A Guide to Write Better Emails With ChatGPT (& Canary Mail)

We write tons of emails every single day. Your inbox is probably filled with at least a dozen emails waiting for your response right now. If you sum up all the time you spend responding to emails every day (including staring at the screen, wondering what to say and how to sound professional), you’ll probably be surprised. 

According to an analysis by McKinsey, the average professional in America spends 2.6 hours of their workday reading and responding to emails and receives 120 emails on average per day.  

The good news is that you no longer have to spend that much time drafting your emails. With the advance of AI and new AI writing tools like ChatGPT, you can write better emails faster.

In this article, we’ll share with you some tips and insights on how to use ChatGPT to write emails in less time. 

What Is ChatGPT?

ChatGPT is an advanced AI chatbot trained on a vast amount of text to mimic human-like conversations. It operates based on a model called Transformer, which helps it understand and generate relevant responses to user prompts that sound much like a human would. 

When you interact with the free version of ChatGPT, it doesn’t search the Internet but uses its extensive training to construct answers (the paid version can perform web searches if you ask it to). Over time, user feedback helps improve its responses, making it more accurate and context-aware. 

Overall, ChatGPT is a great writing assistant that can help users write content, draft emails, and use other forms of written communication. 

Benefits of Using ChatGPT to Write Emails

Is using AI to write emails worth your time, effort, and (sometimes) money? Here are some benefits of using an AI-based writing assistant like ChatGPT to help draft emails.  

• It saves you time: AI-based writing assistants like ChatGPT can quickly generate email drafts, reducing the time you spend composing messages.
• It writes contextually appropriate responses: ChatGPT analyzes the context and intent of your message to produce relevant and coherent responses, ensuring your emails are suitable for the situation.
• It helps you overcome writer’s block: ChatGPT can help you find the right words and get past any writing stalls by providing suggestions and different phrasing options.
• It improves communication: ChatGPT can help you improve the grammar, vocabulary choices, and overall writing in your emails, making them more professional and clear.
• It generates catchy subject lines: ChatGPT can come up with creative opening lines and catchy subject lines that can help your emails stand out in your recipients’ inboxes.

How to Use ChatGPT to Write Emails in 5 Steps 

Although using ChatGPT to write emails seems like an easy task, there are some things you must do to ensure that you get the desired results. 

For starters, the emails ChatGPT will write for you will only be as good as the quality of your prompts. The more you use ChatGPT, the faster you’ll learn how to interact with it so that it gives you the exact answers you’re looking for. 

Here are some steps to follow to write better emails with ChatGPT. 

Step 1. Provide Context 

When it comes to writing great email responses with an AI writing tool like ChatGPT, context is everything. 

Before you expect ChatGPT to generate a meaningful response to your email, make sure to provide it with the context of the conversation and some key information you want to include in the response. 

You can also copy and paste the exact email you want to reply to and ask ChatGPT to generate a reply that’s accurate to the situation. Be specific about the tone, any particular points that must be addressed, and the outcome you desire from your email response.

Step 2. Create a Good Prompt

ChatGPT needs specific and detailed instructions to write great emails. That’s why you must pay great attention to your prompts. 

A good prompt should clearly outline the purpose of the email, the tone you want to use, and any specific points or questions you need to address. Be as clear and concise as possible, but don’t skip essential details. 

You can also include the recipient’s background or your relationship with them if you think it’s relevant. This helps the AI understand the context and craft a more personalized and effective response.

Here are 3 examples of great prompts you could use to ask ChatGPT to write an effective email reply: 

• Prompt 1: “I received an email from a client expressing concerns about our project timeline slipping. Could you help me draft a polite and professional response? I want to acknowledge their concerns, explain the reasons for the delay, and reassure them about the new timeline. Also, suggest a follow-up meeting to discuss this in more detail.”
• Prompt 2: “Please help me write a response to an invitation to a professional networking event. I am interested in attending and would like to express my gratitude for the invitation. Additionally, I want to inquire about any specific topics or guests that will be highlighted at the event.”
• Prompt 3: “I need to reply to an email from a colleague who asked for feedback on their recent presentation. Can you draft a constructive response? I liked the overall content of their presentation but felt some sections were too detailed. Offer some positive feedback first, then suggest how they could make those sections more concise, and end with a few words of encouragement.”

