Are you tired of spending hours staring at the screen, waiting for the perfect sentence to pop up to write that email?
Whether it’s for a job application, cold outreach, or simply engaging with your audience, email has become an important part of our daily communication. The right words can make or break your message.
In this article, I’ll show you exactly how to use ChatGPT to write an email in just a matter of minutes. Excited? Let’s get started!
1 Feeding Information to ChatGPT
To craft a great email using ChatGPT, the first thing you should start with is feeding ChatGPT plenty of details about the email’s content and the message you want to convey. The more information you provide about the email’s purpose, the tone you’re aiming for, and the specific points you need to include, the better ChatGPT can tailor its response to meet your needs.
However, it’s important to be careful about how much detail you share. While providing context is key to getting a useful reply, avoid sharing personal details like your name, employer, or confidential company information. Anything you input is stored and could be reviewed by AI trainers working on improving the system.
So, when giving information for your email, focus on the essentials that define your message’s goal and audience, without getting too specific about personal or sensitive details.
2 Tailoring Style, Tone, and Length
When you’re asking ChatGPT to help with your email, you need to specify not just what you want to say, but also how you want to say it. This includes the writing style, tone, and even the length of your email. Each of these elements plays an important role in how your message is received.
If you’re writing to people who already know you, like your existing audience or subscribers, you have more flexibility with the length. In these cases, a slightly longer email might be just fine because your readers are already engaged with you and interested in what you have to say.
However, when it comes to cold outreach, where you’re contacting someone who doesn’t know you, brevity is key. People are busy, and since most of them don’t know you, they’re less likely to invest time in reading a long email (unless you’re a famous person. If that’s the case, please drop a comment below).
Instruct ChatGPT to keep the email short and to grab attention from the very first sentence. Here’s a quick example that I did regarding cold outreach for a guest post:
Remember, ChatGPT tends to create long emails. Without specific instructions, it might default to producing more detailed, longer content. If you don’t want to spend a lot of time editing down a lengthy draft, be clear from the start about your preferred length and the need for brevity, especially in cold outreach scenarios.
3 Fine-Tuning Your Email Draft
No matter how good your ChatGPT instructions are, expect to do some editing. It’s not that ChatGPT might produce subpar content (at least not always), but more about ensuring the email sounds like you. Especially if you have a unique style or tone that your audience recognizes, it’s important to tweak the AI-generated draft accordingly. This step is about adding your personal touch, making sure the email aligns with your voice, and adjusting any parts that don’t perfectly fit the message you want to convey.
For instance, when I used the prompt mentioned above I got the following email which I personally find to be quite long for cold outreach:
Then, I asked ChatGPT to remove certain unnecessary sentences. Here’s what the new version looks like:
4 What to do When the Results Don’t Meet Your Expectations?
Even with clear instructions, there might be times when the emails crafted by ChatGPT don’t quite hit the mark, particularly for personalized emails or when reaching out to people that familiar with your writing style. This is especially true in emails for academic purposes or when engaging with your warm audience.
In situations like these, I highly recommend you feed ChatGPT with examples of your own writing. Past emails, articles, or any texts that reflect your unique style are perfect for this. Essentially, what you’re doing here is helping ChatGPT grasp your writing style, tone, and patterns. You can do that by uploading a file with your own writing.
Furthermore, you can engage in what’s known as reverse prompt engineering. This involves giving ChatGPT your writing and then asking it to generate prompts that could produce similar content. This method not only assists in achieving the desired output but also helps you understand how to craft prompts more effectively in the future.
5 Mistakes to Avoid When Using ChatGPT for Emails
Now, let’s get into the pitfalls you should steer clear of to ensure your email crafting process is as effective as possible:
- Including Personal Information: As mentioned earlier, avoid sharing sensitive details such as your name, employer, or confidential company data. Remember, ChatGPT stores and processes data that could be reviewed by others.
- Unclear Instructions: ChatGPT and similar AI tools aren’t mind readers. If you don’t specify exactly what you’re looking for, the output might not meet your expectations. Be as clear and detailed as possible in your prompts.
- Generic Structure Requests: While ChatGPT can offer broad ideas on structuring your email, these suggestions often come off as generic. Therefore, you definitely need to do your own research. For instance, for scenarios like cold outreach, you’d want your email to be concise, engaging, and value-focused, highlighting what the recipient gains rather than what you seek.
- Over-reliance on AI for Content Creativity: While ChatGPT is a powerful tool for generating content, relying solely on it might not yield the most original or personalized results. At the time of writing this article, people are already familiar with ChatGPT and its output. As a result, if you want your emails to stand out, use ChatGPT as a starting point, then infuse your emails with your unique personality to humanize the text.
- Ignoring the Need for Personal Touch: AI-generated content can sometimes lack the personal touch that makes communication engaging. Always review and tweak the draft to ensure it resonates with your voice and aligns with your audience’s expectations.
6 Crafting the Perfect Email Heading
When you’re ready to give your email a title, doing it last is actually helpful. This way, ChatGPT gets to learn all about your email first.
You tell it what you’re writing about, who it’s for, and what you want to say. With all this info, ChatGPT can come up with a heading that fits just right.
So, after you’ve filled ChatGPT in on everything about your email, that’s the best time to ask for a catchy heading.
7 Bonus Tip: Elevate Your Email with a Final Check
At this point, you’ve got the skills to create a nice email using ChatGPT. But hold on before you hit that send. There’s one last thing that you’ll have to do. If you’re new to email copywriting, you might find yourself quite impressed with what you and ChatGPT have created together. However, please remember that just because an output looks great to you doesn’t guarantee your recipient will share the same enthusiasm. Given ChatGPT’s current popularity, chances are others are using it for the same purposes, leading to a sense of déjà vu in the inbox.
Here’s what I recommend doing: Once you have your draft ready, take a moment to run it by ChatGPT one more time. But this round, ask ChatGPT to put on a critic’s hat. Ask for a thorough evaluation of your email, focusing on potential improvements. Instruct ChatGPT to critique your draft, considering the email’s goal, the tone, and how well it’s likely to resonate with your recipient. Here are the suggestions:
8 Conclusion
I hope this guide has taught you how to use ChatGPT to write an email. If you’ve made it this far, I’d love to hear about your experience! Drop a comment below sharing how it went and any questions you might have. Your feedback is invaluable, and I’m here to help with any further queries.
9 Frequently Asked Questions
Should you use ChatGPT for emails?
While it’s not a necessity, incorporating ChatGPT into your email drafting process can significantly enhance your messages. This tool can help refine the tone, style, and clarity of your emails. When you blend the AI’s capabilities with your personal touch, the final result is often more polished and impactful, making your emails stand out.
How do I ask ChatGPT to rewrite an email?
To have ChatGPT rewrite a portion of your email, simply copy and paste the text you’re not happy with into the chat. Then, instruct ChatGPT on how you’d like it revised, specifying any changes in tone, style, or details you prefer. ChatGPT will use your guidance to produce a revised version that better meets your needs.
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