For Email Marketing Specialists ·
What you'll accomplish
By the end of this guide, you'll have a Claude Project loaded with your brand's email marketing context — voice guidelines, best-performing campaigns, audience data, and performance benchmarks — so that every AI conversation starts with Claude already knowing your brand. Instead of re-explaining your brand voice every time, Claude produces on-brand copy immediately and can function as a persistent email strategist across all your campaigns.
What you'll need
Before setting up the Project, gather these in text format:
Document 1: Brand Voice Guide (2-3 pages)
BRAND NAME: [name]
TAGLINE: [tagline]
VOICE ATTRIBUTES:
- [attribute 1]: [what this means in practice — e.g., "Direct: we don't bury the lead. The most important thing goes first."]
- [attribute 2]: [description]
- [attribute 3]: [description]
TONE BY CONTEXT:
- Promotional emails: [description]
- Re-engagement emails: [description]
- Transactional emails: [description]
- Crisis/sensitive situations: [description]
WORDS WE USE: [list preferred phrases]
WORDS WE AVOID: [list banned words/phrases]
3 EXAMPLES OF ON-BRAND COPY:
[paste 3 short email excerpts that perfectly represent your voice]
3 EXAMPLES OF OFF-BRAND COPY (to avoid):
[paste 3 examples of what NOT to sound like]
Document 2: Audience Personas (1-2 pages)
PRIMARY PERSONA: [name]
- Demographics: [age, role, context]
- What they want from us: [core desire]
- What frustrates them: [pain points]
- How they make decisions: [buying behavior]
- Language they use: [how they talk about the problem/solution]
- Emails they respond to: [types, angles, subject line styles]
SECONDARY PERSONA: [name]
[same structure]
Document 3: Performance Benchmarks
OUR EMAIL PERFORMANCE BENCHMARKS (rolling 12 months):
- Average open rate: [X%]
- Average CTR: [X%]
- Average conversion rate: [X%]
- Average unsubscribe rate per campaign: [X%]
- Best-performing campaign (last 12 months): [name, open rate, CTR]
- Worst-performing campaign: [name, open rate, CTR] — what went wrong
INDUSTRY BENCHMARKS FOR COMPARISON:
- [your industry] open rate: [X%]
- [your industry] CTR: [X%]
Document 4: Top 10 Performing Email Examples Export or paste the actual copy of your 10 best-performing emails with their performance metrics. This gives Claude the most concrete data on what works for your audience.
You are the email marketing strategist for [Brand Name].
You have been loaded with our brand voice guide, audience personas, performance benchmarks, and our best-performing email examples. Use these as your primary reference.
RESPONSE RULES FOR EMAIL COPY:
- Always write in our brand voice (per the voice guide document)
- Lead every email with the reader's benefit, not our announcement
- Default subject line length: under 50 characters unless I specify otherwise
- Default email length: 150-200 words unless I specify otherwise
- Always include preview text with every subject line
- When writing sequences, vary the opening approach — don't start multiple emails the same way
WHEN I ASK FOR COPY:
- Give me the complete email (subject + preview + body + CTA)
- Offer 3 subject line variants with different angles
- After the copy, add a brief note (2 sentences) explaining the strategic choice
WHEN I ASK FOR STRATEGY OR ANALYSIS:
- Reference our actual performance data from the benchmarks document
- Compare against industry benchmarks
- Give me specific, actionable recommendations — not generic best practices
- Tell me what you'd test if you were running this program
WHEN I DESCRIBE A CAMPAIGN AND ASK FOR FEEDBACK:
- First tell me what works, then what to improve
- Tie every feedback point to a specific data point or our brand guidelines
Be direct and strategic. Skip generic marketing platitudes.
Start a new conversation inside the Project and run these tests:
Test 1 — Voice accuracy:
Write a promotional email for a 25% off flash sale ending tomorrow.
Audience: subscribers who opened our last 3 emails but haven't purchased.
Expected: Copy that sounds like your brand (not generic). The strategic note should explain why they chose urgency vs. benefit framing.
Test 2 — Performance-informed strategy:
Our abandoned cart flow has a 35% open rate on email 1 but only 1.8% conversion rate.
Industry benchmark for this flow is 3.2% conversion. What's likely causing the gap and what should I test first?
Expected: Claude references your actual conversion benchmarks and suggests specific A/B tests based on the gap (not generic advice).
Test 3 — Campaign audit:
Here's our last welcome series email. Tell me what's working and what should change:
[paste your welcome email]
Expected: Specific feedback tied to your brand guidelines and audience personas, not generic "add more personalization" advice.
After each significant campaign, add a note to the Project:
CAMPAIGN RESULT: [campaign name]
Subject line used: [subject]
Open rate: [X%] vs. our benchmark [Y%]
CTR: [X%]
What worked: [your hypothesis]
What to test next time: [note]
Over 6 months, Claude builds a running knowledge base of what works for your specific audience. The strategy advice becomes increasingly specific to your program.
Full campaign brief:
Campaign type: [promotional / re-engagement / product launch / nurture]
Audience segment: [describe]
Key message / offer: [describe]
Send date: [date — affects urgency level]
Sequence (if automation): [number of emails and their roles]
Write the complete campaign. Use our brand voice guidelines.
Quick subject line test:
I need subject line variants for: [email topic + key offer].
Give me 8 options across these angles: urgency, curiosity, benefit, FOMO, question, plain/direct.
Flag any that might conflict with our voice guidelines.
Strategy review:
Here's this month's performance data: [paste metrics].
How are we trending vs. our benchmarks?
What are the top 3 things I should do differently next month?