Let’s go on a journey down memory lane. It’s the year 2010, before anyone even knows to ask the question, “What are content marketing platforms?” You’re playing Angry Birds, listening to “Bulletproof” on repeat, and loving every product Google releases. As a marketing manager, you’ve embraced Gmail, and Google Docs has changed the way you collaborate with your team.

You have an internal marketing team, and you manage a team of freelancers—writers, designers, editors, etc. Email and Google Docs are your go-to forms of communication and collaboration. Unless your freelancers don’t have Gmail accounts, then the system breaks down. Freelancers can’t access your documents, so you have to email company assets. But those documents are constantly being updated, and you never remember which version you sent to which freelancer. So, you have to search through countless email threads to find the right one.

Now, instead of doing important work, you’re just retracing your steps to determine who knows what and what needs to happen next.

Alright, our journey is over, and you’re safe and sound now back in good old 2024. While this scenario was typical for marketing teams in 2010, many who haven’t discovered the wonder of content marketing platforms still experience these headaches. Perhaps you’re whispering to yourself: “Shoot, that’s me! What is a content marketing platform?” If so, that’s okay, we’ll bring you up to speed.

What are Content Marketing Platforms?

A content marketing platform (CMP) is an online software solution that allows businesses and marketers to collaborate across teams to strategize and streamline their content marketing processes.

I know what you’re thinking: That sounds a lot like a content management system (CMS). Sure, they both deal with content, but they serve different purposes in the overall content lifecycle. Here’s a quick breakdown of their differences:

Content Management Systems (CMS)

A CMS is a broader tool used to publish and distribute marketing content. It allows non-technical users to easily publish content across channels, edit webpages, and manage layouts (e.g., platforms like WordPress and Magento).

Content Marketing Platforms (CMP)

A CMP is a more specialized marketing tool designed for the entire content marketing process. This includes planning content strategy, creating content, scaling content production, analyzing performance, and distributing content across various channels.

Essentially, the biggest difference is that a CMS is primarily for publishing content to your website, while a CMP is for planning, strategic alignment, content creation, and optimizing content performance.

How do Content Marketing Platforms Work?

CMPs act as a central nervous system for your marketing efforts, helping your team streamline the content marketing process from strategy to results. Here are some of the specialized tools CMPs provide to improve your content marketing process:

Strategic insight: Develop a data-driven content strategy with features like keyword research tools and competitor analyses. Easily identify content gaps and potential audiences.

Organizational alignment: Store, update, and distribute your marketing strategy in one centralized location, effectively breaking down silos between internal and external teams, like freelancers and full-time employees.

Content calendars: Visually map out your content plan with dynamic, drag-and-drop calendar features. Keep your team aligned and organized with a unified calendar to schedule content creation, distribution, campaigns, and project deadlines.

Campaign management: Create and manage multi-channel campaigns within your CMP. Ensure all marketing activities (blog posts, social media posts, email blasts, etc.) align with overall strategy.

Workflow management: Assign tasks, track progress, and set clear deadlines for content creators, editors, and other team members.

Collaboration tools: Share documents, provide feedback, solicit feedback from company executives, streamline legal review, and communicate with your team using built-in messaging, text editors, and task management tools.

Our new dual-editing feature is a real-time collaboration tool that boosts the speed and ease of collaboration when several people are working on a document. Contently is the only CMP that enables real-time collaboration in-platform.

Content performance tracking: Analyze content performance across various channels using detailed analytics.

Team coordination: Keep your team aligned with notifications on project progress, campaign performance, and team activity.

Why Do I Need a Content Marketing Platform?

Every business and marketing team is different. So, is it fair to say they all need a CMP? Yes. Yes, it is. You just need to find a CMP with the right features for your team. So, let’s talk about the benefits of CMPs and what you should look for when shopping for a CMP:

Increased Bandwidth

Marketing teams are always spread thin. But what if you could double, triple, or even quadruple the size of your team? With a CMP, you have access to a powerful network of vetted writers, copy editors, designers, art directors, photographers, videographers, and much more. Suddenly, your marketing team is able to focus on strategy while producing more content.

Without a CMP, marketing teams are forced to pause content creation and publishing while they focus on strategy. But CMPs allow teams to maintain their momentum and continue operations while finalizing their marketing approach.

What to Look For:

Not all CMPs offer a talent network. While some CMPs integrate with freelance marketplaces or offer features to collaborate with external contributors, a built-in talent network of freelancers is not a standard feature.

But the best enterprise content marketing platforms will provide trusted freelancers within their platform. For example, Contently has vetted and trained each of their 160,000+ freelancers in their talent network.

Gain Strategic Alignment

Every good campaign starts with a good strategy. With a CMP, you can document your strategy upfront, create alignment within your team, and provide visibility to your in-house team and freelancers. With custom analytics, you can track each of your audiences, determine how your content is performing, and measure your progress against key performance indicators (KPIs).

What to Look For:

Look for a user-friendly platform that allows each of your team members to customize their dashboards. Whether it’s your CMO or marketing manager using the platform, they can create a dashboard that shows the information and metrics most important to them.

You also want a platform that allows users to provide story briefs or specific instructions to individual freelancers and internal team members. Share insights into audience personas, voice, and strategy without having to attach a 70-page brand book to every assignment. Contently also allows users to templatize their story briefs, so they don’t have to start from scratch with each project.

For your freelancers, use a CMP with a quick link to content strategy, so they can quickly reference goals, audience, and tone with a click of a button.

Scale Content Creation

CMPs can function like growth serums for marketing teams by eliminating repetitive tasks, like scheduling social media posts or resizing images for different platforms. Content templates and pre-designed workflows allow teams to quickly create content consistent with brand guidelines and established processes.

With detailed analytics, teams can see which content resonates with audiences and quickly make improvements. This data-driven approach accelerates the optimization process and helps teams focus on high-performing formats and topics.

What to Look For:

To improve your optimizations and increase ROI, make sure your CMP allows you to test different monetization channels, perform A/B tests, and personalize your content and marketing campaigns using customer data.

For marketers looking for a way to justify their content spend, Contently offers the Content Value Tracker. It actually calculates how much your organic traffic is worth in dollars.

Achieve Brand Compliance

Streamline brand compliance and ensure consistency by incorporating legal and brand requirements into your project briefs, templates, and workflows. Even with strict brand guidelines, you can use brand management tools to flag blocklisted words and phrases and apply a uniform style and tone to each piece of content.

What to Look For:

The best content marketing platforms will include automated quality control features. These tools can scan for plagiarism, assess content for reading level, correct grammar, and optimize for SEO. The best CMPs will also provide AI-generated recommendations on writing quality, such as misused words and double verbs.

Contently’s workflow tools also ensure each team member knows what is required of them and when their tasks are due. Once a freelancer completes a task or meets the project requirements, they are paid automatically through Contently.

Ask The Content Strategist: FAQs About Content Marketing Platforms
How do content marketing platforms facilitate communication between external freelancer and internal teams?

Content marketing platforms often provide features like built-in messaging, task management tools, and collaborative document sharing to facilitate communication between internal teams and external freelancers, ensuring seamless integration regardless of the tools they use.

Can content marketing platforms assist in identifying and filling content gaps in a marketing strategy?

Yes, content marketing platforms typically offer features such as keyword research tools and competitor analyses, allowing users to identify content gaps and potential audiences, thereby aiding in refining and filling gaps within the marketing strategy.

Do content marketing platforms offer functionalities for brand compliance and legal requirements within content creation?

Many content marketing platforms integrate legal and brand compliance requirements into project briefs, templates, and workflows, while also offering automated quality control features such as plagiarism detection and grammar correction.

If you’re ready to make your work life immeasurably better and add a CMP to your content marketing process, start your search here.

Let’s go on a journey down memory lane. It’s the year 2010, before anyone even knows to ask the question, “What are content marketing platforms?” You’re playing Angry Birds, listening to “Bulletproof” on repeat, and loving every product Google releases. As a marketing manager, you’ve embraced Gmail, and Google Docs has changed the way you collaborate with your team.

You have an internal marketing team, and you manage a team of freelancers—writers, designers, editors, etc. Email and Google Docs are your go-to forms of communication and collaboration. Unless your freelancers don’t have Gmail accounts, then the system breaks down. Freelancers can’t access your documents, so you have to email company assets. But those documents are constantly being updated, and you never remember which version you sent to which freelancer. So, you have to search through countless email threads to find the right one.

Now, instead of doing important work, you’re just retracing your steps to determine who knows what and what needs to happen next.

Alright, our journey is over, and you’re safe and sound now back in good old 2024. While this scenario was typical for marketing teams in 2010, many who haven’t discovered the wonder of content marketing platforms still experience these headaches. Perhaps you’re whispering to yourself: “Shoot, that’s me! What is a content marketing platform?” If so, that’s okay, we’ll bring you up to speed.

What are Content Marketing Platforms?

A content marketing platform (CMP) is an online software solution that allows businesses and marketers to collaborate across teams to strategize and streamline their content marketing processes.

I know what you’re thinking: That sounds a lot like a content management system (CMS). Sure, they both deal with content, but they serve different purposes in the overall content lifecycle. Here’s a quick breakdown of their differences:

Content Management Systems (CMS)

A CMS is a broader tool used to publish and distribute marketing content. It allows non-technical users to easily publish content across channels, edit webpages, and manage layouts (e.g., platforms like WordPress and Magento).

Content Marketing Platforms (CMP)

A CMP is a more specialized marketing tool designed for the entire content marketing process. This includes planning content strategy, creating content, scaling content production, analyzing performance, and distributing content across various channels.

Essentially, the biggest difference is that a CMS is primarily for publishing content to your website, while a CMP is for planning, strategic alignment, content creation, and optimizing content performance.

How do Content Marketing Platforms Work?

CMPs act as a central nervous system for your marketing efforts, helping your team streamline the content marketing process from strategy to results. Here are some of the specialized tools CMPs provide to improve your content marketing process:

Strategic insight: Develop a data-driven content strategy with features like keyword research tools and competitor analyses. Easily identify content gaps and potential audiences.

Organizational alignment: Store, update, and distribute your marketing strategy in one centralized location, effectively breaking down silos between internal and external teams, like freelancers and full-time employees.

