Most small businesses know they should send a welcome sequence. Most have not written one.
It is rarely a strategy problem. The plan is in their head. What stops them is the blank screen, and the 40 minutes it takes to write one decent email.
I’m not an email marketer. I build AI prompt systems, so for this guide I studied the whole email lifecycle, from welcome emails to abandoned carts, and looked at where AI saves time and where it creates risk. This post is what I found.
“Write an Email” Is Not a Prompt
If you type “write an email,” you get a generic email. That is not a failure of the AI. It had nothing to work with.
Here is Prompt 1-1 from the book:
“Act as an expert email marketing copywriter. I sell [product/service] to [target audience]. Write a [formal/casual/conversational] email in [brand voice] that aims to [goal: get a click / drive a sale / build trust]. Keep the subject line under 50 characters and the body under 200 words.”
It names the seller, the audience, the tone, the goal and two limits. You fill in the brackets, and the result starts much closer to something usable.
Prompt 1-2 asks for 10 subject lines in four styles (curiosity, number-based, question-based and urgency-based) and asks the AI to label each style. That gives you a testing list, not one guess.
The book’s best habit is a second step. After the AI writes the email, run this:
“Review this email and identify any passive voice, filler phrases, or weak CTAs. Then rewrite those sections.”
👉 [Get AI for Email Marketing Automation on Amazon]
Before and After
Weak: “Write a welcome email.”
Better: tell the AI what you sell, who joined, what they signed up for, your tone, and the one first action you want them to take. Add a word limit, such as 150 words. (That is my example, based on the Chapter 2 prompts.)
The second version gives the AI facts to work with. You still add the personal detail only you know, such as a real story about why you started.
What AI Cannot Do for You
AI can draft a lot of email fast. It cannot be responsible for it. Four things stay with you:
- Consent and the law. AI does not know whether your subscribers agreed to hear from you. Rules such as CAN-SPAM in the US and GDPR in Europe are your responsibility, and this is not legal advice. Check the rules where your subscribers live.
- Honest urgency. If a prompt says “create urgency,” only use deadlines, stock levels and prices that are real. The book’s Prompt 3-8 says it well: “Avoid fake urgency.”
- Real proof. AI will happily invent a testimonial. Give it only real customer results, and check every quote.
- Facts. Check prices, dates and discount codes in every email before it goes out.
How the Book Is Organised
AI for Email Marketing Automation has 152 prompts in 8 chapters, plus 3 bonus sections:
- Chapter 1 (12 prompts): writing better prompts for email
- Chapter 2 (22): welcome emails and onboarding sequences
- Chapter 3 (22): sales emails and pitch sequences
- Chapter 4 (22): abandoned cart and e-commerce emails
- Chapter 5 (17): engagement and re-engagement campaigns
- Chapter 6 (17): newsletters
- Chapter 7 (22): lead nurturing and drip campaigns
- Chapter 8 (18): personalisation and behavioural automation
- Bonuses: a 7-day plan to build a sequence, master templates for 10 niches, and a guide to testing and optimising
The prompts work in ChatGPT, Claude, Gemini and other AI tools.
Who It Is For
Email marketers, e-commerce owners, coaches, SaaS teams and small businesses. If you write emails and you are short of time, it is for you.
Use It Carefully
Read every email before you send it. Use your own brand voice. And treat the book’s benchmark numbers, such as an average open rate of 20 to 25 percent, as rough guides. Open rates can be inflated by privacy features in some email apps, so watch clicks and replies as well.
Start With One Email
Do not build eight sequences. Pick the email that is missing. For most people that is the welcome email.
👉 [Get AI for Email Marketing Automation on Amazon]
If you want the basic prompt formula behind all my guides, it is in a free book: AI Superpower for Everyone.
This article is for education only. It is not legal advice. Check the email laws that apply to you.
