Our goal at Copy.ai is to equip you with the knowledge you need to do more with less.
That’s why we’ve introduced Copy 101, a video series aimed at giving you step-by-step walkthroughs on all of the ways you can use generative AI to make your life easier—and spend less time on the mundane parts of your job.
Let’s dive into the 4 ways the Copy.ai team uses our own generative AI platform to improve your email marketing processes!
Whether you’re an email marketer—or a marketer tasked with doing email—you’ve probably written your fair share of newsletters.
And sharing blog posts or other editorial content is the perfect way to provide more value to your audiences through your newsletter—but what if you can’t or don’t have the time to write your newsletters from scratch?
Good news: you can use Chat by Copy.ai, which lets you quickly repurpose existing content into newsletters, while saving time on email tasks.
Let’s take a look at how you can use Chat to do it.
Pick the content you want to send out. You won’t need AI for this step. Remember to choose content that’s relevant to your audience and serves up value.
Using Copy.ai, you can prompt our Chat to generate content for you, which will scan your live webpages and generate more specific content.
An easy starting point for prompting Chat could be:
"Write newsletter copy that shares these three blog posts:
Blog posts:
1. [LINK]
2. [LINK]
3. [LINK]"
Once you enter your prompt, Chat will generate content you can use in your newsletter.
However, let’s say the copy doesn’t reflect your brand’s tone and voice, or needs a little tweaking, there are a few different options:
More context = better prompts.
Adding additional details to the original prompt will help you go from generic to specific, on-brand content. This includes details like:
The Improve feature will add additional context to your prompt, which you can always optimize by:
“Write a newsletter up to 500 words that highlights 3-4 takeaways from each of the following blog posts:
- [LINK]
- [LINK]
- [LINK]
Use bullet points to call out the key takeaways, and include a call to action at the end of the newsletter that encourages the reader to download our latest eBook: [LINK]”
“Write a short newsletter about [Topic] using these two blog posts:
- [LINK]
- [LINK]
Highlight 2-3 actionable tips or takeaways from each blog post in a bulleted list.”
“Using these three blog posts, write a newsletter on [Topic]:
Blog posts:
- [LINK]
- [LINK]
- [LINK]
For each blog post, write a 1-paragraph long summary that entices our audience to click through and read the entire blog.
The audience for this newsletter consists of [details about audience].”
Using reviews and testimonials in your marketing comms is a smart way to show social proof of your product—but asking for a review can be pretty awkward (at best!).
When you reach out to customers asking for a review—like requesting they leave you a review on G2 or Capterra—how you frame your request is key.
Let’s walk through how you can quickly craft an email to send to your customers requesting they leave a review on G2, Capterra, or other review platforms.
As you’re writing your prompt, include all of the relevant information you need in your email. For example:
🚨 Hot tip: You can also include a recommendation on length, such as, “Make the email one paragraph long.”
You don’t have to pigeonhole Chat to generate content for you. It’s also a great brainstorming partner!
If you’re not sure what offer you should give your customers as a thank you for leaving a review, simply ask Chat for ideas. Here’s a prompt example to get you started:
“Brainstorm 10 ideas for how I can thank customers who successfully leave a product review. This can include notes, gifts, or any other ideas that come to mind”.
Take it a step further by asking Chat to revise its suggestions by including a monetary offer, like a gift card, voucher, or credit to the customer’s account!
Below, you’ll see the results become more specific when I provide further context around what kind of gift or token we can use to show appreciation.
You can also ask Chat to generate email subject lines and CTAs you can test when sending emails.
For example, if you want to run an A/B test around subject lines, you could prompt Chat to generate subject line ideas.
Need help coming up with prompts to generate a review request email? We got you!
“Write an email that drives reviews on G2 for [Company Name] [Product or Service].
This email will be sent to [Customer Title/Type] and should show appreciation for their business with us. Include a clear call to action that encourages them to leave a review for our company here: [Company G2 Profile Link].
Keep this email brief and to-the-point. Use a [tone of voice] tone of voice.”
“Write an email requesting our customers leave a review about their experience with [Company Name] [Product or Service].
Write up to 2 paragraphs and include bullet points when possible. Use a [tone and voice keywords] tone of voice for the email copy.
In the email, be sure to show appreciation for our customers by offering a [Gift/Offer] in exchange for their review on [Review Site]. Direct customers to leave their review here: [Company G2 Profile Link].”
“Write an email that asks customers to leave a review of their experience with [Product or Service] with [Company Name].
Keep the email short, writing up to 100 words. Use a friendly, professional tone.
