Email Marketing in the Age of AI - 6 Commandments to Drive Engagement

AI is becoming indispensable in marketing, extending beyond advertising, content creation, analytics, and SEO into the space of email marketing. As businesses work to maximize engagement, email remains one of the most effective channels for reaching customers.

With the power of AI, email marketing enables marketers to personalize campaigns and save time, enhancing efficiency and impact. In this article, we’ll explore the six main commandments of email marketing and discuss the best practices to help you achieve successful campaigns.

Article Shortcuts: 

• The 6 Commandments of Email Marketing
  
  1. Email Commandment #1: Uphold Your Sending IP Reputation
  2. Email Commandment #2: Protect Your Sending Domain Reputation
  3. Email Commandment #3: Curate a Quality List
  4. Email Commandment #4: Create Compelling Content and Design
  5. Email Commandment #5: Control Sending Frequency
  6. Email Commandment #6: Practice Active List Hygiene
• FAQ

The Rise of Email Marketing’s Importance

Contrary to predictions that email might decline, the number of emails sent and received globally continues to grow.

According to Statista, 281 billion emails were exchanged in 2018; by 2023, this number had risen to 347 billion.

Projections estimate that by 2027, it will reach 408 billion. This consistent increase shows email marketing’s relevance and potential as a channel for engagement, even as new tools emerge.

Source: Statista

• The Impact of AI on Email Marketing

According to Forbes, AI has rapidly integrated into email marketing, with 49% of marketers using it to create content. Within a few months, AI has doubled email marketers' open rates and tripled click-through rates (CTR), showing that AI’s influence can be transformative for engagement.

Source: Ascend2

The 6 Commandments of Email Marketing

Explore the main six email marketing commandments to follow:

1. Email Commandment #1: Uphold Your Sending IP Reputation

Your IP reputation is crucial for deliverability. To maintain it:

• Start with small batches of recipients and gradually increase volume

Following the first commandment and maintaining a strong IP reputation, it’s essential to introduce a warm-up process, especially when reaching a large audience.

This can be done through “chunk sending,” a method that distributes emails in smaller batches over a period rather than sending them all at once.

Chunk sending helps manage risks such as high bounce rates, spam complaints, and potential damage to the sender's reputation.

By splitting a large list into manageable subsets, you minimize the strain on email servers and reduce the chances of triggering spam filters.

• • Why is chunk sending important?

Chunk sending is invaluable in maintaining a positive sender reputation. Sending too many emails at once can overwhelm servers, leading to spam issues and reputation damage.

Chunk sending addresses these risks, allowing you to monitor and adjust based on real-time performance.

Imagine you’re sending to a list of 16,000 contacts. Instead of reaching out to all 16,000 at once, start with 800 emails per day and gradually increase the number. Over the span of 15-20 days, you can reach the full list, reducing the chances of deliverability issues and ensuring a smooth campaign.

• • Impact on campaign performance

Chunk sending offers several advantages:

• Risk Mitigation: Spreads the risk of bounces and spam complaints over time.
• Improved Deliverability: Gradually warms up the IP address, preserving a strong sender reputation.
• Real-Time Adjustment: Enables you to pause or adjust campaigns based on performance, optimizing your strategy.

• Comply with regulations like CAN-SPAM and GDPR

Compliance with laws like CAN-SPAM and GDPR is essential to avoid penalties and maintain a good reputation.

• • CAN-SPAM Compliance

The CAN-SPAM Act is a U.S. law that outlines rules for commercial emails. It mandates that:

• Unsubscribe options must be clear and functional.
• Senders must avoid misleading subject lines.
• Physical mailing addresses must be included.

  • GDPR Compliance

The General Data Protection Regulation (GDPR), in effect since 2018, affects email marketers targeting EU residents. It emphasizes transparency and consent in data usage, requiring marketers to:

• Obtain explicit consent before sending emails.
• Provide a clear privacy policy.
• Allow easy data access and deletion for users.

• Monitor bounce rates to avoid blacklisting

Managing bounce rates is critical to prevent blacklisting and ensure successful email deliverability. High bounce rates can signal poor list hygiene and negatively impact the sender's reputation.

