AI has changed the game in only a short period. Already, more marketers are turning to AI to assist them in writing emails. Porch Group Media reports that of the marketers who already rely on AI, almost 40% of them use it for their email writing tasks.
The results pay off, as they said personalizing their emails with AI reported click-through rate boosts of 13.44% and revenue increases of 41%.
AI email writers, as the name might have made you think, are tools or software that produce email copy for you based on keywords or prompts. Using AI to write and send emails can be a valuable part of a small business marketing strategy, especially when trying to generate a large volume of emails quickly and cheaply.
In this blog post, we’ll explain what an AI email writer is, its benefits, tips to choose the right software, and eight of the best AI email writers for small business owners.
Let’s get started.
Table of Contents
Key Takeaways
- AI plays a critical role in enhancing email marketing strategies for efficiency and effectiveness, especially for small businesses.
- You must choose an AI tool that aligns with your business needs, budget, and goals.
- Be aware of the ongoing need for oversights and fine-tuning of AI-generated content to ensure it meets your brand standards and audience expectations.
What Is an AI Email Writer?
An AI email writer is a website, tool, or program that produces email copy through machine learning and large language models (LLMs).
Since AI has moved rapidly, I figured it would help explain how AI email writer technology exists before your small business proceeds.
Machine learning relies on algorithms and data to continually improve processes. In other words, as you begin using AI email writing more frequently, the copy quality should improve as you had envisioned.
LLMs are a type of model that receives significant data that it’s pre-trained on. Deep learning utilizes a transformer, a neural network set with a decoder, and an encoder. They’re responsible for determining what text sequences are supposed to mean, including how phrases and words interconnect.
AI email writers can use both technologies to create email copy in your brand tone that achieves your objectives, sticks within the prescribed character limits, and naturally inserts your keywords.
AI email-writing tools are useful in many applications, from canned customer service responses to promotional emails and follow-ups.
Benefits of Using an AI Email Writer for Small Businesses
Why explore AI email writing services? There are so many advantages awaiting your small business in a cutthroat world where you need every boost you can get. Here’s more information.
Increased efficiency and productivity
Writing a marketing email can require an investment of anywhere from 20 minutes to three hours. That might not sound so bad if you can write emails in 20 minutes (without rushing), but it all depends on your email volume.
For example, if you send 100 emails and write each in 20 minutes, that’s three emails an hour. It’d take you 33.33 hours or 2,000 minutes to write them. If each workday is eight hours, you would need more than four days to finish.
Now, keep several points in mind. First, that’s the time spent writing only 100 emails. It doesn’t account for follow-ups and additional professional emails you must send. You wouldn’t have the time for that alone.
You’d have to dedicate 100% of your time to writing emails, which isn’t possible for small business owners. There’s too much else to do. Hiring someone to handle emails is likely also not feasible in the early stages of your startup.
AI email writing tools will free up time, allowing you to prioritize the most important tasks and meet your productivity goals.
Enhanced personalization and relevance
It also takes time to personalize your emails, but it’s not like you can forego it. Emails with personalization get an open rate of 18.8% on average, while it’s only 13.1% for emails without personalization.
Besides its ability to personalize your email content, an AI tool can also ensure relevance to your target market, which will similarly improve your open and click-through rates. You’ll also have better audience engagement.
Better and faster scalability
Your small business will eventually grow, which will mean increasing your email volume. AI email writing tools will help your small business scale up your marketing efforts without significant increases in time investment or resources.
Read also: 7 Awesome B2B Content Marketing Platforms
How to Choose the Right AI Email Writer for Your Business
How do you select the best AI email writer? Here are some factors to implement into your decision-making.
Ease of use
AI is designed to simplify our lives, not overly complicate them. If you can’t grasp how your email writing tool works, it won’t help you save time or improve personalized communications, rendering it useless.
Not only should you find it easy to use the tool for email communication, but as you train others on your team, they shouldn’t struggle. A learning curve is to be expected, to a degree, but not a huge one.
Customization options
Every small business brand is different, so it’s helpful to have the freedom to customize your AI to suit your specific needs. The greater the customization options, the better, but even a small degree is better than none.
Integration capabilities
Using AI to write professional business emails only makes sense if you can integrate the tool or software into your current workflow. If the tool doesn’t play nicely with the other programs you regularly rely on, you might seldom use it.
Pricing
If you have to pay to use the AI tool, it’s best if it’s affordably priced to slot into your small business budget.