Content calendars: Visually map out your content plan with dynamic, drag-and-drop calendar features. Keep your team aligned and organized with a unified calendar to schedule content creation, distribution, campaigns, and project deadlines.

Campaign management: Create and manage multi-channel campaigns within your CMP. Ensure all marketing activities (blog posts, social media posts, email blasts, etc.) align with overall strategy.

Workflow management: Assign tasks, track progress, and set clear deadlines for content creators, editors, and other team members.

Collaboration tools: Share documents, provide feedback, solicit feedback from company executives, streamline legal review, and communicate with your team using built-in messaging, text editors, and task management tools.

Our new dual-editing feature is a real-time collaboration tool that boosts the speed and ease of collaboration when several people are working on a document. Contently is the only CMP that enables real-time collaboration in-platform.

Content performance tracking: Analyze content performance across various channels using detailed analytics.

Team coordination: Keep your team aligned with notifications on project progress, campaign performance, and team activity.

Why Do I Need a Content Marketing Platform?

Every business and marketing team is different. So, is it fair to say they all need a CMP? Yes. Yes, it is. You just need to find a CMP with the right features for your team. So, let’s talk about the benefits of CMPs and what you should look for when shopping for a CMP:

Increased Bandwidth

Marketing teams are always spread thin. But what if you could double, triple, or even quadruple the size of your team? With a CMP, you have access to a powerful network of vetted writers, copy editors, designers, art directors, photographers, videographers, and much more. Suddenly, your marketing team is able to focus on strategy while producing more content.

Without a CMP, marketing teams are forced to pause content creation and publishing while they focus on strategy. But CMPs allow teams to maintain their momentum and continue operations while finalizing their marketing approach.

What to Look For:

Not all CMPs offer a talent network. While some CMPs integrate with freelance marketplaces or offer features to collaborate with external contributors, a built-in talent network of freelancers is not a standard feature.

But the best enterprise content marketing platforms will provide trusted freelancers within their platform. For example, Contently has vetted and trained each of their 160,000+ freelancers in their talent network.

Gain Strategic Alignment

Every good campaign starts with a good strategy. With a CMP, you can document your strategy upfront, create alignment within your team, and provide visibility to your in-house team and freelancers. With custom analytics, you can track each of your audiences, determine how your content is performing, and measure your progress against key performance indicators (KPIs).

What to Look For:

Look for a user-friendly platform that allows each of your team members to customize their dashboards. Whether it’s your CMO or marketing manager using the platform, they can create a dashboard that shows the information and metrics most important to them.

You also want a platform that allows users to provide story briefs or specific instructions to individual freelancers and internal team members. Share insights into audience personas, voice, and strategy without having to attach a 70-page brand book to every assignment. Contently also allows users to templatize their story briefs, so they don’t have to start from scratch with each project.

For your freelancers, use a CMP with a quick link to content strategy, so they can quickly reference goals, audience, and tone with a click of a button.

Scale Content Creation

CMPs can function like growth serums for marketing teams by eliminating repetitive tasks, like scheduling social media posts or resizing images for different platforms. Content templates and pre-designed workflows allow teams to quickly create content consistent with brand guidelines and established processes.

With detailed analytics, teams can see which content resonates with audiences and quickly make improvements. This data-driven approach accelerates the optimization process and helps teams focus on high-performing formats and topics.

What to Look For:

To improve your optimizations and increase ROI, make sure your CMP allows you to test different monetization channels, perform A/B tests, and personalize your content and marketing campaigns using customer data.

For marketers looking for a way to justify their content spend, Contently offers the Content Value Tracker. It actually calculates how much your organic traffic is worth in dollars.

Achieve Brand Compliance

Streamline brand compliance and ensure consistency by incorporating legal and brand requirements into your project briefs, templates, and workflows. Even with strict brand guidelines, you can use brand management tools to flag blocklisted words and phrases and apply a uniform style and tone to each piece of content.

What to Look For:

The best content marketing platforms will include automated quality control features. These tools can scan for plagiarism, assess content for reading level, correct grammar, and optimize for SEO. The best CMPs will also provide AI-generated recommendations on writing quality, such as misused words and double verbs.

Contently’s workflow tools also ensure each team member knows what is required of them and when their tasks are due. Once a freelancer completes a task or meets the project requirements, they are paid automatically through Contently.

Ask The Content Strategist: FAQs About Content Marketing Platforms
How do content marketing platforms facilitate communication between external freelancer and internal teams?

Content marketing platforms often provide features like built-in messaging, task management tools, and collaborative document sharing to facilitate communication between internal teams and external freelancers, ensuring seamless integration regardless of the tools they use.

Can content marketing platforms assist in identifying and filling content gaps in a marketing strategy?

Yes, content marketing platforms typically offer features such as keyword research tools and competitor analyses, allowing users to identify content gaps and potential audiences, thereby aiding in refining and filling gaps within the marketing strategy.

Do content marketing platforms offer functionalities for brand compliance and legal requirements within content creation?

Many content marketing platforms integrate legal and brand compliance requirements into project briefs, templates, and workflows, while also offering automated quality control features such as plagiarism detection and grammar correction.

If you’re ready to make your work life immeasurably better and add a CMP to your content marketing process, start your search here.

Whether you’re crafting your overall content strategy or an argument about why publishing story-driven content is just as important as writing yet another sales sheet, one thing can make your life easier: Data. Having hard facts and figures on how your content is performing can help you determine your editorial calendar, shape your approach to SEO, and see what’s resonating with your audience.

To get those insights, you need to make use of the best marketing analytics tool for your goals. The features that tool needs will vary depending on what those goals are. It’s less about finding one tool with all the features listed in this article and more about seeing which of these components fit your needs.

1. A user interface you can actually use

Here’s probably the most important quality a content analytics tool should have: You can actually use it.

Some tools like GA4, the newest version of Google Analytics, offer a ton of powerful features. You can get nearly real-time insights into big-picture topics like what a typical user journey looks like or dive into granular information like how many viewers scrolled through at least 90 percent of the content on a sign-up form page.

Unfortunately for everyone who’s not an analytics expert, understanding GA4’s user interface can feel like trying to read a dead language. Luckily there are marketing analytics tools out there built with ease of use in mind — there’s been a lot of good things said about Plausible, for instance. That and similar tools make great options if you’re looking for something to tell you how your content is performing at a glance.

2. Audience analytics beyond the basics

Successful content marketing is all about crafting pieces specific to your audience’s needs, preferences, and motivations. Good luck doing that if you don’t know who your audience is, though.

That means you need a tool with a solid audience analytics component. Most website analytics tools can give you a basic overview about things like the age and gender of web visitors. If you’re using a customer relationship management platform, though, you can get extremely deep insights through tools like Salesforce’s Audience Studio. The better you design your buyer persona, the better content you can produce.

3. Info on user behavior and experience

A lot of content marketing analytics tools can show you user journeys and content funnels, letting you determine what pages your readers entered and exited. That’s important information, but trying to understand a user’s experience that way is like trying to visit a city by looking at it on a map.

You can get a user-eye view of how people engage with the content on your site by using tools with heat maps and user session recordings. Heat maps are just what they sound like – they show where users are scrolling, clicking, and engaging the most with your content. User session recordings can show you actual recordings of users navigating a certain page. That means you can see from their perspective exactly what’s working or not working with your content.

If you’re looking for website analytics tools specializing in these areas, check out Contently’s Docalytics tool. You can use it to not only optimize your case studies, white papers, or blog posts, but improve the conversion rates of your landing pages for gated content as well.

4. Competitive keyword analysis

You can’t stand out from your competitors if you don’t know what they’re doing. Some analytics tools have features letting you track how your competitors’ content is doing compared to yours based on different variables. That means you can see how they’re ranking for different keywords you’re targeting, as well as where they’re earning backlinks.

Based on this information, you can determine where the whitespace is for upcoming content, helping ensure your editorial calendar stays unique. You can also determine what battles are worth fighting when it comes to certain keywords or phrases you’re trying to rank for – some may just not be worth the effort.

5. An SEO strategy assist

The key to successful SEO content is, first and foremost, quality content. That doesn’t mean the technical side of things doesn’t matter. You’re going to need a tool that lets you see how your site is ranking for various keywords, gives you word count recommendations to make sure you’re not publishing thin content, and whether broken links are torpedoing your traffic.

The good news is you’ve got a lot of great options here. Contently offers a ton of tools for planning out your SEO keywords using cost-per-click insights, info on search volumes, and more. Most of the other big players in this space like Moz or SEMRush will let you get some basic info like keyword suggestions for free.

6. Breezy reporting capabilities

Like most of you, I’m sure, I find the most rewarding part of content marketing is making decks showing how different assets are performing. I love it so much and don’t find struggling with Powerpoint soul-crushing in the slightest.

For real, though, a lot of different content marketing tools can generate automatic reports or dashboards that are easy to understand and visually interesting. That lets you spend less time wrangling decks and more time on the valuable parts of your job.

7. Channel performance data

Audiences are scattered across so many different channels these days. LinkedIn. TikTok. X (yeah, still, I know). However, not every content marketing tool is suited for tracking how different pieces are performing on social media.

The built-in analytics available on individual social media platforms offer some info, but that can make it hard to get a consolidated view of how your content is doing across each channel. Platforms like Sprout Social or Hootsuite can help bring together multiple channels into a single view.

Wrapping it up

Finding the right content analytics tool is a process, and knowing what to look for will help you align your needs with a product’s offerings. Contently’s content optimization tools could be what you’re looking for. If so, contact us to set up a product demo.

Ask the Content Strategist: FAQs
What role do content marketing analytics play when building out individual pieces of content?

Analytics tools can do more than just give you the lowdown on what keywords to include in your copy. You can use them to develop a better understanding of your audience, which is the foundation good content is built upon. Done right, the best marketing analytics tools help you write content that people and search engines will love.

What are some actual examples of how I could use heatmaps to improve content?

Let’s say you’re looking at a heatmap and notice a bunch of people clicking on an image. This may indicate that these users are expecting that picture to be linked to a different page – and that they’re getting frustrated when their clicks do nothing. That’s exactly what we saw when using heatmaps to review content. Fixing this led to a better user experience.

