Your Competitors Are 5x Faster - Here's How They Do It

I don't think AI can replace marketers, but I do believe it helps you remove that blank page syndrome that a lot of us have faced.

Yeah, but there's this magical thing now called AI and it really just compresses that timeline.

Here's the key. You're not gonna use all of them, right? You're focusing on picking the best one, maybe the best 2 to 3 that are gonna resonate the most with your kind of specific brand or freelancer for your individual clients' brands. But with AI, you can write like one core message and then you just need to ask AI to change it and adapt it for your different segments.

Yeah, I like that. That's basically AI as a brainstorming partner and not a Replacement of judgment does not replace the marketer. From the open to the click, they're the masters of the flow. Just watch your list grow and your leads turn to go. Did we retain you so far, or do we have to extend it? If you want results, you know you gotta send it. Yeah, you know you gotta send it. Yeah, you know you gotta send it. Yeah, you know you gotta send it. What is up everyone? Welcome back to Send It, where we discuss anything and everything retention marketing, specifically in email and SMS marketing and e-commerce. My name is Jimmy Kim. And I'm here with my co-host.

Chase Diamond.

All right, Chase, last episode we talked about testing and I wanted to run a good test. You need volume and you need creative ideas, right?

Yep, exactly.

Yeah. So, you know, it's definitely a bottleneck, wouldn't you agree?

Yeah, dude. Writing copy, designing emails, building flows. It's a lot of work. It takes a lot of time.

But you know what? There's this magic thing called AI that has fundamentally changed everything Recently, like, Coach completely changed it all.

Dude, it really has. And I think a lot of marketers are not using AI at all, or if they're using it, they're just scratching the surface or maybe even using it wrong, right? They're scared of it. They're copy-pasting AI outputs without any editing and refinement.

Yep. So today I wanted to do a pod walking through how retention teams can actually use AI to produce more content. That's what we're going to focus on today, like 5 times more without sacrificing quality.

Amazing. Yeah. And with that, we're going to cover the workflows, the tools, the quality control process, and really where AI fits into personalization.

Yeah. And I will make sure that you continue to hear this, but retention marketers, this is a skill now. Using AI is a competitive advantage and you need to get into it.

Yeah. So without further ado, let's get into it.

All right, Chase. Well, let's start with the why, because I love always talking about the why. It's important. Why does creative velocity matter more than it did 5 years ago, in your opinion?

I think there are 2 big structural changes that have happened kind of within the email landscape.

Okay, let's go through those. What's the first one?

Number one is inbox competition is way higher. You know, customers are just getting way more marketing messages than ever before, dude.

Yeah, what do you think, in your opinion? How many more emails do you think people are getting these days?

I'd say, you know, the average person based off everything I've read and seen, Get something like 300 to maybe 350 emails per day. It's insane. And probably 30 to 50 of those are marketing emails, maybe even more, right?

Yeah, I agree with that. I think it gets worse and worse right now, especially the more you buy, the more email lists you get on. And ultimately, I think the big thing that people need to understand is you're competing for attention against dozens, hundreds of brands every single day.

Exactly. And what that means is there's generic repetitive messaging isn't going to cut through the noise anymore like maybe it did in the past.

So you need more creative variety ultimately, right?

Yeah, that's right. And if every email you send looks the same, sounds the same, and says the same thing, why are people going to care? They're just going to tune you out.

Yeah. And the reality is, is if you're testing new angles, new hooks, new stories, it's kind of how you stay interesting these days.

Yeah, exactly. I think the creative variety is going to help you keep your engagement high.

Okay. What about the second one? What were you talking— thinking about?

Sure. I think the big thing here is that testing is no longer optional. I think it's really required and it's essential for your growth.

Why do you think that?

I'd say because brands that are winning aren't guessing what works at this point. They're constantly testing and learning faster than their competitors.

Okay. So you're testing 2 subject lines per campaign, your competitor is testing 5. They're basically learning more, right?

That's right. And over, you know, 6, 9, 12 months, that learning advantage compounds into a huge, huge performance gap.

