AI Archives

Which AI Should Power Your Emails? ChatGPT vs. Gemini vs. NotebookLM

May 6, 2026 / Email Basics, Marketing Strategy / Alex Gallagher

Choosing the right AI email marketing tool can feel as overwhelming as staring at a massive coffee shop menu. Everything looks great, but what are the real differences between ChatGPT, Gemini, and NotebookLM? These three tools are some of the most valuable AI options for DIY and nonprofit email marketers. Let’s break down the differences between them!

ChatGPT: The Creative Wordsmith

ChatGPT (by OpenAI) is the tool that started our current AI era. For many, it remains the gold standard for drafting conversational, engaging copy. It’s best for drafting email body copy, quickly generating subject line variations, and chatting through ideas.

ChatGPT also offers custom GPTs, which can be tailored to your specific nonprofit’s mission or your small business’s tone of voice, so you don’t have to re-explain it every time.

Pros:

Warm Writing Style: It often sounds the most “human” and is great at mimicking a specific brand voice.
Easy to Use: The interface is extremely simple, like a text conversation.
Strong Free Version: Free “mini” models are fast and capable for basic drafting.

Cons:

Hallucinations: ChatGPT will sometimes invent facts out of thin air. This is why it’s so important to keep a human in the loop.
Generic Tones: Without a specific prompt, ChatGPT can default to sounding a bit “salesy.”

Google Gemini: The Google Power-User

Gemini is Google’s AI email marketing tool. Its biggest strength is its ability to integrate with other Google Workspace tools and adapt to Gmail updates without manual adjustment. Gemini can easily reference info from Google Docs, Sheets, Meets, or Gmail, which makes it a great time-saver for organizations working with Google Workspace.

Pros:

Real-Time Info: Gemini is excellent at pulling in current events—perfect for adding industry news to your newsletters.
Workspace Sync: If you’re already drafting in Docs, Gemini can be a huge time-saver by updating directly in your document.
Multimodal: Gemini handles images and data analysis very smoothly, allowing for easy wireframe and design creation

Cons:

Safety Filters: Gemini has sensitive safety filters and will refuse to draft content that falls outside of them.
Cold tone: Some users find Gemini’s writing style a bit more “matter-of-fact” than ChatGPT’s creative flair.

NotebookLM: Your Personalized Research Assistant

NotebookLM has a much more specified scope compared to Gemini and ChatGPTl. Instead of searching everything on the internet, NotebookLM will only reference what you give it. This makes it very helpful for staying on-brand. You can upload past newsletters, annual reports, and webpages to NotebookLM, and use them to draft future content. You can also rest assured that the AI will not hallucinate information outside of what’s provided.

Pros:

No Hallucinations: Because NotebookLM has to cite your sources, it’s generally more accurate for niche topics.
Research-Minded: NotebookLM is built to reference, compare, and combine resources you provide. This makes it great at summarizing impact reports!
Audio Overviews: It can turn your documents into a “podcast-style” conversation to help you hear your ideas in a new way.

Cons:

Less Creative: NotebookLM better at summarizing and explaining than it is at writing from scratch, which can make it less effective for drafting copy.
Manual Setup: You have to take the time to upload your documents (PDFs, Docs, etc.) to make it useful.

Which AI tool should you choose?

Ultimately, the choice between ChatGPT, Gemini, and NotebookLM depends on your AI email marketing needs. Choose ChatGPT if you need a creative partner to help you write catchy, conversational emails. Choose Gemini if you want a tool that lives inside (and references) your Google Workspace. Choose NotebookLM if you need simple, factual emails that only draw on the information you give it.

Whichever tool you choose, remember that AI is a starting line, not a finish line. Always give your drafts a human pass and thoroughly test emails for deliverability and dark mode compatibility.

Overwhelmed? Pure Firefly is Here to Help

Writing the email is only half the battle. An experienced expert in your marketing platform is the best way to take your campaigns to the next level. Pure Firefly can help your small business or nonprofit shine with email marketing services for Mailchimp, Klaviyo, Hubspot, and more!

Contact Pure Firefly today to level up your email marketing program!

