Email Marketing RulesThe Best Use Cases for Unique Generative AI-Crafted Emails, Unfortunately
Posted on September 7, 2023
I’m hearing about more and more startups and other tech providers offering brands the ability to use generative AI to create unique marketing emails tailored to individual recipients based on collected data. While there’s undoubtedly a range of potential uses for this kind of capability, I see two as being the most likely use cases:
- Bulk cold email outreach
- Phishing emails
The former is a relatively benign, yet annoying form of spam, while the latter is classic malicious spam. Both would benefit from generative AI in a few ways…
CSS-Based Interactive Emails: Use Cases & Considerations
Posted on September 5, 2023
Email interactivity brings common web and app experiences into the inbox. In addition to allowing brands to more efficiently use limited real estate in emails, especially above the fold, interactivity significantly lowers the barrier for subscribers to act.
While it may seem like an email interaction and an email click would be the same amount of effort, particularly since many interactions involve a click, subscribers don’t see them as being equal. In some cases, email interactions occur at up to twice the rate of email click throughs to landing pages. Those interactions not only make subscribers more likely to engage with future emails, but when subscribers who have engaged with interactive email content click through to a landing page, they’re significantly more likely to convert.
The Last Word on August 2023
Posted on September 1, 2023
A roundup of email marketing articles, posts, and social buzz you might have missed last month…
Must-read articles, posts & reports
Only A Small Percentage Of Firms Are Compliant With CCPA And CPRA, Study Finds (MediaPost)
AI Is Killing the Old Web, and the New web Struggles to be Born (The Verge)
Experian Violated CAN-SPAM Law, FTC Charges (MediaPost)
A Clothing Brand’s Email Claimed to Be From a Neighbor Watching Recipients in Their Underwear. Some Customers Aren’t Happy. (Wall Street Journal)
Undeliverable: Email Teams Face Inbox Challenges (MediaPost)
How Do Videos and Gifs Impact Your Email Click Rate? (AWeber)
Insightful & entertaining social posts
If I have to reply with the word “unsubscribe” then I was never *subscribed* in the first place thankyouverymuch
— Val Geisler (@lovevalgeisler) August 7, 2023
With all of the recent #cdp announcements, this feels like the most appropriate response… pic.twitter.com/IE88XHhUzs
— Stephanie Griffith (@QueenDTC) August 15, 2023
I’ve seen a lot of emails, and this is the most words I’ve ever seen in a button. pic.twitter.com/bDNIkpgp2e
— Alex Williams (@alexcwilliams) August 21, 2023
Noteworthy subject lines
MoMA Design Store, 8/7 – Rewards First Look! 2023 Holiday Cards
Crate & Barrel, 8/4 – Halloween starts now 🎃
West Elm, 8/22 – Fall-ready (& frightfully fun) front door decor
Michaels, 8/25 – Drop that latte! Spice up your pumpkin season with up to 50% off fall décor collections.
Nordstrom, 8/12 – Celebrate Black Business Month with us
Crate & Kids, 8/22 – Gear up for school with new furniture + 30% off select backpacks!
Chubbies, 8/14 – Enroll for Thigher Education today
Fanatics.com, 8/25 – Get Kickoff Ready –> Take Up to 65% Off
Gap Labor Day Event, 8/30 – Announcing up to 70% off! You’re going to love these long-weekend deals
Goldbelly, 8/30 – LAST CHANCE for Labor Day!
Columbia Sportswear, 8/9 – Fishing shoes that perform on and off the water.
Abercrombie & Fitch, 8/27 – Almost you-know-what weather.
The Hustle, 8/8 – 👖 Find pants with AI
Uncommon Goods, 8/17 – 10 products you won’t find on Amazon
Uncommon Goods, 8/22 – 10 things you can only find here
Nuts.com, 8/9 – Come on, Barbie, Let’s Go SNACKING 💕
West Elm, 8/14 – Custom sofas & sectionals now ship in 3 weeks!
Gap Friends & Family, 8/9 – @Everyone: 40% OFF EVERYTHING just dropped
Clinique Online, 8/22 – Big zit, big night? Here’s what to do.
Clinique Online, 8/25 – 3 quick looks ⚡ Get out the door fast.
Quiksilver, 8/9 – Highlining with Griffin Colapinto
Art.com, 8/14 – Modern masters artist series: meet Mark Rothko.
Allbirds, 8/15 – Allbirds ✕ Zipeng Zhu Is Here
The North Face, 8/22 – The North Face X CDG collab drops today
Camping World RV, 8/25 – Introducing the new line of Eddie Bauer RVs!
West Elm, 8/27 – August roundup: Cool new collabs, Halloween & more
Bitly Team, 8/29 – Move over, Barbenheimer.
Inside CNN, 8/9 – Celebrating 100 editions of ‘Inside CNN’
New posts on EmailMarketingRules.com
Your Most Important Job as an Email Marketer Is…
Apple’s Link Tracking Protection: The Impact on Email & Other Channels
Rightsizing Your Use of Digital Marketing Agencies
The B2B Content Show: Has Generative AI Established a New Content Floor?
AI-Generated Code: Generative AI Concerns & Opportunities for Marketers
Webbula: What’s One Tool Email Marketers Aren’t Using But Should?