So what you need is basically volume to fuel the testing.

Right. And historically the bottleneck was always the amount of creative that you could produce.

Okay. So what did, what do you, okay, let's go to the old because I like to talk about old news. So what does the old workflow look like in your opinion? Like when you think about retention marketing?

Yeah, I'd say marketing teams used to operate as follows. You know, they would brainstorm an idea that would take them maybe an hour or two. Then they would spend another hour or 2 actually writing the copy and then another hour or 2 designing the email. And then they would wait to get approval, which could take, you know, a day, a little bit more, a little less. And then they'd press send on an email.

So it takes 2 to 3 days basically to produce one campaign is what you're telling me.

Yeah, that's exactly right. And if you wanted to test multiple variations, dude, multiply that by 2, 3, 4 times. It's just so slow.

Yeah, but there's this magical thing now called AI and it really just compresses that timeline.

Dramatically. You know, what used to take days now maybe takes hours or even potentially minutes if you're good at it.

Okay. And so we flip to AI and we talk about that. How do you think it's changing, how AI's affected the workflow?

Yeah, first I think it's important to be clear about like what AI does and doesn't do. I don't think AI can replace marketers, but I do believe it helps you remove kind of that blank page syndrome that a lot of us have faced.

Got it. Um, okay, so what do you mean by this whole blank page syndrome?

You know that feeling when you sit down to write an email and you just stare at a blank screen for 20 minutes being like, dude, what the heck am I gonna work on here?

Yeah, that's the worst, dude.

I think AI does a really great job at removing that fear and removing that kind of, you know, pause. Instead of starting from nothing, you can start with a structured draft.

Yeah. So you're editing and not starting from scratch, right?

Yeah. And if you think about editing, it's so much quicker and faster and more efficient than actually creating from zero.

Okay, so talk about the AI workflow now. How do you think this is changing from the old?

Sure. Here's how I think, you know, the best teams could and should be operating. You know, step 1 is they're going to be able to generate endless amount of campaign angles, right? You can ask AI to generate 10, 15, 20+ campaign ideas based on your specific and unique product and audience. Then from there, step 2 is you're going to select the best ideas, right? So review the 20-something that it picked. And you pick your best 3 to 5 that feel right and on brand for you. Then from there, you're going to step 3, which is gonna generate these drafts. So AI's gonna create V1s of the subject lines, hooks, body copies, and CTAs for each of those angles that you picked. And then from there, this is where you come in, right? You're gonna edit and refine. So you add your brand voice, fix product details, and, and make it feel human, make it feel on brand and like you. And then step 5 is press send.

So as I listen to this, I think the thing that I get from all of this is that you're no longer struggling to come up with one idea. You're almost just choosing from a dozen.

That's right. You know, you go from creative kind of scarcity to now creative abundance.

All right, let's walk through a real-life example for the listeners.

Sure. So I was just drinking coffee, right? So let's say you're a coffee brand and you need to create a replenishment email.

Okay.

So with the old way, right, you sit down, you brainstorm angles, you write a few subject lines, you then draft the email body, you design it within your ESP, and that maybe took 3 to 4 hours.

And that's only if you're fast, I would say.

Right. If you're seasoned. However, now with AI, the new way is maybe like, let's say the first 5 minutes is asking AI for 10 replenishment email angles. The next 5 minutes is picking the best angle. And asking AI to draft the email. Then the next 5 to 10 minutes is editing copy, adjusting the tone, and fixing product details. And then the next 10 minutes is building into your ESP and queuing A.

So you went from like 3, 4 hours of work to like 30 minutes or less?

Yeah, that's right. And again, I, I kind of was generous there. If you're fast and you're good with AI, you know, instead of 30 minutes, maybe it's 15 to 20 minutes, right? And the quality is going to be just as good because you're still editing and refining.

Yeah, no, that's 80% time savings. And what's crazy is the quality doesn't drop because, because you're still editing it, you're getting involved in there, you're adding strategy and adding brand voice. So you're not start— the thing I think the key here that people need to learn is that you're not starting from a blank page anymore.

