ChatGPT Use Cases for Email Marketers: Best Practices from Yespo Specialists

Open AI ChatGPT became one of the most hyped technologies of 2023. It can maintain conversations on various topics, generate texts in response to prompts, adjust the tone of the story to different target audiences, help copywriters with content ideas and article outlining, create email subject lines, and much more.

In this article, we decided to take a look at the most common marketing tasks ChatGPT can handle, and discover how to write ChatGPT prompts to get the best results. With these goals in mind, Yespo marketing agency specialists tested the assistant in a real-life environment and are now ready to share the insights with you. dsd

What is Chat GPT

AI ChatGPT stands for Generative Pre-trained Transformer, which is a powerful language model that uses natural language processing technology to understand a user and respond to their requests, taking the context of the conversation into account.

Now you may wonder — how does ChatGPT work in practice? In a nutshell, the language model mimics human-to-human conversation and provides users with the answers to the questions in a dialogue mode. It also adapts to the tone of your conversation, copying the manner of communication or following the tone of voice you've specified in the prompt, can answer additional questions, provide deeper explanations and even admit its mistakes.

In March 2023, the fourth ChatGPT OpenAI model was presented. It was created on the basis of the third generation, which has been operating since 2020. The fourth edition of the language model is 82% less likely to respond to requests related to prohibited content than Chat GPT-3.

How to Use Chat GPT — Opportunities and Challenges

When it comes to email marketing, the advanced skills of a smart chatbot become especially useful for creating high-quality content. Below are some of the interesting Chat GPT use cases for copywriters and email marketers:

• writing text messages or responses based on the context specified by the user;

• checking the finished text for grammar and punctuation;

• translation into another language;

• rewriting and text optimization;

• SEO keywords suggestions;

• generating subject lines for cold emails and preparing cold outreach letters;

• writing social media posts and generating ad copy ideas or CTAs;

• generating blog post ideas and creating articles outlines;

• gathering facts and statistical data for blog articles and infographics.

However, keep in mind that the chatbot is an ever-learning language model, so there are some imperfections in its operation. For example, sometimes it does not complete a sentence, cutting it off in half, or struggling to understand the user's request. In some cases, it can paraphrase the same answer several times without adding any additional detail. That's why the developers warn the users about the probability of incorrect answers and potentially harmful suggestions.

For example, several months ago, Natalia Ustymenko, Head of Direct Marketing Yespo, asked ChatGPT for advice on collecting a contact base. In addition to effective and ethical suggestions, the neural network suggested buying a user database. However, when we asked ChatGPT the same question in July 2023, it provided us with a dozen actionable tips.

Also, the data ChatGPT is trained with is limited by 2021 information. That's why checking the facts and stats is one of the main rules for working with this tool. Open AI chatbot doesn't know everything but it is constantly learning. That's why the developers allow for using ChatGPT for free — it learns and evolves by analyzing user queries and collecting their feedback.

At the same time, ChatGPT API, which can be integrated with mobile apps or other services, is paid. At the time of writing, this service costs $0.0015 per thousand tokens. Shopify's Shop application was one of the first to integrate ChatGPT. It powered their virtual assistant, enabling it to provide better-personalized recommendations.

How Much Does It Cost to Use ChatGPT

As we have mentioned earlier, you can use ChatGPT for marketing free of charge. However, there are some limitations you should keep in mind when opting for free ChatGPT usage. In this case, you can use it:

• when the load on the server is small;

• with standard response speed;

• with no-priority access to the model updates. 

ChatGPT "Plus" subscription costs $20 per month (as of June 2023) and provides users with the next benefits:

• an opportunity to work with the tool seamlessly during peak loads;

• an ability to receive faster answers to the requests;

• access new features first.

Using ChatGPT for Marketing in 2023 — Effective Scenarios

With its ability to understand and respond to natural language, ChatGPT presents several effective scenarios for marketing professionals to leverage its capabilities and achieve their goals. Let’s review them in more detail.

Saving time on routine tasks

Artificial intelligence will help you get rid of content marketing routine tasks. For example:

• Writing cold letters. Writing cold letters has never been easy since you will have only one attempt to grab the attention of a cold audience. However, with ChatGPT, cold email marketing campaigns can become more effective. The only thing you need to do is to work well on the core message of your letter, and then, ask a chatbot to rewrite it several times, adjusting the communication style to different audience segments. Then, edit the generated content and send it with the help of the Yespo email marketing platform.