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Do’s & Dont’s: Using AI in Nonprofit Email Campaigns

October 15, 2025 / Marketing Strategy / Alex Gallagher

Using AI in nonprofit email campaigns can transform how your organization connects with supporters. AI can save time and improve engagement, but it’s not foolproof. A few simple do’s and don’ts can help you make the most of this technology and avoid its pitfalls.

Why Use AI for Email Marketing?

AI can be a powerful lever in your nonprofit email strategy. Especially for small nonprofits lacking a dedicated content team, AI helps reduce the time and cost of an effective email strategy. Even just by generating the first draft of an email, nonprofits can save hours on monthly newsletters or fundraising campaigns.

Along with its ease of use, a key benefit to AI is its data-backed creativity. Depending on the prompt used, copy can be tailored for your audience, including for specific donor segments. AI tools can also reference email marketing data to optimize your campaigns.Tools like Mailchimp’s “Write with AI” draw on years of campaign data to generate content backed by evidence.

With all of its benefits, AI can certainly be a gamechanger. But it isn’t magic – AI needs the appropriate prompt and references to deliver results. Here’s how to make it work for your organization.

Writing an AI Prompt

The quality of an AI’s output depends on a high quality prompt. Here are a few tips to build prompts for nonprofit email campaigns, with examples you can use:

Be specific & contextual: Provide specifications for your email’s content, length, goals, CTAs, and brand voice in order to get the best results.
1. Example: “Write a 200–300 word fundraising appeal email to lapsed donors (those who haven’t donated in 18 months). Tone: warm, encouraging. Focus on the impact of our free community classes. Include a CTA to donate now.
Include examples: You can paste a past email and ask for a quick re-write, or provide a bullet-point outline and let AI fill in the blanks
1. Example: Write a 4-part email with the following sections: Intro, problem, solution, CTA). Each section should be no longer than 100 words and must start with a subheading.
Use follow-up prompts: Working with AI is like a conversation. Once the AI responds to your request with a draft, follow up with further prompting to refine the result.
1. Example: Good start! Condense this email’s length by 30%, make the tone more conversational, and add our tagline “Making waves in wellness.”
Repeat your successes: Before you start a draft of your next email, paste in a few previous campaigns and results. Then, ask the AI to reference what’s working in your next campaign.
1. Example: Our last 3 emails to monthly donors are pasted below. All of them had open rates around 18%, and the Giving Day email had a very high click rate of 5%. Based on those results, write a draft email in our brand voice that our audience is likely to click on.
Reference industry best practices: AI tools are generators, not dictionaries. Always remind the model to align its language with strategies already shown to boost engagement.
1. Example: Search for 10 reliable online sources that give a detailed list of data-backed email marketing best practices… Now, use those best practices to create a draft of this email.

If you take all these suggestions into account, you may find that the prompt is longer than expected. This is nothing to panic about! As you continue to use an AI model, it will build a memory of what you’ve already asked. Then, you can always reference a previous prompt again to have the AI generate a similar response.

Refining AI-Generated Content

Once you have an AI draft, you’ll need to give it a quick polish so it’s ready for your supporters. Here are a few suggestions for nonprofits that want to get their email perfect.

Check factual accuracy: AI is known to make assumptions, or even hallucinate false information. Review your content for any false assertions.
Align voice and tone: Overly-promotional language is a common complaint among AI users. Make sure the language reflects your nonprofit’s mission and personality. If you write in a warm, humble tone, tweak phrasing to match that rather than letting the AI sound overly promotional.
Inject human details: Add stories, real names, and quotes manually to give your email a heartfelt, human touch.

Some of these steps must be taken manually in your email marketing software, while others can be done using follow-up prompting with AI. In either case, be sure to give the email a final proofread before it goes out.

When AI Goes Wrong

AI is powerful, but it has risks. Knowing the pitfalls helps you avoid costly mistakes. Here are a few examples we’ve run into, plus tips to address them:

Hallucinations & fabrications: AI sometimes confidently states false facts, names, or data. This is easiest to catch and refine with a human eye.
Tone or messaging drift: Without strong prompts, AI may produce copy that’s salesy, too casual, or off-brand. Follow-up prompting can ensure you won’t alienate your donors.
Deliverability issues: Occasionally, AI can generate text that is likely to trigger spam filters. See our Deliverability Troubleshooting Guide for more tips on how to land in the inbox.