Other than analytics, what are some of the best ways I can get to know my audience better?

Marketing analytics tools aren’t the be-all-end-all for developing a better understanding of your audience. Make sure you’re regularly reading reviews, conducting surveys, and monitoring social media to see who your readers are and what they’re talking about.

Are you ready to build a data-driven content strategy? Contently Analytics has you covered.

By Sean Tinney June 19, 2024

One of the most effective emails you can send to your audience is the abandoned cart email. When sent at the right time, an abandoned cart email serves as a helpful reminder to encourage your customers to complete their purchase. Many people put together a cart but get distracted before checking out. In fact, on average, 70.2% of online carts are abandoned.

That is a lot of lost sales. 

But you can recover many of these sales with an automated abandoned cart email campaign designed to increase conversion rates. 

What is an abandoned cart email?

An abandoned cart email is a reminder sent to visitors who added items to their shopping cart but didn’t complete the purchase. This automated email prompts the visitor to finish their transaction. The best reminder emails are creative and timely, aiming to encourage the completion of the sale. 

Supportive calls to actions (CTAs) included in this email can guide the potential buyers to spend more on upgrades or related products or services. Some abandoned cart emails include special deals or free shipping, but most simply serve as a timely reminder to spark action.

Why abandoned cart emails matter

Shopify found that retargeting a customer with an abandoned cart email increases sales by more than 20% and reduces abandoned cart rates by 6.5%. When customers receive a reminder about their left-behind shopping cart, many return to complete their purchase. The best part? You can automate these reminders!

Why do people abandon online shopping carts?

Understanding why shoppers abandon their carts is crucial for creating a more effective sales funnel. According to Statista, the most common reasons for cart abandonment in the US for 2024 included:

Unexpected costs (shipping costs, taxes, or other charges)

Account setup required

Didn’t trust the site with credit card information

Delivery time was too slow 

Complicated checkout process

Inability to see the total cost upfront

To improve conversion rates, it’s important to be clear about costs throughout the process and reduce the number of steps required to complete a purchase. 

How do you determine your cart abandonment rate?

To determine if your rates improve after implementing an abandoned cart email campaign, you’ll need to calculate your cart abandonment rate. This calculation will serve as your baseline.

The cart abandonment rate is calculated by dividing the number of purchases by the number of shopping carts created during a determined amount of time. Then, subtract this value from 1 and multiply by 100 to determine your cart abandonment rate. 

This is the percentage of interest that didn’t end in a sale. Regardless of your current rate, send out reminders to reduce it as much as possible. 

What happens after cart abandonment?

Since there are many different reasons a shopper may leave the website without completing the purchase, there are also several things likely to happen after the abandonment. According to Statista, UK shoppers who abandoned their carts were most likely to:

Purchase the item from the site at a later date (31%)

Purchase the item from an online competitor (26%)

Changed their mind or weren’t looking to buy (23%)

Went to a physical store to make their purchase (8%)

Abandoned cart emails can potentially prompt a purchase from 80% of those shoppers who are still interested in buying. 

15 Abandoned cart email best practices

Writing a powerful reminder email means following best practices for abandoned cart emails. Here are crucial steps you should follow to get the most out of your reminder emails:

1 – Use attention-grabbing abandoned cart email subject lines

Getting your email opened is a huge step with a cart abandonment email since many shoppers are used to seeing them. The best email subject lines stand out from the rest of the inbox but still make it clear what the email is about. Good abandoned cart subject line examples include ”You forgot something” or “Oops, Did Something Go Wrong?”

2 – Trigger the email within 24 hours 

Statistics show that sooner is more effective than later when it comes to reminder emails. Conversion rates for neglected carts are highest when the email is sent out 30-60 minutes after inactivity. However, those rates plummeted after 24 hours when the lead had grown cold.

3 – Copy should be short & direct

Remind people what they left behind with copy that inspires them to take action. Get to the point quickly with creative and succinct copy by trimming out all the excess. Simply highlighting a key benefit or two could help them finalize their purchase.

Speaking of being direct, check out this example from Nike:

4 – Use images to highlight what they are missing

The brain processes images about 60,000 times faster than text. Images will spark instant reminders of what drew them to your items in the first place. Always include pictures or GIFs of the items they’ve left behind to help provoke a response.

Here’s a great example from Hydrow:

5 – Reinforce the product or service benefits

Retargeting with a reminder email is the perfect time to highlight the product they are considering. Offer your most influential reasons for why they should finish the checkout process on the items in their cart.

6 – Consider a discount or value

If you plan to offer a great deal, the cart abandonment email is a good time to offer it. Even a small discount, like $5 or 10%, can make it more appealing to finish the purchase. People love to find deals, which could be the perfect way to help them decide to buy.

Saatchi Art does just that, plus they add a FOMO (fear of missing out) headline:

7 – Offer social proof with reviews

Providing reviews or testimonials can help motivate your leads to take the leap and make a purchase decision. Word-of-mouth marketing is highly influential, and a genuine customer review has a similar appeal.

8 – Include a call to action (CTA) that fits your goals

The primary goal of an abandoned cart email is to prompt a return and complete the sale. Your CTA should be positioned to drive that action. Use FOMO to encourage urgency, such as “Get it before it’s gone” or “Limited availability.”

9 – Set up an automated feature

You shouldn’t have to manually send out your reminder emails. Set automated emails for cart abandonment to go out after a certain lapse of inactivity.

10 – Segment your audience

Tailor your abandoned cart emails to different audiences by segmenting them into groups based on things like purchase history, browsing behavior, and demographics. Personalization makes your abandoned cart emails more relevant and, therefore, more effective.

11 – Include dynamic content

Dynamic content in your emails displaying real-time product availability, offers and discounts, or product recommendations keeps your emails feeling fresh.

12 – Highlight limited-time offers:

Draw attention to limited-time offers to create a sense of urgency and to nudge recipients toward a purchase. One way to do this is with a countdown timer. These motivational additions to your email are a great way to get your shoppers to act quickly.

13 – Provide clear contact information

When you simply include your customer service phone number, email, and chat, it gives confidence to your potential customers that you are readily available to answer their problems or questions.

14 – Incorporate additional triggers

Use other behavioral triggers alongside your abandoned cart emails to help keep your brand top of mind. Set up triggers when customers revisit your site or add more items to that old cart. 

15 – Test different send times

We already mentioned that it’s important to send abandoned cart emails within 24 hours. But when exactly should you send your abandoned cart email? Every business is different, and that’s why we encourage you to test different send times to find out what works best for your audience.

Abandoned cart email examples

There are all kinds of abandoned cart emails you can consider when creating your own. Here are some of our favorite examples from real brands, showcasing variations of value promise, humor, imagery, and more.

1 – LEGO

Image from ReallyGoodEmails

What I love about this example:

Fun and engaging graphics

Easy purchase process with “Make it yours in a snap”

Strong positioning of CTAs

Enticing, supportive, and amusing for someone previously browsing LEGO sets

2 – NOMAD

Image from ReallyGoodEmails

What I love about this example:

Adds a touch of humor with “What Happened? Did your Wi-Fi Crash?”) 

Light-hearted but effective

Relevant CTA –  “Seal the Deal.” 

Clever reinforcement of their 30-day return policy

3 – Dote

Image from ReallyGoodEmails

What I love about this example:

Another joke reminder — “Your shopping bag has abandonment issues.”

The light-hearted theme continues with “Save these items hours of therapy and give them a loving home.” 

Clean, simplistic, clutter-free design 

4 – Dollar Shave Club

Image from ReallyGoodEmails

What I love about this example:

Reinforces brand positioning

Offers a bold promise

Highlights several benefits for signing up at the beginning of the email

Large product shot with a natural flow leading the reader to the CTA for more information.

5 – Pepper

Image from ReallyGoodEmails

What I love about this example:

Offers a small discount to spark a purchase

Features the customer’s most recent cart additions to appeal to potential buyers

6 – Peel

Image from ReallyGoodEmails

What I love about this example:

Simple and straightforward design

Creates a sense of urgency with “We’re holding the items in your cart for you, but don’t wait too long!”

Clear call to action in a standout color

7 – Gilt

Image from ReallyGoodEmails

What I love about this example:

Uses the expiring cart threat to spark immediate action

Shows alternative colors of the items in their cart to motivate a purchase

8 – Google Express

Image from ReallyGoodEmails

What I love about this example:

Simple and direct design

Clearly lists items and pricing from the abandoned cart

Positions the CTA right below the headline for prime visibility

9 – Doggyloot

What I love about this example:

Creates urgency with “Items you added to your cart are almost sold out”

Clear and prominent “RESTORE MY CART” CTA

Friendly and warm sign-off

10 – J. Crew

What I love about this example:

Direct and engaging headline

High-quality image of the abandoned product

Clear CTA with “GO TO YOUR BAG NOW”

Additional CTAs

11 – Whiskey Me

What I love about this example:

Personalized touch with the order number

Simple layout focused on action

Friendly reminder of the item’s details

12 – Huckberry

What I love about this example:

Displays the abandoned item with details.

Provides easy access to assistance from customer support.

Creates urgency by mentioning limited sales and inventory.

13 – 23andMe

Image from Really Good Emails

What I love about this example:

Emphasizes the value of the product with a personal benefit statement.

Clean and simple design, focusing on the message.

Clear and direct headline: “Don’t forget to order your kit.”

14 – Le Puzz

What I love about this example:

Friendly and welcoming headline: “Hello again!”

Bright and eye-catching design that stands out.

Creative and engaging copy: “We found a lost puzzle. Could it be yours?”

15 – Stetson

What I love about this example:

Clean and elegant design.

High-quality product image to remind customers of the item.

Free shipping offer prominently displayed to add extra incentive.

Win back more lost sales with the perfect cart abandonment email

Don’t miss out on the opportunity to target a warm lead and recover lost sales. Set up your abandoned cart email in AWeber for an easy solution with powerful results. If you need help getting started, we have a pre-built campaign.

Editors who’ve experimented with generative AI for spinning articles from whole cloth know its fondness for “rich tapestry” metaphors. Strategists, too, learning how to use ChatGPT for content marketing have likely encountered less-than-revelatory “strategies” like “create compelling content that resonates with your target audience.”