Read also: The Future of Marketing Automation — 12 Trends for 2024
8 of the Best AI Email Writers for Your Business
I’ve written a detailed review about the top AI email writers, which you should read if you’re on the cusp of making a decision but feel like you’re on the fence. Here’s an abridged overview of the tools to consider.
- Jasper AI: Creative teams can benefit from using Jasper AI for all professional communications, not just email. Your content will stay on brand, and the tool can help you ideate new content. Prices start at $39 a month per seat.
- MaxAI: A handy little tool if you prefer Google Chrome, MaxAI lets you unlock its integrative AI capabilities within your internet browser. You can use MaxAI for free, although you can only access basic features with this plan. More advanced features require a paid pricing plan starting at $12 a month.
- Flowrite: The perfect AI tool for small teams like yours, Flowrite lets you collaborate as a unit as you establish AI rules and limitations, fine-tuning and adjusting along the way. This tool is also affordable, with plans starting at only $4 a month.
- Zendesk AI: Expand the functionality of Zendesk with its AI tool. You can get it for $115 per agent per month or $50 per agent per month for the advanced add-on.
- Nanonets: A great free AI email writer, Nanonets is more basic compared to the other tools on this list, which is to be expected considering it’s free.
- Smartwriter AI: Personalize your emails more efficiently using Smartwriter AI, with pricing plans starting at $49 a month. You can link this AI tool to external communication sources like your social media so it can understand your content goals and brand voice sooner.
- SaneBox: SaneBox offers custom folders for a more organized inbox. Oh, and the plans are also very affordable, even for startups with a low overhead, starting at $7 a month.
- Help Scout: Build stronger customer relationships using Help Scout. Its AI for customer service agents can provide summaries of customer exchanges to help reps instantly catch up on what they might have missed. You can also use AI drafts for email responses, with plans starting at $40 a user per month.
4 Best Practices for Using AI Email Writers
Have you decided that AI email writers align with your small business email marketing goals? The following collection of best practices and tips will help you start your next campaign earnestly.
Don’t lose the human touch
The human element is an important part of your brand (as it is for most), but it’s one AI can’t successfully replicate. The more human you try to make AI sound and seem, the more awkward and obviously fake it becomes.
You must manually interject that human element when crafting professional emails, committing to keeping your email communications relatable. Your audience will appreciate it, as you’ll maintain your brand voice and values while still streamlining your email marketing.
Be upfront
In an age of email transparency, thanks to rules and regulations like the GDPR, it helps to keep your email audience privy to the basics. That should include whether you use AI to write emails, especially in a customer service scenario.
Will most of your leads and customers care that you rely on AI? Probably not, and that’s fine. At least you’re keeping them in the loop. Your transparency will go a long way toward fostering goodwill and maintaining a positive professional relationship.
Optimize your email content
Besides personalization, you can also optimize your email content with AI in many ways. For example, an AI tool can write compelling email subject lines, format your messages, segment your audience, determine the best email send times based on your target market, and schedule emails.
Further, AI can optimize your email preview text, write calls to action, clean up your email list, generate emails for you, and help you avoid the spam filter.
If you’re only using AI to write emails, your small business is merely scratching the surface.
Generate helpful prompts
AI is only as beneficial as you allow it to be, as it produces information based on what you feed it. The more helpful you can make the process, the better the quality of the emails the AI tool will produce.
Be specific in your prompts. If you want a 200-word email with a friendly tone or an email that’s part sales but informative, you must tell the AI clearly and succinctly. It can’t read minds (thank goodness for that!), so you must do your part.
You know what else will help? Share examples of your brand voice in action. This will speed up the AI’s learning capabilities, making it more efficient.
Read also: Unlocking Efficiency — Top AI Tools for Small Businesses
6 Common Mistakes to Avoid When Using AI for Email Writing
AI is a brand-new frontier, which is undoubtedly exciting. However, since your path is yet to be forged, ensure you’re aware of and strive to avoid these mistakes as you proceed with your small business email marketing campaign.
Skipping A/B testing
Even if your AI tool of choice spits out perfectly usable subject lines and email copy, you must still split-test the various elements of your message to ensure they’ll connect well with your target market.
In many cases, you can use AI to do A/B testing, giving you one less excuse to skip this critical part of your email marketing campaign.
Sending AI content out as is
Sure, AI might not make spelling or grammar mistakes, but it’s not 100% invincible against errors. Its gaffes are even worse, as they’re factual and accurate mistakes.