• • How to manage bounce rates

To reduce bounce rates:

- Clean Your List Regularly: Remove invalid or inactive addresses.

- Segment Your Audience: Tailor your content to relevant segments, reducing the likelihood of bounces.

- Use Double Opt-in: Ensure subscribers are genuinely interested by confirming their intent.

For more strategies, visit How to Manage and Reduce Email Bounce Rates.

• • Monitor sender reputation with tools like Google Postmaster and Sender Score

Regularly monitoring your sender reputation helps you respond proactively to any issues. Tools like Google Postmaster Tools and Sender Score provide insights into how email providers view your emails.

• Google Postmaster Tools: Offers insights into your sender reputation, spam rates, and more.
• Sender Score: Calculates a score based on your sending practices, helping identify areas for improvement.

These tools allow marketers to take action when necessary, ensuring a healthy reputation and improving deliverability.

Summary: Upholding your IP reputation is critical for successful email delivery. By gradually increasing volume through chunk sending, complying with regulations, and monitoring bounce rates, you can protect your sender reputation and maximize deliverability.

2. Email Commandment #2: Protect Your Sending Domain Reputation

• Implement SPF, DKIM, and DMARC to secure your domain

Following commandment #2, protecting your domain reputation is crucial for successful email marketing. Poor management can lead to your domain being blocked by email service providers (ESPs), impacting your deliverability.

Implementing SPF, DKIM, and DMARC protocols strengthens your domain's credibility, ensures your emails are legitimate, and reduces the risk of spoofing.

• • SPF (Sender Policy Framework): Verifying sending servers

SPF is an email validation protocol that allows domain owners to specify which mail servers are authorized to send emails on their behalf.

By adding an SPF record to your DNS settings, you help recipients verify the legitimacy of your emails. SPF ensures that recipient servers recognize your emails as authentic.

If an email isn’t from an authorized server, it may be flagged as suspicious or rejected. Implementing SPF reduces the risk of phishing or spam attacks using your domain, protecting your brand's reputation.

• • DKIM (Domain Keys Identified Mail): Ensuring message integrity

DKIM is an authentication method that verifies whether an email was authorized by the sender’s domain. It adds a digital signature to email headers, which the recipient's server can validate using the public key in the sender’s DNS records.

DKIM prevents email tampering by confirming that the email content hasn’t changed during transmission. This added security helps build trust with recipients, assuring them that the message truly comes from the specified sender.

• • DMARC (Domain-based Message Authentication, Reporting & Conformance)

DMARC builds on SPF and DKIM to offer a full authentication framework. It allows domain owners to specify how to handle emails that fail SPF or DKIM checks, with options to reject, quarantine, or monitor suspicious emails.

Benefits of DMARC  

• Prevention of Spoofing: Stops unauthorized emails, protecting your domain from being used for phishing.
• Visibility and Reporting: DMARC provides detailed reports, helping you monitor who is sending emails on behalf of your domain.
• Control Over Email Authentication: Set enforcement levels based on the level of security desired.

For more details on setting up DMARC, refer to the VBOUT Knowledge Base on DMARC.

• Avoid buying low-quality lists to prevent honeypot traps

Buying low-quality email lists may expose you to honeypot traps—fake email addresses used by security providers like Malwarebytes or McAfee to detect spammers. These traps can damage your reputation by flagging your domain as a spam source.

Always build your list organically to ensure high-quality contacts and reduce the risk of blacklisting.

Summary: Protecting your domain reputation requires implementing SPF, DKIM, and DMARC protocols. These authentication measures help prevent spoofing and phishing, ensuring that your emails are trusted and reach the intended inboxes.

3. Email Commandment #3: Curate a Quality List

• Use double opt-in and email validation
  

Following the third commandment, double opt-in and email validation are essential practices for maintaining a clean, high-quality email list. By requiring subscribers to verify their email addresses, you can prevent spam and fake addresses from polluting your list.

Double opt-in ensures that the person signing up is genuinely interested, as they must confirm their subscription via a secondary email.

