You know you should be emailing your customers, but every time you sit down to write one, you stare at a blank screen for 20 minutes and give up. AI can draft emails that sound like you wrote them, and email platforms can send them at the perfect time. Here's the full setup.
| Tool | What It Does | Cost | Link |
|---|---|---|---|
| Mailchimp | Email marketing platform — sends your campaigns and manages your list | Free up to 500 contacts | Sign up → |
| Claude or ChatGPT | Writes your email drafts — subject lines, body copy, calls to action | Free | Sign up → |
What to do: Go to Mailchimp and create a free account. During setup, enter your business name, address (required by email law), and website URL.
Why you’re doing it: Mailchimp handles the technical side — managing your email list, sending campaigns, tracking open rates, and making sure your emails don’t end up in spam.
What to expect: Signup takes about 10 minutes. The free plan handles up to 500 contacts and 1,000 emails per month, which is plenty for most small businesses starting out.
Common mistakes: Using your personal Gmail to send marketing emails instead of a proper email platform. Gmail will flag you as spam, you can’t track opens, and you’ll violate anti-spam laws (CAN-SPAM requires an unsubscribe link and your physical address).
What to do: If you have customer emails in a spreadsheet, CSV, or your phone, import them into Mailchimp. Go to Audience → Import Contacts. You can also add contacts manually.
Why you’re doing it: You need people to email. Even 50 contacts is a great start. These should be people who have done business with you or explicitly signed up to hear from you.
What to expect: Mailchimp walks you through the import. CSV files work best. You can also copy-paste from a spreadsheet.
Common mistakes: Importing purchased email lists or people who didn’t opt in. This will get your account banned and destroy your deliverability. Only email people who know your business.
What to do: In Mailchimp, go to Audience → Signup Forms. Create an embedded form or a popup form and add it to your website. If you don’t have a website, Mailchimp generates a hosted signup page URL you can share.
Why you’re doing it: Your email list should grow over time. Every new customer or website visitor is a potential subscriber. The signup form captures them automatically.
What to expect: Takes about 10 minutes. If you have a website, you’ll paste a small code snippet. If not, just share the hosted signup page link on social media and in your email signature.
What to do: Open Claude and use a prompt like this: “Write a short marketing email for [your business]. The email should announce [topic — a sale, a new service, a seasonal update, a tip]. Keep it under 200 words, friendly and conversational, with a clear call to action. Include a subject line.”
Why you’re doing it: AI gets you past the blank page. It writes a solid first draft in 30 seconds that you can edit and personalize. You’re the editor, not the writer.
What to expect: You’ll get a complete email with subject line, greeting, body, and call to action. Read it, tweak anything that doesn’t sound like you, add specific details about your business, and it’s ready.
Common mistakes: Not editing the AI draft. It’ll be good but generic. Add one specific detail that only YOU would know — a customer story, a behind-the-scenes note, a personal opinion. That’s what makes people actually read it.
What to do: Go to Campaigns → Create Campaign → Email. Choose your audience, paste your AI-drafted copy into the email builder, add your logo and any images, preview it, and schedule it to send.
Why you’re doing it: This is the actual sending step. Mailchimp handles delivery, tracking, and unsubscribes.
What to expect: The drag-and-drop builder takes about 15 minutes to set up your first email. After the first one, it gets much faster because you’ll reuse the same template.
Common mistakes: Not previewing on mobile. Over 60% of emails are read on phones. Always check the mobile preview before sending. Also, send a test email to yourself first.
What to do: Pick a frequency — weekly, biweekly, or monthly — and commit to it. Use AI to batch-write 4 emails at once so you’re not scrambling each week.
Why you’re doing it: Consistency matters more than perfection. A mediocre email every two weeks builds more trust than a brilliant email once a year.
What to expect: Most small businesses do well with biweekly or monthly emails. Use a content calendar (even a simple note on your phone) to plan topics in advance.
Common mistakes: Starting strong and then disappearing for 3 months. If you batch-write with AI, you’ll always have emails ready to go. Spend one hour per month writing all your emails for the month.
This workflow is Beta — Based on Best Available Knowledge. We’ve researched Mailchimp’s current free tier and tested the AI email drafting workflow. Steps are accurate as of February 2026. Alternatives include Beehiiv (great for newsletters), ConvertKit (great for creators), and Brevo (formerly Sendinblue, generous free tier).