Just like a human coworker, AI can make mistakes. As you automate, keep robust proofreading procedures in place to ensure the quality of generated content. When things go wrong, a human touch is the best tool to fix them.

Generating Subject Lines with AI

Subject lines are a perfect use case for AI because they thrive on variety, brevity, and experimentation. Plus, AI can remember previous subjects you’ve generated in order to provide similar options.

Here are a few prompts you can try for your own AI email marketing strategy:

Generate 8 subject lines (5–7 words) for a donor reactivation email focused on community stories.
Suggest 10 subject line variations for a volunteer recruitment campaign. Include one with an emoji and one that asks a question
Our last subject line “Share Your Love” got a 47% open rate. Based on that success, suggest 10 new subjects for the email pasted below.

For the highest chance of success, ask for 10-15 options with varying styles. Specify strategies that you’d like the AI to use, like urgency, curiosity, or numbers. Having variety improves the likelihood that one of your subject lines will resonate strongly with your audience.

For more subject line inspiration, check out our list of 100 high-performing subject lines for nonprofits!

Leverage AI to its Full Potential with Pure Firefly

At Pure Firefly, we believe AI should amplify your creativity, not replace it. If you want help refining AI prompts, reviewing output, or building hybrid content workflows, our team is ready to guide you. Contact us today, and we’ll help you magnify your nonprofit’s impact with AI!

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2025 email marketing predictions over a new year themed background

Email Marketing Predictions for 2025

January 2, 2025 / Marketing Strategy, Uncategorized / Alex Gallagher

The landscape of email marketing in 2025 is evolving rapidly, with new trends shaping how brands engage with their audiences. As we look ahead, understanding these shifts can help marketers stay competitive and drive better results. Here are our top predictions for email marketing in 2025.

Automated Emails are In

In 2025, automated email campaigns will continue to dominate. With tools like Mailchimp’s Customer Journeys, businesses can create sequences that adapt to subscriber behavior, boosting engagement and efficiency. Automation frees up time and ensures your messages land at the perfect moment, making it a must-have strategy for marketers looking to scale.

Need help setting up automations? Schedule a live training session.

Monthly Newsletters are In

As inboxes become more crowded, quality over quantity is the key to standing out. In 2025, expect to see a shift back to monthly newsletters that provide value-packed updates in a single, polished email. These newsletters allow brands to stay top-of-mind without overwhelming subscribers, creating a balance that fosters trust and long-term loyalty.

Monthly newsletters are also an ideal strategy for small businesses and nonprofits, given their lower cost and time requirements.

AI Generated Images are Out

While AI has revolutionized content creation, AI-generated images are losing favor in email marketing. Subscribers increasingly value authenticity and originality, and overly synthetic visuals can feel impersonal. Additionally, some social media users have expressed concern over AI-generated content flooding popular platforms.

Over time, we may see AI images make a comeback as the tools available improve. For now, though, marketers are leaning on custom graphics and user-generated content to build a genuine connection.

Re-Sending to Nonopeners is Out

Re-sending emails to nonopeners was once a highly effective tactic, but in 2025, it’s falling out of favor. This approach risks higher spam complaints and reduced deliverability, especially as email platforms like Gmail crack down on repetitive messaging. Instead, try tweaking an email’s content before sending it again, so it feels fresh every time.

Start Your 2025 Marketing Strong with Pure Firefly

Ready to take your email marketing to the next level? At Pure Firefly, we specialize in helping small businesses and nonprofits create engaging, data-driven email marketing campaigns and strategies. Whether you’re building automated journeys or crafting standout newsletters, we’re here to help. Contact us today to start your 2025 email marketing strategy with confidence!

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Nail Your Holiday Email Marketing: 5 Mailchimp Features

November 25, 2024 / Mailchimp How-To, Marketing Strategy / Alex Gallagher

As the holiday season approaches, it’s time to maximize your emails’ impact. Mailchimp has rolled out some exciting new features to help you craft engaging, professional emails with ease. Whether you’re fine-tuning your newsletter or boosting sales, these updates are perfect for making the most of your holiday email marketing in 2024.

