AI For Email Design, Coding, And Content Curation: Tools And Expert Tips

That the role of artificial intelligence (AI) in email marketing is expanding beyond simple copywriting to tackle some of the more intricate tasks is no fresh update.

As Jaina Mistry, Director of Content and Email Marketing, Litmus notes-

“While generative AI is making waves, that’s not the only AI out there. Marketers have been using AI to help them spend more time on important things for years now. Machine learning helps marketers curate the right content for the right subscriber. Predictive analytics helps us determine what content to add to newsletters instead of spending hours figuring out what content will make readers click. And then, of course, there’s assistive AI, which helps us with menial, time-sucking tasks like project management, copy checking, and even video editing (because we know how effective using video in email can be!). 

As marketers, we’re always being asked to do more with less. Other types of AI have been successfully integrated into marketing workflows in years past—generative AI just has yet to make that leap successfully.”

The question is: How do we trust AI with highly specialized email marketing tasks? 

While AI’s role in crafting email copy and subject lines is familiar, optimizing email designs and coding with AI feels like stepping into uncharted territory. And so is the case with content curation. 

But, the tools and techniques that seem futuristic now could soon become industry standards. 

In this post, we’ll dive into how AI reshapes email design, coding, and content curation. We’ll explore key tools and expert tips to help you harness AI effectively and boost your email marketing strategy. 

AI For Email Design

In 2023, only 2% of email marketing teams used AI for creating images. By 2024, that number jumped to 9%. While this is still small compared to the 34% using AI for written content, it shows a growing interest in AI for visual design. 

Here’s how marketers can use AI to enhance email designs and make email campaigns stand out:

• High-Quality Visuals

You can start by describing what you need—like a vibrant cityscape for a travel promotion—and watch as AI brings your vision to life, producing detailed and eye-catching visuals that are often hard to achieve with traditional methods. Have a look at this example-

Image Source: Leonardo.ai

For those who want to refine existing images, evolutionary generators allow you to start with a base image and tweak it step-by-step based on feedback. This means you can gradually shape your visuals to match your exact vision, whether you’re adjusting colors, adding elements, or altering the overall design. 

Live canvas tools allow you to sketch ideas and have AI enhance them in real-time. These AI-powered methods make producing eye-catching visuals that boost your email campaigns easy.

• Personalize Images

Use AI to dynamically generate images that reflect each recipient’s interests or past interactions, making your emails resonate on a personal level. AI tools can learn through user data, such as past behavior or demographics, and craft personalized email designs. 

Image Source: Litmus

• Maintain Brand Consistency

Keep your brand’s look and feel consistent with AI tools that follow your style guide. AI can automatically apply your brand’s colors, fonts, and design elements to every image, ensuring that your visuals are always on-brand and instantly recognizable.

• Enhance A/B Testing

A/B testing can significantly enhance email campaign performance. For example, Marigold split-tested entire email templates and saw a 127% increase in click-through rates from that adjustment alone.

AI makes it easy to test different visuals and see which ones perform best. Quickly create and test various images to determine which designs resonate most with your audience. Use AI to run effective A/B tests that optimize your email campaigns for higher engagement and conversions.

AI For Email Coding

AI is transforming the way we convert email designs into responsive HTML, eliminating manual labor. While AI might not “know” coding like a developer, it’s incredibly skilled at recognizing patterns, generating code snippets, and streamlining the coding process.

Take Stripo, for example. According to Mate Zilahy, Content Partnerships Manager at GetResponse, “Stripo is my choice for converting design files into coded emails. It does a pretty solid job, though sometimes a bit of manual tweaking is needed to make the email template client-ready.” This highlights how AI tools like Stripo can significantly cut down on coding time, though a bit of fine-tuning by a developer is sometimes required.

Imagine you’ve crafted a sleek email design. Instead of manually slicing and coding every element, tools like Stripo and Chamaileon automatically generate the HTML code for you, preserving your layout and style. 

Of course, AI isn’t perfect. Marcin Dryka, a Full-stack developer at Brainhub, wisely notes, “AI can generate code, but a human touch is necessary for clean and efficient results.” In other words, while AI gets you most of the way there, you’ll still want a skilled developer to polish things off.