Email validation tools enhance list quality by verifying contacts' addresses upon import. These tools check for risky or invalid addresses and suppress them, ensuring that only reliable contacts receive your emails.

This proactive approach reduces bounce rates, enhances deliverability, and maintains your sender reputation.

• Segment new subscribers based on preferences or actions

Segmentation from the outset enables you to send targeted, relevant emails that align with your subscribers’ interests.

When you send your recipients an email campaign, consider asking them to update their preferences and allowing them to select the topics or types of content they want to receive.

By offering subscribers control over which lists they remain opted into, you ensure that each email is relevant to their needs. This approach improves engagement and reduces unsubscribe rates, as subscribers feel more in control of the content they receive.

• Build a strong community with ongoing value

A strong, engaged community is key to successful email marketing. Offering ongoing value through educational content, workshops, or webinars can keep subscribers invested in your brand.

By sharing knowledge and providing value beyond promotional content, you cultivate loyalty and increase the likelihood of long-term engagement.

Educational resources and community-building efforts foster trust and encourage active participation.

Subscribers who view your brand as a valuable resource are likelier to engage with your emails, share them with others, and stay subscribed for the long term.

• Leverage social media to turn views into emails

Social media can be a powerful tool for growing your email list.

For instance, after posting an engaging Instagram reel, you can invite viewers to direct message (DM) a specific keyword (e.g., "guide" or "coupon") to receive exclusive content. An AI-powered chatbot can manage the conversation, guiding users through a process that captures their email addresses.

This approach creates a seamless experience that moves users from social media to email. Starting with a short, visually appealing video on social media, the interaction continues with a chatbot conversation. 

The chatbot gathers contact details and then follows up with personalized emails or other content based on user preferences, such as e-commerce offers or tutorials.

By combining social media's visual reach with chatbots' conversational engagement, you can transform fleeting social interactions into measurable leads.

This enhances lead generation across channels and enables you to start the nurture process, which might consist of various automated messages, such as emails and SMS campaigns.

Summary: A high-quality email list starts with double opt-in, segmentation, and clear consent options. This commandment ensures you’re reaching an engaged audience, reducing the risk of unsubscribes and boosting overall engagement.

4. Email Commandment #4: Create Compelling Content and Design

Following the fourth commandment in email marketing, content and design play critical roles in capturing attention and driving engagement. A well-structured email with a clear message can significantly increase open and click-through rates.

Let’s dive into optimizing content and layout for maximum impact.

• Decide on a clear format

Choosing the right format for your email facilitates the way for effective communication.

Your email layout should be simple, visually pleasing, and easy to navigate. A minimalist design with white space can enhance readability and make the content more inviting.

• Simple, comfortable design

A simple structure keeps your email organized and comfortable for the eyes. Avoid overcrowding with excessive visuals or long paragraphs.

Instead, focus on short, digestible sections that effortlessly guide the reader. The content should be straightforward, helping readers quickly understand the message without overwhelming them.

• Personalize content with dynamic elements

Personalization goes beyond just addressing the subscriber by name. Dynamic elements tailored to individual behavior or preferences can make emails feel more relevant and engaging.

For example, you can incorporate personalized offers, tailored product recommendations, or content that updates based on user activity.

Dynamic content adapts based on user data, ensuring that each recipient sees content most relevant to them.

For example, if you want to send the same email to two different segments within your list—one consisting of customers and the other of subscribers who are not yet clients—you can personalize the email for each group.

For the non-client segment, you might include a CTA button inviting them to book a demo showcasing how your product can help address their marketing challenges while excluding this option for your existing clients. Here’s how the email might look for each segment:

Non Clients

Clients

Personalized emails have been shown to boost open and click-through rates, creating a more engaging experience.

• Use the Problem-Solution-Hook technique

The Problem-Solution Hook (PSH) technique is an effective way to capture attention and drive action in email marketing. This approach begins by identifying a problem the reader may face, offering a solution, and hooking them with a compelling call to action.