Yeah, that's right. And like, if you think about all the extra time now that you have available, You can use that to create more variations for testing and/or just working on more general strategy type things.

All right, so where does AI actually help the retention workflow? Can we break this down a little bit?

Hey, it's Chase. Got 30 quick seconds? We built something specifically for you. Jimmy and I together have over 20 years of combined experience in email marketing, and we finally put everything together in one place. And it's called Ecom Email Certified. I know it's fancy, but it's going to be great whether you're brand new or running campaigns for 7, 8, 9-figure brands. It covers it all— deliverability, AI, copywriting, design, strategy, SMS, literally everything. Has over 175 total modules totaling 25+ hours of content. Even has quizzes, a community, and you're going to get a real certification. It's way better than college, right? Don't tell your professor that, but it is. And we've designed it to take you from beginner to certified expert. We're talking about the kind of marketer who actually moves the needle and drives real revenue. Check it out at ecomemailcertified.com. And now back to the pod. Yeah. So let's think about it into 4 different layers and let's go one at a time. And it goes kind of from like ideation to iteration. So number one, like this first step, this first layer, is idea gen. And this, I think, is where AI is incredibly powerful.

And why do you think AI is so good at generating ideas?

I just think because it can pull patterns across millions and millions of examples. So if you ask it for campaign angles, it could give you things that like you might not even be aware of, right? Problem-based campaigns, even things like seasonal hooks, product education angles. Different types of storytelling approaches, different types of transformation narratives, and social proof angles.

Yeah. And so instead of brainstorming for hours, you get basically dozens of ideas in just minutes.

Exactly. And here's the key. You're not going to use all of them, right? You're focusing on picking the best one, maybe the best 2 to 3 that are going to resonate the most with your kind of specific brand, or if you're an agency or freelancer, for your individual clients' brands.

Yeah, I like that. That's basically like AI as a brainstorming partner and not a replacement of judgment. Does not replace the marketer.

Yeah, that's exactly right, dude. And you know, you as the marketer, you still get to decide which ideas to pursue. So that's the first one. Now layer 2 is gonna be focused all about like kind of the copywriting. So AI can generate all of the components of an email, you know, everything from like a subject line to a preview text to an email body copy. CTA variations, no, SMS variations. Like the list is really endless.

Yeah. But you're not publishing AI copy directly, are you?

No, I, I don't think that we're there yet. I think we could get there, but not there. I think that's where most people mess up. I'd say 85, maybe 80-ish percent of the way there with the draft from AI, but you still need to edit the last 20% of the way. Yeah.

What's the 20%? What do you think needs the most editing?

I think 3 primary things. One is brand voice. I don't think AI naturally sounds like your brand. And number 2 is product accuracy. I think AI can hallucinate sometimes and make up features or benefits. So just make sure like what AI is saying is legit. Don't just publish that as is. And I think the last part is like the emotional nuance. So AI can be a bit flat or kind of generic, right?

Yeah, basically you're adding personality and you're clearing up specifics basically, right?

Yeah, that's exactly right. AI gives you structure and speed, but I think humans add the personality and really the soul behind the brand. So that's number 2. And then moving on to number 3, this is really focused at personalization at scale. And I think this is where AI is really interesting and, and really exciting and becomes kind of a game changer.

Tell me more about that.

Sure. So traditionally, if you wanted to send personalized messages to 5 different segments, Dude, you have to create 5 different emails, which takes absolutely forever. Yeah, it's a nightmare. Like, but with AI, you can write like one core message and then you just need to ask AI to change it and adapt it for your different segments. So maybe the segments are like a VIP customer, a first-time buyer, those customers that are at risk, even category-specific buyers, and then like maybe different types of replenishment windows.

So you're creating variations way faster.

Yeah, exactly. And, and the variations actually make sense because AI can adjust tone and then emphasis based on the different segments.

All right, for the listeners, let's get it, let's do a real-life example of how you might use it.

Okay, so, all right, let's say you're promoting a new product. Your core message is we just launched X, Y, and Z product. Yeah.

Okay.

