How to Use AI Email Marketing: Complete Step-by-Step Guide

This guide walks you through using AI Email Marketing end-to-end — from your first sender setup to an automated drip sequence triggered by your CRM. Plan on about an hour for full setup, including DKIM verification.

Introduction

AI Email Marketing is the email marketing platform built into Custom AI Dashboard. By the end of this guide you will have a verified sender, a reusable template, a sent test campaign, and an automated nurture sequence wired to fire when AI Leads Manager creates a new lead.

Prerequisites

You need:

  • A Custom AI Dashboard account.
  • Access to your sending domain's DNS (to add DKIM records).
  • A few seed contacts to test with — your own email is fine.

    • That is it. No separate ESP contract, no API keys to procure, no integration to set up.

    Step 1 — Add and verify a sender

    Open AI Email Marketing in the dashboard sidebar (under "Business"). Click the Senders tab, then + New Sender.

    Fill in:

  • From email — e.g. hello@yourdomain.com.
  • From name — what recipients see, e.g. "Your Brand".
  • Reply-to — usually the same as from-email.
  • Mark as default — yes for your primary sender.

    • Save. The system gives you DNS records to add — typically a CNAME for DKIM and an SPF TXT record. Add them in your DNS provider (Cloudflare, Namecheap, GoDaddy, etc.). Verification usually completes in 5-30 minutes. Refresh the senders page until "Verified: yes" appears.

    Skip this step at your peril. Unverified domains hit spam folders. The 10 minutes of DNS work pays off in 50% better inbox placement.

    Step 2 — Build a template

    Open the Templates tab, click + New Template.

    Fill in:

  • Name — for your reference, e.g. "Welcome Email v1".
  • Subject line — what the recipient sees first.
  • Preview text — the snippet next to the subject in inboxes.
  • Body HTML — write rich-text or paste HTML.
  • Body text — plaintext fallback for clients that block HTML.

    • Use merge tags for personalisation: {{first_name}}, {{last_name}}, {{full_name}}, {{email}}, {{company}}, {{job_title}}, {{city}}, {{country}}. Each renders the matching field from the recipient's lead record at send time.

    Save. The template is now reusable across campaigns and sequences.

    Step 3 — Send a test campaign to yourself

    Open the Campaigns tab, click + New Campaign.

    Configure:

  • Name — internal label.
  • Sender — pick the verified sender from Step 1.
  • Template — pick the template from Step 2.
  • Recipients — for the test, add only your own email.
  • Schedule — "Send now."

    • Click Send test. Check your inbox in under 30 seconds. Confirm the merge tags rendered correctly, the unsubscribe link works, the formatting looks right on mobile and desktop.

    If anything looks off, edit the template and resend. This iteration loop is fast — 30 seconds per round.

    Step 4 — Send your first real campaign

    Repeat Step 3 with real recipients. The recipient picker lets you:

  • Filter from AI Leads Manager by status, tag, source.
  • Paste an email list manually.
  • Upload a CSV.

    • Pick a list, schedule for now or for later, and send. The Campaigns dashboard immediately shows recipients, sent, and (within seconds) delivered counts. Opens come in within minutes. Clicks within hours.

    Step 5 — Build an automated sequence

    This is where AI Email Marketing earns its keep. Open the Sequences tab, click + New Sequence.

    Configure:

  • Name — e.g. "New Lead Nurture v1."
  • Sender — pick a verified sender.
  • Trigger — pick from manual / lead_created / tag_added / status_changed.
  • For lead_created: any new lead enrols automatically.
  • For tag_added: pick a tag (e.g. "demo-requested").
  • For status_changed: pick the from-status and to-status.

    • Add steps:

  • Step 1 — delay 0 minutes (sends immediately on enrolment), template "Welcome".
  • Step 2 — delay 1440 (24 hours), template "Helpful Tip 1".
  • Step 3 — delay 4320 (3 days from previous), template "Helpful Tip 2".
  • Step 4 — delay 10080 (7 days), template "Soft Pitch".
  • Step 5 — delay 20160 (14 days), template "Final Nudge".

    • Save and toggle the sequence to active. From now on, every matching lead is enrolled automatically and progresses through the sequence on schedule.

    Step 6 — Monitor and iterate

    Open the Dashboard tab. You see:

  • Total sends this period.
  • Open and click rates over time (chart).
  • Per-campaign breakdown.
  • Per-sequence enrolment and completion stats.
  • Bounce and complaint counts (action required if these are high).
  • Recent unsubscribe events.

    • Use this to spot trends:

  • Open rates below 20% → improve subject lines.
  • Click rates below 2% → strengthen CTAs.
  • Bounce rates above 2% → clean your list (export bounces to suppression).
  • Complaint rates above 0.1% → review who you are sending to.

    • Tips and Best Practices

  • Always send a test first. Catch broken merge tags, bad layout, or typo'd subject lines before they hit your real list.
  • Respect the suppression list. If someone unsubscribed, do not re-add them via CSV. The system will block resends, but the intent matters.
  • Warm up new senders. Start with small sends (a few hundred) and ramp up. Sudden 10,000-contact blasts from a fresh sender hurt deliverability.
  • A/B test subject lines. AI Email Marketing supports a 50/50 split with auto-rollout to the winner.
  • Use sequences for evergreen nurture, campaigns for one-off announcements. Do not run a "newsletter" as a sequence.

    • Troubleshooting

    Sends are going to spam. Check DKIM, SPF, and DMARC. Re-verify the sender. Avoid spam-trigger words ("free!!!", all caps, lots of exclamation marks). Warm the sender slowly.

    Merge tags appearing as {{first_name}} in the inbox. The recipient's lead record is missing that field. Check the lead in AI Leads Manager and fill it in, or change the template to handle blanks gracefully.

    Sequence not triggering. Confirm the sequence status is "active" not "draft." Confirm the trigger conditions match your lead exactly (right tag, right status transition).

    Bounce rate spiked. Pause the campaign immediately. Investigate — most likely a stale list. Clean and resend.

    FAQ

    How fast can I send a campaign? Setup in 10 minutes if domain DKIM is already done. With DNS work, 30-60 minutes for the first campaign.

    Can I have multiple sequences active at once? Yes. Leads can be enrolled in multiple sequences. Be thoughtful about overlap — a lead in three sequences may receive three emails per day.

    What if a lead replies? Replies go to the sender's reply-to address. The sequence does not pause automatically — best practice is to manually exit the lead from the sequence when they reply (this is an upcoming auto-feature).

    Can I edit a sent campaign? No, sent is sent. You can pause a sending campaign mid-flight if it has not finished dispatching.

    Conclusion

    AI Email Marketing is designed to take you from no-email-platform to a sent campaign in under an hour, and from no-sequence to an automated nurture in another 30 minutes. The combination of native CRM integration, no per-contact pricing, and modern deliverability through Resend makes it a strong choice for most lean teams.

    Open AI Email Marketing and send your first campaign today.