Optimize B2B Email Marketing With Generative AI: How Integration Saves Time

Originally Posted on MarketingProfs How-To Articles by Dmytro Kudrenko

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The capabilities of generative artificial intelligence (GenAI) have been discussed widely by now. And fully 73% of marketers are already using it.

Here is what they say about its effectiveness:

90% of those who use GenAI say it is effective for content creation.
67% note that it helps them save time.
49% of email marketers say GenAI helps them make campaigns more personalized.

But how can GenAI be useful for B2B marketers, specifically?

The Current State of GenAI in B2B

In B2B communications, GenAI has proven effective for personal correspondence and outreach emails, including cold and follow-up messages, making them feel like one-on-one conversations.

It’s also useful in chatbots for managing conversations. The more details you provide to GenAI about your product and customers, the more accurate and engaging the communication will be.

But what about newsletters that businesses send to their clients? Currently, these emails are manually built by a human email marketer. However, GenAI can automate many of those processes.

GenAI in B2B Email Marketing to Cut Email Production Time

Email marketing, though pivotal in B2B, is time-consuming. Here’s how GenAI changes the game:

Shifting the focus: Marketers can now concentrate on enhancing customer engagement and mapping the customer journey rather than on time-consuming tasks like email coding.
Real-world impact: Just a year ago, GenAI (such as ChatGPT) was seen as a “junior assistant”; now, it’s capable of crafting complete campaigns, significantly reducing the need for manual oversight.

GenAI Use in Email Campaigns

The use of GenAI in email campaigns can be viewed as a progression—of gradually expanding functional capabilities and roles—starting from simple tasks to managing entire campaigns.

Independent Elements or Sections

In the initial stage, GenAI can focus on performing isolated tasks, such as optimizing or creating subject lines for email and generating short product descriptions. Although these actions are limited, they can nevertheless constitute significant time and resource savings.

A Section as Part of a Whole

The next stage in the evolution of GenAI use demonstrates its ability to be integrated into more complex processes.

GenAI can manage individual text blocks in email campaigns within the context of an overall strategy, ensuring greater consistency and relevance of content. For example, GenAI can optimize the text of emails by adapting them to a specific tone that matches the corporate style of the company. In addition, it can rewrite content using specific terminology to better deliver a company’s or product’s features, goals, and mission, making communication more valuable.

Studies find that applying ChatGPT to entire email sections, rather than just individual elements, boosts click-through rates (CTR) by up to 41%, thanks to the consistency and comprehensive approach to the content.

Entire Emails

GenAI can independently develop emails when guided by specific instructions.

At this stage, GenAI oversees the entire creation process: generating an outline, creating email content, adapting it to a checklist derived from analyzing previous successful newsletters, and formatting and optimizing the email for a specific audience.

The result is significantly greater efficiency in client interactions.

Entire Email Campaign

The final stage in the evolution of GenAI’s role in email marketing is as a complete participant in the creation and management of campaigns.

At this stage, GenAI is capable of not only generating individual emails but also developing comprehensive strategies, from analyzing data and identifying target audiences to creating complex campaigns.

GenAI significantly broadens its capabilities and emerges as a crucial component in the strategy of contemporary email marketing. It is adept at managing campaigns in a holistic and integrated manner.

The Path to Improvement: Enriching With Context and Feedback

To enable GenAI to evolve and solve more complex tasks, it is necessary to enrich it with context and continuously provide feedback:

Context refers to providing GenAI with detailed brand information and data, such as customer interaction history, audience psychographics, and market trends. That information equips GenAI with the ability to accurately understand audience preferences, leading to more effective targeted marketing.
Feedback involves providing ChatGPT with honest feedback about its outputs and analyzing campaign results. It helps GenAI identify what works effectively and what needs improvement, ensuring continuous refinement of its algorithms.

Iterative Process

The learning process for GenAI is iterative, involving continual testing, evaluation, and adaptation. With each cycle, AI becomes more precise and effective, capable of adapting to changing market conditions and customer needs.

Using these approaches not only “teaches” GenAI to solve more complex tasks but also significantly increases the overall effectiveness of email marketing campaigns. In turn, that leads to the creation of more personalized, creative, and effective communications with clients.

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GenAI has the potential not only to become a key player in the email marketing team but also to transform it radically. By equipping GenAI with the necessary experience, knowledge, and data, we are entering a new era of innovation and efficiency in marketing communications.