• Create short messages. Writing short but effective text for mobile marketing is not easy — every word is worth its weight in gold due to volume limits. Generative AI will cope with this task if you clearly write the technical task. In this case, you have to specify the topic of the message, the desired call-to-action, the number of characters, the use of emoji, etc. You can also ask the bot to shorten your message to the required volume. In the same way, you can also use ChatGPT ideas for creating product descriptions for eCommerce.

• Translation into different languages. If you need to translate the text of the newsletter into several languages for your next multilingual campaign, ChatGPT will help with this task as well. However, it is still better to check the generated text with the help of a professional editor.

• Code cleanup. This feature of the chatbot will help email marketers who create HTML emails manually. To make sure that all the styles are correct and the message is error-free, upload it to ChatGPT and it will clean up the code.

• Negative feedback responses generation. Some direct marketers use a chatbot to create responses to angry messages on social media, on the website, or in emails addressed to the company. The neural network will analyze the feedback and generate a polite response, saving the marketer's nerve cells.

Searching for creative ideas

ChatGPT can be your brainstorming partner. Suppose you need an email subject line that will attract the attention of your subscribers. If it should be exciting and meaningful at the same time, provide the bot with the letter context and ask it to come up with a few options that might lead you to a winning idea.

Another advantage of using ChatGPT is that AI understands additional requests, so you can give instructions to change the generated topics — expand the thought or, conversely, shorten it, add different emojis, etc. The chatbot even knows the specific rules for building email subject lines and can explain exactly how it generated the option based on your request.

Likewise, ChatGPT will help you find new interesting topics for newsletters or blog articles. For example, you can ask it to write a list of questions the users of a specific service ask most often. Also, the tool can help you develop thesis statements that you can use for describing the benefits of a certain product.

Testing ChatGTP at Yespo: Cases and Tips

Being fascinated by ChatGPT’s capabilities, our in-house specialist at Yespo also decided to test it. Here are some examples of tasks that ChatGPT did well.

Generating email subject lines: neural network vs marketers

We conducted two A/B tests to find out whose email subject line performs better — the one created by our email marketing specialist or a chatbot. During the first test iteration, we compared email open rates using two topics generated by ChatGPT. The result was the same.

During the second test round, we compared one AI vs human-generated email subject line. However, there was no winner either — in our case, artificial intelligence did not surpass the human mind.

It would also be useful to know that by default, ChatGPT-generated email subject lines aren't pretty outstanding. However, if you provide the tool with more context, the result will be better. For example, when writing your request, you can also specify:

• your email type;

• your newsletter goal;

• the specific features of the brand voice;

• key phrases to be used in the text;

• the specifics of the target audience;

• email subject line characters limit;

• the necessity to use emojis.

You may need to ask a chatbot to rewrite the options a few times, but eventually, you will be able to choose something nice for your newsletter.

Translation to the necessary languages

When testing the chatbot's capabilities, we gave it the task of translating the subject of a letter for readers from Switzerland into three languages spoken in the country. It specified all the languages used in Switzerland but translated into the three most common ones.

Gamification assistant

Gamification is one of the strongest trends in email marketing because people love games. However, creating, for example, an interesting quiz can become a real headache for a marketer. This is where artificial intelligence comes in, helping you engage customers better.

"I asked ChatGPT to come up with 4 questions with 3 options, where one answer will be correct. At first, it did not understand the task, so I wrote out the request in detail. On the third attempt, the chatbot generated good quizzes," Natalia Ustymenko shared her experience of using the OpenAI bot.

To make the task easier, you can also provide the chatbot with ready-made material, for example, an article, and ask it to make a quiz with interesting questions.

Storytelling and brainstorming

Telling fascinating stories in letters is a real art that requires imagination and inspiration. Artificial intelligence can help you find the right emotion or come up with a plot that will lead you to a valuable idea.

AI can be used as a brainstorming partner. In the opinion of Natalie Ustymenko, in some ways it is even better than a person: "During tough brainstorming, you eventually reach the stage of non-acceptance. At this point, all suggested ideas sound bad. ChatGPT, in turn, doesn’t reject anything. On the contrary, the tool is always ready to listen to and support you, plus suggest its own ideas."

Conclusion

ChatGPT is a revolutionary and breakthrough tool that significantly speeds up the work of email marketers. With the right strategies and creative application, this smart chatbot has the potential to revolutionize how email marketing is executed. However, it can't replace the human way of thinking, ideation, and creativity yet. So, feel free to use ChatGPT as a source of inspiration, leveraging its ideas as a foundation to come up with even better ones.