everyone is interested in different aspects of your business (some subscribers might want to stay updated with your products/services while others might only want to know about discounts and promotions), it is crucial to group subscribers and deliver relevant content.
AI-powered tools can automatically process subscriber data and segment your contact list based on interests and browsing patterns. You can also leverage AI to enrich subscribers’ profiles by searching online for personal information and filling in the gaps.
Analyze Historical Data to Uncover New Insights
Tracking the previous performance of email campaigns is monotonous and time-consuming. However, gathering historical data is necessary for measuring performance and improving your email campaigns. AI can process massive data volumes within seconds to uncover new insights about subscriber behavior.
For example, you can identify which subject lines work for your target audience, which offers they like most, what call-to-actions (CTAs) drive maximum engagement, and when your subscribers prefer reading your emails. AI can analyze your data effectively and efficiently, helping you optimize campaigns and increase revenue.
Create Personalized Emails
AI is an excellent tool for creating emails for targeted audience groups. There are two ways to do this. Option one is to use AI apps to generate ideas for your email content. Feed the customer data and campaign details to the software and see what suggestions come up. While the ideas may not be usable off the mark, they can spark creativity or give you a new perspective.
The second option is asking AI assistants to compose your emails. Tools like Jasper, Rytr, and Writesonic can help you write your marketing emails. Just remember to tweak the content to fit your brand, and you’re all set to launch your email campaign.
Generate Product Recommendations
Turning first-time buyers into loyal customers is challenging. Recommending useful products is an efficient way of engaging with customers and influencing them to buy from you again. AI tools can create personalized product recommendations based on customers’ likes and preferences.
You can use AI to analyze browsing and buying history and use that information to generate a list of useful products that customers are likely to be interested in. Send these products to targeted email lists to maximize your chances of receiving a second order.
Streamline A/B Testing
A/B testing is the most tedious yet crucial part of email deliverability and must not be ignored. While marketers have been testing email elements manually for decades to varying degrees of success, AI is here to streamline the process.
With AI tools, you can generate multiple ideas, run cold email campaigns to monitor the recipients’ reactions, measure email performance, and fine-tune your campaign. AI apps can also help you create content and generate images with simple prompts.
Send the Right Message at the Right Time
Anticipating your customers’ needs and delivering solutions at the right time is the cornerstone of email marketing. However, the process is tedious and involves plenty of guesswork regarding what to say and how frequently to send emails.
AI tools eliminate the need for guessing with predictive analysis based on historical data. You can use AI to learn what your customers demand and adjust your campaign to send the right email at the right time. Furthermore, you can fine-tune your email frequency and identify the best day and time of the week to email clients.
Streamline Marketing Analytics
Machine learning is a proven tool for tracking and analyzing performance metrics. In fact, it’s a rudimentary AI application for improving business performance. Modern businesses generate millions of data points every year. Sorting them manually would take a lifetime. AI is a potent tool for identifying patterns and sorting data for easy analysis.
AI-powered tools can help segregate and assess large-scale marketing data. It can also help identify customer behavioral patterns you may have missed, paint a clearer picture of your campaign’s shortcomings, and recommend solutions to improve performance.
Analyze Customer Feedback
Customer feedback is essential for learning what your customers want and tweaking your offerings to satisfy their demands. Email is an excellent tool for requesting customers to review their experience of buying from you. And AI can help you request, gather, and analyze reviews efficiently.
For example, you can use AI to create a survey email campaign, navigate customer responses, and uncover new insights. AI tools can streamline your entire journey, from creating the right questions for the survey to sorting responses and implementing the suggestions gathered from the feedback.
What is the Future of AI Email Marketing?
While the hype around AI email marketing is undeniable, the question of sustainability remains. Some marketers wonder whether AI is just another buzzword like NFT and Metaverse, which initially generated a lot of excitement but vanished thereafter.
But unlike its blockchain peers, AI is more widely accepted globally, and marketers should remain flexible to capitalize on the benefits. However, the technology has its share of flaws. For example, privacy has been a major concern in recent years. While AI streamlines email deliverability, it raises several questions about customer data handling.
The three main concerns are:
- Did the customer willingly share the data?
- Does the customer fully understand and consent to the scope of data usage?
- Do existing AI data protection laws reassure the customer?
While email marketing is subject to certain laws, such as the General Data Protection Regulation (GDPR), marketers must prepare for stricter privacy regulations in the future.
Increase Inbox Placement Rates with Expert Guidance
Email marketing is still the most powerful tool for customer engagement and outreach. With the right marketing strategies, businesses will continue to thrive. AI is an excellent tool for navigating the challenges of email deliverability. And if used wisely, it can help you stay ahead of the competition.
However, don’t feel obliged to use AI email marketing if your existing strategy is flourishing. You can also make the best of both worlds by collaborating with marketing experts who have mastered the best AI email deliverability tools. Book a discovery call today to learn how to increase email delivery, conversions, and revenue sustainably.
FAQs
Will AI replace email marketers?
No, AI will not replace humans anytime soon. Still, it’s a powerful tool that email marketers can use to streamline campaigns. AI removes manual labor, offers predictive analytics, and generates ideas, helping marketers plan and execute strategies more efficiently.
Are paid AI tools better for email deliverability?
Paid tools usually offer more features than their free counterparts. Hence, you can accomplish greater tasks effortlessly with paid AI email marketing software. However, AI tools can be pretty expensive. So, unless you have an extensive AI email marketing strategy, you’re better off investing in a professional email deliverability service.
How does AI improve email marketing campaigns?
AI can significantly enhance your email marketing campaigns by reducing tedious labor, including processing and segregating customer data more efficiently, generating unique ideas for campaigns, finding the right email frequency, and more.
Head of Growth at Email Industries