At the turn of the year, we can call 2023 the year of AI. While not new, AI, or at least a form of it, has the world buzzing, thanks to the emergence of the popular consumer product called ChatGPT. Artificial intelligence, or AI, is like having a robot brain that can analyze data and take actions based on the data. AI can help businesses by doing tasks that are too hard or take too long for people to do effectively. It is also particularly helpful in finding patterns in information that humans might miss or take too long to react to. And we’ll explore how AI boosts one of the oldest and truest marketing channels: email.
How AI can make your email marketing easier but is easier better?
Let’s get into how AI is shaking up email marketing. It’s like having an extra brain on your team that’s good at crunching numbers and spotting trends. It isn’t just about sending emails faster; it’s about making them smarter. However, the first thing that we humans use any tool for is to make tasks easier, not necessarily better.
It’s tempting for email marketers to jump straight into using AI to create email copy or designs. It’s a quick fix and instant gratification; you provide a few details and have an email copy. But here’s the catch: this approach can be a bit ‘quick and dirty.’ The time and effort spent crafting thoughtful email templates by an editor or writer who knows your audience and brand can’t and should not be replaced by AI.
Humans and AI need a common platform to do better work
As we discussed at the start, AI’s role is to help humans make better and faster decisions. In the context of email marketing automation and AI, it is less about creating high-quality editorial content or graphics. It is more about enhancing the campaign’s reach and engagement.
However, before AI can help, it must share a common platform with the business to understand what to optimize. This part isn’t about the AI but about having a robust toolset that does the heavy lifting towards email personalization, testing and journeys. Remember, the objective of AI is to be an operator rather than a creator. So, what are these tools? We can club them into three main buckets:
1. Tools to create eye-catching emails
These are essential for crafting visually appealing emails that resonate with your audience. They usually include drag-and-drop editors, a variety of responsive templates, and the ability to customize the templates with HTML as required. The goal is to make your email not just a message but an extension of your brand’s visual identity. For example, Robly’s easy drag-and-drop builder and a vast collection of templates can help bring your brand’s personality to life in each email.
2. Tools to automate email journeys
Automating your email campaigns is all about delivering the right message at the right time, without manual intervention every step of the way. This means setting up triggered emails based on specific actions or timelines. Tools in this category often provide dynamic response features, ensuring your emails reach subscribers when they’re most likely to engage. Robly Automations is an excellent example of how such tools can boost efficiency and conversions.
3. Tools to segment, target and test
The key to effective email marketing is sending tailored messages to specific audience segments. Segmentation tools allow you to divide your email list based on various criteria like behavior, interests, or demographics. This ensures that your messages are relevant and personalized. For instance, Robly’s segmentation capabilities enable precise targeting, testing and enhanced engagement.
These toolsets are pivotal in optimizing your email marketing efforts and enhancing your campaigns’ reach and impact. But even more than that, these tools combine to create a common platform for human marketers and AI to share.
The natural place of AI in email marketing automation
Using data to boost open rates and Robly OpenGen
You have created the perfect emails using the editing tools, set up the right automation and segmented your audiences with the help of the nifty platform we covered earlier. However, it’s usually beyond your control once you hit that send button. Here’s where AI can truly start making a difference. Let’s see how.
Enter Robly’s OpenGen, a proprietary technology designed to maximize email engagement. OpenGen, introduced by Robly in 2014, has been a game-changer, notably increasing open rates and ROI for many businesses. It operates on a unique insight: despite consistent open rates, there’s high ‘open churn,’ meaning not all subscribers open every email.
OpenGen re-engages the portion of your audience that missed your first email, sending a follow-up to those who did not open the initial one. This strategy effectively capitalizes on the natural behavior of email users, ensuring higher engagement rates; especially useful for businesses sending emails bi-weekly or less.
Intelligently avoiding the SPAM traps and RoblyEngage
RoblyEngage, another powerful tool in Robly’s arsenal, tackles a different challenge – conquering SPAM filters. In the current email marketing landscape, engagement is king. SPAM filters are increasingly focusing on subscriber interaction. Emails that fail to engage are more likely to end up in SPAM folders, drastically reducing open rates and overall ROI.
RoblyEngage systematically removes unengaged users from your list, enhancing perceived engagement. This process cleans up your email list and significantly improves the likelihood of your emails landing in the inbox rather than the SPAM folder.
When you leverage the powerful AI capabilities of RoblyEngage, you can create a cycle of enhanced deliverability and effectiveness in your email marketing efforts. Combining OpenGen’s ability to capture maximum audience attention with RoblyEngage’s strategy to show SPAM filters a highly engaged subscriber base, you can take your email marketing to the next level.
AI to redefine how emails are delivered to the inbox
The natural place of AI in email marketing automation becomes even more evident when we consider tools like Robly AI. The core idea behind Robly AI is ‘Just-in-Time’ Email Delivery, ensuring your campaigns are sent precisely when subscribers are most likely to check their inboxes. Here’s how it works: You send campaigns as usual, and Robly AI learns from each campaign, analyzing subscribers’ email habits. With impressive accuracy, it predicts the optimal time to deliver your emails, ensuring they arrive when your subscribers are likely to see them.
Setting up Robly AI is straightforward. In your Campaign Builder, you toggle the Robly AI switch to ‘On’ and select your Sending Window. This window is when your subscribers will receive your emails after you hit send. For instance, if you choose a 6-hour window, all your subscribers will receive the campaign within this period. If you opt for a longer window, like 23 hours, the sends are staggered over that duration, maximizing the chance of your email being seen at the right time.
Robly AI’s effectiveness grows with each campaign you send. While initial results are promising, the tool gets smarter over time, learning from each campaign’s data. This learning process means better open rates as Robly AI becomes more adept at understanding and predicting your subscribers’ behavior. However, the full impact of Robly AI is seen over time as it accumulates more data and fine-tunes its predictions for optimal email delivery.
Wrapping it up
As we venture out into 2023, the ‘year of AI,’ and into 2024, it’s clear that artificial intelligence is not just a buzzword but a transformative force in email marketing. As we’ve seen, AI’s role extends far beyond mere task automation. It’s about enhancing human capabilities making marketing strategies more intelligent, targeted, and effective. Platforms like Robly, with tools like OpenGen, RoblyEngage, and Robly AI, exemplify this evolution.
The journey of integrating AI into email marketing is an ongoing one. As tools evolve and learn from user interactions, they offer more personalized, timely, and effective communication, bridging the gap between businesses and their audiences. To wrap it up, when used wisely, AI doesn’t replace the human touch; instead, it augments it, making each campaign more impactful.
This synergistic relationship between AI and human creativity is set to redefine the benchmarks of successful email marketing, making it an exciting time for businesses ready to embrace these technological differentiators.
