With the rise of artificial intelligence (AI), there’s been a lot of speculation about its impact on email marketing. Some people even think AI will take over all email marketing roles… eventually.

Before we get too ahead of ourselves, let’s take a look at how AI is already transforming email marketing and what this means for marketers today. Things like how AI can be incorporated into existing email marketing strategies, whose roles will be most affected, and how you can prepare for the AI future.

How is AI being used in email marketing right now?

AI has revolutionized email marketing for businesses all over the world. By leveraging AI technology, marketers are able to deliver personalized content tailored to individual customers, quickly and easily segmenting people based on their browsing and purchasing history.

AI-powered tools such as sentiment analysis help marketers adjust campaigns dynamically in real-time according to customer feedback so that the emails are always accurate and relevant.

AI also ensures that inbox delivery is timely and emails are relevant and free from error – providing customers with a more pleasant experience overall.

Copywriting tools, as well, use natural language processing and AI to create email newsletters, for example, that speak to a specific demographic, increase open rates/click-through rates, and drive conversions. These AI platforms can produce anything from subjects to body content to CTAs.

In short, AI has become an invaluable tool for email marketers looking to maximize their reach, build better relationships with customers, and deliver outstanding results. But it doesn’t do it all on its own; it requires data to function at its peak.

How will AI change the role of email marketers?

With AI now impacting a wide array of customer-focused roles and industries, there is no doubt the expectations that email marketing will see some big changes as well.

AI has the potential to give us valuable insights into our customers: how they interact with emails, when is the best time to reach out to them, and what content is most likely to give us the highest ROI. This means that there will be fewer data entry roles in marketing firms, as artificial intelligence and machine learning programs are better at analyzing insights based on data than humans. In this way, email creation can become less assembly line-esque and more tailored.

AI might improve the personalization capabilities of emails, potentially higher customer engagement levels, and better tracking/reporting necessary for strategic decisions down the line.

Understanding this potential change in responsibility will help individual email marketers embrace their new role in AI-powered digital marketing plans.

There will always be a need for humans in marketing. Those roles will shift and adapt to the technology we want to use, but they will always be there.

How can you use AI in your current email marketing tactics?

AI can revolutionize how you use email marketing to reach customers. As the technology continues to develop, businesses are finding new ways of using AI to increase engagement, personalize content, and drive marketing campaigns all in one fell swoop.

AI brings automated intelligence that helps optimize your workflow and maximize efficiency while allowing you to stay on track with optimizing your emails for target audiences.

AI tools that could be used in email marketing include:

• predictive data analysis which sends targeted emails based on a recipient’s online behavior,
• A/B testing which allows for multiple emails at once,
• intelligent workflow automation which pulls together data from multiple sources and creates optimal workflows for efficient deployment,
• and automated email copy tools to create email subject lines, email content, retargeting emails, and more with natural language generation.

By harnessing the power of AI, you can start utilizing smarter strategies to streamline your email marketing campaigns and take them to the next level.

What challenges come with using AI in email marketing?

The use of AI in email marketing is a great way to personalize the user experience and automate mundane tasks, but it comes with its own set of challenges.

Here are some of those most prominent challenges:

1. Lack of Experience: It can be difficult to find professionals with the experience and knowledge necessary to effectively utilize AI in email marketing.
2. High Cost: The cost associated with setting up and maintaining an AI system for email marketing is much higher than traditional systems.
3. Data Security Concerns: When handling sensitive customer data, there are potential risks that come along with using AI-based platforms, such as accidental access from malicious actors or inappropriate use of personal information by companies themselves.
4. Risk of Failure: Even if you do have an experienced team implementing your AI initiatives, there’s always a risk that something could go wrong which could negatively impact your campaign’s success rate and ROI goals.
5. Fragmented Toolsets & Software Ecosystems: Integrating multiple toolsets into one cohesive CRM can be challenging – especially when those marketing tools come from different sources or vendors that don’t necessarily “talk” to each other in the same way they would within a single ecosystem like Salesforce or Microsoft Dynamics 365. That fragmentation can also negatively affect the customer journey and, thus, conversion rates.
6. Limited Personalization Options: Due to limited data sets available to most marketers, personalizing emails beyond basic segmentation isn’t always achievable without significant resources dedicated toward manual curation. Otherwise, you risk sending generalized templates instead of valuable content that reflects customer behavior.
7. Untrained AI Models: AI models need to be regularly trained to maintain accuracy, as they can become outdated over time. As a result, email marketing teams must be aware of how their AI strategy evolves and make sure they are managing the technology accordingly.

Understanding all these challenges before implementing an AI-driven email marketing campaign is essential for maximizing results and avoiding unforeseen risks.

What does the future of email marketing look like with AI at the center?

The future of email marketing looks brighter than ever with AI at the center. AI can help marketers create unique, personalized emails and optimize them for maximum impact based on customers’ past interactions and preferences.

Marketing automation can also free up time to focus on content and ROI, allowing marketers to fine-tune messages for individual customer segments more effectively.

Beyond this, AI’s machine learning capabilities continuously improve campaigns through smarter targeting, segmented personalization, and better split-testing results—all contributing to a higher return on investment. This means that even the most experienced marketers can capitalize on a new level of optimization strategies with the added benefit of receiving more accurate insights in real time.

We are living the future of marketing right now. Is your business ready?

AI is the future of email marketing, and it’s not as complicated or inaccessible as you might think. There are many ways to incorporate AI into your email marketing strategy, from personalization to email list segmentation.

If you’re not using AI in email marketing yet, now is the time to start learning and adapting. With the right tools and experts on your side, you can ensure that your email deliverability meets company-wide expectations.

Checkout our full podcast episode on AI and email marketing with guest host Kyle Dana.

And to scale your business, get in touch with us about setting up a payment ecosystem that caters to you and your customers’ needs.