There’s a caveat to the phrase “the money’s in the list.” It can be, but if you grow a list and fail to properly understand how to conduct your email marketing strategy, the list will soon prove worthless.
Harnessing AI for your email marketing strategies will drastically improve your success!
Lists (of even the most targeted individuals) mean nothing if you don’t know how to communicate with your subscribers in a way that specifically converts into cold, hard profits.
You first need to understand how protective consumers are over their inbox. They will unsubscribe in the blink of an eye if you come off as spammy, lacking any inherent value.
That, paired with the fact that competition in virtually any niche is stronger than ever means you have to up your game with the emails you send out. Companies have even begun implementing stricter guidelines for whether or not the emails they screen can get into their users’ inboxes.
There’s an easy way to ensure that your results from email marketing are going to generate a steady, growing income for you.
Using artificial intelligence (AI) tools, the entire process from start to finish will be efficient and effective at closing the deal.
AI Can Convince More Customers to Open Your Emails
Today’s consumers are inundated with emails – both those they want and spam they never asked to receive. When they open their inbox and see a sea of subject lines, you have to make sure yours stands apart in a way that grabs their attention.
Start your email profit strategy off by learning how to improve your open rate.
The more opens you have, the better your overall performance. Today, it’s harder than ever to get someone to open your email.
People immediately go into filter mode, deleting emails at a rapid pace. This coincides with the fact that they feel overwhelm with their busy lifestyle and don’t have time to wade through countless messages.
If they spot a subject line that doesn’t feel relevant to their needs, or is very generic, they’ll simply delete it.
AI can help you send out more personalized, relevant subject lines that make people want to click on the email to see what’s inside.
To bypass inbox overload syndrome, you have to be strategic with how and even when you communicate with subscribers. Your AI tools can analyze data that helps it predict the best times and topics you should be sending.
For example, you might prompt AI to help you brainstorm better converting subject lines, like this:
"Generate a list of attention-grabbing subject lines for my Internet marketing list for an email where I’m sharing SEO tips. The goal is to get them to open the email and improve my open rate."
AI might come back with a personalized approach that piques curiosity, like this:
“{firstname_fix}, Discover the Secrets to Spiking Organic Traffic with SEO!”
Or, you might need help timing your emails for a better open rate, so you could prompt AI like this:
“Analyze the attached email analytics data to find the sweet spot in getting higher open rates and tell me what time and day of the week is best to send emails to my list.”
By targeting timing, you’ll have a better shot at having your email arrive in your subscribers’ inbox when they’re sitting down to check email, rather than when they aren’t engaged in the task and your email is more likely to get lost among many others.
By making sure emails are opened in a timely manner, and not sitting in a pile of unremarkable emails, you’ll see more conversions on your offers – which is especially helpful if you’re sending anything with scarcity appeal.
AI Can Help You Bond with Your Subscribers for Easier Conversions
Opening your emails is just the first step a subscriber can take in helping you improve profits with this marketing strategy.
The next step is to cultivate a relationship – a bond – with those readers so they feel as if you are trustworthy enough to listen to and buy from.
Not many marketers can pull off a meaningful email on their own. They’re mostly absorbed in the selfish money aspect, and in order to do this properly, you have to put the customer first – address their needs in a genuine manner – and from that, the money will flow naturally and in abundance.
The goal is to make them feel as if the email is being sent from a friend who is concerned about their pain points, or motivating them to achieve their goals. This requires content that’s going to resonate with them, and that is rooted in personalization.
When many people hear that word, they automatically think of the simple inclusion of the customer’s name. And yes, that’s one minor form of personalization – but not what we’re talking about here.
Instead, the content has to be written on a personal level that addresses their common needs and wants, as well as having it be based on the behaviors they engage in, such as previous purchases or other actions.
The broader your topic and the bigger your list, the more difficult it can be to personalize your content. You’ll learn about segmenting with AI later, but for now, it can also help you personalize content for a large-scale audience.
Given information about your list, you can have AI spot common, shared patterns of interest that will apply to almost all subscribers. For example, Internet marketers almost always need to learn content development, social media marketing, list building, etc.
You’ll be able to have AI craft emails that are personalized to people who have downloaded a particular lead magnet from you.
