Boosting Personalized Email Campaigns with Ai Technology

Artificial Intelligence (Ai) is revolutionizing the world of email marketing and personalization. It is no secret that email marketing has been around for quite some time, and it’s very important, according to a study by DMA.org.uk, for every $1 spent on email marketing, the average return on investment is $42.  Fortunately, a lot of people use email! According to Harvard Business Review, in 2020 “there were 4 billion email users globally, and 59% of consumers said marketing emails influenced their purchase decisions.” 

With current AI tools, marketers now have the opportunity to customize email content to such a degree that creating a tailored experience for each individual subscriber is possible. Ai-powered algorithms can analyze vast amounts of data on subscriber behavior, preferences, and interests to create highly personalized and targeted email campaigns. In this way, AI is changing the face of email marketing by enabling marketers to send the right message to the right person at the right time. In this article, we will explore how and why Ai is changing email campaign marketing and personalization, and what advertisers can do to take advantage of key moments when this game-changing technology matters the most.

Where to begin?

As Neil Patel points out, Ai is terrible for email marketing, he says “You should not use AI for email marketing, yes AI tools like ChatGPT can help you write content, but you do not want to use it for email marketing. Email marketing is super effective when you segment your list and you send people specific content for what they’re looking for.” Patel goes on with an example “if you are interested in black sweaters and I email you gray pants you’re not going to buy. You need to customize things. The AI tools, it’s not going to convert that well, you may get the opens but you’re not going to end up generating the sales and conversions”  So, campaign marketing still needs to be personalized. Fortunately what AI will do, is personalize emails precisely for the customer it is sent. Additionally, the number of global email users is set to reach 4.6 billion by 2025, according to a report by Statista.  Now, the question is, how do you gather billions of potential customer data to basically send a personalized email to everyone in the world? It begins with Urless, a link shortener collecting data on your customers from the moment they click to visit your website. Once on your landing page, your website can gather even more information thanks to the use of cookies. The combination of using a URL shortener (like Urless) and cookies will give you vital consumer information so your AI mass emailer (like Sendbat) will know exactly how to market to different customer segments.

You might be wondering what is the difference between a URL shortener and the application of cookies on a website

Cookies are small files that are stored on a user's computer when they visit a website. Cookies can gather customer information such as:

User preferences: Language, font size, and other settings.

Session data: A user's session on a website, including what pages they visit and how long they stay on each page.

Authentication data: Login credentials, so a user doesn't have to enter them every time they visit a website.

Behavioral data: customer browsing behavior, such as what products they view and what pages they visit.

URL shorteners are services that create short URLs that redirect to a longer URL. Shorteners can gather information such as:

Click data: How many clicks a link receives, as well as where those clicks come from.

Referral data: Which websites or social media platforms are referring traffic to a website?

Location data: A user's location is based on their IP address.

Device data: Track what type of device a user is using to access a website.

It's important to note that while cookies and URL shorteners can gather customer information, they should be used ethically and transparently, and with proper consent from users.

Additional important data gathered should be questions and reviews from existing customers. This additional information is going to be constructively flagged as positive or negative based on the keywords or phrases used relating to your product or service.

After you gather a confident amount of customer data (which is ever-growing as your business operates), then it’s time to get excited, because this is where Ai tools will help you personalize to your target audience.

What specific AI technologies or tools are used for email marketing campaigns?

Predictive Analytics: Ai can now analyze subscriber/website visitor data to predict how likely they are to open an email, click a link, or make a purchase.

Automated Campaigns: Ai can automate email campaigns by sending targeted messages based on specific triggers such as subscriber's behavior or a specific event.

Subject Line Optimization: Ai can analyze subject line data to determine which emails are most likely to result in higher open rates. Can we say increased open click rate much? A survey by CampaignMonitor found that personalized subject lines are 26% more likely to be opened than non-personalized subject lines. Additionally, another study by Experian Marketing Services found that personalized emails generated six times higher transaction rates

Spam Filtering: Ai algorithms also analyze emails to determiner whether they are spam or legitimate. This will help prevent your email campaigns ending up in the spam folder and improve your company’s reputation of integrity.

Natural Language Processing (NLP): NLP can help analyze customer feedback and reviews to understand their sentiment and identify keywords and phrases that can increase customer interactions.

Chatbots: Chatbots integration can help improve customer engagement by providing personalized support such as rescheduling and cancellation, and answering FAQ’s.

Tweaking email personalization for repeat customers

With Ai, marketing to repeat customers has never been easier. A repeat customer offers a plethora more data than a prospective shopper or a first-time buyer. Personalization: Ai algorithms can analyze data on subscribers' behavior and interests to personalize email content and suggest products or services that are relevant to them. This can increase engagement and improve the effectiveness of campaign marketing.

Ai can analyze a customer's past interactions with emails to create personalized subject lines and content. For example, a travel company can use Ai to analyze a traveler’s history and preferences to send personalized recommendations such as “It’s that time again to escape the cold, this February escape again to your favorite Riviera Maya beach resort, book 4 nights now and an additional night free + a $200 spa credit.”

Examples of successful AI-powered email marketing campaigns:

The Hut Group: The Hut Group is an e-commerce company that applies Ai to their email customization. By analyzing customer data, THG sends targeted emails with recommendations for products that customers are likely to be interested in. As a result of these efforts, THG experienced a 53% boost in email revenue!

