How to Outline Your Content Emails… With AI

How did you get on with scheduling and gathering the ‘meat’ of your email content using Chat-GPT??

(If you need to catch up on this impromptu guide to creating content emails with AI, just check out my most recent posts.)

Whether you get AI to find the info, or you have the information at your end, based on your own knowledge and experience, I recommend getting the AI to outline the email content first.

Here’s an example:

“You are the editorial adviser for my email newsletter. I would like you to write an issue of my newsletter about how to forage local plants in the UK to make herbal teas to reduce stress and anxiety. What kind of information and advice could I include?”

Here is what the AI would produce:

Great topic! Here are some ideas for the kind of information and advice you could include in your newsletter:

Subject Line: Foraging for Herbal Teas: A Guide to Reducing Stress and Anxiety

Introduction:

• Briefly introduce the topic and explain why foraging for local plants to make herbal teas is a great way to reduce stress and anxiety
• Share a personal story or experience that highlights the benefits of herbal teas for reducing stress and anxiety

Body:

• List some common local plants in the UK that are great for making herbal teas, such as chamomile, lavender, and lemon balm.
• Provide information on where these plants can be found and when they are in season
• Share recipes for making herbal teas using these local plants, including tips on how to prepare and store them properly
• Provide information on the potential health benefits of each plant, and how they can help reduce stress and anxiety.
• Offer advice on foraging safely and sustainably, including where to forage, how to identify plants, and how to harvest them in a way that is sustainable and environmentally friendly.
• Share advice on how to incorporate herbal teas into your daily routine to maximise their stress-reducing benefits, such as drinking them before bed or taking a tea break during the day.

Conclusion:

• Summarise the key points made in the newsletter and re-emphasise the benefits of foraging for local plants to make herbal teas for reducing stress and anxiety
• Encourage readers to try making their own herbal teas and offer advice on where to find more resources on foraging and making herbal teas
• End with a call-to-action, encouraging readers to share their own experiences with foraging and making herbal teas for stress relief.

By providing detailed information on foraging for local plants in the UK to make herbal teas, you can help your readers reduce stress and anxiety while also promoting a sustainable and environmentally friendly lifestyle. Make sure to provide clear and practical advice, while also encouraging your readers to explore and experiment with different local plants and recipes.

If you are broadly happy with this outline, then tweak the ‘introduction’ to reflect your chosen lead.?

So the AI has suggested this:

Introduction:

• Briefly introduce the topic and explain why foraging for local plants to make herbal teas is a great way to reduce stress and anxiety
• Share a personal story or experience that highlights the benefits of herbal teas for reducing stress and anxiety

But you might want to choose your own lead idea.?

For example, let’s say that you want to share by sharing a story about your own foraging experience.?

Cut and paste the whole outline and then edit the above section to reflect what you want it to do. ?

For example, maybe you picked an autobiographical lead:

Introduction:

? Share a personal story about how I went on a walk with my kids at the weekend and we gathered nettles. I then made a homemade tea from it.?

? Highlight that it’s a little-known fact that nettle tea can alleviate anxiety.?

Or perhaps you picked the ‘paint a picture’ lead.

Introduction:

• Get the reader to imagine their struggles with anxiety, and how it might affect their life.?
• Then introduce herbal teas as a potential remedy.?

You can now use this edited version to put into the AI.?

You might also want the AI to focus on content you gathered in step three when you did your research. In which case, add that to the outline, or replace some of the outline with those bits of content that you would like to include.?

Here is another example:

"You are the editorial expert for my email newsletter. I want to share a new study which reveals that small businesses spend around ￡384 a year each on waste disposal. I also want to share my own insight into why small businesses don’t recognise, or care about, their environmental impact. Can you suggest an outline for an email newsletter?”