It’s unsurprising that AI leans heavily on cliches. Having digested most of the internet as training data, it offers responses that are typically amalgamations of previously published material. And contrary to some of the more dystopian headlines out there, AI does not (yet) have original thoughts.

But the very skills that make generative AI a mediocre content creator make it an excellent editorial assistant. AI’s penchant for pattern recognition makes it highly skilled at things like calendar management, and its impressive synthesis skills mean you can whip up a dozen social media post variations from one original in seconds.

Here are a few ways generative AI can make your job a little easier, as well as some best practices for introducing the technology into your work routine.

How to use ChatGPT for content optimization and more

Below are four helpful use cases that generative AI may be able to take off your plate.

Use case 1: Setting up your content calendar

We’ve written previously about the power of a dialed-in content calendar—especially if you’ve got one of those clients who seems to push back their target publish date week after agonizing week. Whether you’re publishing sporadic social posts or managing a full-fledged content marketing machine complete with white papers, video projects, and infographics galore, an editorial calendar is critical for staying on track (and sane).

Content marketers can use ChatGPT (or your generative AI engine of choice; I’m currently partial to Claude) to input key parameters like target audience, desired content mix, and publishing frequency. You can then prompt the AI to come up with a comprehensive content calendar formatted with as many columns as you like.

Further, AI can help with workflow management by suggesting optimal project timelines across multiple stakeholders—saving you hours of working backward from moving-target deadlines in the aftermath of a client’s latest fire drill.

Use case 2: Nailing your content briefs

There’s a big difference between editing and proofreading, and AI can be an excellent second set of eyes for the latter—whether you need to ensure client communications are typo-free or ensure your content briefs contain enough information for creatives to work their magic.

Here’s an example prompt you can try with your next brief:

Use case 3: Suggesting optimizations and SEO tweaks

Content marketing is extremely fluid, especially in today’s day and age (nobody knows, for instance, what’s going to happen to SEO in the coming weeks and months). Today’s golden-ticket keywords may land you on page ten of SERP purgatory tomorrow.

AI can prove an ally here, too, helping you pivot and optimize as the SEO winds shift. For example, AI can audit existing content and provide data-driven suggestions to improve elements like titles, subheadings, readability, keyword usage and density, accessibility, etc. It can also help out with tasks like identifying internal linking opportunities.

Use case 4: Adapting content for omnichannel distribution

AI can help repurpose a long-form piece like a white paper into derivative assets like social media posts, email newsletter content, and ad copy while maintaining message consistency. It can also be a great way to generate multiple headlines for A/B testing in campaigns or craft more functional copy like meta descriptions, image alt text, or video transcripts.

How to improve content strategy with AI: 4 best practices

Of course, there are some important do’s and don’ts when mastering how to use ChatGPT for content marketing—and specifically for client-facing work. Below are four to keep in mind.

1. Provide clear and specific prompts.

AI works best when you give it detailed instructions and context. Be as specific as possible about what you want to generate, including any key talking points, desired tone, or formatting requirements. The more specific your prompts, the more likely the AI will deliver quality outputs.

2. Review all outputs with a human eye for detail—and common sense.

Think of AI as a starting point, not a final destination. Always carefully review any AI outputs before presenting them in client-facing materials or plugging them into your content strategy. Be sure to edit all AI-crafted social posts to ensure logic, flow, and an appropriate brand voice.

3. Don’t rely solely on ChatGPT content analysis.

These days, new AI tools are cropping up for content optimization, generation, and analysis on an almost daily basis. While ChatGPT is the most well-known, it’s worth exploring other options to find the ones that best fit your needs. Many AI platforms offer free trials, so you can test drive before committing.

4. Use AI responsibly.

There are certain things you should never share with AI—including sensitive or embargoed client data, proprietary information, personal details, and anything covered by an NDA. Err on the side of caution when it comes to data privacy and security.

If you’re a freelancer, you’ll also want to check in with each of your clients to see if they have a responsible AI policy. If you use vendors yourself, it’s a good idea to draft your own guidelines around issues like disclosure, copyright, and data handling. Also, be sure to review any new client contracts for clauses that dictate if/how you can use AI.

Finally, don’t forget to fact-check AI outputs. In a world in which Google is suggesting people “eat rocks” and lawyers are citing fake precedents in court, you don’t want to risk damaging your reputation—or your client relationships—by being sloppy.

The key is to view AI as a partner, not a replacement. Sidestep the cliches and use AI for its true strengths: speed, scale, and data synthesis. By freeing yourself from tedious tasks, you can focus on higher-level strategy and creative ideation—you know, the actually stimulating aspects of the “intricate mosaic” that is content marketing.

Ask the Content Strategist: FAQs about how to use ChatGPT for content calendars

What level of technical expertise is required to effectively use AI tools for content marketing?

You don’t need a computer science degree to learn how to use ChatGPT for content marketing. As long as you’re comfortable navigating basic software and have a general understanding of what AI can (and can’t) do, you should be able to get up and running pretty quickly.

What are some best practices for evaluating and selecting an AI tool or platform for content marketing purposes?

When choosing an AI tool, consider factors like pricing (including any usage limits or extra fees), available features and integrations, ease of use, and customer support. Look for tools that align with your specific needs and goals—whether that’s content calendar management, SEO optimization, or something else entirely. Take advantage of free trials to test out different options before committing.

Can AI tools be customized to fit specific industry needs or niches?

Absolutely! Many AI tools allow you to input your own data and parameters to tailor the outputs to your specific industry or niche. For example, you might provide the AI with examples of high-performing content in your field or a list of industry-specific keywords and phrases to incorporate. You can even play around with creating your own custom GPTs.

Keep up with the evolving world of generative AI and how it can help your marketing efforts by subscribing to The Content Strategist.

By Jesse Kennedy June 20, 2024

Rather listen or watch? You’ve got it! 

Email design is critical to an effective email marketing strategy. While the actual information you communicate is important, design elements are just as crucial.

After all, studies show that 90% of the information transmitted to our brains is visual.

So, by incorporating email design best practices, you can leave a lasting impression on subscribers, help them remember and trust your brand, and drive more conversions.

Fortunately, you don’t need to be a professional designer to create beautiful emails!

In fact, in this article, we’ll cover all the most important email marketing design best practices that anyone can apply, regardless of skill level. 

At the end, we’ll show you a few email design tools to help you start sending gorgeous emails in no time.

Why is email marketing design important?

Email marketing design goes beyond the mere aesthetics of your messages. In fact, design plays a crucial role in how recipients perceive your brand identity.

By giving your email design the attention it deserves, you can help build trust with recipients, get them to engage more, and even drive more conversions.

So, let’s take a look at some of the key reasons you should incorporate email design best practices into your marketing strategy.

1. Create a good first impression

If you’ve put in the effort to get users to sign up for your email list, then it’s key to make a good first impression!

WIth good email design, you can capture recipient’s attention and set a positive tone for their interaction with your brand.

A professional-looking design establishes trust from the outset, ensuring recipients feel like they’re getting the value you promised when they signed up for your list.

2. Drive more conversions

By establishing trust with effective email design, recipients will also be more likely to convert into customers.

So, with the right email design, you can help guide your audience towards the action you want them to take, whether that be making a purchase or downloading a resource.

3. Improve readability and engagement

Incorporating email design best practices is also key for improving the readability of your messages. 

For example, the use of subheadings and bullet points, along with visual elements, like images, can help make your emails more engaging.

A report by Litmus found that people spent an average of just nine seconds looking at an email. So, it’s key that those who open your emails are able to understand the information quickly and easily.

Remember, the easier your emails are to read, the more recipients will be engaged. When recipients are more engaged, they’ll be more likely to convert. 

4. Build recognition with a consistent brand image

One more key reason email marketing design is important is that it can help you build a consistent brand identity.

This is crucial to developing both trust and recognition amongst your recipients.

According to an Edelman report, 59% of consumers are more likely to make a purchase from a brand they trust, regardless of the price. Likewise, 67% are more likely to advocate and stay loyal to a brand they trust.

So, to create loyal customers, it’s critical to build a recognizable and reliable brand image. By incorporating email design best practices into your marketing, you can achieve this.

11 Email marketing design best practices

Now that you have a better understanding of why design is so important, let’s look at some email marketing design best practices.

By incorporating these tips into your emails, you’ll be able to send emails that create a recognizable brand identity, build trust with recipients, and improve engagement.

1. Pick the right email design layout

The right email layout can make the difference between a subscriber who takes an action and one who unsubscribes. 

Attention spans are getting shorter, so understanding how people read your emails will help you craft more effective messages.

Knowing where their eyes are likely to go can make your email more readable. Better yet, it can help the reader navigate towards your call to action. 

So, let’s explore a few types of email design layouts to help you do that.

Z-Pattern

The Z-Pattern traces the path of your eyes when reading: left to right; top to bottom.

People will read the first line across, then down and to the left, and back across the right again. When reading in this pattern, it forms a Z-shape.

This email design layout works best when you have a lot of information to communicate. The structure will help your subscribers consume all the information in an easy and logical way.

You’ll often see this type of email follow a pattern where you start with a headline and text on the top left, with an image to the right. Then, the lower left corner will have another image, and across from that will be text. 

This works because:

1. Readers’ eyes are naturally drawn to images. By having the images diagonal from each other, you help subscribers follow an easy-to-read path.

2. It creates a cleaner layout by not having all your text on one side of the email.

Inverted Pyramid

The inverted pyramid is a format used for news stories, but it also works well for emails. This structure grabs attention and focuses on the most important parts of your message. 

It’s good for when you have one thing to tell your readers, and a specific call to action you want them to click on. 

You can use this layout for:

Driving subscribers to your website to read an article

Collecting sign-ups for an event

Encouraging subscribes to purchase a product or service

F-Pattern

Finally, the Nielsen Norman Group first identified the F-Pattern after studying how people’s eyes read a website.

Similar to the Z-Pattern, a reader consumes content from left to right, and then back to the left. However, instead of reading across the second line, they read less. This pattern continues as readers make their way down the email.

