Insights.

There’s no question AI has changed how organizations approach marketing — automating routine tasks, improving personalization, optimizing SEO, enabling programmatic ad buying, and using predictive analytics to segment audiences.

But the biggest shift is in content generation — both visual and written — for marketing communications.

Using AI to generate content quickly and efficiently is powerful. It’s also where things can go sideways if you’re not paying attention.

Don’t lose the human touch

AI is great for research, analysis, and speed. It’s not a replacement for judgment. Always have a real person review and validate the work. AI “slop” is real — in both visuals and copy — and it shows. Use your team. Rewrite, refine, or scrap as needed to make sure everything is accurate, authentic, on-brand, and built for actual people.

Make sure content is accurate

AI is designed to give you an answer — not necessarily the right one. It often “pleases” the prompt instead of prioritizing truth or relevance. That’s how you end up with hallucinations and bad outputs making their way into real marketing. Don’t let that happen.

Watch for bias

AI can produce biased or unfair content, especially if the underlying models aren’t well-trained. Review everything through the same lens you’d use in concepting — brand, audience, message, and intent. If it doesn’t hold up, fix it.

Check for IP and privacy issues

AI can pull from existing creative work or surface sensitive information. That opens the door to copyright and privacy problems. Review carefully. If something feels off, don’t use it.

Not everything needs AI

Some teams are forcing AI into everything. That’s a mistake. In many cases, it slows things down and produces weaker work. Over-reliance also erodes the creative instincts your team has built over time. Use AI where it adds value — not as a default.

Bottom line

AI helps you move faster and produce more. But without critical thinking and human oversight, it also introduces real risk. The teams that get this right use AI as a tool — not a crutch — and stay accountable for the final output.

As a creative team working on fast turnarounds, we always love using Adobe Acrobat and PDFs to share reviewable work with clients, coworkers, and partners. Share the PDF, receive comments and edits, and update quickly and easily. Mostly that’s how it works.

However, there are lots of “interesting” ways that commenters/reviewers mark up PDFs, which sometimes make it hard to decipher what and where the edit or suggestion is. Acrobat is not a perfect app, but it does provide tools that help make the review process fairly precise and efficient.

Here are just a few tips that make the creative team’s work much easier.

Use “Replace selected text” instead of “Add a comment”

We know that everyone loves to see those nice-looking little comment bubbles, but throwing down a comment doesn’t often provide the exact direction and location of a copy edit, since the copy is not specifically selected. Adding a comment in the general vicinity of where the edit needs to happen may result in the team spending extra time determining where and how that edit should be made. Always use “Replace selected text”, which draws a line through the text and includes the new copy to be used. Easy and direct!

Use “Strikethrough” instead of “Drawing” to request removal of copy

Older copy editors probably remember the joy of pulling out that red pen and marking up edits. However, using the “Draw” function in Acrobat can result in confusion about exactly what should be removed — and it can clutter up the page and often obscure other edits. Use “Strikethrough” for that: precise, no ambiguity, and a less messy page.

Use “Replace selected text” instead of editing the copy (using “Edit a PDF”)

This is a big one. You receive a PDF from the file’s creator; you have a copy edit; and you think it would be nice to simply update the copy in the PDF. However, if you don’t notify the creator, they may not know to update the source file (like InDesign) and in subsequent rounds, that updated copy will not appear. Be sure to use “Replace selected text” to ensure that the creative team knows to make the edit in the latest source files.

Have you ever been asked to create and send a bulk OFT email from Outlook? Usually it’s for internal use — and hopefully not customer-facing.

OFT (Outlook file template) emails will never look or perform like properly built HTML emails sent through a real ESP. But if you understand the limitations, you can at least make them look decent.

1. Use a narrower width
   Outlook strips out responsiveness, so OFT emails don’t adapt to screen size. Keep the layout narrow so it holds up across phone, tablet, and desktop.
2. Size type for mobile first
   You can’t scale type by device, so err on the larger side. It might feel big on desktop, but it’ll actually be readable on mobile — which is what matters.
3. Keep it simple
   No tricks. No overdesigning. Use a clean marquee image at the top, sized to match the email width. Stick to system fonts unless you know the workarounds — and even then, think twice.
4. Stick to one column
   Multi-column layouts break fast in Outlook. One column keeps everything visible and far more reliable across devices.
5. Build in HTML first (if you can)
   If you have the capability, design and build the email in HTML, then export to .oft (Outlook for Windows) or .emltpl (Outlook for Mac). It’s a much better starting point than building directly in Outlook or Word.

Yes, we used the word “people” in the title, since the goal in email marketing is to get actual humans to open and engage with them. Marketing emails have a great ROI compared to other communications, but they won’t make an impact without catching people’s attention.