So for VIPs, AI can frame it as like, as a VIP, you're getting first access, early access to our new product before anyone else.

So it's emphasizing exclusivity.

Exactly. And then for first-time buyers, it might say something like, hey, since you just joined our family, here's a product I think you're gonna love.

Okay. That's like building relationship.

Yeah. Building relationship, right? Same core product, same core focus, but the framing changes based on who's actually receiving it. Does that make sense? Yeah. Okay. And then, so moving on to iteration is the next one. That's kind of layer 4. AI is gonna help you create multiple testable versions, you know, instantly.

Okay. Let's, let's double tap on that.

Sure. Um, okay, so let's say you write a single email. You can then ask AI to generate 5 different subject line variations for it, maybe 3 different types of hooks. A few different types of creative styles of kind of call to actions, and then different types of like email lengths, maybe a short one versus a long one.

Yeah. So basically it's creating dozens of testable combinations.

Yes, exactly. And you didn't have to spend hours writing each variation. AI took care of that for you in a matter of minutes.

Yeah. This is where I would say the 5x or 10x productivity comes from. You're producing way more testable content and Basically the same amount of time. And I think people miss that the more tests doesn't mean more work. It just means learning faster. That's key here. Each test teaches you something about your audience and it points you in the right direction.

Yeah, 100%. And the more you test, the faster you learn and the better your emails are ultimately going to get.

Okay. I want to go into like a workflow, like an actual, again, getting really tactical for the listeners here, a step-by-step workflow. If someone's listening and they want to implement this, How do you think about it? How do you break this down in your mind when it comes to the workflow?

Cool. All right, let's go down kind of one by one with the system that we recommend. So the 5 steps starting with number 1. So I think you always need to start with a brief. Don't just say, AI, write me this email.

What, what should be in the brief for the listeners?

Uh, 4 things that you should focus on, and if you wanna include more, great, but these are the 4 primary things. Uh, number 1 is the audience, right? So who is on the receiving end of this? Who is this for? Is this for the VIP that we talked about, the first-time buyers, et cetera? Number 2 is the goal. So what do you want people receiving this email to do? Is it to buy for a first time? Is it to reorder? Is it to engage in reply? Is it to refer friends? What does that goal look like? The next one is the product and the offer. So what is it that you're actually promoting? A product launch, right? You know, back in stock? Like, you know, is it a discount? Like what's, what's on the receiving end? Like what are they getting? And then the last part is like the key message. So with all of that, what is the main point? What's the one main thing that you need to get across in the key message here?

Yeah. So you're giving AI context. That's the best way of explaining it.

Yeah. And the more specific you can create your brief, the better the output's gonna be.

All right. Let's go through an example brief. You want to kind of give me a prompt that you might use?

Sure. Okay. So a prompt for this could be something like, write an email for first-time buyers who purchased in the last, let's say 30 days. So write an email for first-time buyers who purchased in the last 30 days. And the goal of this is to drive a second purchase. And we're going to promote, let's say our best-selling bundle. The key message here is going to be, you know, you loved your first purchase. Here's the perfect companion product. Something, something along the line, just kind of spitballed.

Yeah. Versus someone who generally will go on and say, write a cross-sell email. And I found that the, the specificity, like being specific in a brief is what separates people who get a great AI output from people who kind of get that AI slop garbage, right? So if you're vague, AI is vague. If you're specific, AI specific.

Yeah, the more specific you can be in the inputs, the better the outputs are going to be.

Yeah. Okay.

Should I go to number two?

Yeah, let's do two. Hey, it's Jimmy, and I've got thirty seconds to tell you something that will change how you get inspired on your very next marketing campaign. You know when you're screenshotting those emails in your inbox and Slack and pasting them here? You saw it on Twitter, trying to remember what brand did that killer Black Friday. Friday sequence? Well, guess what? Inbox.ai just solved that. It's an AI-powered database with over a million real emails from the best DTC brands. Ridge, Fenty Skin, Casper, they're all in there. You can search by promotional type, journey stages, whatever you need. Get AI breakdowns of what worked and why, track your competitors, and even request brands that are not in there. No more hunting through screenshots or saved folders. Inbox.ai turns your inspiration into revenue. Check it out at inbox.ai.