Picking the Right Sender Name: Brand or Person?
The Gmail Promotions Tab: 10 Years of Email Marketing Misunderstandings
Your Most Important Job as an Email Marketer Is…
Posted on August 30, 2023
When you saw the headline for this post, what did you think? Perhaps you thought…
- To get your campaign opened?
- To get your campaign clicked?
- To get a campaign conversion?
To explore your options for where to put your focus…
Apple’s Link Tracking Protection: The Impact on Email & Other Channels
Posted on August 24, 2023
First Mail Privacy Protection, and now Link Tracking Protection (LTP). Apple’s latest platform privacy change will undoubtedly have already-traumatized marketers concerned, given how much MPP undermined open rates and made it much harder to only send to engaged email subscribers.
However, LTP is mostly aimed at online advertisers, so marketers will generally be much less affected by LTP than they’ve been by MPP. And some email marketers will almost entirely escape the effects of LTP.
We’ll talk about that all in detail, but first…
Rightsizing Your Use of Digital Marketing Agencies
Posted on August 21, 2023
Digital marketing programs are dynamic, with needs, goals, and circumstances that change from year to year—even quarter to quarter. Regardless of what is changing, working with a digital marketing agency can be the solution. That’s because most agencies offer a variety of kinds of engagements that range from short-term to long-term, as well as limited to extensive.
Here at Oracle Marketing Consulting, we have clients across all of those spectrums. We see them as falling into four kinds of engagements:
- Project-based engagements that are short-term and limited in scope
- Seasonal engagements that are short-term and extensive in scope
- Role-based engagements that are long-term and limited in scope
- Full service engagements that are long-term and extensive in scope
Let’s talk about each of those in more detail…
The B2B Content Show: Has Generative AI Established a New Content Floor?
Posted on August 17, 2023
For content creators and brands, this is a pivotal question. SparkToro’s Rand Fishkin argues that “If your content isn’t better than what AI can produce, it’s not worth making.” I mentioned Rand’s point of view in a MarketingProfs column, The Future of Content Marketing: Five Predictions, and added my own spin.
In this episode of The B2B Content Show podcast, I join host Jeremy Shere to dive into this issue. In particular, we break down my assertion that “To be successful, content marketers will need to rise well above that fray with timely content; unique examples; original research; novel ideas; and compelling, authentic, and trustworthy voices.”
Listen in wherever you get your podcasts or…
AI-Generated Code: Generative AI Concerns & Opportunities for Marketers
Posted on August 14, 2023
Ready or not, we’re rapidly heading into a world where generative AI tools like ChatGPT, Dall-E, and others do more of marketers’ day-to-day work. That transition is not much in question. The only question is how well your organization makes that transition.
To make that transition as smoothly as possible, we recommend taking a cautious and realistic approach toward the here-and-now of these technologies, while keeping an optimistic long-term view. That starts with having a solid understanding of how these technologies work, including what they’re capable of and what they’re not.
Having that understanding will help you deploy generative AI in ways that will help your business grow, and either avoid or safeguard against situations where AI leads to costly errors or embarrassing customer experiences.
Because the issues and use cases around generative AI vary depending on whether you’re outputting text, images, or code, we’re addressing each of those separately. In this post, we’re focusing on generative AI for code.
Webbula: What’s One Tool Email Marketers Aren’t Using But Should?
Posted on August 11, 2023
I join 10 other email experts in this Webbula roundup as we answer the question: What’s one program or tool email marketers aren’t doing but should be doing?
I was happy to see that I wasn’t the only participant to cheat a little and give more than one answer. For larger senders, I think BIMI is underused, especially in light of Apple’s new support for the standard. However, for senders of all sizes, it’s re-permission programs that aren’t seeing enough adoption, particularly considering how much more difficult Apple’s Mail Privacy Protection is making it to accurately tell if a subscriber is inactive or not.
To watch my full answer, as well as the advice of the other experts…
Picking the Right Sender Name: Brand or Person?
Posted on August 9, 2023
Perhaps it’s the focus on empathy and connecting with our subscribers on a human level. Or it’s all of the emphasis on writing in plain English—using colloquialisms, sentence fragments, emojis, and even slang. Or maybe it’s the risky desire to con their way into the Primary tab instead of the Promotions tab.
Whatever the reason, some brands have gotten the message that it’s in their best interest to position their emails as coming from a person—the CEO, a salesperson, a support rep, almost anyone—rather from their brand. This pressure appears to be the greatest among B2B brands, but can also affect B2C brands like Peloton, which has sent bulk emails that appear to be from their instructors.
Done in the wrong way, this tactic can cause a number of problems. Let’s talk about those problems and how to avoid them.
>> Read the entire article on Oracle’s Modern Marketing Blog
Welcome! Email Marketing Rules is your guide to understanding the best practices of this complex, often misunderstood channel as you craft the best executions for your brand. Every week, we’ll explore strategies and tactics, discuss tips and inspiration, and dig into industry news and trends.
Chad S. White
Head of Research
Oracle Digital Experience Agency
Author of Email Marketing Rules and nearly 4,000 articles about digital and email marketing
