For Email Marketing Specialists ·
What you'll accomplish
You'll be able to research what competitors are doing, what's trending in a client's industry, and what seasonal moments are coming — in 5-10 minutes per session instead of 30-45 minutes of browser tab diving. Perplexity searches the current web and returns sourced summaries, so your email content actually references what's happening now.
What you'll need
Go to perplexity.ai and click Sign up. You can sign up with Google, Apple, or email. The free plan gives you unlimited standard searches and a limited number of "Pro searches" per day (which use more powerful models for better answers).
What you should see: A clean search interface similar to Google, but with an AI that returns a synthesized answer instead of a list of links.
Type your question in plain English — you don't need to optimize your query like a Google search. Perplexity handles natural language.
Good starter queries:
What you should see: A 3-5 paragraph answer with numbered citations at the bottom. Each citation links to the source article so you can verify and dig deeper.
After your first answer, type a follow-up to drill deeper — Perplexity maintains context within the thread:
What you should see: Each follow-up answer builds on the previous one, getting more specific.
To understand what a competitor is doing with email:
What is [competitor brand's] email marketing strategy? How often do they send? What types of campaigns are they known for? What do customers say about their emails?
For less well-known competitors, try:
What email marketing approaches are common among [industry] brands targeting [audience]? What are the best-regarded email programs in this space?
What you should see: A summary of competitor email practices with sources from marketing case studies, industry blogs, and reviews.
Once you have your research, ask Perplexity to help you apply it:
Based on the [seasonal trend / industry development] you just described, give me 5 email content angles for a [brand type] targeting [audience]. Each angle should be a campaign concept with a suggested subject line.
What you should see: 5 actionable campaign concepts you can take directly to your campaign calendar.
1. Seasonal trends research:
What are email marketing specialists doing for [seasonal moment / holiday] in [year] for [industry] brands? What campaigns are getting the highest engagement?
2. Competitor analysis:
What is [brand name]'s email marketing strategy? How often do they send, what types of campaigns, and what do customers say about their emails?
3. Industry news for campaign angles:
What's happening in the [industry] industry right now that would be relevant for a marketing email to [audience]? Give me 3-5 news items with sources.
4. Content angle brainstorm:
Based on the [trend/development] you described, give me 6 email subject line concepts and a one-sentence description of what each campaign would contain.
5. Customer language research:
How do [target audience] describe the problem of [pain point]? What words and phrases do they use? I want to use their actual language in my email copy.