5 Simple Ways To Use ChatGPT For Small Business Emails And Marketing

The phrase “small business” is a misnomer. Most small business owners or bootstrappers have goals and ambitions that are anything but small—they just prefer to maintain control over their business. It can be challenging to compete with VC-funded startups that have more resources at their disposal. But today, tools like ChatGPT are leveling the playing field for businesses big and small, starting with email writing and marketing.

As the owner of a bootstrapped business, I regularly use AI tools like ChatGPT to enhance communication, save time and boost my business’s outreach, leaving me more energy to focus on tasks that really move the needle for my company. Here’s how you can use ChatGPT for small business emails.

How How To Write Emails With ChatGPT

If you’re new to large language models (LLMs), you might be wondering: Can ChatGPT write realistic, professional emails? Short answer: Yes. ChatGPT can act like your personal AI assistant, generating professional-sounding drafts, whether you need a cold pitch to potential clients or boilerplate out-of-office replies. It all starts with the “prompt”—the instructions you give to ChatGPT.

When you craft a prompt, act like a journalist and consider the Ws: Who, What, Where, When, Why and How. Specify the format (e.g., a template versus a one-time message), the tone, the audience, the timing, the key details to include, and why you’re writing in the first place. Context in the prompt helps ChatGPT meet your goals. Luckily, ChatGPT is a conversational tool, so you can engage in back-and-forth dialogue to ensure a draft email meets your expectations.

Leverage ChatGPT For Small Business Emails

ChatGPT can help you with business emails and related marketing outreach in various ways. Using ChatGPT, you can quickly generate templates and first drafts. It can act as a copy editor, a sensitivity reader, or a developmental editor, focusing on the big-picture aspects of writing, such as tone and structure. It can filter out non-essential communications. It can help you to conduct research quickly so that you can include persuasive facts and target your emails to the audience where you can make the biggest impact.

The biggest pros of using ChatGPT for these tasks are saving you time and energy. By delegating tedious tasks to ChatGPT—like first drafts, research, and inbox management—you can dedicate more focus to tasks that only you can do—finessing the tone of an email or making a personal connection with the recipient. On the other side of the coin, ChatGPT can’t always be trusted—it’s known to plagiarize or flat-out make things up. Research has found that when summarizing facts, ChatGPT technology “hallucinates” about 3 percent of the time.

Delegating email-writing to ChatGPT doesn’t mean handing over the reins entirely. You must be a diligent editor.

Here’s a closer look at five ways you can use ChatGPT for small business emails.

1. Create Email Filters

Sifting through email clutter can be a serious drain on your energy and productivity. ChatGPT can help you set up email filters and focus on essential emails, without wasting time deleting every “**Special Holiday Sale**” that hits your inbox. My high-priority inbox highlights the messages that matter and filters out distractions.

For small businesses, this means saved time, increased productivity and improved responsiveness—crucial for staying competitive. While technical instructions for setting up filters are available online, ChatGPT can guide you through the process. With a simple prompt like, “How do I set up a Gmail filter to automatically delete emails with the subject ‘Spam Offer’?” ChatGPT will generate step-by-step guidance for platforms like Gmail, Outlook, Apple Mail and Thunderbird.

By cutting through the noise, ChatGPT helps small businesses prioritize essential communications.

2. Review Draft Email Structure

Email-writing is easy but effective email-writing is an art. To craft impactful emails that achieve their objectives, Harvard Business Review suggests the following email formula: Start with the action you want the recipient to take, follow up with the context of why you require that action, and then end by letting them know you’re available for questions.

ChatGPT can help you maximize the effectiveness of your emails by reviewing their structure and offering tips for improvement. For example, you can share the above formula with ChatGPT, paste your email into the conversation, and ask if the email mirrors the structure. A well-structured email saves time for sender and recipient alike. It can also enhance customer engagement, build trust and increase response rates, all of which can positively impact your small business.

3. Copyedit Emails With A Fine-Tooth Comb

At my company, I encourage team members to use AI tools like ChatGPT to copyedit emails. ChatGPT can quickly review emails for typos, grammatical errors and clarity, ensuring they are polished before hitting send.

Why does this matter? Even the most well-structured, engaging email loses its impact if a silly typo slips through. Seemingly minor errors can end up hurting your credibility and undermining trust in your business.

Using ChatGPT is simple: copy your email draft into the tool, ask it to review for errors, and make adjustments as needed. This small investment of time can save embarrassment and fortify your small business’s reputation.

4. Draft Promotional Emails

For small business owners, email subscriber lists take time to acquire—but they’re an essential part of any marketing strategy. ChatGPT can help you to leverage those hard-earned customer and potential customer contacts by drafting emails to promote new products and offerings.

Let’s say you’re having a holiday sale. You can use ChatGPT to create an engaging message using email marketing best practices. Just provide the essential details, specify the tone you’re after, add any structure specifications, and provide any additional context to refine the email to meet your needs.

5. Create Templates For Fielding FAQs

When I first started my business, I quickly realized that I was receiving the same inquiries from customers. I created templates in order to reply to FAQs without having to compose a new email each time. ChatGPT can generate template drafts, leaving you more time to focus on perfecting the message.

Start by making a list of the email types and questions frequently received. Group the full list into categories, and then tap ChatGPT to help you prepare a draft template for each category. Edit the drafts as necessary and save the templates in your email program with easy-to-recognize labels. Whenever you receive a query that matches a category, update the recipient information in the template and send the email. You might be surprised at how much time you save, freeing you to think about higher-level questions like business strategy and growth.

Bottom Line

If time is money, small business owners that don’t take advantage of AI tools like ChatGPT are leaving money on the table. With the right prompts, you can automate the first steps of the writing process, quickly conducting research, generating professional-sounding email drafts, and ultimately, augmenting your business’s reach. ChatGPT can free you to focus on more impactful tasks.