So the next step from here is idea generation. So asking AI for the 10, 20 campaign angles based on your brief.

Okay. And what do you think you're looking for when you're asking this?

You want variety, right? You want different approaches. And I talked about this a little bit before, but like a couple things that you're kind of looking for here would be like problem solution angles, transformation stories, really leveraging social proof and tying it into that angle. And then, you know, education, super important, obviously, as we know, things like curiosity or even things like urgency. Right.

All right. That makes sense. And then you just pick 2 or 3 of those, right?

Yeah, exactly. You're not going to use them all. You're focused on the curation piece. That's really where the humans are great at this and, you know, kind of what your customers might be interested in. So let's go to step 3. Step 3 now is focusing on like the actual draft or each angle you selected, you're gonna want AI to write the subject line. So asking for multiple variations, like 3 to 5 variations, uh, same for like the preview text. Then you need the email body, you know, a call to action. And also too, like, don't forget SMS. Take that and kind of work on getting the SMS version.

And you know what I love is this all happens in just minutes.

Yeah. I mean, dude, literally let's say 5 to 10 minutes, you're getting a full draft with various different types of versions that you could choose between and start editing. And then from there, right? Like step 4, I think this is where most people mess up. And this is the human editing that I was just talking about. And this piece is so critical, dude. Yeah.

Let's dive deeper into that. What do you think you're editing when you're thinking about human editing? What are the things that you think about?

Yeah, I think I went through a few of these before. So I'm gonna expand on that and talk about a few additional. 5 things. Number 1 is brand tone. So does this actually sound like us? So before AI, does this email sound like something we would send? Product accuracy. Are the features and benefits actually correct? Is AI hallucinating or has it nailed it? The emotional connection. So does this feel human? Does it feel relatable? And then the strategic alignment. So does this actually support our brand and our positioning? And then the call to action clarity. So is it obvious what you're asking someone to do and what you like them to take next, right? Yeah.

So you're not just accepting AI's output as is. I think that's really important for people to listen to right now. And honestly, this is where I see most people fail. They treat AI like this magic button. They generate, they copy, they paste, and they send, and then they wonder why it didn't perform or why the customers say it doesn't feel like it's on brand.

Yes. Um, you're exactly right. Like, you know, that's never right. Like what happens, um, AI gives you the kind of the speed and the structure, but you have to add the nuance.

How long do you think people should be spending editing?

Um, so if AI's giving you, let's call it 80%, that's pretty solid. I think editing could take 10, 15, 20 minutes, which is a lot, lot faster than writing from scratch.

Yeah, it makes sense.

Yeah. Okay. So the last step of them, right, number 5, is creating different test variations. Once you have edited the base email, you then want AI to create variations so you could run different types of A/B tests.

Like different subject lines or more?

Yeah, I mean, that's definitely a start, but like different structures as well. So rewrite this email with more of a curiosity-driven hook instead of the problem-focused hook that we have Currently.

And now you're giving a testable variant basically.

Yeah, that's right. And you can do this for multiple tests without spending, you know, tons and tons of hours and time.

Yeah. Okay. So here's one fear that I hear from people is that they believe that AI content feels robotic or generic. How do you prevent that?

Yeah, dude, I hear that a lot as well. I think that is a big fear and I do think it has validity. I think it only happens when marketers skip the actual editing step. Step, right? So the rule, again, doubling down on this, is AI is focused on the first 80%. You're focused on the refinement of the final 20%.

Yeah. So in simple layman's terms, AI is the first draft, not the final draft.

Yeah, that's right. Right. The 20% that you're going to do yourself, that is where the magic happens. That's where you add the personality, the brand voice, kind of the human emotions or the comedy, right? The specific product details, and even focusing on like the strategic positioning that you know better than anyone else.

Yeah, I almost feel like there's like a quality control checklist that people should have.