Step 3. Adjust the Tone of Voice

One of the main limitations of ChatGPT is that it’s simply not human. As it doesn’t understand nor process emotions the way a human does, it often struggles to write in a tone of voice that isn’t strictly formal and professional.  

You can specify in your prompt what tone of voice you’d like it to use. For example, you may want the email to sound friendly, empathetic, and enthusiastic or direct and authoritative. Yet, you’ll often feel that ChatGPT didn’t get it right.  

That’s why you should always adjust the tone of the generated response to fit the context of your email, your relationship with the recipient, and your overall writing style (if you have one). 

Before sending the email, review the AI’s draft and tweak any phrases or words that don’t quite match the intended tone, ensuring the final message feels genuine and appropriate for the situation.

Step 4. Generate a Subject Line 

One of the things most of us always struggle with is how to title our emails. Your email subject lines can make a difference between someone opening your email right away and providing you with an immediate response or letting it sit in their inbox for a few hours or even days. 

If you’re struggling to come up with the subject line for your email, you can ask ChatGPT for help. It can analyze the context of your email to come up with a few attention-grabbing and appropriate subject lines for you to choose from.  

Step 5. Always Edit Before Sending

Although ChatGPT is a great writing assistant, it does have some limitations. For instance, it lacks human creativity, intuition, emotional intelligence, and empathy. Moreover, it often generates inaccurate information and lacks data beyond 2021. 

That’s why it’s extremely important to carefully review and fact-check the emails ChatGPT writes for you. Aside from checking that the information in your email is accurate, you’ll also want to make sure that it uses an appropriate tone of voice, says exactly what you wanted to say, and is relevant to the situation. 

Before hitting send, review and edit the emails you create with AI! 

Tips to Use ChatGPT Email Ethically

Using ChatGPT (or another AI writing tool) to draft emails can be a double-edged sword. While it can help you save a lot of time and frustration in writing accurate and professional-sounding responses to your emails, there are some things that may go wrong if you’re not careful. 

Here are some tips you may want to follow to use ChatGPT email ethically:

• Use ChatGPT for drafting, but ensure your messages are truthful and reflect your real intentions. 
• Double-check AI suggestions for accuracy. Sometimes, ChatGPT comes up with inaccurate information, which can undermine your expertise and professionalism. 
• Keep emails authentic and personalized, even when using ChatGPT. Avoid relying solely on AI for sensitive communication.

Try Canary Mail’s Copilot: A ChatGPT Email Integration

Did you know Canary Mail features an AI-powered assistant called Copilot?

Copilot uses ChatGPT’s advanced language generation technology to understand and respond to emails. It analyzes incoming messages and suggests appropriate replies based on the email’s context. This lets users quickly and easily compose clear, concise, and compelling emails, improving communication efficiency.

Overall, Canary Mail’s Copilot is a great tool to help you draft emails faster and make your email management processes more efficient. Here are some of its core benefits: 

• Write emails in less time: ChatGPT email integration with Canary Mail allows users to write emails with the help of AI. It enhances email composition by using ChatGPT’s natural language processing abilities.
• Summarize long emails: Copilot is designed to make the email management process more efficient with features like the ability to summarize long emails, read receipts, priority pinning, and 1-click newsletter unsubscribes.
• Search your inbox faster: We’ll soon introduce a semantic search feature that enables more precise and efficient email searches. This feature is part of our ongoing efforts to make email management more efficient and productive. 

ChatGPT + Email, the Bottom Line

ChatGPT is a great tool to help you write better, more professional emails in less time. Overall, it can help you save time drafting, editing, and personalizing your emails. 

By generating initial drafts, offering suggestions for improvement, and ensuring your messages are clear and error-free, ChatGPT streamlines your email communication process. Plus, it can help reduce the stress associated with email writing, especially when dealing with complex or sensitive topics. 

Still, remember that while ChatGPT can assist you with email writing, the final touch should always be human. Before you eagerly hit send, make sure that your email’s tone, context, and content fully align with your intent and the recipient’s expectations.

ChatGPT Email, the FAQs