Offer a $50 Amazon gift card in exchange for their review. Make sure the email shows appreciation for the customer’s time and thanks them in advance for their review.”
Sending an effective, engaging email starts with your subject line—the very thing that prompts people to open your email in the first place!
It can be tricky, though, coming up with countless new subject lines, especially if you’re A/B testing elements of your email or have a wide range of email types you send.
Luckily, you can use Chat in Copy.ai to generate subject lines you can tweak, test, or simply use as inspiration for your next email.
When using Copy.ai, you can explore our pre-built prompts directly within Chat.
From the Prompt Library, select “Email Marketing” from the list and choose “Email Subject Generator.” Copy.ai will populate a pre-generated prompt into the Chat bar and all you have to do is add in the missing details!
Once you hit enter, Chat will generate a series of subject lines you can choose from.
Let’s say you’re not happy with the options that were generated for you. That’s where the fun really begins when it comes to using generative AI technology: you can test prompts by adding more context for more brand-centric results.
Some context you can add when generating subject lines include:
These are just a few of the methods our team uses when generating subject lines through Chat. Justin, our Head of Performance Marketing, thinks you should:
“Write your email copy first—whether that’s through Copy.ai or repurposing an email you’ve already written. My preferred method is taking existing email copy and using it to give further context for generating subject lines with Chat.”
Once you’ve generated subject lines you love, you can use Chat to generate preview text that complements your subject lines!
You can also generate subject and preview text lines you can A/B test by using a prompt such as, “Write a series of subject lines and preview text we can A/B test in an email about [Topic]."
In the example above, I asked Chat to provide a set of subject lines and preview text for an email about pet sitting. If I were looking to A/B test these subject lines, we can see that Chat generated some pretty solid options to try out!
“Write 3 subject lines for the following email copy that highlight the key takeaway of the email
Email copy: [Paste email copy]"
“Generate 10 subject lines for an email about [Topic] targeting [Customer/User Type]”
“Write 5 subject lines with preview text for an email on [Topic]”
Take it up a notch by providing context around your email recipient, such as your ICP (ideal customer profile) or the specific roles of the people you’re emailing if you do a lot of segmentation.
Example: “Write 4 subject lines and 4 preview text lines for an email about diversity recruiting we’re sending to prospects with titles like Director of Talent Acquisition and Head of Recruiting”.
I’ve written my fair share of newsletters, and it can be tough constantly brainstorming new, compelling ideas for each one. But, GenAI can make that part of the process just a little easier.
A good starting point is to ask Chat to generate a handful of ideas that you can use as a baseline.
PROMPT:
“Suggest 10 ideas for a newsletter that’s centered around content marketing best practices.”
You’ll notice that the content output can be quite generic. That’s why the more context you give, the better output you’ll get.
Think of it this way. If the events team is running a webinar, and all they provide is the webinar name, the email you generate to help promote the event won’t be as effective compared to having a full event brief with all of the details you need. The same goes for generative AI platforms!
So, let’s flesh out our original prompt for better output:
“Suggest 10 ideas for my company newsletter that are centered around content marketing best practices.
My company website is: [Insert link]
The audience members are experienced content leaders who are consistently looking for ways to improve their existing processes, uncover new channels they haven’t yet considered, and learn about what others are doing in the space.
The goal of our newsletter is to be actionable, valuable, inspirational, and also fun to read.”
Based on the generated ideas, choose the one that you want to move forward with. You can start building off of your generations from there. The next step is to ask Chat to generate an outline for the newsletter based on the idea you picked.
In your prompt, you can specify what elements to include (like sections), sub-topics to cover, and copy ideas.
Here’s what that looks like in action:
Here’s the best part: you can ask Chat to write your newsletter using the outline it generated! For example, if we ask Chat to “Use the outline you created to write the newsletter”, Chat will go ahead and generate email copy for your newsletter following its outline.
But let’s say you want to make some tweaks.
Consider using Chat as your editor and ask it to:
🚨 Hot tip: you can also ask Chat to provide examples or suggestions of CTAs for your newsletter if you’re asking your audience to do something, like download an eBook or watch a new video.
Let’s take a look at an example of that last prompt suggestion!
Using these ideas as a jumping off point, we can now ask Chat to:
From coming up with new ideas to A/B testing, drafting outlines, and brainstorming topics, there’s a lot of potential to leverage AI to help frame up your next email. And while AI can’t replace your human touch, it’s a great starting point to improve your email writing skills and help you craft more compelling emails for your audiences. Try Copy.ai when you’re ready to write your next best email.
Write 10x faster, engage your audience, & never struggle with the blank page again.