Yeah, I think every piece of AI content should pass, you know, these 5 checks, right? Does it sound like our brand? So if you read it out loud and it doesn't sound like something your brand would say, you have to edit it and refine it further. Number 2 is, are the product claims accurate, right? So as we've talked about, AI might make up features or benefits, so double-check every single claim so it's legit. And then is the message clear? I feel like sometimes AI gets just like very wordy and convoluted, and it just needs to be brought back to reality, so it needs to be simplified. And is there an emotional connection, right? AI can often be very flat, so you want to add humor, empathy, tone, warmth, right, where appropriate. And then finally, like, is the call to action obvious? So Making sure that the CTA is really clear and focused on adding kind of an action and, and value.

Yeah. And I will add something. If you go through this quality control checklist and any of those fail, then you need to keep editing until it tests. I think the mindset shift people need is AI's like your junior copywriter, right? It's talented, it's fast, but it needs supervision. And you wouldn't let a junior copywriter publish without reviewing, so don't do it with AI.

Yeah, exactly. So honestly, I think after you've done this process a couple of times, you can get really quick and good at the editing and then also to feed the AI your edits, right? So it starts to learn it and give you better drafts and ultimately it's become second nature for you with this process.

Yeah. What would you say your like hack or trick is, is to train AI to sound more like your brand?

Yeah, I think like just importing and kind of giving as much of the historical types of examples that you have, your best performing emails. And saying, write in this style. And then as you get feedback from the AI, the draft, just ship it your kind of edited version.

Yeah, dude, I love that, that you can now just copy a screenshot of an email and it can read that and it can take your brand voice and know what it sounds like.

It's so cool. And the more examples you give, the better AI gets at mimicking your tone.

Yeah, over time, I would say AI really can get close to your Pretty close to your voice.

Again, yeah, again, you're going to still have to edit it, but now you're editing less because the starting point is so much better.

Yeah. You know, one thing I've noticed is, you know, the best marketers is that they're combining AI with inspiration. They're not asking AI to invent everything from scratch.

Yeah, that's exactly right. I think this is so key. And AI is just extremely powerful when you feed it good inputs.

Yeah. What kind of inputs do you like?

I think like the best workflow for this quite simply is just study, adapt, generate.

Okay. Break that down real quick.

Sure. So study is, you know, essentially what's already working out there in the market. What does that look like? And then from there, how do you adapt? So how do you take those and make them your own with your own spin? And then the last part is generate. So using AI to generate endless variations.

So you're not starting from zero, you're building on proven patterns that you have already. And this is actually how, you know, we built Inbooks, for example, because I kept seeing marketers Marketers waste time reinventing the wheel with other brands that already kind of had it figured out. Why not study what works and adapt when it's faster with AI?

Yeah, exactly. And this is where inbox.ai, obviously shameless plug, really becomes valuable.

Well, let's get into that shameless plug. How do you think you can use AI and Inbooks together? Hey, quick 60-second break to shout out our title sponsor, Omnisend. If you don't know them, Omnisend is an all-in-one email and SMS platform built specifically for e-commerce. They've trusted by over 155,000 merchants with a 4.8 rating star on Shopify's marketplace with over 2,800+ reviews. People love using them. Their support is incredible, responsive team, great help docs, and they actually show up when you need them. 3, look, everyone loves saving a buck. They've got great features and great pricing. Listen, I've heard this inside the community that someone actually dropped their bill by almost 50% and then included their SMS costs, which is absolutely wild. Another agency that we talked to shifted all his clients over when he discovered that he can save them 30 to 60% off of their actual monthly bill. And they're taking that money now reinvesting into ads. And that real money is going to come back into your pocket too, because you're helping them out or whatever it might be. With all this, I literally just helped Chase migrate his personal list to Omnisend not too long ago. It was super easy. They got team, they have an automated solution. It's really great. So if you're looking to scale your email and SMS game, check out omnisend.com/sendit. Tell 'em Chase and Jimmy sent you. Now back to your pod.

Sure. So, uh, let's say you need to write a replenishment email. Here's the workflow. So step 1 is go to Imbux. So it's inbox with 2 Os, imbux.ai. You just simply search replenishment email.

