Draft emails and updates in your voice

Customer emails, team updates and follow-ups eat hours, mostly because you start from a blank page. This guide gives you a simple routine: jot down rough notes, hand them to an AI tool with one saved prompt, and get a ready-to-send draft that sounds like you in a couple of minutes.

Before you start

• The AI tool you write with (ChatGPT, Claude, Gemini, or similar).
• One real message you need to send this week, such as a reply to a customer, a team update or a follow-up after a quote.
• Two or three emails you wrote yourself that you were happy with. If you already made a voice guide with the “Teach AI your brand voice” guide, use that instead.
• About 15 minutes to set it up the first time. After that, each draft takes a couple of minutes.

Want to do it yourself?

Difficulty

2 out of 10

Estimated completion time

15–25 minutes

Skills you’ll need: Provide rough notes and a writing sample, then check names, dates, tone, and private details before sending.

I’ll do it myselfI’d rather get help

How this helps your brand

A clear, personal reply can help someone who contacted you through your website understand what happens next. Using the same approved facts and relevant page links keeps email and your public offer consistent.

1. 1

   Step 1: Write rough notes, not the message

   Don’t try to write the email yourself first. Just jot down the facts in any order, the way you’d tell a colleague. Spelling and grammar don’t matter here.

   Cover these four things and the AI has all it needs:

   For a website enquiry, start with the actual request and the approved details of the relevant service. Decide the next useful action: answer a question, arrange a call, or send the matching service or booking link. Check that destination works and matches the reply. A drafted acknowledgement is not a sent message, and the person handling the enquiry still owns the follow-up.

   • Who it’s for: “a customer whose order is late” or “my team of four”.
   • What happened or what’s new.
   • What you want them to do next, if anything.
   • Any facts that must be exact: dates, times, prices, names, links.

   Tip: Voice notes work too. Many phones can turn speech into text, so you can talk through your notes on the way back from a job and paste the text in later.

2. 2

   Step 2: Take out anything private

   Before you paste notes into an AI tool, swap personal details for placeholders. Use [customer] instead of a name, and leave out phone numbers, addresses, account numbers, payment details and anything about someone’s health or money.

   You’ll add the real details back in your email program, where they belong. The AI only needs to know the situation, not who it is.

   Tip: If your business uses a work account for an AI tool, check its settings or your agreement to see how your chats are stored. When in doubt, leave it out.

   Illustrated exampleKeep the situation. Remove the identity.

   Your private notes

   Sam Rivera’s order is delayed until Thursday 22 October.
   Ask them to reply if the new date doesn’t work.
   Phone: 01632 960 123.
   Delivery: 18 Example Road.

   Made-up details for this example.

   Ready for the AI tool

   [customer]’s order is delayed until Thursday 22 October. Ask them to reply if the new date doesn’t work.

   Keep

   The situation, exact date and next step

   Leave out

   Name, phone number and address

   Add the real name back in your email program after checking the draft.

3. 3

   Step 3: Give the AI an example of how you write

   Without an example, AI writes in a polite, wordy style that doesn’t sound like anyone. A short sample of your own writing fixes most of that.

   Paste in two or three emails you wrote yourself, with private details removed. Or, if you have a voice guide from the “Teach AI your brand voice” guide, paste that instead. Either one works; the voice guide just saves you hunting for examples each time.

4. 4

   Step 4: Ask for the draft with the prompt below

   Copy the prompt at the end of this guide, fill in the [brackets] with your notes, and paste it into a new chat. It asks for a short draft, a subject line, and a list of anything the AI wasn’t sure about.

   That last part matters. AI tools sometimes fill gaps with details that sound right but aren’t. Asking it to flag guesses makes them easy to spot.

   Illustrated exampleA short draft with a visible fact check

   Facts from your notes

   Order delayed · Thursday 22 October · ask for a reply if the date is a problem

   Your writing sample

   “Thanks for bearing with us. Let me know if that works for you.”

   SubjectAn update on your order

   Hi [customer],

   Your order is delayed until Thursday 22 October.

   1 News first

   Thanks for bearing with us.

   Please reply if the new date doesn’t work for you.

   2 One next step

   ?

   Missing from the notes: delivery time

   Leave it out of the email. Check it yourself if you need to include it.

5. 5

   Step 5: Fix it with one or two quick replies

   If the draft isn’t quite right, don’t start over. Reply in the same chat with a short instruction, for example:

   • “Shorter. Three sentences at most.”
   • “Warmer. This is a long-time customer.”
   • “Less salesy. Just tell them what’s happening.”
   • “I’d never say ‘reach out’. Say ‘get in touch’.”

   Tip: If you find yourself giving the same correction twice, add it to your writing samples or voice guide so you never have to say it again.

6. 6

   Step 6: Check the facts, then send it yourself

   Read the draft once before it goes anywhere. You are the one sending it, so check:

   • Names are spelled right and match the person you’re writing to.
   • Dates, times, prices and numbers match your notes exactly.
   • Any links work and go to the right page.
   • Nothing is promised that you can’t deliver.
   • Anything the AI flagged as a guess is fixed or removed.

Write a draft message for me from my rough notes. It should sound like me, not like a typical AI email.

Type of message: [for example, customer email, team update, follow-up after a quote]
Who it’s for: [for example, a customer whose order is late, my team of four]
How I want it to feel: [for example, friendly and direct, calm and reassuring]

My notes:
[paste your rough notes, with names and private details taken out]

How I write (examples or my voice guide):
[paste 2 or 3 emails you wrote, or your voice guide]

Please:
1. Write the message in my voice, using the examples above. Keep it short and in plain English.
2. Put the main point or the news in the first two sentences.
3. End with one clear next step for the reader, if there is one.
4. Give me one subject line, if this is an email.
5. Use only facts from my notes. Don’t invent dates, prices, names or promises.
6. After the draft, list anything you guessed or weren’t sure about, so I can check it before sending.