This means you should put your most important, attention-grabbing information at the top of your email. 

Then, assume your subscriber is going to skim the rest of your email. Use less text further down in the email, and balance the copy with images on the right.

This email design layout works well when you have a lot of information to communicate. 

You should structure your email with the most important information at the top, and then use bullet points and shorter content further down the email. 

Finally, close with a call to action.

2. Choose the right colors

Select colors that reflect your logo and brand. However, be sure there’s enough contrast for easy reading. Remember, clarity is key!

Text that doesn’t have enough contrast against its background is hard to read.

It’s also a best email marketing design practice to incorporate color psychology. To choose complementary colors, check out this chart about the emotional impacts of different colors.

Free color palette tools like Coolors can also help you create a professional-grade palette in minutes.

Ultimately, this will ensure your emails are better aligned with your brand identity.

3. Leave some breathing room

Densely packed emails may be hard to read. This is especially true on mobile devices, where 49.7 percent of all email opens occur.

Most people scan emails rather than reading them word by word. So, having ample white space between elements makes your emails easier to scan. Essentially, it keeps them from looking visually overwhelming. 

Leaving extra white space has an additional benefit as well: it challenges you to keep your message brief and to only include the relevant details. 

Remember, brevity and clarity are critical to effective email design.

Here’s a great example from TrueCar.

4. Use text as a design element 

Formatting your emails for skimmers and scanners also helps. The most common formatting elements are: 

Subheadings

Short paragraphs

Bullet points

Bolded phrases 

Using visual cues like these will make the most important points of your email easy to find.

Look at this example from Jon Persson of CultMethod. He bolds important elements within the body of his email, while breaking up the copy with bullet points and perfectly-placed headlines. 

Most importantly, each paragraph is short and easy to read.

5. Balance text with images

You should also consider breaking up large chunks of text with visual images. Readers prefer short blurbs of information. So, try incorporating images and lines when possible.

Images help tell the story of what you want to communicate to your subscribers

Just be sure not to overdo it! Instead, follow the 60/40 rule: images should take up no more than 40% of your email.

6. Plan for missing images

Nearly all email services give subscribers the option to hide images. In fact, some even disable images automatically, forcing the user to click a link or press a button to “turn on” images. 

For example, here is how an email with a large hero image appears in Outlook:

Since many popular email platforms block images, you should make sure your email is still readable—and your call-to-action is still clickable—when images are turned off.

Rather than using image-based buttons that hide your CTA when images are turned off, try using a “bulletproof button” instead. This technique combines a background color with a regular text link, providing the illusion of a button that users can see when images are on or off.

Most email marketing services, like AWeber, allow you to easily create bulletproof buttons within your email design layout. 

If the images you’re using are an important part of your emails, make sure you add alt text to the image. This is text that describes what the image is about. 

If you’ve ever laid out webpages or worked with WordPress, you may have added alt text to images before.

When you include alt text, subscribers can still understand what you intended to show them, even if they block images.

7. Pick the right typography

As we’ve mentioned already, making your email easy to read is critical, and your typography is a huge part of this.

So, be sure the font you use in your subheadings and body copy are comfortably readable. Common email fonts include Arial or Helvetica, but you’re not limited to these.

Additionally, ensure you’re using a large enough font size. After all, you don’t want your recipients squinting to try to read your email. For example:

This font size is a 12px, and it can be difficult for people to read

This font size is 16px, which is large enough for most of your subscribers to read without zooming in.

8. Use clear links and buttons

You’ll likely include at least one or two links and buttons in your email marketing design. However, it’s important to make sure it’s clear where all of your links lead to.

For example, instead of writing phrases like “click here”, try using more specific labels.

Something like “buy now” or “get your demo” tell the reader exactly what will happen when they click on your link or button.

For example, in this email from Capital One, their button clearly communicates that when you click it, you’ll be able to view the details of their checking account offer.

9. Attract readers’ eyes

We already mentioned that you’ll want to include some visual elements, like images, in your email design. 

However, it can also be a good idea to add in some creative elements, like a GIF, to really grab your readers’ attention.

If you do opt to include a GIF, just be sure it enhances your message and doesn’t distract from what you want to communicate.

Ultimately, though, small creative touches like this can be a great way to grab attention and engage recipients.

10. Include a call to action

If you’re taking the time to build and send an email to your list, it’s key that you direct your subscribers to take some sort of action when they read it.

Calls to action can include anything from:

Encouraging subscribers to buy your product or service

Directing recipients to download a free resource

Getting recipients to sign up for an event or webinar

Ultimately, you want to engage your subscribers so they take the action you want them to take.

So, be sure to include a CTA that clearly communicates the value it can provide recipients, and make sure it stands out.

11. Send a test email

One more critical email marketing design best practice is to test your email before sending it out to your entire list. This will help you ensure there are no formatting errors in your design.

After all, you don’t want to put in all the effort to design your email only to realize it doesn’t look right in subscribers’ email inboxes.

So, be sure to send a test email to your own inbox first. 

Once you’re positive that it looks the way you want it to, then you can send it out to your entire list.

Email design tools to create beautiful emails

You don’t need to start from scratch to create beautiful emails. In fact, there are tons of email marketing tools that make design a breeze.

So, here are several email marketing design tools to help you get started.

1. Canva

Canva is a free graphic design tool that allows you to create and edit any kind of image. 

Better yet, AWeber has a fully-integrated Canva drag-and-drop button. This means you can create your images in Canva and drag them directly into your AWeber email.

2. Email templates

Sometimes simply getting started is the hardest part of sending an email. This is where an email template can come in handy. 

When you find the right template, most of the work is done for you. All you need to do is customize it to fit your brand by adding your logo and updating the colors. Then you’re ready to go!

AWeber has hundreds of email marketing and newsletter templates ready for you to customize for your messages. These can save you hours of time every week and let you skip most of the heavy lifting of designing your own emails. 

Here are just a few of the templates available. Each template also has at least three color palettes to choose from.

3. Try an email builder

Finally, online tools like Stripo, BeeFree, and Dyspatch also have templates and drag and drop email design editors. They’re similar to what you’ll find in your email marketing provider’s account, but some email designers prefer these tools. 

You can design an email in any of these tools and then import it into your email provider. 

Engage your subscribers with email marketing design best practices

If you’re not a pro designer, building a professional-looking email may seem a bit intimidating. 

However, by incorporating the email marketing design best practices above, you can start creating beautiful emails in no time.

Remember, good email design is critical to building trust, driving conversions, and establishing your brand identity. So, it’s key that you give your design the attention it needs to be effective.

Of course, if you want a custom-designed email or newsletter, we can help with that, too! AWeber offers both custom email templates and landing page designs. 

Full custom designs are $229, or a modification of an existing template is $29. Click here to learn more about our custom design services.

By Pam Neely June 21, 2024

Have you noticed a significant number of your email list subscribers are no longer interacting with your content or following your calls to action? Then it may be time to start a re-engagement email campaign!

This can be a super effective email marketing strategy for winning back inactive subscribers. 

After all, one study indicates that the average email list decay rate, which is the percentage of subscribers who become inactive, is between 22% and 30% per year.

This means that, unless you’re cleaning your email list regularly, you’re likely sending a lot of messages into the void, never to be seen again.

However, with re-engagement emails, you can start winning back some of those inactive subscribers. To be successful, though, you’ll need to keep some best practices in mind.

So, in this article, we’ll explore how to write win-back emails. We’ll also provide examples of some effective re-engagement email campaign strategies, from one-off surveys and free resources to entire email sequences.

What is a re-engagement email?

A re-engagement email, also called a “win-back email”, is a message you send to subscribers who have become inactive. 

These emails aim to rekindle the interest of people who have not made a purchase or interacted with your brand for a while.

Re-engagement email campaigns are a great strategy for sparking the interest of inactive subscribers before removing them from your mailing list. After all, emailing unresponsive subscribers with messages isn’t helping them or your business.

Before saying goodbye, however, a win-back email offers one final opportunity to reconnect and rebuild your customer relationship.

Ultimately, your goal is to re-establish a connection with those who seem to have lost interest in your products, services, or content.

Here is an example re-engagement email from the newsletter pros at Marketing Brew. While the three-week inactivity timeline is pretty tight by most industry standards, they do a great job of ensuring their list is truly engaged with their content.

This way, they keep their email list clean, and ensure most of their messages aren’t getting lost in recipients’ spam folders.

How effective are re-engagement emails?

While re-engagement email campaigns are a great way to win back subscribers, you can’t expect every inactive subscriber to become active again.

Most email win-back campaigns have a success rate of 14% up to 29% in the best-case scenario. 

Several email marketing studies have found that sending a series of emails may be more effective than sending just a single email. A re-engagement sequence of three emails appears to be the sweet spot. 

One recent study found that several different tactics will work, but no one tactic significantly outperformed the others.

Later on, we’ll discuss how each of the methods below work, as well as provide a few additional examples. We’ll also tell you how to set up an effective re-engagement email sequence.

Remember though, the method that works best for your business depends on the needs and interests of your unique audience.

How create a re-engagement email

The goal of your re-engagement email campaign is to get people interested in your emails again. 

So, every element of your email – the subject line, the content, and the call-to-action – needs to support that goal.

Re-Engagement email subject lines

For re-engagement email subject lines, the best ones specifically reference your goal: to win back your subscribers!

Here is an example of an email from Tomasz Borys at Kissmetrics:

You can also take a more personal approach, like this email from Threadless:

Both subject lines work well. However, they each grab the reader’s attention in different ways.

A simple “We miss you!” lets the subscriber know that you appreciate their readership. It also feels more conversational. 

On the flip side, “Do you still want updates from us?” is direct and inquisitive. It tells the subscriber that you care about their time and want to make sure they get something out of the relationship.

For more inspiration, consider reviewing your past emails to see what’s working for your specific audience. Look for common themes like subject line length and tone to see what tends to work best for your target audience.

You can also try using personalization, like including your subscribers’ first names in the subject line. It’s no secret that personalization helps you connect with your subscribers and stand out a little more in the inbox. 

For example, the email from Threadless could have gone one step further by saying, “We miss you, Sam!”

Since these details depend on what your audience responds to, try testing different variations and find that sweet spot.