And you'll see like couple dozen from the top brands.

Yeah, that's right. You can see how brands like Lume, Harry's, or even Native structure their exact replenishment messaging.

Yeah, and you know what's cool is that allows you to study their proven frameworks, 'cause they're not doing that because they're not tested.

Exactly, you'll notice things like friendly kind of reminder tones, usage-based timing, so hey, you ordered 30 days ago, one-click reorder links, and even things like product education as a value add.

Okay. So you're reverse engineering what works and I think that's the key here.

Yes, that's right. And then with step 2 is you're going to take those patterns and create the brief for AI.

Yeah. Like I would say the prompt would be like, write a replenishing email using a friendly reminder tone and reference 30-day timing and include one-click reorder CTA.

Dude. And it's so, so easy when you do that right now. AI is going to have the framework to work from instead of You know, inventing from scratch.

Yeah. And the output is way better. I've tested this, the same brief, but one version references proven patterns from Inbooks or like a brand or whatever it is, and one doesn't. And the one with the reference points constantly, I would say is 2 to 3 times better because the AI has a framework to build from instead of just kind of guessing or using something generic.

Yeah. And dude, the cool thing that I think a lot of people know is we actually have an AI for every single email example that's going to break down the good, the bad, The opportunity, right? So, you know, take the email, upload the email, take the feedback that we have, share your feedback, and it's gonna get so good because you're now combining the human insight, what works with what AI speed, and you're gonna generate variations so freaking good and so freaking fast, right?

Yeah. And I would imagine that the more of this you do, the better you get at spotting patterns. Like after a few months of studying top brands and using AI, you're gonna start internalizing what works and you'll start to develop almost like a taste.

Yeah, absolutely. Like over time you're going to build like this mental and I guess like this actual library of what works and then you can use the AI to execute way quicker than you could otherwise.

Yeah. And I think the message here for marketers, it's not AI versus human creativity, it's AI amplifying human creativity.

I think most people get that wrong. That's like the entire point. It's not one or the other, it is both.

All right, let's talk about the limits. What can AI not do well these days?

Yeah, that's a good question. I think 3 things that AI struggles with and likely always will to some degree. I think the first is like the brand voice nuance that we've been talking about. I think AI can mimic tone to some degree, but I don't think it can capture like the essence of a brand entirely.

What do you mean by that?

So I think every brand has like interesting kind of unique quirks, kind of personality, inside jokes, specific phrases they use, specific phrases their customers use. And I don't think AI can replicate that naturally, at least not yet.

Yeah, that makes sense. That's where the human needs to add that layer.

Right. And if your brand is kind of irreverent and sarcastic, I think AI was gonna give you more like safe, kind of polite, polished copy, more corporate copy. So you're gonna still need to inject the actual personality. And then from there, the second part is the strategy. I don't think AI quite understands your business goals, your competitive positioning, Or even your customer journey.

Yeah, I agree. It can't make strategic decisions.

Yeah, and AI can execute on a strategy, but it can't create the strategy entirely. It does need you.

Let's double tap on that. Give me an example.

Sure. So let's say, I don't know, you're deciding whether to focus on acquisition or retention this quarter. AI can't tell you that. That's your decision. You need to make that business decision.

But once you decide, AI can help you execute on that.

Yeah, if you say, hey, we're going to focus on retention, AI will help you generate win-back campaigns, loyalty messaging, replenishment emails, but it didn't decide the actual strategy. And then kind of the third one would be like the customer insight. I think the best marketers understand their customers on a really deep kind of psychological level.

No, this is true. You know what motivates them, what they're afraid of, what they aspire to be, and all that jazz.

Yeah, exactly. And that comes from, you know, talking to customers, reading reviews, analyzing support tickets. Yeah.

And AI can't do all that.

No, it can help you turn those insights into messaging, but it's not going to actually generate the insights.

Okay. So the marketer's job is still to understand a customer deeply and then use that AI to communicate and understand faster.

Yes.