AI For Content Curation

Curating a newsletter that truly connects with your audience can be daunting, especially with the vast amount of content available. AI can make this process much more manageable and effective, improving the impact of content curation on user experience.

Take, for example, a fashion retailer that wants to create a monthly newsletter. AI can streamline content curation by analyzing customer data, browsing history, and engagement patterns. If your subscribers are showing a growing interest in sustainable fashion, AI can automatically pull in the latest articles, product highlights, and trends related to eco-friendly clothing.

Here’s how it works: AI examines your audience’s preferences and behaviors, then selects and organizes content that matches those interests. 

For instance, if a segment of your audience loves street-style fashion, the AI will prioritize content that features urban trends, popular streetwear brands, and exclusive fashion insights. Conversely, another segment might be more interested in seasonal collections or luxury items, and AI will ensure they receive content that caters to these tastes.

AI also helps sort and present content in a way that engages readers. It can arrange articles and product features in a logical flow, ensuring that your newsletter is visually appealing and easy to navigate.

Incorporating AI into your content curation strategy ensures that each newsletter is relevant and engaging for your audience. It takes the guesswork out of selecting and organizing content, making your newsletters more impactful and tailored to your subscribers’ interests.

Essential AI Tools To Perfect Your Email Design, Coding, And Content Curation

1. Postcards

Image Source: Postcards

Postcards by Designmodo offers a straightforward way to create professional email designs without needing technical or design skills. You can easily build your template using its drag-and-drop interface, adding text and images as needed. 

Need something specific? Describe your newsletter, and Postcards’ AI will generate a sleek, responsive design tailored to your brand in seconds. It’s straightforward, quick, and perfect for creating professional emails with minimal effort.

2. Midjourney

Midjourney is a popular AI tool hosted on Discord, ideal for creating AI-generated images with the support of a community. Though it’s still in open beta and requires some hands-on effort, the results are impressive. 

Just type in a text prompt describing the image you want, and Midjourney will generate it. You can then refine your images using the provided tools, making them a powerful resource for unique, creative visuals in your email campaigns.

3. Copilot by GitHub

Image Source: GitHub

GitHub Copilot is an AI-driven coding assistant created to help you code more quickly and efficiently. It suggests the next lines of code based on your project’s context and style conventions, making the coding process smoother. 

Beyond enhancing productivity, GitHub Copilot also prioritizes privacy, offering industry-leading protection for your coding projects.

4. Scoop.it

At Scoop.it, we focus on making your email newsletters more effective and engaging. Our AI-driven platform helps you find the most relevant content, ensuring your audience receives valuable insights every time. 

With an easy drag-and-drop interface and Mailchimp integration, creating polished newsletters becomes a hassle-free experience. Scoop.it simplifies the process so you can spend less time curating and more time connecting with your audience, ultimately driving better engagement and results.

5. Hubspot

If you aim to take your email marketing to the next level with AI, HubSpot is the all-in-one solution that should be on your radar. 

It lets you craft and personalize email campaigns with incredible accuracy, fine-tuning everything from the subject line to the copy itself, all based on your audience’s preferences. 

With HubSpot’s AI-driven tools, a lot of the heavy lifting—like optimizing campaigns through A/B testing and in-depth analytics—is handled for you. 

HubSpot’s streamlined approach reduces errors and speeds up workflow, making it a must-have for any brand looking to excel in email marketing.

Wrapping Up

As you bring AI into your email design, coding, and content curation, the benefits are clear: discovering new opportunities, enhancing email impact, boosting ROI, and freeing your team from repetitive tasks. But it’s important to move forward carefully. While AI offers significant advantages, it’s still evolving and requires careful management. Human oversight remains essential.

Start by using the reliable AI tools we’ve recommended. They provide a solid base for integrating AI into your workflow. Begin with specific tasks to see how AI can enhance your processes. As you grow more comfortable, you can explore combining different AI solutions to unlock their potential and scale your business fully.