For example, you might prompt it like this:
“Create a personalized email to subscribers who downloaded my beginner’s guide to SEO. The email should include tips for advancing their strategy, and be tailored to a beginner proficiency level.”
Or you might ask AI to help you with a personalization email like this:
“Based on the topic of beginner SEO, craft a personalized email to my list of newbies that puts them at ease with this complex technical strategy and provides motivation to integrate small steps at a time, and reach out if they have questions.”
This is going to make recipients feel as if you’re a trusted leader in the niche with a genuine desire to help others. You can almost bet on the fact that when you send out a recommendation in the future, they’re going to repay your kindness and concern by purchasing through your link.
AI Can Write Persuasive and Informative Body Content for Emails
Your subscribers aren’t going to be loyal to you based on your ability to grab their attention and personalize your messages alone. They require substance, and AI can assist you in crafting emails that both inform and persuade your recipients to act on your emails.
This is a careful balance between two concepts, and it’s something many marketers struggle with. Too many focus solely on one side or the other – either they know how to do a fact dump on the reader, but fail to persuade, or they’re overly persuasive without any informative value.
It can’t be a one-time thing, either. This is something you need to do consistently, so that readers look forward to your emails because they know you will always serve them well in some way.
In addition to the goal of the email to persuade and inform, it has to be quality content in terms of readability.
AI can transform your ordinary emails into something that has more clarity and impact for your readers, or do it for you from scratch.
It can write in any style or tone that you want to deliver, addressing any type of demographic audience you want to reach. Whether they’re men or women, young or old, beginner or experienced – AI can tailor the message for the right audience.
You want your readers to be able to easily digest the content. When this happens, your emails will convert better because they’ll have a better understanding of the subject matter.
As the author, you have to embrace your responsibility in overseeing the information that is put forth to your audience. Never accept what AI creates as output at face value, because it can mislead your readers.
Plus, you want to train AI to write in the style and voice of your brand so that everything it creates for emails matches the content you’re publishing on your blog and social media platforms.
Using AI prompts, you can get creative, unique emails that educate your audience and persuade them to convert now or later.
For example, you might prompt AI like this:
“Write an email that introduces the concept of micro influencing to a list of senior Internet marketers. Explain the process and benefits and highlight the income potential it offers. This email will serve as a teaser to a second email that sells a course on micro influencing, so it needs to be packed with value and appeal.”
Or, you might ask AI something like this:
“Can you please write an email that delivers 7 actionable power tips for content marketing to online entrepreneurs? The email should persuade them to take a multi-channel approach and give clear reasons why it’s better than a single-site focus.”
Being able to show value with information and persuade your audience to succeed with whatever it is they want to do, you’ll see more income generated as a result of setting yourself apart from unremarkable marketers who are a waste of time for them.
AI Can Craft CTAs That Drive Sales
When your emails are getting opened more often, and readers appreciate the value you deliver and the trust you are earning, the next thing that will help profits spike is to leverage AI in a way that improves your call to action (CTA) statements.
Unfortunately, many email marketers are either unaware of call to action statements, or they do a poor job of carrying it out. Even if you have a wonderful message in the body of the content, the call to action is the one element that is going to seal the deal and generate profits.
It's what guides the reader into taking an action that you suggest. Many consumers can absorb information such as facts and advice, and still be lost on what to do as their next step.
While some marketers feel uneasy about using call to action statements, because it may feel pushy to them, you have to understand that your audience feels relief when they know what they need to do after they close your email.
You know their needs and what motivates them so the CTA that you deliver needs to align with those and compel them to move forward in their journey. Some of what determines how your CTA unfolds is who you’re targeting to in your emails.
Not all audiences are the same. Some may respond better to a scarcity CTA, while others love a motivating statement of encouragement. AI has the ability to sift through endless data to determine what your readers will react best to, and then help you craft a CTA that converts.
You want to do more than just say, “Click here.” That’s a lackluster CTA that usually doesn’t get results like a more impactful statement would. It’s too generic and overly used by others.
For example, if you want to use scarcity, you can prompt AI like this:
“Give me a list of creative CTAs that emphasize urgency for a limited number of spots available for an online coaching program. It should appeal to people who want to start their own digital marketing agency and discuss the exclusivity of the offer and benefit of acting fast.”
