How to use AI for email marketing: draft one email at a time

By Jeremy Kenerson, Founder at BreadHead.

Facts checked October 17, 2026

To use AI for email marketing, start with one email: write a short brief, ask the AI for a draft, then check every claim, link and offer before a person approves it to send. Keep your list, your sending tool and the final send in human hands. Once one email works, use the same brief for the next.

How do you write an email brief for AI?

Give the AI what a new copywriter would need: who the email is for, the one thing it should say, any deal or price in it, and what it must leave out. Write it in a few plain lines before you ask for anything.

Use this check on your brief:

• Who's reading it, and what do they already know?
• What's the one action you want them to take?
• What offer, date or price is in it, and where's that written down?
• What must the email never say?
• How long should it be?

Example

Write a short email to past customers about our new weekend hours. Use only the hours in the note below. Don't promise discounts. End with one link to our booking page. List anything you need me to confirm.

Decide who drafts, who checks and who sends before the first email goes out. The email work split sets out those roles and the email rules.

What should you check before you send an AI email?

Every fact, every link and every promise. Read the draft beside your brief and your notes.

1. Check each fact. Dates, prices, names and hours must match what you wrote down.
2. Open every link. Check that each one lands on the right page.
3. Read the deal. Is it the deal you meant, with no new terms added?
4. Read the subject line out loud. Does it match the body of the email?
5. Pass it to your rules checker. The person who checks your email rules reads it before it goes out.
6. Name who approves it. One person signs off before it goes out.

With BreadHead, you review and approve the work before it goes public or into use.

Want to test AI on more than one email? Put your checks on the pilot acceptance sheet.

How do you reuse an AI email brief?

Save the brief that worked, and change only the parts that change each time. Keep a short list of what you fixed in the last draft, and add it to the brief.

Copy these blanks for your next email:

• Who it's for: ______
• The one action: ______
• Any deal or price, and where it's written down: ______
• What it must never say: ______
• Who approves it: ______

Comparing platforms? See the best AI workflow automation tools.

Once single emails work, plan a whole sequence the same way. The campaign plan shows how to set one up.

What changed

• October 17, 2026: First version. Facts checked.