• Problem: Start by addressing a pain point or challenge that resonates with your audience. This could be a common issue within their industry or something specific to their role.
• Solution: Introduce how your product, service, or content can help solve this problem. This solution should be clear, concise, and immediately relevant to the reader.
• Hook: End with a strong, actionable hook that encourages the reader to take the next step, whether it’s clicking a link, signing up for a demo, or exploring a new feature.

  • Example of PSH in action

Consider an email targeting small business owners who struggle with customer retention:

• Problem: "Struggling to keep your customers coming back?"
• Solution: "Our latest guide provides actionable steps to build loyalty with easy-to-implement strategies."
• Hook: "Download your free guide today and start building lasting customer relationships!"

Using the PSH technique, you can structure content in a way that is both persuasive and valuable, increasing the chances of conversion.

• Consistent brand tone and visuals

Maintaining a consistent brand tone across all emails strengthens brand identity and builds trust with your audience. Use your brand colors, fonts, and imagery to create a cohesive look, and make sure the tone aligns with your brand’s voice—whether that’s friendly, professional, or authoritative.

• • Building trust through consistency

A consistent visual and tonal identity helps subscribers recognize and connect with your brand. Sticking to a specific design style and tone creates familiarity, leading to higher engagement over time.

Summary: Crafting compelling content and design is essential for capturing attention. Focusing on simple layouts, personalized content, and structured messaging can make your emails engaging and effective.

5. Email Commandment #5: Control Sending Frequency

Following commandment #5, maintaining the right email frequency is essential for engaging your audience without overwhelming them.

An overly frequent email schedule can lead to unsubscribes and spam complaints, while too few emails may cause your brand to fade from subscribers' minds. The key is to strike a balance through an effective schedule.

• Create an internal schedule for your email content

Establishing an internal schedule helps maintain consistency and predictability in your email campaigns. Here’s a recommended frequency guide for email sending:

• Best: 1-2 emails per week – This frequency is optimal for keeping your audience engaged without overloading them.
• OK: Monthly – Sending one email per month can keep your brand in front of subscribers, though it may limit opportunities for deeper engagement.
• Too Low: Quarterly – This minimal frequency risks reducing your brand’s visibility and may lead to lower engagement rates over time.

Regular, consistent communication helps your audience anticipate your emails and keeps your brand relevant, leading to higher engagement and trust.

• Follow the 40/60 Rule

To balance content types, use the 40/60 rule: aim for 40% of your email volume to be automated (such as welcome sequences or drip campaigns) and 60% to be newsletter or campaign emails.

• Automation: Automated emails, triggered by user actions or milestones, provide timely and relevant messages that build stronger relationships.
• Newsletter/Campaign Emails: Regular newsletters and campaigns allow you to connect with all subscribers and share updates, offers, or new content.

This balance prevents over-reliance on one type of email, keeping your content fresh and engaging for different segments of your audience.

• Avoid overloading your audience

Sending too many emails can quickly overwhelm recipients, resulting in higher unsubscribe rates or spam complaints.

To prevent this, carefully monitor engagement metrics and pay attention to subscriber feedback.

• Quality Over Quantity: Focus on delivering valuable content in each email rather than sending frequent messages that may dilute the perceived value of your communication.
• Adapt Based on Engagement: If open and click-through rates begin to decline, it may be a sign that your frequency is too high. Adjust accordingly to maintain a positive experience for your subscribers.

Summary: Controlling your email frequency maintains audience engagement without overwhelming them. Following a balanced schedule, like the 40/60 rule, helps keep your content relevant and prevents email fatigue.

6. Email Commandment #6: Practice Active List Hygiene

Following the last commandment, maintaining a clean, engaged email list is essential for preserving your sender reputation and enhancing deliverability.

Regularly reviewing and updating your contact list helps keep engagement rates high and ensures that your messages reach the most relevant audiences.

• Segment inactive subscribers

To manage list hygiene effectively, start by identifying inactive subscribers—those who haven’t opened or interacted with your emails within a specific timeframe (typically 3-6 months).

Segmenting these users allows you to target them separately from your active contacts.

• • Why segmenting inactive subscribers matters

Segmenting inactive contacts prevents them from skewing your engagement metrics and allows you to focus re-engagement efforts where they are needed most. By isolating these users, you can tailor content and strategies to recapture their attention without disrupting your main list.

