How to create an email marketing campaign with AI

To start without spending, two recommended options:

Brevo (formerly Sendinblue):

• Free plan: unlimited contacts, up to 300 emails per day.
• Automations included from the free plan.
• Spanish support, clear interface.
• Ideal for Latin American and Spanish businesses.
• Create your account at: https://www.brevo.com

Mailchimp:

• Free plan: up to 500 contacts and 1,000 emails per month.
• More visual templates and brand recognition.
• Basic automations on the free plan.
• English interface, though the Spanish-speaking community is large.
• Create your account at: https://mailchimp.com

For this guide we’ll use Brevo in the examples, but the steps are equivalent in Mailchimp.

Confirm current plan limits on the official pages before registering; plans change.

Before writing a single word, clarify what you want to achieve. There are two main types:

One-time campaign: one email (or short series) sent to your whole list for a specific occasion: a launch, a promotion, announcing a new article, an invitation.

Automated sequence: a series of emails that sends automatically when someone takes an action (subscribes, buys, abandons a cart). The most basic is the welcome sequence.

To define your campaign, answer these questions:

1. Who will receive the emails? (your full list, a segment, new subscribers)
2. What do I want them to do after reading? (buy, read an article, book a call)
3. How many emails do I need? (1 one-time vs. a 3- to 7-email series)

With those answers clear, AI can help you write much better.

Use this base prompt in Claude (https://claude.ai) or ChatGPT to generate your emails:

Write an email marketing email with these characteristics:
- Business/project: [briefly describe your project]
- Audience: [describe who you're writing to]
- Email goal: [what you want them to do after reading]
- Tone: [formal/casual/conversational]
- Length: [short (150 words) / medium (300 words) / long (500+ words)]

Include:
1. Email subject line (write 3 options).
2. Personalizable greeting.
3. Body with a single central message.
4. Clear call to action at the end.

Adjust the draft the AI gives you. Change anything that doesn’t sound like you, add real examples from your business, and personalize the call to action with the correct link.

To generate the email subject: the subject line is the most important thing; it determines whether people open the email. Ask the AI:

Write 5 subject lines for this email that spark curiosity without being clickbait. 
The ideal subject line is under 50 characters.
[Paste the email body]

AI gives you a starting point; you add your voice and your business’s specifics.

For more content ideas with AI, check: How to create content for social media with AI.

The welcome sequence is the most important automation: it arrives when someone just subscribed and your name is fresh in their mind. A minimal 3-email sequence:

Email 1 (immediate): What you promised + welcome

• Subject: “Here’s [what you promised] + welcome”
• Content: what you promised when they subscribed (guide, discount, resource), brief greeting, what to expect from your emails.

Email 2 (2 to 3 days later): Your story or value

• Subject: “[Question or problem you solve]”
• Content: who you are, what you do, how you help them. A short story works better than a résumé.

Email 3 (5 to 7 days later): First step or first offer

• Subject: “Ready for [result they’ll get]?”
• Content: invite them to take the next step: read your most popular content, book a call, or see your product or service.

Generate each email with AI using the prompt from the previous step, specifying which one it is and what its goal is.

Once you have the emails written, set up the automation in your platform:

In Brevo:

1. Go to Automations in the side menu.
2. Create a new automation with the trigger “Contact added to a list” (when someone subscribes to your list).
3. Add the first email: “Send an email” and select or create the template.
4. Add a wait step: “Wait” (choose 2 days).
5. Add the second email.
6. Repeat with the timing and emails for your sequence.
7. Activate the automation.

In Mailchimp:

1. Go to Automations (or Customer Journeys) in the menu.
2. Create a new journey starting with “Subscribes to audience”.
3. Add the first email.
4. Use the “Wait” block to define the delay between emails.
5. Add the following emails in the flow.
6. Activate the journey.

Confirm the exact steps in the official Brevo or Mailchimp documentation, as the interface may change with updates.

To take your automation further with no-code tools, check: How to automate tasks with Make and AI.

After sending, look at these metrics in your platform:

• Open rate: percentage of people who opened the email. A good benchmark is above 20%, though it varies by industry.
• Click-through rate (CTR): percentage who clicked on a link. Above 2-3% is a solid starting point.
• Unsubscribes: if many people unsubscribe, something in the email didn’t match what they expected when signing up.

How to use AI to improve: Copy the subject line and body of an underperforming email and ask Claude:

This email had an open rate of [X]% and a click-through rate of [Y]%.
What would you change in the subject line and body to improve results?
Give 3 alternative subject line versions and 2 body suggestions.

AI will give you concrete ideas to adjust. Test the versions with A/B testing in your platform to see which performs better.

Problem	Fix
Emails land in spam	Check that your domain has SPF, DKIM and DMARC configured (Brevo has a step-by-step guide)
Nobody opens the emails	Test different subject lines and avoid spam words (free, urgent, special offer)
The unsubscribe rate is high	Check that the content matches what you promised when they signed up; segment your list better
The automation doesn’t trigger	Confirm the trigger is active and the contact belongs to the correct list
Emails look bad on mobile	Use the platform’s responsive templates; always test the mobile view before sending