AI in Email Marketing: 5 Simple Ways to Get Started (Even If You’re Not a Tech Expert)

In fact, marketers who use AI tools report a 41% increase in email marketing revenue performance, but here’s what many marketers overlook: you don’t have to do everything at once to start seeing results. A few small changes can make a big difference.

In this article, we’ll walk you through five practical ways you can use email marketing AI today without requiring any technical skills whatsoever.

If you’ve been curious about using AI in your email strategy but weren’t sure where to start, this guide is for you.

AI has moved beyond being a trend – it’s now a practical tool marketers use every day to work faster and smarter. Platforms that once required data teams or deep tech knowledge are now accessible, intuitive, and designed to be easily used for marketers like you.

And email marketing? It’s the perfect use case to start implementing AI.

Here’s why:

• You already have the data. AI thrives on data, and email platforms are full of it: open rates, clicks, audience segments, engagement levels…
• You already know your audience. That means you can prompt the AI with the right context and get content that makes sense for your subscribers.
• You don’t need complex setups. Most popular email marketing software already includes built-in tools, making it easy to use AI features. With just a few clicks, you can access these advanced tools to enhance your marketing efforts.

But most importantly, AI helps you connect better with your audience, not just automate your marketing operations.

When used strategically, AI can help you understand your audience better, personalize your content, and make every message more relevant for the users.

So, where do you start? There are countless ways to bring AI into your email marketing strategy, but here are five practical ideas to help you get started. Let’s dive in.

Every great email marketing campaign starts with one key question: What does my audience need right now?

This is where AI shines, not just for writing content, but for helping you think. With the right prompts, AI tools can help you brainstorm entire campaigns based on your buyer personas, surfacing new angles you may not have considered yet.

For example, you could ask an AI tool like ChatGPT to help you:

• List 5 pain points your ideal customer has before buying.
• Suggest email topics for a welcome sequence in the fitness industry.
• Plan a re-engagement campaign for users who haven’t opened emails in over 30 days.

It’s like having a strategy partner in your pocket – one that’s available 24/7 and works at lightning speed.

AI won’t replace your brain, but it can help you shift perspectives, spot gaps, and move from “what should I write?” to “here’s a great plan!” much faster.

Whether you’re planning onboarding flows, lead nurturing emails, or your next seasonal promotion campaign, AI helps you get started without the overwhelm.

With the help of AI copy generators, you can quickly brainstorm subject lines, draft full email messages, or rewrite content for different tones and formats.

Today, many email platforms offer built-in AI features to make this process even easier.

Tools like a smart subject line generator can suggest optimized headlines based on your campaign goals, audience, and tone, helping you boost open rates with minimal effort.

For example, platforms like Benchmark Email or Brevo (formerly Sendinblue)** both include AI writing assistance directly within their email builders.

When it comes to writing the body of the email, AI-powered content blocks can help you generate entire sections based on a few simple prompts tailored for different goals like welcome sequences, promotional offers, or nurture campaigns.

These features are often integrated directly into the editor, allowing you to build and refine your message without ever leaving the platform.

The best part? AI helps you speed things up, but you stay in control. It’s your strategy, your message. AI just gives you a faster path from idea to “ready to send”.

Good email marketing starts with knowing your audience, and segmentation is how you turn that knowledge into action (and results, obviously). But creating segments manually based on behaviors or preferences? That can take time. And that’s exactly where AI steps in.

AI analyzes your subscriber data to identify patterns you might miss, such as:

• Which content topics do specific users tend to engage with?
• What time of day do certain segments prefer to open emails?
• How do different audiences behave throughout your funnel?

This goes far beyond simple demographics. AI can suggest segmentation strategies based on real-time behaviors, engagement history, and even predicted intent, helping you send more targeted, personalized emails at scale.

Instead of guessing who should receive what, you’re using data-driven insights to deliver the right message to the right group. It’s segmentation made smarter, faster, and more effective – no spreadsheets required.

Timing matters – especially when inboxes are crowded. But figuring out when your audience is most likely to open your emails can be tricky (and constantly changing).

With AI-powered send time optimization, you don’t have to spend time guessing the best possible option to schedule your next campaign. Some tools can analyze engagement data and automatically determine the best time to send emails for each subscriber, helping you maximize the chance they’ll see and open your message.

Many platforms now include Smart Send-style functionality that does this behind the scenes. Rather than scheduling a blast for 10 am and hoping it works for everyone, you’re letting AI tailor the timing for each contact based on when they’ve opened your messages in the past.

Sending emails is just one part of the equation. Knowing how your emails really perform is what helps your business grow. But we know that digging through reports to figure out what actually matters can be time-consuming. Here’s also where AI can save you time while doing email marketing.

Instead of manually scanning open rates, clicks, and engagement trends, AI tools can help you identify what’s working, what’s underperforming, and why. But some platforms go even further, offering you tools that make this process even easier, like Benchmark Email’s GPT-powered Email Metrics Wizard.

A GPT (Generative Pre-trained Transformer) is an advanced type of AI that understands natural language and can generate responses, analyze text, and offer detailed insights based on just a few prompts. Benchmark uses this technology to turn your email performance data into practical feedback for your reports.

You just need to paste your campaign report into the Email Metrics Wizard, and in seconds, the GPT will analyze it and respond with:

• Key takeaways from the campaign.
• What worked (and what didn’t).
• Suggestions to improve future campaigns.

It’s like having a performance AI coach built into your reporting. Less time buried in data. More time making smarter marketing decisions.

The most important thing we can say is: Don’t try to do everything at once.

AI can feel overwhelming at first, especially with so many tools and promises floating around. However, you don’t need to overhaul your entire email strategy to start seeing real value.

Just start with the one area where you need the most support: maybe you want to write subject lines faster, segment smarter, or finally understand what your campaign metrics are trying to tell you.

Even small AI-powered improvements can lead to better engagement and more efficient workflows. 84% of marketers already using AI say it’s helping them work more efficiently, and nearly half report improved campaign performance (HubSpot, 2023).

Just make sure to choose tools that are built with simplicity in mind – ones you can start using right away, without needing to be a developer or tech expert.

Whether you’re a one-person team or part of a growing business, AI becomes your strategic sidekick, helping you move faster, think more clearly, and focus on the things that actually drive results.

It’s not here to replace your skills or instincts. It’s here to amplify what you already do well.

So start small. Pick one area, test it, learn from it, adjust, and let AI help you build smarter, more effective email campaigns, one step at a time.

When you combine smart AI tools with human strategy, you unlock email campaigns that are more timely, more relevant, and more effective. And thanks to how intuitive today’s platforms have become (like the kind you’ll find in services such as Benchmark Email), getting started with AI doesn’t require a tech background.

So why not test one new idea this week? Use an AI copy generator to write your next subject line. Segment smarter. Ask your metrics assistant what to improve. And let AI bring more growth to your business.