Or, you might prompt AI to write the CTA based on a certain audience behavior, like this:
“Write a strong CTA for subscribers who have shown interest in SEO content, but not yet purchased my course. Highlight an exclusive discount of 20% off and emphasize the relevancy to their needs.”
The call to action improvements AI helps you make in your email marketing are going to directly impact your income for the better. Instead of clicking out after reading, they’ll click through on links that further their journey of success.
AI Can Help You Segment Your List for Improved Email Response
As you build your list over time, you could have such a wide swath of people that it becomes more difficult to deliver a targeted message in one email. Regardless of what niche you are in, there are likely subtopics that would be more suited to a certain segment of your list than others.
In order to help you convert better and earn more with your email marketing campaigns, you can have AI tools help you segment your list so that the response you get from each email you send out improves.
Segmenting allows you to target your message with precision, and you can still send out emails to your entire list as a whole. However, whenever you have something that is best suited to only part of your subscriber list, you won't have to clutter up everyone else's email inbox with a message that isn't relevant to them.
Some people ignore the need to segment their list. This results in some of your subscribers receiving many emails that they don't find useful or interesting. Soon, you'll find your open rate diminishing, and your unsubscribe rate soaring.
You can have AI help you segment your list using criteria such as:
- certain demographics
- purchase history
- specific engagement they have shown in the past, etc.
You can also provide AI with data about your customers so that it can help you identify the best way to segment your list and then cater to their needs with personalized, individual emails going out to each group.
From that point on, you'll have an improved response rate with your email marketing, because each message is going to be more relevant and adhere to the preferences those subscribers have when receiving communications from you.
For example, you might prompt AI like this:
“Analyze the attached data about the demographic makeup of my list and advise me on how to segment them for future courses I am developing in the Internet marketing niche.”
Or, you might prompt it like this:
“Using the attached data about the purchase history of subscribers on my list, identify people who have already bought my beginner SEO course and segment them to a list that is ready for a targeted email campaign for intermediate SEO topics.”
Once you begin segmenting your list and allowing Ai to craft specific campaigns geared to individual audience groups, you’ll see a significant boost in the open rate and conversions by your subscribers.
AI Can Give You Immediate A/B Emails for Optimized Results
Split testing is an advanced concept most newbies don’t even do. Many times, it’s because they don’t understand what it means or how to do it. Almost all email autoresponder systems have built in split testing features for you to use.
Pair that with artificial intelligence and the job is handled for you.
Split testing, also known as A/B testing, is when you take an original email and test one single variant to see which one performs best.
You don’t want two completely different emails – just a specific element.
It might be:
- the length of your subject line
- the tone
- use of emojis
- personalized name, etc.
The body split test might be:
- the tone
- the length
- the formatting
- the layout, and so on.
You can split test the call to action statement, whether or not your email includes images or certain types of links, and even the signature and post scripts that you include. But only one at a time can be tested so that you know what it was that made the difference.
Data driven profit growth is important for any serious marketer, and you can use AI to create split test email versions for you from scratch or give it the original and have it create a clone, with one split test element to send out.
When you embark on a split test email campaign, your emails will improve in terms of deliverability to inboxes, open rates, click-throughs and final conversions. If you’re not adept at split testing, it might be like throwing something against the wall and hoping it sticks.
You want better, and AI can sort through data to determine what needs to be tested at each stage. Then, when the results come in, it can analyze those and continue the process with the next most logical option to test until your emails are fully optimized for performance and profits.
AI will need to know your goal when asking it for split test versions or advice. Without a goal, it won’t know what to improve. Is it more opens for your emails, more sales, or some other action?
For example, you might prompt AI like this:
“Using the attached email I wrote, tell me what one variant I should split test for improved open rates and then create a split test version based on your determination.”
Or, you might prompt AI like this:
“Create two versions of an email providing tips on search engine optimization and ultimately using a call to action statement to convince them to buy a course on it. Make one version longer and in detail and the other short so I can split test them against one another.”
Split testing is an easy strategy that doesn’t cost you extra money (or time, using AI), but it can have extraordinary results on your income. Once you have a handle on what your list responds best to, you can use that information from that point on.
