Now that the masses seem to embrace real artificial intelligence as a true tool, email marketing and many other content and code-dependent tasks will never be the same. The question is, how exactly can you utilize big data and artificial intelligence (AI) tools like ChatGPT for email marketing strategies?
Digital marketers have long said that "data is the new gold," but for the average professional, leveraging big data often seems out of reach without an accessible way of interpreting and using the information.
There are countless AI tools that utilize big data to help you stay competitive, and we'll explore some of them in this article. ChatGPT truly deserves the frequently used label "game-changer." So, we'll examine how email marketers can leverage it to their advantage while being mindful of its limitations.
What is AI for marketing?
Move over! If this is your definition of marketing automation or artificial intelligence, you need to update it.
Essentially, AI technologies model human intelligence and mimic their actions. A subset of AI, machine learning (ML), focuses on reading vast datasets, learning from them, and providing insights, understanding, and predictions.
Marketing AI relies on ML to process and analyze vast amounts of data for evaluating your email marketing campaigns, results, customer behavior data, and more. This equips marketing AI to provide you with tools to enhance your email content and marketing metrics, such as open rates, click-through rates, engagement levels, and conversion rates.
How is ChatGPT different from other AI tools?
ChatGPT represents another form of artificial intelligence - generative AI. This is because it is a tool that generates new content using massive datasets and complex algorithms. In email marketing, generative AI can be used to come up with ideas for subjects, write email text, and even attempt to code email templates.
Generative AI is also used for creating images, audio, and videos, and this technology can do so at incredible speeds. You've probably seen some creations generated by generative AI being shared on social media. If it impresses you, you're not alone.
When you ask it questions, it will respond to them, and its responses are not just quotes from other cited sources that you can read by clicking on them. It generates "original" answers. We tested ChatGPT's creativity and had it come up with names for a new company on social media. It even crafted a riddle where the AI plays the role of a wizard protecting a city. He memorizes your conversations with him, learns when you provide feedback, understands ten languages, and can generate code in multiple programming languages.
Other email artificial intelligence tools, similar to those you'll soon see, rely on machine learning, which is typically limited to specific platforms or branches of the internet.
In the current version, ChatGPT uses information from the internet. Although it's mostly limited to data up to 2021, it has the ability to browse web pages, so this is likely to change soon.
In just two months, ChatGPT gathered over 100 million users, which is a rapid adoption rate for a new technology. 13.5% of email marketers have already stated their plans to use ChatGPT to assist them in their work. Let's see why the figure of 13.5% is significant for this new technology.
How is AI used in email marketing?
Let's delve into some ways artificial intelligence can enhance your email marketing strategies and make your email workflow easy. Although ChatGPT's capabilities are new, AI in email has been an evolving trend for many years.
Although the jury is still out on whether AI can effectively code email templates, there's a good chance you're already using AI in email marketing. Here are some common ways:
Subject line optimization and more Perhaps the most popular way email marketers have used AI is through advanced A/B testing. This includes automatically selecting subject lines and other email elements with the best chances of success. If you've ever used a tool that slowly eliminates subject lines before choosing the most effective one to send to the rest of the list, you've already used AI in email. The same methods can be applied to choose an effective call to action, a more appealing headline, or an offer with the highest conversion rate. AI analyzes initial results and processes data on past effectiveness to boost email engagement.
Sending emails at the right time Instead of sending your entire list all at once, AI in email marketing is used to send these messages at the perfect time. AI technology can analyze when your audience is most likely to open and engage with your emails. It can then schedule the best times for individual subscribers to receive your emails. This is known as predictive analytics, which leverages machine learning. Learn more about time optimization features from Mailgun by Sinch.
Creating tailored content for segmentation Here's a potential use case of generative AI, like ChatGPT, in email marketing. Suppose you're writing email content for a broad audience. You can ask ChatGPT (or a similar tool) to rewrite content for different segments of your contact list. For example, if you're marketing a toy store, you can use AI to write email copy for new parents, moms of infants, grandparents, child care service providers, teachers, and more. AI, like ChatGPT, can receive the data and cues you provide and help you scale email marketing segmentation for more relevant content.
Enhancing email personalization We constantly talk about personalization, and understand that AI can power how you adapt your email campaigns to your audience. But how does it do that? AI can read and analyze subscriber interactions with your emails and website. It can then suggest ideas (or even email content) for specific subscribers based on their behavior and engagement levels. Inbox Insights 2023 by Mailjet by Sinch found that most email marketers don't go beyond personalizing emails using the subscriber's name. However, the report also found a correlation between successful email programs and programs that personalize content offers and product recommendations.
E-commerce email automation Even transactional emails and customer reminders can benefit from AI. By using machine learning tools, brands can understand customer behavior and habits and act accordingly. This means you can automate emails that come when it's almost time for someone to reorder a product. Running low on stock? AI technology can automatically send emails asking customers to make a purchase before it's too late. It can also identify when a subscriber seems disengaged and automatically send a re-engagement email. Or it can identify and analyze behavior indicating that a customer is ready for an upsell offer. This type of AI can also alert you when a user is having trouble using your app and needs support.
Responding to customer emails If you've moved away from a no-reply email address and replaced it with a "Friendly From" name as the sender, you better be prepared to respond. AI email tools can be used to review responses from your subscribers, so they can be forwarded to the appropriate person in your organization. Or AI can generate helpful automated responses to emails containing common questions and issues. While there will always be a need to talk to humans in customer support, AI email responses will be almost instant as bots never sleep.