Sending the right email at the right moment can make a big difference in your marketing results. Even the best content may go unnoticed if it arrives when your audience is busy, asleep, or simply not checking their inbox.
This is where Eloqua STO (Send Time Optimization ) and Generative AI come together to help you send smarter, more personalized emails.
In this article, we explore how combining both can improve engagement, increase open rates, and make your campaigns feel more relevant to every contact.
What Is Eloqua STO?
Eloqua STO is a feature that predicts the best time to send an email to each contact based on their past behavior.
It looks at patterns such as:
- When contacts usually open emails
- When they click
- Their time zone
- Their general engagement window
Instead of sending emails to everyone at the same time, STO chooses an individualized delivery time for each person.
The result? Better open rates, higher engagement, and more accurate timing for your audiences.
What Is Generative AI in Email Marketing?
Generative AI utilizes vast amounts of data to predict, analyze, and generate marketing insights and content.
In email marketing, Generative AI can:
- Suggest subject lines
- Help identify audience behaviors
- Improve segmentation
- Personalize content
- Predict intent
While STO focuses mainly on timing, Generative AI examines behavior, patterns, preferences, and signals that influence customer engagement.
Why Combine Eloqua STO with Generative AI?
Using STO alone helps you send emails at the best time for each contact.
But when you combine STO with Generative AI, you gain deeper intelligence:
- Smarter personalization: AI understands what people engage with, not just when.
- Better predictions: AI finds hidden patterns in customer behavior.
- More relevant emails: Sending the right email at the right moment increases value.
- Continuous improvement: AI keeps learning and adjusting as new data comes in.
This combination strengthens email strategy by pairing timing with context and intent.
How Generative AI Enhances STO?
Here are the ways Generative AI can make STO-powered emails even better:
- Predictive Timing Beyond Open History:
AI can review more than basic open patterns. It can analyze behavior like:
- How often a contact engages
- Which device do they use
- What days do they prefer
- When they complete actions on your website
- Smarter Segmentation:
Instead of broad groups, AI can find micro-segments based on engagement windows, activity level, or interest.
These segments can then be paired with STO for more accurate timing.
- Context-Aware Send Times:
Different types of emails require different timing.
For example:
- A product announcement may perform best during work hours
- A newsletter may get higher opens early morning
AI can help match the content type with the best send window, improving relevance.
- Continuous Learning:
Generative AI keeps evolving as new engagement data arrives.
This ensures timing predictions don’t become outdated and responses get better over time.
Practical Ways to Use STO + Generative AI in Eloqua:
- Use AI Insights to Fine-Tune STO Campaigns
If AI tells you which segments are most active, you can pair that insight with STO to schedule emails more effectively.
- Match AI-Suggested Subject Lines with STO Send Times
If AI recommends a strong subject line, STO delivers it at the exact moment when the contact is most likely to open it.
- Use AI Models to Prioritize High-Value Contacts
AI can score leads or identify high-intent contacts.
You can send emails to these contacts during their highest-engagement STO window.
- Deliver Personalized Content During Best Engagement Hours
AI-generated or personalized content becomes even stronger when sent at the time each contact prefers.
Use Cases:
- Nurture Campaigns
A nurture flow can use STO to deliver each step when the contact is most active. AI can customize content based on visitor behavior or interest.
- Product Launch Campaigns
AI identifies which segments are most interested in the product. STO ensures the announcement arrives when they are likely to open it.
- Newsletters With Dynamic Content
AI can help create or recommend content blocks. STO sends the newsletter at the time each subscriber prefers.
- Re-Engagement Campaigns
AI identifies inactive users or those losing interest. STO sends re-engagement emails during their most likely open window.
How to Measure Success?
To see the value of combining STO with Generative AI, track metrics like:
- Open rate
- Click-through rate (CTR)
- Conversion rate
- Overall engagement
- Performance before and after AI insights
Best Practices:
- Use clean contact data so STO predictions remain accurate.
- Give AI enough data to learn patterns correctly.
- Test different approaches to find what works best.
- Review campaign performance often and refine your strategy.
- Keep content relevant; timing alone cannot fix weak messaging.
Conclusion:
By combining Eloqua Send Time Optimization with Generative AI, marketers can deliver emails at the perfect time and with more meaningful context. This makes every message feel personalized, smart, and timely. The result is stronger engagement, better conversions, and a more efficient email marketing strategy.
Improve your email timing and boost engagement with Eloqua STO and Generative AI
Marmato Digital can help you combine smart automation, clean data, and AI-driven insights to deliver emails at the perfect moment. Contact us now to optimize your campaigns and get better results with less effort.
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