You’re less likely to run into these errors when writing email copy than blog posts or website copy, but it can still happen. AI can spit out incorrect information with astounding confidence, weaving its inaccuracies among factual content, so you must go over your messages with a fine-toothed comb before sending.
If you don’t, misleading customers can harm your reputation, losing subscribers and buyers.
Using the wrong AI program or tool
An AI tool that costs too much, doesn’t integrate with your existing workflow, or continually causes difficulties when using it is not the right one for you. I’ll say it again – AI is supposed to make your life easier, so if your tool isn’t, continue searching until you find one that does.
Read also: AI Marketing Tools to Get Ahead of Your Competitors
Not considering the legal implications
Being on the right side of the law regarding email marketing is a must. You could incur hefty fines and other punishments if you break legal orders, and you could violate your audience’s trust on top of that.
Learn the pertinent data privacy laws and regulations, then ensure you’re compliant. Be aware that even if your business is based in the United States, if you have customers outside of the country, you still need to abide by laws affecting data security in those parts of the world.
Failing to teach AI your brand
AI will learn quickly if you provide it with solid information. If you don’t, you’ll get a generic copy that doesn’t inspire opens or click-throughs. Your audience will become disengaged and unsubscribe from your email list.
Not evaluating campaign metrics
An AI-led email marketing campaign still needs a careful review with an analytical eye like any ongoing campaign requires. Check KPIs like email opens, click-throughs, subscriber count, un-subscription rate, and sender reputation to determine if your campaign succeeded.
Read also: 11 AI Lead Generation Tools in 2024 to Acquire Leads 10X Faster
Conclusion
AI has transformative potential for small businesses, particularly AI email writing for marketing campaigns. Small businesses should explore and adopt AI technologies to stay competitive in the digital marketplace.
Keep abreast of ongoing and upcoming trends, adjusting your business direction and usage of AI accordingly.
EngageBay is an all-in-one marketing, sales, and customer support software for small businesses, startups, and solopreneurs. You get email marketing, marketing automation, landing page and email templates, segmentation and personalization, sales pipelines, live chat, and more.
Sign up for free with EngageBay or book a demo with our experts.
Frequently Asked Questions (FAQ)
1. Can AI email writers create content that feels personal and authentic?
Yes, certainly. AI tools can segment your audience, then target each group by touching on their needs, pain points, and progress in the sales funnel. Reinforcing the content with the human element through your personal touches will increase its authenticity.
2. How much does using an AI email writing tool typically cost?
Some AI email writing tools are completely free forever. Others are affordable, with monthly costs of $5 to $10, while others start at $20, $30, or $40 and up for a monthly subscription.
3. Are there any free AI email writers available for small businesses?
There are plenty of free tools here, from Mailmeteor to Toolsaday, ToolBaz, Nanonets, and LogicBalls. Be aware that no-cost services usually have fewer features, typically just the basics.
4. How can I ensure the emails generated by AI are relevant to my audience?
Segment your audience and personalize the content before sending it. Use A/B testing to ensure that similar target markets react favorably to your emails, then pivot if your messages aren’t quite hitting the mark.
5. What should I do if the AI-generated email content doesn’t match my brand’s voice?
You can either retry the AI tool with another prompt, this time increasing the detail and specificity of what you’re looking for, or you can rewrite the content yourself to suit your brand’s voice. However, it will continue producing generic email copy until you train the AI on your brand’s values and tones.
6. Can AI email writers help improve my email campaign’s open and click-through rates?
Yes, absolutely, by increasing the personalization element of your content and sending your emails at optimal times for your audience based on factors like progress in the sales funnel and time zone.
7. How do I integrate an AI email writer into my existing email marketing platform?
You can integrate an AI writer into your email marketing platform by linking the two tools. Then you can start using the power of AI to generate subject lines, segment your email lists, clean up inactive subscribers, produce email copy, and send emails.
8. What are the limitations of using AI for email writing?
First and foremost, AI can make accuracy mistakes. It also has a hard time expressing human emotions like empathy and authenticity, which can hamper your email marketing efforts if you use AI alone. Like all tools, AI programs can get buggy.
9. How is AI likely to change email marketing in the future?
Entirely AI-led email marketing campaigns don’t seem outside the realm of possibility, especially as AI continues to take charge of so much. In the future, emails may be entirely automated, putting leads through the sales funnel faster.