The AI would produce this:

Subject Line: Small Business Waste Disposal: How It's Hurting the Environment and Your Bottom Line

Introduction:

• Briefly introduce your recycling company and your mission to help businesses become more eco-friendly
• Highlight the main topic of the newsletter: the cost of waste disposal for small businesses and their lack of recognition or concern for their environmental impact

Body:

• Share the results of the new study that small businesses spend around ￡384 a year each on waste disposal. This can be a good lead into the issue of how this is contributing to the problem of excessive waste.
• Share your own insights into why small businesses don't recognise, or care about, their environmental impact. Some potential reasons include lack of awareness, cost concerns, and lack of resources to implement sustainable practices.
• Highlight the negative consequences of not addressing this issue, such as damaging the environment, causing health problems, and increasing waste disposal costs over time.
• Offer practical advice and actionable tips on how small businesses can become more eco-friendly and reduce their waste disposal costs. This could include simple things such as reducing paper waste, encouraging the use of reusable materials and switching to environmentally-friendly products.

Conclusion:

• Summarise the key points made in the newsletter, re-emphasising the importance of addressing the waste disposal issue for small businesses
• Encourage small businesses to take action, and offer your recycling company's services as a potential solution for their waste disposal needs.
• End with a call-to-action, encouraging readers to reach out to your company for more information and advice.

By combining your own insights and information with the results of the new study, you can create a compelling email newsletter that highlights the negative consequences of small business waste disposal and motivates your audience to take action towards a more sustainable future.

In this case, you might tweak the lead to reflect your own chosen angle. Like this…

Introduction:

• Tell a story about how I talked to a café owner last week and was shocked to hear that they were spending hundreds of pounds a month on waste disposal.
• Highlight this as an example of?many small business’s lack of recognition of disposal costs, or concern for their environmental impact

And you might decide to tweak the ‘body’ of the content to include your research.

Alternatively, you can suggest the lead and content ideas upfront before you ask the AI for the outline.

For example:

You are the editorial expert for my email newsletter about marketing for small businesses. I would like to write an issue of my newsletter about using Artificial Intelligence to write Facebook Adverts. I want to lead with a story about how a friend sent me a link to ChatGPT last week and I started experimenting with it to make Facebook ads, which I have always struggled to do. Then it needs to explain the benefits of using AI for content for your small business. And also include some tips on signing up to CHatGPT.

Here's what it might suggest.?

Here's an outline for an email newsletter that addresses your objectives:

Subject Line: Using AI to Write Facebook Ads: How ChatGPT Can Boost Your Small Business

Introduction:

• Start by introducing the topic of using AI to write Facebook ads, and your own experience using ChatGPT to create ads for your small business.
• Briefly explain the struggles you faced in creating Facebook ads in the past, and how using AI has helped to simplify the process.

Body:

• Explain the benefits of using AI to write Facebook ads for your small business, such as improved efficiency, cost-effectiveness, and better targeting.
• Offer tips on how to sign up for ChatGPT and use it to create effective Facebook ads, including the importance of defining your target audience, selecting the right ad format, and creating engaging copy.
• Share some examples of successful Facebook ad campaigns that have used AI, and how ChatGPT can help small businesses achieve similar results.
• Address any concerns or skepticism that readers may have about using AI for Facebook ads, such as fears of losing control or authenticity, and offer reassurance and practical advice for overcoming these concerns.

Conclusion:

• Summarise the key points made in the newsletter, re-emphasising the benefits of using AI to write Facebook ads for small businesses.
• Encourage readers to sign up for ChatGPT and start experimenting with using AI to create their own Facebook ads.
• End with a call-to-action, encouraging readers to share their own experiences using AI for Facebook ads and offering your own support and advice.

As you can see, the AI has not actually selected your lead, but come up with its own start.

So you would simply change it like this:

Introduction:

• Start by introducing the topic of using AI to write Facebook ads, and your own experience using ChatGPT to create ads for your small business.
• Briefly explain the struggles you faced in creating Facebook ads in the past, and how using AI has helped to simplify the process.

When you are broadly happy with the outline, it’s time to get the AI to fill it in.?

And that’s what we’ll cover next time…