Re-engagement email content

Most re-engagement emails’ content is short – generally just two or three paragraphs. All you need to do is to make the purpose of your email clear: “Do you still want to get emails from us?”

Then, you might consider explaining the value your emails provide. 

Remember, these are people who signed up to receive messages from you but at some point stopped reading. 

They wanted to hear from you before, so how can you get them re-interested in what you have to say? 

Ask yourself a few questions:

What did my subscribers sign up to receive originally?

Am I continuing to send them content based on their original expectations?

Did I change anything in my email strategy that might have caused them to stop engaging with my content?

What can I offer to pique their interest again?

Once you have those answers in mind, it’s time to start writing your email.

Here’s an example of a re-engagement email we sent to our inactive blog newsletter subscribers:

The format is simple, and it makes a good template for any re-engagement email:

You haven’t opened any emails from us in a while

We want to make sure you’re still interested

Click this button to stay on the list

Here’s what you can expect if you remain on the list

That’s all you have to say in a re-engagement email–just one sentence and a few bullet points. After all, the shorter your email is, the more likely people are to read it and click the button.

Getting inactive subscribers up to speed might also help get them re-interested in your content. So, consider adding a short bulleted list of your recent “greatest hits,” such as:

Products

Content

Promotions

Re-engagement email incentives

Speaking of promotions, offering an incentive, like a white paper or coupon code, might also help you re-engage subscribers. 

If you hooked them onto your list with a piece of content in the past, consider how you might be able to repeat that success during your re-engagement email campaign.

Check out this example from Paperworks, a stationary and premium paper provider:

Offering a special discount is a great way to get subscribers interested in your emails again. 

Not only are you giving your subscribers something in exchange for their time and attention, but you might even get another sale out of it as well.

Re-engagement email feedback

To help you learn more about why subscribers grew disinterested in your content, asking them for specific feedback could help fill in the gaps. For example:

Was there something you could have done better for these subscribers? 

What made them stop engaging in the first place?

Asking these questions directly can help you figure out exactly where you can improve your email marketing strategy.

Additionally, if you make a subscriber feel like their opinion is truly valued, they may want to stick around. Plus, this will give you valuable insight into their needs that you wouldn’t get anywhere else.

As you get feedback and notice common themes, you can implement their suggestions in the future.

Re-engagement email call to action

The whole point of your email is to prompt subscribers to take an action, so make sure your emails have a call to action that is bold and clear.

Generally, you’ll want to limit yourself to one call to action in order to increase your click-through rate. However, there are exceptions to this rule.

Ultimately, your CTA should make it easy for recipients to:

Stay on or opt out of your list

Learn more about a product or service

Download an incentive

For example, check out this email and CTA from Grammarly:

While having one call to action is the classic approach, some re-engagement emails examples also include an unsubscribe link. 

For instance, take a look at this email from a PEW, a non-profit organization:

Finally, some re-engagement emails even let subscribers choose to get emails less often, like the example below.

7 Re-engagement email examples

Now that you’ve got a good idea of what goes into an effective win-back email, let’s look at some re-engagement email examples.

The following ideas are great ways to get customers interested in your brand again.

1. Surveys

If your subscribers aren’t responding to what you’ve been sending, try asking them what they would like to get from you. After all, this can help you better understand your audience’s interests and preferences. 

For example, you might send a re-engagement email with the subject line “We miss you! Tell us how we can improve.” Then, for your call to action, include a link to a brief survey. Consider asking questions about:

Their favorite types of content

Products they’re interested in

How often they’d like to hear from you

Ultimately, this feedback can help guide your future email marketing campaigns, as well as show subscribers you value their opinions.

2. Coupons and discounts

If you’re in ecommerce, the classic way to win back inactive customers is to send them a juicy discount coupon. 

Consider making this a dollar off discount rather than a percent off discount. One study of win-back campaigns found that dollar off discounts activated more subscribers.

For instance, you could send an email with the subject line “We miss you! Here’s $10 off your next purchase.” 

Then, in the content of your email, be sure to include your discount code and a call to action directing subscribers to your store.

You might also think about highlighting new or popular products to entice them even more.

3. New products and services announcements

Announcements are ideal emails to send out if you haven’t mailed to your list in a few months. They’re a great opportunity to let recipients know about new products or services you’re offering.

For example, consider sending a re-engagement email with the subject line “Check out our new arrivals!” 

Then, in your email content, be sure to showcase your latest and greatest products with high-quality images, and include a CTA to your online store.

By showing off your most recent arrivals, you can recapture the interest of customers who’ve grown tired of your old line of products.

4. Free resources

Free resources are also excellent to send if you haven’t emailed your list in awhile. 

A high-value digital resource, like an ebook or a course, can be a great way to demonstrate that it’s worth their time to be on your list. 

For instance, consider using the re-engagement email subject line “Exclusive free ebook just for you!” and provide a link to the download.

You should also be sure to highlight the value recipients will gain from the resource, reinforcing the value they’ll get if they remain active subscribers.

5. Customer testimonials

You can use customer testimonials with other types of content mentioned above. For instance, share a few testimonials about a new service you have.

Think about using a subject line like “See what others are saying about our new service!” and include direct quotes from customers.

This strategy can be especially effective in combination with some of the others listed above. 

For example, including testimonials with a new service announcement or special discount can build trust and credibility while encouraging inactive subscribers to re-engage.

6. Limited time offers

Another great way to win back subscribers is by inducing a sense of urgency in your emails. 

For instance, you might offer a limited-time discount or promotion to encourage recipients to take action quickly.

Consider using a subject line like “Limited time offer! $10 off just for you,” and include a countdown timer or specific end-date.

By inducing a sense of urgency, you can get customers to take action quickly.

7. Resubscription Offers

 Re-subscription offers can be a great incentive to get subscribers interested in your product or service again.

For instance, you might use the re-engagement email subject line, “We want you back! Enjoy 30 days of free premium access.” 

Then, include a CTA to your sign-up page where customers can try out your platform again for a limited time for free.

If your product or service is delivering the value the customer desires, there’s a good chance they’ll stick around after the free trial is over.

Re-engagement email campaign sequences

All email lists are different, so what works best in one situation may not work so well in another. One message might do the trick, but you could be more effective by sending two or three emails to warm people up and get them re-activated.

Since these subscribers are already less engaged, aim to keep your campaign short. Send an email, wait a few days, and see who’s interacted with your content.

If they’ve clicked through to your content or stated they want to remain on your email list, then great! They can stay on your list and continue to get your awesome emails.

Here are two re-engagement email examples that were sent a few days apart.

This is the first one. Notice how short it is?

 And here’s the next one, sent two days later:

The sequence of emails above is concise, and also respectful. Ultimately, even if subscribers opt not to re-engage, it’s important to consider what they want.

This way, if they develop interest in your products or services at a later date, you haven’t burned any bridges.

Start winning back subscribers with a re-engagement email campaign

If you take the time to craft a re-engagement email campaign, there’s a good chance you can win back some subscribers.

However, if some recipients haven’t responded, it may be time to say goodbye. And that’s perfectly ok!

You’ve done what you can to win them back, but if they don’t want to receive your emails, it’s better to let them go. Not only will they appreciate a cleaner inbox, but it’ll also help boost your email deliverability. 

Ultimately, this will improve your email marketing in the long run.

Now, we know that sometimes it can be really hard to write your emails. That’s why we created our What to Write in Your Emails guide and course, complete with 45+ email templates. It will save you hours of work every month.

How do you plan on running a re-engagement campaign of your own? Leave a comment below to share your ideas. 

Or, if you already have an AWeber account, watch this video to see exactly how to create and send your own re-engagement emails!

Re-engagement email FAQs

When should you send a re-engagement email?

Many marketing experts recommend that you wait at least three to six months after a subscriber becomes inactive to send a re-engagement email.

However, the proper amount of time can depend on your specific audience.

For example, if your content is time-sensitive or encourages frequent interaction, one to two months may be a better timeline.

You may even consider starting a win-back email campaign during other times. 

For example, if you’re planning a major list cleanup, updating your product or service offerings, or notice declining engagement rates, you might want to consider sending re-engagement emails.

Ultimately, it’s key to think about the behavior and preferences of your unique subscribers, and align them with your business goals.

How many emails should you send in a re-engagement campaign?

As we mentioned earlier, there’s no perfect number of messages to send in a re-engagement email campaign. 

What works best for your business depends on the preferences of your specific audience.

While sending just one email may be best for some brands, other brands may want to design a sequence of two, three, or even four emails.

So, be sure to test out some different strategies with different segments of your audience. This will help you understand how you can best win back your subscribers.

SEO can feel like a magic wand in your content strategy. Wave it just right, and your brand’s content can claim a preferred place in the search results.

But mastering SEO isn’t as easy as sprinkling keywords like fairy dust and hoping for the best. It demands strategy, finesse, and oftentimes, the guiding hand of a freelance SEO strategist.

Think of these pros as the Merlin to your King Arthur. An SEO strategist can guide you through the perpetually changing labyrinth of Google’s algorithm. They’ll uncover target keywords that align with your content pillars, audit your existing content to find growth opportunities, implement smart on- and off-page tactics, and develop winning link-building strategies.

Want to summon one of these wizards for your team? Here’s our sage advice on recruiting SEO strategists and harnessing their alchemy for long-term success in search results.

What is an SEO strategist?

An SEO strategist (or search engine optimization strategist) is a digital marketing professional who finds ways to help a brand or website reach more people online. They can plan, implement, and manage the SEO strategy for your content to help it rank higher on search engine results pages (SERPs) and grow your web traffic. Some SEO strategists create plans for you to implement, while others help with execution, as well. An experienced SEO content strategist will be able to help you tailor your SEO plans to meet the needs of your content strategy.

Type of work an SEO strategist can do

SEO strategists can handle a variety of tasks related to growing your organic web traffic and helping your content appear in SERPs. Think of them as a behind-the-scenes expert on improving your brand’s visibility online.