AirAsia: AirAsia is a low-cost airline that uses Ai to send personalized emails to customers based on their booking history, location, and other data points (basic information which you can collect today by simply using a Url shortener and cookies). The airline saw a 100% increase in email open rates and a 200% increase in click-through rates after implementing this strategy. Read that again, that’s a 2x open rate improvement and a 3x in sales. Wow!

Amazon: Given Amazon’s focus on efficiency, we all knew this company would be on the list for sure.  Amazon sends out highly personalized Ai generated emails to customers, recommending products based on their past purchases and browsing history. Amazon also sends targeted emails based on a customer's geographic location, weather conditions, and other factors. This strategy has helped Amazon achieve a 29% increase in revenue per email.

Sephora: Sephora uses AI to personalize their email marketing campaigns, They saw a 75% increase in email open rates and a 3-fold increase in click-through rates after implementing this strategy.

Grammarly: Grammarly is a writing tool that uses Ai to analyze writing and suggest improvements. They use Ai to send personalized emails to users with tips on how to improve their writing and recommendations for new features. This strategy has helped them achieve a 20% increase in email open rates.

The Hustle: The Hustle is a media company that uses Ai to personalize its daily email newsletter based on the interests of its subscribers. The company has seen a 66% increase in open rates and a 95% increase in click-through rates thanks to implementing Ai-powered personalization.

Virgin Holidays: Virgin Holidays uses Ai for email customization. The company has seen a 31% increase in email revenue and a 23% increase in email click-through rates since implementing AI-powered personalization.

And the list goes on…

More in-depth examples:

Let’s take a potential customer with demographic information that is possible to be collected about them with a Url shortener and cookies on your website.

Customer Abandons Cart

To lay out some context, your customer sat on the checkout page for nearly 2 minutes before closing their screen and abandoning the website entirely, this is unfortunate. A sale wasn’t made, perhaps if the e-commerce owner had conveniently added live chat to their website, the cat abandonment could have been avoided. Live chat enables support staff to engage with potential customers, address any thoughts they have at the moment, and make a sale. Most sales are impulsive, so customer engagement can be critical, especially in circumstances of customer uncertainty. Neil Patel, strongly advocates for live chat since “businesses that use live chat on their website can see up to a 20% increase in conversions.” In our example, the sale is not made, but no worries, the customer provided their email before reaching the final checkout page. This means the e-commerce site has a contact method and some useful information to follow up via a personalized email campaign.

We don’t exactly know why the potential customer X’ed out of the checkout page, perhaps they went to go check their laundry, eat dinner, or opened a new tab on a competitor’s website. Regardless, the business owner should follow up within minutes of the customer abandonment of their website and use Ai to create a fully personalized email within seconds.

Just before running the Ai tool to create a personalized email filled with customization, it already has knowledge of the persons: product preference, payment method, geographic location, email, and name, and perhaps even their age if the buyer registered for payment via their Facebook account for “faster checkout” vs checking out as a guest.

With these known inputs and product image, Ai email tools will automatically generate a glossy and attractive image along with a catchphrase in the title to allure customers to re-visit the e-commerce site and finalize their purchase. The Ai generated email will include a call-to-action that seamlessly directs the potential customer back onto the payment checkout page with their desired product auto-populated. The good news is that the ecommerce website will probably resume the attention of the initially lost customer because according to a study by HubSpot, 78% of marketers have seen an increase in email engagement over the last 12 months. So, don’t beat yourself up if you lost a customer on the checkout page and didn’t have live chat to engage right at the moment, rest assured email engagement is rising worldwide.

WARNING! Don’t just use Ai for email campaigns

There’s a limit to Ai’s involvement in automatic email generation.  According to Harvard Business Reviews article 3 Strategies to Earn Consumer Trust in Email Marketing, “the best way to cultivate trust in your email marketing is to optimize emails for humans first ­­­­­­­­­— not robots.” You’re Ai email generator is going to create something the bots enjoy and think that humans will enjoy as well, but that’s not a guarantee. Hence HBR continues with “This is why it’s important to read the emails out loud to make sure that they sound conversational.” Neil Patel even performed a test on this exact issue: “We’ve actually tested this out with over 50 million emails and we found that every time we have a human customizing the emails in almost all cases they always beat ChatGPT.”  Hence, do not just rely on your fancy ai email tool to auto-generate campaigns to potential/cart abandoned customers. You, as a human, need to be involved in proofreading and approving email customization Sorry, your sales process can’t be fully automated just yet, humans are still needed for optimal results. You want optimal results because competition is already hard enough as is, you want to outperform your peers and focus on quality. Ai isn’t going to give the highest quality, your human touch and passion for your product or service is required. So pay attention to what the Ai tool generates and tweak it further for customer satisfaction.

Conclusion

In conclusion, Ai technology is revolutionizing email marketing and personalization and has opened up opportunities for marketers to send personalized content to their subscribers. While Ai tools can gather vast amounts of data on a subscriber, it is still essential to personalize email content to generate sales and conversions. The combination of a URL shortener and cookies will provide marketers with vital consumer information. Ai technologies such as predictive analytics, automated campaigns, subject line optimization, spam filtering, natural language processing, and chatbots have made campaign marketing more effective. By leveraging Ai technologies and personalizing email campaigns, marketers can create a tailored experience for each individual subscriber, generate higher open and click-through rates, and ultimately drive sales and revenue.