1. Mailchimp’s AI Content Suggestions

Let Mailchimp’s built-in AI take the guesswork out of email creation! This powerful feature can help you generate:

Image alt text: Boost accessibility with alt text for all images & graphics.
Email copy: Quickly draft holiday promos and announcements.
Subject lines: Craft attention-grabbing preheader text

Like any AI tool, we recommend giving the generated content a quick tune-up to correct any errors or awkward phrasing. From our experience as Pro-Partners, this tool is a great way to save time, especially during busy marketing seasons!

2. Re-Send to Non-Openers in Browser

Good news: you can now re-send emails to non-openers directly in your browser, a feature previously only available on mobile. This is a great way to make sure no one misses your top-priority emails.

Pro tip: Use this feature mindfully – Re-sending too much can lead to increased spam reports and lower engagement. Focus on your most critical, time-sensitive campaigns to avoid overwhelming subscribers. For more info on sending schedules, check out our article on send frequency.

3. New Header, Body, and Footer Styling Options

Mailchimp’s new builder makes consistent email design easier than ever. As of 2024, new builder users can now separate their email into header, body, and footer sections. Then, users can set unique styles for each section. This makes it easier than ever to use alternating background colors without going block-by-block or layout-by layout.

If you spend a lot of time in the new template builder, you know this is a holiday game changer!

4. Rounded Corners, Margins and Borders

Add some pizazz to your holiday emails with Mailchimp’s updated styling options. Here are some of our favorite functionalities launched in 2024:

Image Rounding: Use the options under “Rounded Corners” to give your images a rounder, more friendly appearance.
Borders: Outline any layout or content block to draw attention to it. Choose your style (dotted, solid, etc.) and any color!
Margins: Available on text and layout blocks, margins help create an organized appearance for all your content.

These features make it easier than ever to add personality & visual appeal to your holiday emails. Give them a try on your own, or book a one-on-one walkthrough.

5. Product Recommendations

This feature was actually included in the launch of Mailchimp’s new template builder, and it continues to deliver for e-commerce users! Add the block to your template, choose how many products you want to display, and Mailchimp will pull info directly from your website.

Users can choose to display:

Items a subscriber has recently viewed
Products left in a subscriber’s cart
Top-selling items
Newly-added inventory

This smart tool helps feature the most relevant and enticing products, perfect for driving holiday sales.

Need Help with Holiday Email Marketing in 2024?

Pure Firefly’s email marketing experts are here to make your holiday campaigns a success. Book a training call to get hands-on assistance with all things Mailchimp. We also offer campaign strategy, template design, and complete account audits.

Let’s make this holiday season a success!

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How to Use AI in Email Marketing with icon of a head with gears in it thinking about email

How to Use AI in Email Marketing (with Prompts)

July 23, 2024 / Mailchimp How-To, Marketing Strategy / Alex Gallagher

As AI technology continues to evolve, many email marketers are using AI tools to level up their marketing. Using AI, even a novice marketer can quickly draft emails, revise copy, or develop a content strategy. From our experience as a full-service email marketing agency, we’ve uncovered several AI functionalities that help marketers soar!

How to Choose an AI Tool

Since the recent boom in AI technology, a plethora of tools have been made for seemingly every topic. There are tools to generate ad copy, blog posts, and everything in between. Ultimately, most publicly available AI generators are based on OpenAI’s ChatGPT. Rather than paying for a subscription to a language model tailored to your industry, we recommend starting with a free ChatGPT account.

Large language models are built to adapt in response to user input, so you can tailor ChatGPT’s responses to your needs without a paid subscription to a more tailored AI bot.

Drafting Email Copy with AI

In email marketing, AI often best serves as a brainstorming partner. While chatbots still run into factual errors, they can provide a great first draft that you can customize to your liking. Here are some prompts you can use to generate copy for your next email:

Generate concise copy for a nonprofit marketing email. The goal of the campaign is to boost donations, and the nonprofit organizes tutoring and classes to improve youth literacy. Please keep the copy between 200 and 1000 words and include a CTA that links to our donation page (insert URL),
Create 3 drafts of a brief marketing email for our small jewelry company. We are highlighting the spring gold collection. Please include 3 products with price and a 20% discount code.
Show me 2 drafts of a 250-500 word email promoting my company’s Labor Day sale. Include the code LABOR30 for 30% off.