AI Can Take Your Audience Through a Sequenced Email Funnel
Until now, we’ve been talking about optimizing and having AI create individual emails that you can use to earn more with your email marketing efforts.
But now, let’s look at how it can serve you well with an email funnel that whisks your subscriber on a journey through your sales process.
It all starts with a welcome email that is carefully crafted to create a warm greeting and immerse them into your world with ease. It delivers the free gift you’ve promised in exchange for their contact information.
After that, it takes them through an on-going campaign of nurturing their needs in a logical, sequential manner as they evolve in your own expertise and ability to address their pain points or achieve their goals.
As time goes on, those nurturing emails that provide value will also move them towards a purchasing decision, and in fact will have multiple points of value mixed with persuasion.
This all has to be timed right. If you’re automating these emails to serve your audience on autopilot, AI can help you determine what to present, and when to send it to your subscribers.
It’s not just the time of day or day of the week, but also the frequency with which you communicate with your audience.
Some will be fine hearing from you daily, while others may want a once-a-week approach.
It may be based on the niche. In a highly changing niche, you may be able to accommodate a more frequent schedule than one where things rarely, if ever, change. AI is going to help you manage the email funnel you set up, and base it on the data is has about your demographic and niche.
By looking at their preferences, behaviors and interactions as well as using social listening skills and predictive analysis, AI can tailor the email sequence so that it is well-received and ultimately, profitable for you.
You can continue providing it data about the results of the emails, such as when people drop out, the lifetime value of the customer, conversions and more – and it will optimize the email sequence so that it ultimately ends up performing to the best of its abilities.
You can even add in information about changes you’re making with your business, such as the development of an info product, and have it decide where it would make the most sense to add it to your email funnel sequence.
To use AI for this purpose, you can prompt it like this:
“Map out an email funnel sequence from welcome email on, that includes an emphasis on nurturing and providing value to my audience of online entrepreneurs who want to learn content marketing. Time the promotional aspect of various courses and tools and tell me when each email should be sent out for optimal response and conversion.”
You can also prompt AI like this:
“Create a welcome email for a 14-day email sequence that teaches my entrepreneurs how to become influencers on TikTok. The course will help them have their first 1,000 followers in 14 days and there should be an emphasis on the low investment of time and maximum profit potential.”
Having a well-planned email funnel sequence is going to provide the consistency and value your subscribers hope to see from you, ensuring your content will convert better than if you randomly sent out messages whenever you felt like it.
Artificial intelligence tools can do many things in many areas of your online business. But when it comes to email marketing – one of the most protected, strict aspects of publishing, you need a fine-tuned approach.
Not only can AI help you hit the ground running with higher performance, but you can revisit it time and time again so that it can adapt to new data, new goals, or changing information that you feed into it to get the results you want.
Hi Suzanne,
This is a really detailed and informative article which will no doubt help me with my website so will bookmark this for future reading as well. May I ask whether this can be done with ChatGPT or would you need to train your own AI model to be able to do this?
Either way it is amazing what AI can do now and no doubt will keep getting better and even more efficient in helping us in so many ways. Using AI to help with email marketing will save so much time which can free you up to be more productive in other areas.
Thanks for sharing,
James
Hi James,
Personally, I use ChatGPT for everything. I will train one chat thread to deliver what I want. Once you figure out what the prompt should be, it can do anything that any of the various tools do.
AI is an incredible tool to help our creativity as well as the massive time savings. We can do so much more now in very little time. I love it!! haha
Cheers,
Suzanne
Hi Suzanne,
The article makes some really interesting points about how AI is changing the game in email marketing. It’s all about connecting with subscribers on a personal level and tailoring your messages to what they really care about.
I especially liked how you talked about using AI to test different versions of emails to see what works best. It’s like having a super smart assistant helping you fine-tune your approach for better results.
Overall, it’s a great read for anyone looking to up their email marketing game – that makes me one of so many!
Thanks again,
Stephanie
Hi Stephanie, so glad you enjoyed my article!
AI can be so useful in all areas of online marketing, and email marketing is the main area I use AI.
And you’re right! It is like having a smart assistant, haha. It works so much faster… for free! LOL. It can do anything you prompt it to, and more!
Have you been using it for your emailing strategies? I’d love to hear about your experiences.
Cheers,
Suzanne