You know, we keep saying AI doesn't replace the empathy or the insights. It can only execute on it at scale when it's told and given all the information.

Dude, well said. Nothing else to add on that point.

All right, let's close this thing out with the future. Where do you think this is all going, man?

Yeah, look, it's hard to say. I think 2 big trends that kind of we're looking at, the first would be like mass personalization. AI is gonna enable brands to create truly unique messages for every single customer.

So are we done with the hi first name personalization?

Yeah, right. What I'm talking about more is like dynamically adapting the entire message based on behavior. Preferences, purchase history, as well as engagement patterns.

Now, a future where every email someone receives is tailored exactly for them.

Yes. Yeah, exactly. And I think this is happening kind of at the high end, but I think AI is going to make it accessible to the mid-market and even kind of the SMBs.

Yeah, that's powerful because, you know, personalization really does drive conversion. And I think that's why it's always been the holy grail. And I think we're going to see the split in this market. Brands that really figure out AI personalized, you know, personalization will have a higher engagement LTV. And then there's just going to be brands that don't change and adapt and they'll get left behind.

Yeah, always, right? And when you can scale, you know, personalization, I think your email program becomes so much more effective. And the second trend I kind of alluded to was like content velocity. I think teams that are going to win are going to simply produce and test more creative ideas than their competitors.

I totally agree. It's becoming a volume game.

Yeah. And I think volume's super important, but also the learning velocity. The more that you send, the faster you can generate ideas, test them and learn what works, the faster you're going to pull ahead.

Yeah. It's an enabler. AI is an enabler.

Right. I mean, think about 5 years ago, running 100 tests per quarter was unrealistic. Now it is very, very doable with AI.

Yeah. So brands that adopt early get a massive head start. We all knew that already, and that's always been the case. And this is, What I tell people, the learning gap compounds. If you're learning 5 times faster than your competitor for 6 months, it's not a 5 times advantage anymore. It's exponential.

And the brands that don't unfortunately will fall behind, right? Because their competitors are learning 5 times faster.

Makes sense. All right, let's wrap this thing up, man. We're at the top of the hour. AI is changing retention marketing. Tell me, Let's recap it. All right.

So real quickly, kind of what we covered. So I think it's gonna be super important for removing blank page syndrome and compressing the creative timelines. It's gonna help you just create so many campaign ideas in a matter of mere minutes. It's gonna allow you to leverage personalization at scale. Finally, it's going to enable kind of the rapid iteration for the testing phases, and it's going to allow you to amplify your own human creativity. Not replace it.

Yeah. And the workflow is basically brief, generate, edit, test, and the editing step is the most critical here.

Yes. Yeah, exactly. I think like the quality control checklist is brand voice, product accuracy, emotional connection, clarity, and the, the strength of your call to action.

Yeah. And just a shameless plug, I would say combine AI with tools like inbooks.ai to help it feed inputs and get better outputs.

Yeah. And remember, AI handles speed, humans handle strategy and soul.

Okay, cool. That was a perfect way to end it. That's a wrap for today's episode. We're going to call it something like How to Produce 5 Times More Email and SMS Content with AI. This is a new creative era that we're in, I would say, these days, and I'm excited about what we're going to see. So if you enjoyed this episode, you need someone to get caught up on AI, how to use AI correctly, Please share this with it. And of course, like, subscribe, yada, yada, yada, to make sure that you let us know that you've enjoyed today's podcast. Of course, we've got a lot of fun stuff available like Inbooks.ai. We also have a newsletter. If you continue to enjoy this, we're getting more and more into sharing more AI ideas in our newsletter. So make sure you subscribe to that newsletter at ecomemailmarketer.com. Plus, we've got some really cool reports that we're giving it out. Shout out to our sponsors. Thank you always for tuning in. I'll see you next week, Chase.

Cheers, dude.

From the open to the click, they're the masters of the flow. Just watch your list grow and your leads turn to go. Did we retain you so far or do we have to extend it? If you want results, you know you gotta send it. Yeah, you know you gotta send it. Yeah, you know you gotta send it. Yeah, you know you gotta send it.