Strategies for increasing open rates — and getting people to read the email — can vary depending on the specific industry, audience, and objectives, but here are the best approaches:

• Trusted, recognized sender address. Include your brand name and personalize with a name (CEO, other execs, sales reps) or a team name within your organization — people like getting emails from other real people. The goal is to reach people who have connected with you before, opting in to receive email communications. The more they know and trust the sender, the more likely they will open the email.
• The all-important subject line. About half of email recipients decide whether to open based on the subject line, so spend lots of time and effort here — don’t make subject line writing an afterthought. Keep it short (around 50 characters) and focused. Consider personalizing by starting with <<First_name>> or mentioning the recipient’s location or connection with your organization. In the subject line, mention something of value, relevance, and/or urgency to the recipient. Make them curious: They should think that reading this email will help them in some way. Try out a couple of subject line options via A/B testing.
• Supportive preheader text. Spend some time brainstorming and refining a short preheader text that truly supports the subject line, adding additional context to increase user interest in the email content. Also known as “preview text,” the preheader text is placed in the email code and is the first copy (below the sender name and subject line) seen in the email app windowpane for that email. If not placed in the code, the email app will just show the first part of the body of the email.
• Compelling visual up top. It’s OK to have images or animated GIFs in your email — that will grab attention. But be cautious of having a large sized image that will take time to load and may push the email content off a small screen. Since some people have images turned off, don’t rely on the image to convey your message. Include your main headline/message above the image, so everyone sees that whether images are turned off or not. Include descriptive alt text for the marquee image for those with images turned off and visually impaired recipients who use screen readers.
• Copy that’s easy to read. Sounds obvious but make sure to use a larger type size and standard fonts. You want to remove anything that makes it hard for people to engage with your content.
• Personalize the salutation and more. People are more likely to check out an email when they see their first name — Hi, Susan! — at the top of the email. Use the subject line, pre-header text, intro headline, and body copy to include references to the recipient's specific situation: location, buying history, past preferences, and more.
• Mobile optimization. Think mobile first. Approximately 50% of emails are opened on smartphones. Make sure the mobile version of the email has key messaging visible without scrolling. Clean, clear design with type size that’s optimized for mobile is key. Keep subject lines short, so they are fully visible on phones.
• High-quality, segmented email list. Of course, the perfectly crafted email (impactful subject line, clever headline, compelling visual, clear CTA, etc.) will be ignored if it’s sent to the wrong people. It’s no surprise that open rates increase when the content appeals to the specific audience who immediately sees its value. Keep lists segmented and clean.
• Balance frequency of your sends. Don’t send too many emails too often to the same audience. People are more likely to open your emails if they consider them new, fresh content from a trusted source, but they will be less likely to check them out if they think it’s a similar email they just received from you.

To make sure your marketing emails are accessible to all users — especially for those with disabilities, including people who use assistive devices — go through this checklist every time you design, code, and send an email. Reminder: Accessibility doesn’t just make business and ethical sense; it’s required by U.S. and international laws in many cases.

• Keep Web Content Accessibility Guidelines (WCAG) handy for easy reference:
  https://www.w3.org/TR/wcag/
• Use descriptive alt text for images. This is the text that is displayed when images are turned off in an email app — and the copy that is read by screen readers (a key part of assistive technology) for visually impaired users. Make sure the descriptive text properly conveys the look and feel of the image.
• Use logical headings, structure, and hierarchy. Coding emails in a clear, logical way can help users navigate and digest the content and make it easier for screen readers to present content to the user in the correct order.
• Make sure the design of the email is not too complex or chaotic so assistive technology can more easily read the content to the user. Try to keep to one or two columns.
• Use color thoughtfully. To assist users who are color-blind, make sure color isn’t the only way to convey key information and content hierarchy. Consider other ways — type size, boldness, spacing, etc. — to structure the importance and order of content in your email.
• Make sure there’s significant color contrast between different elements in your email, especially the contrast between text and background. Seems pretty obvious but avoid light text on light backgrounds and dark text on dark backgrounds. Utilize online color contrast checkers, such as these two:
  https://webaim.org/resources/contrastchecker/
  https://accessibleweb.com/color-contrast-checker/
• Use standard, readable, sans-serif fonts. Avoid overly stylized fonts. Sans-serif fonts are considered easier to read, especially for people using older screens.
• Feel free to use larger type size. It’s fine to increase type size of body copy beyond the 11–12px range — 15px or 16px work well. Visually impaired users will often increase type size themselves, which may result in copy being cut off. Increasing type size from the start can avoid that issue.
• Keep wording simple and to the point. Use smaller words and shorter sentences — and avoid slang and jargon. This will not only help users with reading comprehension challenges, but it will also help you communicate more effectively with all users. It’s OK to write like a human.
• Make links large, easily tappable buttons, since not all users can engage with an email (on a laptop, tablet, or phone) with exact precision.
• Be cautious when using animated GIFs in your emails. To avoid triggering users with photosensitive epilepsy, be mindful of potentially harmful flash rates. Make sure animation is smooth and not too fast to allow users to easily engage with the content. Include descriptive alt text and have the animation stop after one or two cycles to allow users to view a static version of the GIF.