When working with a freelance SEO strategist, you can negotiate on exactly which tasks you want them to help with. Take a look at this freelance SEO strategist job description from Contently for examples of the type of work they can do, including:

Link-building strategies
Website architecture audit
Keyword research
Competitor analysis
HTML optimization
Writing optimized meta descriptions and title tags

Where to find an SEO strategist

SEO strategists work behind the scenes, which can make them a little trickier to find than a freelance writer who has bylines proudly stamped on their polished copy.

You can streamline your search by tapping into Contently. Its marketplace has tens of thousands of SEO strategists and other freelance creatives who can level up your content.

How to vet SEO strategists

Your recruitment efforts should leave you with a list of SEO strategists to consider. But since you can only hire one of them, how do you make sure you pick the perfect match for your team?

Review their work experience

Start by getting a sense of their work and accomplishments. Look at their list of previous clients—if the SEO strategist has worked with other brands in your sector, they can hit the ground running when they start working with you. Testimonials from past clients can give you a closer look at what it’s like to work with them. Likewise, case studies serve as evidence of their results.

Check their credentials

Does the SEO strategist boast any relevant certifications? If so, that’s tangible evidence of their expertise and commitment to mastering their craft. It indicates they’ve undergone formal training and demonstrated proficiency in SEO skills, which could lead to better results for your brand. Keep in mind that SEO best practices change often—the more recent the credential, the more likely it is that the strategist has up-to-date knowledge.

Watch out for red flags

Perhaps the biggest red flag an SEO strategist can wave is a promise for quick results or top rankings. SEO strategists don’t control the search algorithm or which links it shows on SERPs. Beware of any strategist who offers shortcuts or guarantees overnight success.

Ask the right questions

Get to know your SEO strategist better over email or a brief call. This is an opportunity to share more about your work and goals, as well as get a sense of their approach to SEO content strategy.

Hannah Belport, senior operations manager at Contently who vets freelance SEO strategists, likes to ask strategists if they are more on the education/consulting side of things or are experienced with technical, page-level SEO, or both. “Neither is preferred over the other necessarily—both have strengths and their purpose,” she says. But it’s important to know what you’re looking for and whether the candidate’s skills are a fit.

Here are some questions you can ask an SEO strategist to see if they’re right for your business:

What’s your typical SEO process?
What SEO tools do you rely on?
Which metrics do you use to measure success?
How do you keep up with SEO trends and updates?
What’s the biggest SEO challenge brands face today?
How long does it typically take to see results?
Can you provide examples of past SEO projects you’ve worked on and their outcomes?
How do you approach keyword research and selection for a new project?
How do you adapt your SEO strategies to different industries or business goals?

How to onboard an SEO strategist

Having a structured onboarding process for a freelance SEO strategist is like laying down the tracks before the train starts rolling. It ensures you’re both on the same page about the agreement, scope of work, expectations, payment structure, and goals.

Here’s how to onboard an SEO strategist.

1. Ensure you have a contract and scope of work in place. You’ll need a signed contract before you can start working with an SEO strategist (if you’re . Your brand’s legal team may have a freelance contract you can use, or you can look for templates online. At this stage, it’s also a good idea to draft a scope of work. It should include clear deliverables, deadlines, reporting cadence, key performance indicators (KPIs), and goals.

2. Establish a payment method. Freelance SEO strategists depend on on-time payments from their clients. Ask how they’d like to receive payment and share that info along with any pertinent details (like account numbers) with your accounts payable team. Freelancers typically expect to receive payment for projects within 30 days of sending an invoice. If you have an ongoing relationship with an SEO strategist, consider making more frequent payments to encourage them to stick around for the long term.

3. Share your brand materials. Helping an SEO strategist get deeply acquainted with your brand’s identity can help them fine-tune their techniques to reach your target audience. Send them essential materials, like your style guide, branding guidelines, customer personas, and content strategy.

4. Get them plugged into your systems. Granting access to your content management system (CMS) and web traffic analytics dashboard allows the SEO strategist to dive deep into your website’s performance metrics and content architecture. Work with your tech team to get them set up with usernames, passwords, and any other requirements.

Tips for working with an SEO strategist

Having a talented freelance SEO strategist on your team can spell the difference between your content thriving with visibility or fading into digital oblivion. If you find someone who drives results and is a pleasure to work with, you’ll want to build a positive relationship with them so you can collaborate again in the future.

Here are some best practices to keep in mind.

1. Don’t treat a freelancer as a member of your internal team. While they agree to deadlines, they work on their own schedule and can’t always commit to lengthy or impromptu meetings. Don’t assume they’re available for something at the last minute—freelance SEO strategists work with many clients at one time, so they might be busy with another project.

2. Establish a scope of work—and follow it. Freelance SEO strategists stick closely to the tasks outlined in the scope of work they’ve signed. If you want to add to their to-do list, expect to renegotiate the contract, deadlines, and the budget.

3. Pay invoices on time. Making timely payments shows freelancers that you value your relationship and their work. Do your best to get their invoices processed quickly. If there’s a delay in payment, get in touch with them right away and let them know when to expect the money.

4. Provide thorough, thoughtful feedback. Did you find their competitor landscape analysis particularly insightful? Give them a virtual high-five! Are you not into the SEO content ideas they pitched for a specific vertical? Let them know why and offer more clarity on what you’re looking for.

5. Address red flags right away. If you notice any red flags while you’re working with a freelance SEO strategist, don’t ignore them or take on the work yourself. Providing clear, immediate feedback gives them the opportunity to make adjustments and get back on track. Establishing a regular cadence for check-ins can also help you both maintain alignment on your overall SEO strategy.

Finally, try to connect with them on a human level. Working with freelancers over email can feel transactional. Developing a relationship that’s both professional and personal can foster better communication, mutual respect, and a collaborative spirit. Plus, they’ll feel more comfortable bringing their best SEO insights to the table.

Ask the Content Strategist: FAQs about SEO strategy
How long does it take to see results from SEO efforts?

The timeframe to see results from SEO efforts can vary based on several factors, including the competitiveness of your industry, the current state of your website, and the strategies implemented. Generally, you might start to notice some improvements in your search rankings and organic traffic within 3 to 6 months. However, SEO is a long-term investment, and achieving significant results often takes 6 to 12 months or more. Consistent effort and ongoing optimization are key to maintaining and enhancing these results over time.

What are some long-term strategies for maintaining and improving SEO rankings over time?

Maintaining and improving SEO rankings over time requires ongoing efforts, such as regularly updating content, conducting keyword research, and performing technical SEO audits. Building quality backlinks, optimizing user experience, and staying informed about algorithm changes are also crucial. Additionally, monitoring performance metrics and engaging on social media can help sustain and enhance your SEO strategy.

What are backlinks, and how do they impact SEO?

Backlinks are links from other websites that point to your site. They are crucial for SEO because they signal to search engines that your content is valuable and trustworthy. High-quality backlinks from reputable sites can significantly boost your search engine rankings, increase your site’s authority, and drive more organic traffic. Essentially, backlinks act as endorsements from other websites, helping to improve your site’s visibility and credibility in search engine results.

Looking to increase organic traffic to your company website? Work with one of our top-tier SEO strategy experts at Contently.

Content marketing projects thrive or languish based on the creative brief. When we prime our creators with a compelling idea, a clear purpose, and a defined audience, they are far more likely to develop an outstanding piece of content than when we have a fuzzy concept poorly articulated for an unclear reader. But what if your colleague — your brainstorming partner — is a generative AI, too? In this article, I’ll cover tips for creating AI content prompts that lead to optimize results you can share with your real-life creators.

AI fluency is a key content skill

Technology has laid the foundation for modern marketing, and generative AI is reinforcing the walls. Today’s marketing teams are revolutionizing their strategies using generative AI tools. Many are already seeing the results. According to a recent McKinsey survey, 34% of respondents report using the technology in marketing and sales. Content generation is the most popular use case.

That means we, the human marketers, must hone our ability to communicate well with our machine colleagues. As writers, we need to learn how to “speak” AI with better AI content prompts. Once you master the basics, your better prompts will more quickly and effectively produce assets that meet the needs of the business.

Let’s look at a few ways to improve your generative AI content prompts.

Best practices for writing generative AI content prompts
1. Get specific with your content prompts

Details matter when working with generative AI. The right request made in the right way improves your odds of getting text or images you can use in your blog post.

To illustrate, let’s see what happens with different kinds of AI content prompts. I am using image generation AI to demonstrate the different results from different prompts, but the same principles apply equally to AI text generation.

Check out the results I got on Image Creator from Microsoft Designer, chosen for this exercise because it is free and has a straightforward user interface. Image Creator uses Dall-E 3, the image generation platform from OpenAI, developer of the GPT-4 large language model (Microsoft is an OpenAI investor).

A content prompt is a set of instructions you give to the generative AI to shape its output. Prompts can be general, describing in simple terms what you want the image to show. For example, a prompt that says “father with his young son” gave me the following four options.

Because my request wasn’t super-specific, the AI made decisions about how to render these images based on what it knows from its training data. Those decisions were … odd. It’s a mystery why two of the four show the father and son flying, and all evoke Superman, either directly (as with the upper left) or more subtly (the upper right). Regardless, the mistake here is that I did not provide enough information, nor was I sufficiently specific.

As content marketers, we often know what we want or need, at least as it pertains to our brand’s editorial guidelines and visual style. We want to include those details in our prompts for better results.

So what happens when I iterate to include more specifics in my prompt? After multiple adjustments, I land on asking for a “photograph of a dad walking with his son on a rocky beach during the day.” Note I specify the type of image (photograph), the content (an adult male and a male child), the environment (rocky beach) and time of day (daytime). The resulting images are more down-to-earth—literally. I could also vary the results by adding specifics about the emotions I want to convey (e.g., a feeling of closeness between father and son) and different image styles (e.g., drawings vs. photographs).

It’s worth noting, however, that image generators can make mistakes as they interpret imagery in their training data and try to create new renderings. For example, the clasped hands in the upper left “Superman” image show blurring rather than precise distinctions between the fingers. In another example, one of my experimental images (not shown) had the father and child clearly walking together, but one facing forward and the other back.

Thankfully, there is a free “prompt book” that teaches creatives how to write better prompts for DALL-E. Originally developed for DALL-E 2, it includes some general prompt advice that is more broadly useful.

That brings me to my second best practice.