As you can see from the prompts above, specificity is essential when using AI. The more clear you are about word count, tone, and content, the more likely it is the tool will generate something useful. Don’t leave your AI bot to make assumptions – They are likely to be inaccurate or give your email a less human sound. Plus, emails with a high volume of grammar and spelling errors can even cause deliverability problems down the line.

Revising Marketing Copy

After you’ve taken the first stab at writing your email copy, AI can swoop in to help you revise it. Just copy and paste the text into your AI chatbot and try any of the following prompts:

I’ve pasted copy for a marketing email above. Can you make it more concise and engaging?
Please correct the tone in the email pasted above. The tone should be friendly and direct, matching the language on [your website URL]
Our organization is working on a newsletter for our recurring donors. Based on the email pasted above, what are 5 things we should improve to follow current email marketing best practices?

As always, you’ll want to give the revised copy ChatGPT spits out a final pass and potentially make some corrections for accuracy.

If the results are not to your liking, don’t hesitate to provide some more direction. A prompt like “Looks good – Can you make it more concise?” can work wonders for your writing.

Generating Quality Subject Lines

AI tools can enhance your email marketing by generating effective subject lines. Many email marketers understand the value of A/B testing but may get bogged down by creating multiple subject variations for every email. With AI, you can quickly generate subjects that match your brand’s personality and follow best practices.

Here are some prompts you can use to generate email marketing subject lines with AI:

Create 10 engaging subject lines for a promotional email about our new summer collection. At least 7 of the options should include an emoji.
Generate 5 personalized subject lines for a follow-up email to customers who have recently made a purchase. Each subject line should be 3-5 words long.
Suggest 12 subject lines for an email campaign announcing our upcoming webinar on digital marketing trends. The subjects should be refined, professional, and formal.

Using AI to Develop a Content Strategy

AI can streamline your content strategy by analyzing audience behavior and preferences, helping you identify what content resonates most.

To use AI for a content strategy, you’ll need to provide some record of your previous campaign results. If you’re a Mailchimp user, consider exporting your campaign analytics for the AI to reference. Mailchimp’s custom reports are a great tool for retrieving your analytics data.

Here are some prompts to generate a stellar email marketing strategy with AI:

I’m pasting the open rates, click rates, and subject lines for our past 20 campaigns below. Please analyze the results and make 5 recommendations for next year’s content strategy.
Here is a list of last year’s campaigns with each email’s send date, subject line, and open rate. Based on these results, please generate a calendar of campaigns for the next year that includes elements of what worked well this year.
Please generate a list of topics for our monthly newsletter based on current trends in [your industry]. For each topic, include 3 concise subject lines and 3 CTA options.

When generating a content strategy, it can be helpful to break the project into smaller tasks. Instead of asking your chatbot to perform everything at once, prompt it to generate some topics, then subject lines, and so on.

You can even offer links to outside resources (like Pure Firefly’s blog…) that the AI should reference for best practices.

Mailchimp’s Built-In AI Tools

A handful of AI tools are available within Mailchimp to help users generate email copy and automations. These tools can be a great way to try out AI generation without creating an account on any new platform.

These are the currently available features, with more on the horizon in the coming months.

AI-Powered Journeys: Under the “Pre-Built Journeys” tab, Mailchimp offers 3 AI-generated automations to help engage new subscribers, recover abandoned carts, and encourage lapsed customers to purchase again.
AI Content Writing: When writing an email or subject line, you may see a little blue icon pop up below your text. Just click on the icon, type in a prompt, and Mailchimp’s AI will generate the text for you!
Creative Assistant: You can use the creative assistant to generate graphics for your email header or body. Just add some images, a line of text, and your brand colors, and Mailchimp will generate pleasing designs to use in any email!

For now, Mailchimp’s AI tools are available to users on the standard plan or above. If you’ve been looking for a reason to upgrade, this could be the time!

Need a Hand with Email Marketing? Call Pure Firefly

For new users, it can take some time to use AI effectively in email marketing. Pure Firefly’s team of email experts has worked on hundreds of Mailchimp accounts. We help clients develop robust email marketing strategies, leveraging all the tools at their disposal.

For quick questions, book a one-on-one training call. Or, for more complex projects, contact us to get a detailed quote.

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