Go Beyond Statistics: How Do Real Email Marketers Use Gen AI

Generative AI for email marketing: What’s the deal?

According to statistics, 69% of marketers are already using AI tools in their work. From specialized platforms to AI in email service providers and chatbots, AI-based email marketing has been on the radar for a while now. 

Over half of Selzy users are sure that AI can improve email newsletters. Some of its use cases include email copywriting and image generation, enhanced segmentation, and hyper-personalization. Recently, it has become possible to create a complete campaign — from the HTML template to the body copy — from a single prompt, in an AI email generator.

You may feel like you’re behind on this trend or wonder to what extent it is true. Plus, however convincing, statistics lack personality, so it’s hard to apply them to your own work. And if you’re like us, you’re probably curious: “Do professionals really send fully AI-generated emails?”

We’ve gathered more than 20 expert opinions on the topic from marketers working in various industries and are ready to share!

How real email marketers (don’t) use Gen AI in their work

Overall, most of the experts shared that they use AI chatbots and dedicated tools for subject lines, A/B testing, and brainstorming. The work Gen AI does for them almost entirely concerns copy. That said, every email marketer pointed out that they review the output. This means editing the copy to make it more relevant to the brand and more personal.

Here is how Mimi Nguyen, the founder of Cafely, explains her process:

Some experts noted that AI can be especially helpful when it comes to certain email types. For example, Raviraj Hegde, Head of Growth at Donorbox, believes AI drafts for newsletters and onboarding sequences can be a good starting point:

Simone Byrd, Content Specialist at Online Optimism, shared the same sentiment but also made it clear that AI can’t nail every company newsletter. Its output can vary depending on the industry the business is in: 

Before we get into specifics (and answer your burning question), check out other insights we’ve gained from these and other experts:

• Besides ChatGPT, email marketers also use Claude, Jasper, Copy.ai, and tools that come with their email service providers of choice.
• Some AI-generated copy performed better than human-written, some worse. But an interesting detail is that AI can help improve the open rate, but it gets difficult with click-throughs.
• Email marketers strongly believe that their audience can sense when email copy was produced by AI. Some even had customer feedback about it!

Do email marketers generate entire emails?

From what we’ve gathered, a part of email marketers experimented with a fully AI-generated email at least once! Although experts mostly mentioned copy, there was one striking case from Priyanka Prajapati, Digital Marketer at BrainSpate. The team not only generated several copy variations for their campaigns but also created images. Check out the detailed explanation, complete with results:

A more common experience is different, though. Marketers who spent time generating an entire email campaign hadn’t had impressive results. Here is how Josh Neuman, the founder of Chummy Tees, relays his experience:

Others, like Arthur Favier, the founder and CEO at Oppizi, even had negative customer feedback and ultimately decided to be more cautious with AI email generation:

And Sam Speller, the founder of Kenko Matcha, even challenged AI to outperform humans and had worse results:

AI email generation debates

So far, we’ve only talked about typical experiences and general opinions. There are, however, at least two topics email marketers debate when it comes to AI.

Bland vs Emotional. Some experts believe that AI can’t understand emotional nuance and produces bland, even soulless copy. On the other hand, email marketers also use AI chatbots to analyze customer sentiments or compose nuanced messages communicating delays and other challenging situations.

Quick vs Time-consuming. One perspective on AI tools that many email marketers share is that they can really speed up the process, especially when it comes to first drafts. Another perspective, however, is to also count the time spent editing and revising the AI output, which then often exceeds the time a real person would have completed the work in.

Where’s the truth? You’ll have to try and see for yourself since every business is different, and the quality of AI’s work depends on the tools, training, and prompts.

Unique and inspiring AI use cases

What’s often missing in Gen AI discussions is the fact that this technology is extremely versatile. There are dozens of options on how you can adapt it to your business needs and workflows, yes, even the all-mighty non-specialized chatbots.

We’ve found two examples of creative and practical approaches that can bring out AI’s strengths. Gerry Wallace, Managing Director at Greenline, a company building custom outdoor spaces, shared how AI’s ability to role-play helps in email marketing. Often, marketers tend to assume that AI can only act as a writer, but it can actually be a reader, too!

Another great idea comes from Kelly Redican, Digital Marketing Manager at A.M. Custom Clothing. The team uses AI to update last year’s seasonal email campaigns that are featured in their marketing calendar. 

Is using Gen AI for email marketing easy?

Yes! Well, yes, if you have the right tools and use them smartly. 

Reading the expert opinions we’ve gathered for this piece, we actually discovered a big knowledge gap. Although it’s been over 2 years since ChatGPT’s launch, and AI technology has made big leaps since then, most email marketers still use Gen AI only to create copy! 

First of all, Gen AI can do much more than that. And second, it can be even easier. With Selzy, you don’t have to switch to a different tool if you need to use AI. Our platform comes with a built-in AI assistant that can analyze your email campaign as a fellow marketer or psychologist, generate copy and images, and even make a complete HTML email campaign from scratch. It’s not only easy, it’s also fast, and, dare we say it, addictive.

For the upcoming Star Wars Day, we’ve decided to prompt Selzy’s AI to create a May the 4th campaign for a made-up clothing brand called Galaxy. Of course, this is the perfect opportunity to use segmentation!

Here are our prompts for the dark and the light versions:

And here are the campaigns themselves. Which one do you prefer?

Selzy’s AI can be useful for ideation, first campaign drafts, and quick visualization. The best part is — it’s so easy, even your colleagues from other departments can do it!

Quick tips on getting the Gen AI for email marketing right

As with any other technology, AI is only as effective as those who use it are skilled. So here are some of our tips to help you reap good results:

• Don’t just copy and paste AI’s output. Edit it, adapt it, humanize it.
• Consider the time spent working with AI vs without it. Remember that it needs to actually benefit you.
• Use AI for drafting, campaign analysis, and revising human-written copy. 
• Find AI tools that work with your other tech stack and give the best results. Dedicate time to make them align with your brand’s tone of voice, unique value proposition, etc.
• Try using AI for A/B testing and segmentation.
• Consider the ethics of using AI and its environmental impact. Make sure it complements your business’s positioning and values.

Last but not least, we strongly advise you to be transparent with your customers about your use of AI. Here’s how Phil Portman, founder and CEO of Textdrip, approaches it: