The Definite Guide to Lifecycle Email Prompting
Creating a high-quality, production-ready email typically requires 8–10 prompts.
A typical Marketing email has the following structure:
Subject line
Preview Text
Salutation
Header — which needs to be visually compelling and persuasive and on brand
Body Copy — The text needs to be aligned to the goal of the email and suitable for the target audience in the right tone.
Footer — This needs to build trust that the company is legit. Typical links to social media channels, company address and an unsubscribe link is used to build trust.
The first step is to import all images into the Content Library. You can do this easily by providing a prompt to import images from the company homepage and other relevant sites, instructing the system to save the appropriate images in the library. Alternatively, if you have access to higher-resolution images, you can upload them directly into the Content Library.
Once images are uploaded to the content library, you can prompt the system by describing:
The goal of your email
Your target audience
Then, ask the system to:
Generate a relevant and compelling subject line
Create a persuasive and on-brand email header
Produce a matching footer with valid URLs
Ensure that fonts and styles align with your homepage for consistent branding
Once the first draft is generated, you can choose a different model from the prompt box to review and critique the email. Then, return to the original model and ask it to incorporate the feedback from that critique into a revised version.
The next stage of prompting involves tailoring prompts for different phases of the customer lifecycle, including
Awareness
Onboarding
Engagement
Retention
Reactivation
What are the differences in prompting techniques for Chat GPT and Claude for generating lifecycle email prompting?
Differences in Prompting Techniques: ChatGPT vs. Claude for Lifecycle Email Generation
When generating lifecycle emails with AI, both ChatGPT (OpenAI) and Claude (Anthropic) require thoughtful prompting but have distinct optimal styles due to differences in how each model is engineered and responds to guidance.
ChatGPT Prompting Techniques
Specificity and Structure Are Key: ChatGPT excels when given very clear, unambiguous prompts. Structure your request to specify format, tone, length, and sequence.
Example: “Write a five-step lifecycle email sequence for onboarding new SaaS users. For each email, list its goal, main message, and CTA. Keep the tone friendly and encouraging.”
Prompt Engineering Styles:
Few-Shot Prompting: Provide examples of desired outputs to establish a pattern.
Role Prompting: Ask it to act as a specific expert (e.g., “Act as a lifecycle marketing specialist...”).
Step-back/Chain-of-Thought: Request brainstorming or stepwise reasoning before writing.
System Prompting: Set strict formatting or sequence expectations.
Contextual Prompting: Add background on the product, audience, and goals for more tailored outputs.
Best For: Highly structured, technically specific, or compliance-driven email outputs. Works well for tasks where every detail needs control, like regulatory compliance or sequential flows.
Claude Prompting Techniques
Conversational and Context-Heavy: Claude is designed for more fluid, human-like dialogue. It responds well to prompts that give broad goals, allow for some interpretation, or invite brainstorming.
Example: “Let’s brainstorm a sequence of lifecycle emails for nurturing users after signup. What themes and touchpoints would you suggest to build a lasting relationship?”
Prompt Engineering Styles:
Open-Ended, Exploratory Prompts: Encourage the model to expand or elaborate (e.g., “What are some creative ideas for…?”).
Conversational Follow-Up: Reference previous context to keep continuity (“Building on what we discussed earlier…”).
Empathy and Ethics: When nuance or human touch is needed (“How could these emails make new users feel supported?”).
Flexible Instructions: Leave some aspects open for interpretation rather than specifying every detail.
Best For: Creative writing, empathetic tone, brainstorming new lifecycle approaches, or when emotional connection is vital. Especially useful for more narrative, brand-driven, or nuanced communications.
Key Differences Summarized
Prompt Structure
Explicit, detailed, and structured
Suggestive, open-ended, and conversational
Output Style
Precise, technical, formal possible
Fluid, creative, human-like dialogue
Best Use Cases
Stepwise sequences, compliance, A/B
Brainstorming, empathy, creative writing
Role Instruction
Highly effective (“Act as X expert”)
Works, but more natural with context
Continuity
Good, may lose context in long threads
Excels at ongoing, multi-turn context
Room for Flexibility
Less: over-specification preferred
More: open to interpretation
Nuance & Empathy
Sometimes less emotionally rich
Very good at warmth and conversational tone
Practical Prompting Tips
For ChatGPT: Use explicit, controlled prompts. Lay out sequence, structure, and constraints clearly. Examples, roles, and stepwise instructions help ensure emails align to business requirements.
For Claude: Be conversational and encourage interpretation—invite creative solutions or ethical considerations; refer back to prior responses for best results in ongoing sequences.
By adapting prompting style to each model’s strengths, marketers can generate lifecycle email campaigns that are optimized for tone, content quality, and effectiveness.
Below we've listed several prompts for different lifecycle stages that work best with the outputs for the same
Awareness Prompt
Please generate an engagement newsletter that has a subject, header, preview, visually appealing content, and footer that achieves my company's goal of furthering engagement with our platform ___
Follow all of these instructions until the end of this conversation
Plan and layout all steps extensively between each function call
My company does ___ and operates on a ___ model
My goals are to encouraging users to interact and take the next steps with our platform
Identify the color, fonts, and style from the ___ website and use the same or if unavailable use similar ones in the email.
Import images from the content library and the __ website to use throughout the email and use the most compelling image as the header.
Make the subject line intriguing so that it drives exclusivity and urgency for the user
Create an email preview that clearly summarizes the email and achieves the email's overall goals.
Ensure that:
Footer includes social link, link to unsubscribe button, Address
Retrieve the information for the website for the company URL above
Ensure all URL’s are valid
Please generate a newsletter to make users aware of our platform: ___
My company name is ___ and we do ___ and we operate on ____ model.
Our overall company goal is ____
My goals for this email are to intrigue potential customers and expose them to all functions and products our company offers so they can find something they want to engage with
Identify the color, fonts, and style from the ___ website and use the same or if unavailable use similar ones in the email.
Import images from the content library and the __ website to use throughout the email and use the most compelling image as the header.
Make the subject line intriguing so that it drives curiosity for the user
Create an email preview that clearly summarizes the email and achieves the email's overall goals.
Ensure that:
Footer includes social link, link to unsubscribe button, Address
Retrieve the information for the website for the company URL above
Ensure all URL’s are valid
Whenever you need to perform multiple independent operations invoke all relevant tools simultaneously rather than sequentially
Make this a 10/10 email
After creating the email, carefully reflect on the content quality and visual appeal and determine optimal next steps in order to improve this email
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