• Create re-engagement campaigns

Re-engagement campaigns are targeted efforts aimed at reconnecting with inactive subscribers.

Use incentives, exclusive offers, or valuable content to encourage inactive users to engage with your emails again. Personalized messages that address their needs or preferences can also be highly effective in rekindling interest.

• • Examples of re-engagement tactics

• Incentives: Offer a special discount or limited-time offer.
• Exclusive Content: Share a guide, eBook, or report available only to subscribers.
• Feedback Request: Ask inactive users to share why they haven’t been engaging, demonstrating that you value their input.

These campaigns can help revive inactive contacts, boosting overall list engagement and improving deliverability.

• Apply a sunset policy

If re-engagement campaigns don’t yield results, consider implementing a sunset policy. This practice involves moving unresponsive contacts to a separate list or gradually reducing the frequency of emails sent to them.

Sunset policies automate the process of retiring inactive subscribers, preserving your main list’s quality.

• • Benefits of a sunset policy

• Improved Metrics: Reduces the impact of unengaged contacts on your open and click-through rates.
• Enhanced Deliverability: Helps avoid deliverability issues by focusing on engaged recipients.
• Automated Management: A sunset policy can run in the background, ensuring that only active contacts remain in your primary lists without manual intervention.

• Utilize cleaning tools to remove invalid or duplicate addresses

Regularly using email cleaning tools is essential for identifying and removing invalid or duplicate addresses. These tools scan your list for inactive, duplicate, or potentially risky emails, helping you maintain a high-quality list.

• • Advantages of email cleaning tools

• Reduced Bounce Rates: Removing invalid addresses prevents hard bounces, preserving your sender reputation.
• Efficient Management: Automated cleaning tools simplify list maintenance, making it easy to stay on top of list hygiene.
• Improved Engagement: With fewer invalid contacts, your open and click rates become more accurate, allowing you to capture true audience interest.

Summary: Active list hygiene, including segmentation and re-engagement strategies, ensures that your contacts are engaged and maintains a healthy sender reputation. Regularly cleaning your list is key to sustainable email marketing success.

FAQ

1. How does AI help in email marketing?

AI allows marketers to create personalized content, segment audiences effectively, and automate processes like predictive sending. This leads to higher open rates, improved click-through rates, and time savings for marketers.

2. How can I maintain my IP reputation?

To maintain a strong IP reputation, gradually increase email volume through chunk sending, which sends smaller batches over time. Also, monitor bounce rates and comply with email regulations like CAN-SPAM and GDPR.

3. What are SPF, DKIM, and DMARC, and why do they matter?

These are email authentication protocols that ensure your emails are legitimate and protect your domain from being used in phishing or spam activities:

• SPF verifies authorized mail servers
• DKIM ensures your email content integrity with a digital signature
• DMARC adds another layer of protection by monitoring and enforcing email authentication

4. How do I keep my email list high-quality?

Use practices like double opt-in, email validation tools, and regular list cleaning. Segmentation also ensures that your campaigns are targeted and relevant to your audience, reducing unsubscribes and improving engagement.

5. How can I make my email content more engaging?

Focus on creating a clear, simple layout with personalized, dynamic elements.

Use techniques like the Problem-Solution-Hook approach to address your audience’s challenges and offer actionable solutions. Consistent branding and tone also help build trust and recognition.

Conclusion

Email marketing continues to evolve, with AI enhancing every stage of the process, from list management to content creation and personalization. By following these six commandments, marketers can boost their reach, engage their audiences more effectively, and ensure consistent deliverability. Using AI isn’t just an option; it’s becoming necessary for staying competitive in the dynamic world of digital marketing.

Author Bio

Georges Fallah is the Marketing Manager at VBOUT, an AI-enabled marketing platform. With 10+ years of experience in email marketing, marketing automation, social media, SEO, and analytics, he focuses on generating leads, nurturing them through the funnel, and driving long-term customer loyalty. Passionate about AI-driven growth, Georges shares insights on maximizing marketing efficiency and effectiveness.