2. Use the right AI tools for the job.

Image Creator is just one of multiple generative AI tools for visual assets, just as ChatGPT is just one for text. At the risk of stating the obvious, different tools have different specialties.

For example, Midjourney is another generative AI for visual outputs. But unlike Image Creator, which is democratic about aesthetics, Midjourney specializes in “pretty” images. As a server-based tool, its user experience is also more challenging to navigate than others, and it requires a membership subscription to access.

Beyond aesthetics, there is the question of what kind of output you need. In the world of visuals, business content regularly incorporates visual representations of workflows, concepts, or frameworks. Check out the results from my prompt: “Create a stylish workflow graphic depicting the 6 steps of the content process represented horizontally: ideation, delegation, creation, production, promotion, and measurement. Use bold complementary colors and represent each step using a distinct image.”

This is a pretty typical result. I have tested writing more effective creative prompts in different generative AI tools, and they all seem to struggle with business images, especially when they contain text. (What is Deligmuation?)

Consider this alternative using the same prompt on Stable Diffusion, which usually creates elegant outputs.

I suspect the cause of these mixed results is a lack of training. Perhaps the AI developers have not yet seen the value of teaching them about business graphics. While most of these tools allow you to make edits to generated images, I think there is a better way to get top results using generative AI. Namely, you can prompt the AI tool to generate the components you need and then compile them in a design tool like Adobe Illustrator, which also lets you manually input text where and how you want it.

3. Fine-tune your AI content fact-checking.

Now for some bad news: AI content generators can produce images and text with mind-boggling speed. Yet, these AI models only mimic what they see in their training data. They’re unable to separate facts or reality from misinformation—for now. Consequently, AI-generated text and images can look and sound very authentic and authoritative yet contain nonsense. One example from my first experiments with ChatGPT included an AI-generated statement that the tool made up but attributed to Microsoft founder Bill Gates. Since then, OpenAI and others have trained their platforms so that users can no longer prompt the tools to quote a public figure or write something in that person’s “voice.” But the tools do still make mistakes.

So, be careful: Don’t publish AI-generated content or images without fact-checking it first.

4. Be wary of copyright.

Now for some bad news: the legalities around generative AI copyright are fuzzy. In the case of visual images, OpenAI, for one, specifies in its user disclosures that the images it creates are not necessarily unique. The same prompt from two different users may result in a similar or nearly identical image.

The platforms often stipulate that creators have the right to publish the text and images they generate, but buyer beware. The platforms argue that using copyrighted material to train large language models constitutes “fair use,” an acceptable though vague standard in copyright law. If judges disagree with that argument, however, complications could arise down the road about the legal status of images and text produced with the help of generative AI.

The rights issues are not trivial. But they also won’t be 100% clear for some time, and the commercial market is marching forward anyway. As for their quality, generative language and image AI tools will continue to improve as people use them. Experimenting with them can give you the knowledge and experience to perfect your AI content prompts. You’ll also develop an informed opinion about when to use them and when human creativity is the better option.

Ask the Content Strategist: FAQs about generative AI and content prompts
How can companies limit the risks of AI content creation?

Companies can limit risks by establishing clear guidelines on AI usage, including transparency about AI-generated content and adherence to copyright laws. They should also implement robust fact-checking processes to limit the risk of disseminating misinformation.

What rules should content teams establish to govern the use of generative AI?

Content teams should establish a clear set of ethical guidelines on how they will and will not use generative AI in their processes. The guidelines should reflect current thinking about copyright laws and promote transparency about AI-generated content. By establishing these rules, content teams can harness the power of generative AI while maintaining the integrity and credibility of their work.

How do different generative AI tools compare to each other?

Generative AI tools vary significantly in focus, usability, style, and quality. Some AI text generators, for example, focus on short-form content like email subject lines, social copy, web banner ads, and mobile texts. Others promise to draft long-form, SEO-optimized blog posts and pillar pages. Moreover, some are free to use, and some require a subscription. That variation — including cost — makes it essential that you know an AI tool’s pros and cons before you commit to a subscription.

To stay informed on all things content, subscribe to The Content Strategist for more insight on the latest news in digital transformation, content marketing strategy, and rising tech trends.

It’s hard to remember a time before Google. How on Earth did people answer pressing questions like “How to get tomato sauce out of carpet” or “What’s the capital of Djibouti” before the almighty search engine?

But thanks to the rise of AI search, for the first time in decades, cracks are appearing in Google’s once-impenetrable market stronghold. When OpenAI unleashed ChatGPT upon the world in 2022, you could practically hear the collective held breath from Silicon Valley to Wall Street as all eyes turned to Google, watching how it might respond.

Unsurprisingly, Google isn’t sitting back and twiddling its thumbs. Not only has the company reportedly scraped its own subsidiary YouTube’s content to build its generative AI engine, Gemini—a controversial move for numerous reasons—but the company has also raced to integrate AI features directly into its core search engine product. In May 2024, the company announced “AI Overviews” to much fanfare. (And also a few embarrassing, high-profile flubs, like encouraging users to add glue to their pizza. Google has since scaled back the launch while it works through these initial misfires.)

But if we’ve learned anything about the tech powers that be, it’s that they’re not to be underestimated. Despite AI Overviews’ rocky rollout, there’s a 0% chance that Google will put the AI genie back in the bottle. As such, search is on the cusp of changing dramatically—with major implications for the future of content strategy.

What do AI search summaries mean for marketers?

AI-powered search summaries are poised to revolutionize the SEO landscape—in some ways that are predictable and others we probably won’t see coming.

Here are three outcomes I’m pretty confident about.

1. Websites are going to see traffic dips (at least at first).

AI search summaries are almost certainly going to mean less traffic to brands’ websites, at least initially. For a lot of queries—like the tomato sauce example—Google will make good on its promise to “do the Googling for you.” For users, this will feel like having a personal house-cleaning expert on call. But for stain remover brands, it’ll be a blow—unless they can figure out how to snag that top slot on the AI’s featured snippets.

The big fear I’m hearing among marketers these days is that if Google provides satisfactory answers directly in the SERPs, there’ll be no need for users to visit pesky third-party websites anymore. B2B brands that rely on capturing leads through forms and gated content will feel this challenge acutely: With Google providing answers directly in search results, users may feel less compelled to click through to read a full article or white paper.

This will be a puzzle that everyone, from publishers to B2B brands to local laundromats, will need to invest time and effort into solving. But it doesn’t mean it’s time to throw in the towel when it comes to content marketing. High-quality, authoritative, and engaging content will still be crucial, perhaps even more so than before. How marketers design it, however—and optimize it for a new, AI-driven search landscape—will almost certainly need to shift.

2. Brands will need to get creative with first-party data collection and customer touchpoints.

On that note, marketers are going to need to learn how to better connect their brand to users in the places they know attract human eyes and ears. Visual and voice search on social platforms, influencer and micro-influencer campaigns, and experiential marketing activations could all play a bigger role. Loyalty programs, email newsletters, and other owned channels may be additional avenues that get users coming directly to brands’ sites.

SaaS platforms like Contently will further prove our value in the face of these rapidly evolving search and content strategies. As a platform that offers access to top-tier talent from SEO strategists to videographers to podcasters, companies looking to experiment with new approaches will be able to do so nimbly—which will be pivotal in an era where the ability to adapt on a dime is a clear differentiator.

3. SEO will evolve to cater to AI agents

Accenture predicts that over the next decade, AI will evolve from merely assisting with tasks to taking autonomous actions through interconnected “agent” ecosystems. This shift will require enterprises to rethink their AI strategies, moving away from narrow, function-specific applications and toward interdependent networks of AI agents that can make decisions and act on behalf of humans.

In the context of SEO, this means marketers will need to fundamentally rework their content strategies to appeal to these agents (almost like a niche form of prompt engineering). As with all things AI-related, this is likely to be a fast-moving target, requiring an ability—and willingness—to repeatedly experiment and course-correct.

What does an AI search future look like?

The AI search revolution is both thrilling and a little nerve-wracking. While the likes of Google, Bing, and new players like Perplexity promise a future where information is more accessible than ever, it’s hard not to feel a twinge of unease about what it all means for those of us who have built our livelihoods around wrangling the almighty algorithm.

But I’ve got confidence that ultimately, AI will help marketers more than it hurts us, allowing us to work smarter—not harder. And as we’ve proven through previous paradigm shifts (the “pivot to video” of 2014 comes to mind), we’re an adaptable bunch. Just as SEO experts embraced the rise of mobile and the fall of keyword stuffing, content marketers will weather this sea change. The key will be keeping a close eye on the ever-shifting landscape—and perhaps hurling spaghetti at the wall for a while as we figure out what sticks in this brave new world of AI search.

And if we get a little tomato sauce on the rug in the process, at least we’ll know where to turn.

Ask the Content Strategist: FAQs about AI search

What are the specific mechanics of AI search summaries?

An AI search summary works by using advanced algorithms to scan and understand large amounts of online content, and then pulling out the most relevant information to answer a user’s query. They rely on natural language processing (NLP) to comprehend and summarize text in a way that’s easy to understand. It’s essentially like having an online assistant instantly sifting through tons of data to give users a concise answer.

How will AI search summaries impact voice search?

More and more users are turning to voice search to find information. AI search summaries could be particularly useful in this context, providing succinct, easy-to-understand answers read aloud by voice assistants (imagine a world in which Siri actually works). For marketers, this shift might mean optimizing content not just for traditional text-based search, but also for the unique characteristics of voice search, i.e., using more conversational language, targeting longtail keywords and questions, and structuring content in a way that’s easy for voice assistants to parse and summarize.

How do AI search summaries affect the accuracy and reliability of information?

AI search summaries aim to provide quick, accurate answers by pulling from reliable sources, but they can still make mistakes or miss nuances—see the now infamous “eat rocks” example. For users, it’s essential to double-check important details, as the technology is still evolving. For marketers, it’s critical to ensure any content you create is not only high-quality but also clear and precise, which may help reduce the risk of misinterpretation by AI. Brands will also need to stay vigilant about correcting any misinformation that may arise from AI summaries.

If you’re looking to expand your content team with writers, designers, photographers or multimedia creatives, contact Contently to find out how we can help.