AI in email marketing: 10 practical use cases to boost your results

It’s no surprise so many people are using these tools: They’re super useful! You can use AI in email marketing to create content, optimize your campaigns, analyze data, test messaging, and even get actionable insights that you can use to improve. 

So if you’re looking to join the 47% of marketers who already use AI, or simply want more inspiration about how to use AI in your email marketing, this article is here to help. 

Ready to start? Then load up your favorite AI tool and let's jump in.

If you already see results, why would you bother using AI in your email marketing strategy?

Here are some of the most compelling reasons:

• AI tools can generate almost limitless ideas for email campaigns 

• The ability to create content quickly means you can roll out more automated workflows to scale your conversion funnel

• If you’re not a copywriter, AI can help you create quality content. It will also proofread your writing

• You can quickly generate alternative versions of text, CTAs, buttons, and even entire emails to use in A/B testing

• You can create images to make your campaigns sparkle, even if you don’t have design or photography skills

• AI can optimize delivery time to increase engagement in every campaign

If none of the above benefits of AI speak to you, it’s still worth experimenting with the tools to become familiar with a technology that is seeing such rapid adoption.

Here are 10 ways to use AI in your email marketing. For each use case, we’ve highlighted how to do it and the tools that will help. 

AI makes generating ideas for your next email marketing campaign a breeze. Head to your chosen generative AI tool, such as ChatGPT, and ask it to suggest a list of ideas for emails related to your business.

Alternatively, you can set up the MailerLite MCP server, a tool that connects your MailerLite data with AI tools like ChatGPT or Claude, and then ask your AI platform to analyze your existing campaigns and suggest new topics based on what has worked well in the past. 

Since the MCP server has access to your MailerLite data, it will look at opens, clicks and sales to see what kinds of topics resonate with your audience. The result is a tailored list of suggestions that your subscribers will love.  

Email automations can help you save time and contact people at the perfect moment. But, it’s not always easy to know exactly what type of emails you should be automating. Especially if you already have the basics like welcome emails and post-purchase flows set up. 

Asking your AI tool for ideas can help. Tell the tool some essential details about your business and your goals, and the AI will make suggestions for automations that you can then recreate in your email marketing tool. 

You can also use your AI to get suggestions to improve your existing automations. Set up the MailerLite MCP server and then ask it to suggest improvements to your current workflows. The tool will highlight places that aren’t working as well as expected, and tell you what to fix.

AI tools still aren’t perfect at writing, but they can create very good first drafts that you can then edit to get up to scratch. 

The key is to provide plenty of essential information in your prompt. Tell the tool: 

• Why you’re writing the email

• How long the email should be

• The tone of voice you want to use

• Content specifics, such as offer details you want to include

The more information you include, the better the content outcome will be. Once you have your draft, it’s just a case of checking all the information. 

You can use an external AI tool like ChatGPT or Gemini to create this content. Check out our list of the top AI email writing tools for our main picks. 

Alternatively, use MailerLite’s built-in AI text writer to create the content without ever leaving our drag-and-drop editor. 

Just click on the AI icon in any text box. You can then choose the kind of text you want to include in your email and provide a prompt with the essential details. See the video below for more.

AI is great at writing multiple variants of a short text, so it’s perfect for subject lines. Just ask your tool to write a subject line for your email and provide details such as the topic, tone and length. 

Once you have some options, you can either use them as is, edit them to meet your needs, or ask for further suggestions on a theme you like. 

MailerLite users can also quickly write multiple subject lines using our AI subject line generator in the campaign details section. 

Just hit the AI subject generator button, add some relevant keywords, select a tone, and the tool will provide several ideas you can use. You can add these to your email or use them as inspiration for your own creations.

Once you have your subject lines, be sure to optimize them for opens. Our subject line tester tool can help by highlighting ways that you can improve. 

You can also follow the tips in our guide on how to increase your email open rate to ensure you get the maximum eyes on your content.

Using AI in your email marketing isn’t just about creating content. MailerLite’s Smart sending feature uses AI to discover the best time to send emails to each subscriber on your list. 

The tool uses data about subscriber behavior, including click activity, open rates and email list sign-up times, to identify when subscribers are most likely to be active and automatically send the email at this time 

What’s more, Smart sending will continue to learn about each subscriber’s behavior habits with each send, allowing it to more effectively estimate when each subscriber is most likely to interact with your emails. 

To use the feature, create your campaign in MailerLite as you normally would. When you’re ready to send your campaign, choose Smart sending from the options in the Schedule your campaign section on the Review and schedule page.

You can then choose to schedule the campaign or start sending it immediately. The tool will send your email to each subscriber at the optimal time in the following 24 hours.

AI can also help you create better landing pages. MailerLite’s AI landing page builder takes information about your business, such as your page goal and brand styles, and then creates a design based on this information. 

Once you have the design, you can build it out with your own copy and images using our drag-and-drop editor. Or use our AI image and content generation tools to create the content for you. 

Plus, you can add any block from our landing page builder to your AI-generated page, such as signup forms to generate email subscribers or product blocks to sell your digital products. It means you can create more landing pages much faster than you could before.

One of the biggest benefits of MailerLite’s MCP server is that it can analyze your data and provide actionable steps you can take to improve. 

