As digital marketing continues to evolve, email marketing remains a powerful tool for ecommerce businesses. In today’s competitive landscape, staying ahead of the curve is crucial to success.
That’s why we’ve enlisted the expertise of Shaun Ernst, the founder of Email Experts, to be our guide in this two-part series, exploring the emerging trends in email marketing. In this post, Shaun focuses on the role of artificial intelligence (AI) in shaping effective strategies and how to leverage it in order to enhance your email marketing efforts.
AI Tools for content generation and analysis
In 2023, AI-powered tools are playing a pivotal role in shaping email marketing strategies for ecommerce businesses. ChatGPT is helping marketers create more compelling and effective content. And the API releases of the underlying GPT-4 model enables developers to create a slew of niche copywriting tools.
There are three fantastic ways we’ve seen brands using AI that everyone can try.
Content creation
First, and most obvious is content creation; starting with an idea, ask the tool to generate the content. The prompt here could be as simple as this:
As an email marketer for [brand name], write a marketing email to customers announcing a promotional sale. Keep it short, and highlight these benefits: [include benefits here, including discount values]
More advanced users are getting even better impact by writing an advanced tone of voice “Superprompt”. Superprompts are long advanced prompts that prime ChatGPT on the tone of voice of the brand before requesting the specific task completion. They are 500-2000 words and explain the brand’s tone of voice, style, preferred word choices and phrases, and stylistic preferences. Start this prompt with “Follow the below tone of voice document and when responding to all subsequent prompts…” and end it with “…Let me know if you understand and I will send you my first request”.
Here’s an example of a short Superprompt:
Follow the below tone of voice document and when responding to all subsequent prompts.
We are ‘Outdoor Ventures’ a retailer that sells outdoor activity and hiking gear. Our tone is adventurous, inspiring, and friendly. We value clear, concise language and are not afraid to use emotive words to convey our passion for outdoor activities. We are experts, yet approachable, so while we use technical language when necessary, we avoid jargon and explain things in a way that’s understandable to all outdoor enthusiasts, not just the experts. We love storytelling and often share personal anecdotes or customer stories. Our aim is to inspire and equip our readers to embrace the outdoor lifestyle, no matter their level of experience.
Preferred words and phrases: Adventure, Explore, Challenge, Journey, ‘Embrace the outdoors’, ‘Dive into nature’
Words and Phrases to Avoid: ‘Adrenaline rush’, ‘Extreme sports’, ‘Tough terrain’, ‘Thrill-seekers’, ‘Survival situations’. While we acknowledge the challenging aspects of outdoor activities, we want to focus more on the joy of exploration and personal growth, rather than pushing boundaries to the extreme.
Stylistic preferences: We prefer short sentences and paragraphs. We love using questions to engage with our readers and often use the second person (‘you’) to make our writing feel more personal.
Please let me know if you understand and I will send you my first request.
This is a short example. Add more detail to the prompt, and you’ll constantly get better quality outputs, and ultimately you’ll save time in editing.
Ideas generation
Secondly, AI can help you overcome writer’s block by generating content ideas and content calendars for you. The prompt can look like this:
As the Email Marketing Manager for Eastern Eagle, a urban apparel brand that is a distinctive blend of Melbourne’s cultural vibrancy and fashion-forward craftsmanship. Our product line resonates with our audience’s adventurous and individualistic spirit, mirroring a deep-rooted Australian aesthetic that merges seamlessly with global influences. The essence of our brand narrative revolves around exploration, creativity, and the courage to showcase unique personal styles through our offerings, which range from laid-back casuals to sophisticated tailored pieces.
Develop a series of weekly email campaign ideas, organised into seasonal content: Summer, Spring, Autumn, and Winter.
Editor
Finally, even if you’re already an efficient writer, you can ask ChatGPT to analyse your writing and improve it. Frame the prompt like this:
“Review this promotional email for tone and persuasiveness, and identify where I can improve it:
[paste blog content]”
These tools are constantly evolving and new ones are being released every week. All brands can integrate AI into their email marketing processes to improve efficiency and campaign performance.
Conclusion
The integration of artificial intelligence (AI) into email marketing is reshaping the way we connect with customers in the ecommerce landscape. AI-powered tools like ChatGPT provide marketers with the ability to generate compelling content, overcome creative blocks, and refine their messaging. By embracing AI, small business owners and digital marketers can streamline their processes, save time, and enhance the effectiveness of their email campaigns. As AI continues to evolve and new tools emerge, staying updated on the latest trends and incorporating AI into your email marketing strategy will give you a competitive edge. So, seize the opportunity to leverage AI and unlock the full potential of your email marketing efforts.
Check out Part 2, where Shaun hones in on deliverability, advanced segmentation, and multichannel campaigns.
Author: Shaun Ernst
Shaun is the Founder of Email Experts. Combining his love of data analysis and his passion for marketing, Shaun enjoys working with marketing professionals to deliver excellent results for ecommerce businesses. See Shaun’s social channels below.