There are tons of ways you could use the tool. You could ask it to:

• Analyze your most recent campaign performance and provide an analysis of what went well

• Look at your different signup forms and then identify which ones lead to the most valuable subscribers

• Highlight your best-performing subject lines and then provide similar examples for future campaigns

This article on our email marketing MCP server goes into more detail about the ways you can use the MCP server. It also includes GIFs of the tool in action, so you can see what to expect.

The fact that AI tools make content creation so quick means it’s easier than ever to start A/B testing more parts of your email. 

And the more tests you run, the more information you’ll get about what your readers like, which you can use to create more impactful future emails. 

An easy place to start is with subject line testing. When creating a campaign, simply choose the option for Subject line A/B test. You can then ask your AI tool to create multiple versions of the subject line. Then, choose the two (or more) options that you like and add these to your test. 

Subject lines aren’t all you can test: With MailerLite’s email content testing, you can test any part of your email. Some easy places to start include the offer headline, CTA button text, or the main email copy.

AI technology isn’t just about text generation. There are plenty of text-to-image tools that will create images for your content, including most AI tools like ChatGPT. 

Plus, you can generate images with AI from within the MailerLite landing page generator. Just add an image block to your page and then select the option to generate an image with AI. 

Graphic design tool Canva goes further by not only letting you generate images, but also including plenty of tools you can use to turn the image you create into an email graphic. You can add graphics, text, borders or any other element to the design. 

Once you're happy with the image, export it to MailerLite from within the tool's editor using our Canva integration. Search for MailerLite from the tool's share menu and follow the onscreen instructions to get set up.

This is one tip that can help speed up the time it takes to go from email draft to finished campaign. Once you write your email text, simply put it into your AI tool and ask for suggestions on how to improve it. 

This could be anything from identifying and removing grammatical errors, to completely rewriting certain sections in a particular style. 

Like with all other prompts, be sure to include all the information that the AI tool needs to properly proofread the text, including what you actually want it to check, and even examples of the type of content you like. 

Remember that you don’t need to accept every suggestion that the AI makes. Instead, read through them to discover if there are any suggestions that you like and, if there are, consider making the changes to your content.

Here’s a look at some of the best AI email marketing tools to help with your campaigns. These are all tools that are featured in the use cases in this article. 

MailerLite: AI-powered email marketing

We don’t just think MailerLite is just the best email marketing tool; we think it also has the best and most useful AI features to help you work smarter. 

Here’s a rundown of our best AI features:

• MCP server: Connect your MailerLite data with AI chatbots like Claude and ChatGPT. You can then perform actions or analyze your data by simply prompting the AI tool. 

• AI writing: Access our AI writing tools from within any text box in our email or landing page editor. Just choose the tone, type of content and then provide a prompt with more details.

• AI subject lines: Quickly get multiple options for your next subject line with our super-easy-to-use subject line generator

• Landing page generator: Generate a landing page template that uses your brand styles in seconds. You can then edit the generated output in our landing page editor

• Image generation: The landing page editor also has an image generation tool that you can use to create graphics or images for use in your campaigns

• Smart sending: This tool uses AI to analyze your customers’ email behavior, such as when they open and click on emails, to send your emails at the perfect time to each subscriber

Plus, you get a super user-friendly email marketing platform that has all the tools you need to create powerful email marketing that impacts your business, without needing a ton of tech or email marketing experience. 

You can design beautiful emails with drag and drop, create flexible multi-email workflows with our automation builder, build your list with high-converting pop-up and landing pages, or run A/B tests on every part of your campaign.

MailerLite also has super affordable pricing which means you can do all this while still generating a big return on your email marketing investment.

Pricing: Start free. Upgrade from $10 per month

ChatGPT and Claude: Build your AI email assistant 

AI tools like ChatGPT and Claude can be a huge help when it comes to your email marketing. 

These tools are essential if you want to set up the MailerLite MCP server. Once connected, you can ask them to analyze data or even perform actions in your MailerLite account, without ever having to leave the AI tool interface.

Even if you don’t set up the MCP server, you can still use tools like ChatGPT and Claude to get ideas, generate text and images for your emails, and edit your work. 

Pricing: Start free. Upgrade from $20 per month

Canva: Create beautiful email graphics with AI

Canva is a useful AI tool for email marketing if you need to create images and graphics. The tool has an AI image generator and you can add the output to any Canva design and then turn it into a branded graphic. 

You can also use AI tools to edit your images. For example, create product images with custom AI-generated backgrounds, or even edit the colors of parts of the image. 

Once you have created an image for your email, you can then export it straight to your file manager with the MailerLite and Canva integration. From here, it’s easy to add the image to any email, landing page, website or pop-up. 

Pricing: Start free. Upgrade from $12.99 per month

The examples in this article show how powerful AI algorithms can be. Follow the steps to create AI emails of your own or experiment with the tools to find new ways to optimize your digital marketing strategies. Let us know in the comments if you find any good tips!

We wanted to use AI as much as possible for the examples in this article. But nothing compares to the human touch. You may have better results by using the strategies to generate ideas and then taking a more hands-on approach when adding your own voice and style to your content. 

Ultimately, now is the time for experimentation with these tools. People and businesses who can work out how to get the most value from them will be one step ahead of the competition. So get experimenting! 

AI in email marketing FAQs

Before we go, here are some final questions you might have about using AI in your email marketing.

Editor’s note: This post was originally published in March 2023. We've updated it with new content and examples.