Interview with Mary Aguililla, Senior CRM Marketing Manager, Skillshare
Ben Okeya (Customer Success Manager, Blueshift): Hi everyone, and welcome to our webinar: The Power of AI and Email:How Skillshare Drives Creativity and Inspires Discovery.
Mary Aguililla (Senior CRM Marketing Manager, Skillshare): Thanks, Ben. I’ll start with a bit about Skillshare. We’re the largest online community for creativity, with over 740,000 users and 30,000 video-based classes—from watercolor and doodling to logo design and animation. Our users range from hobbyists to professionals, and we aim to serve highly personalized experiences across this wide spectrum.
The Email Challenge
The core question: How do you talk to such a broad user base at scale, without sacrificing relevance? Segmentation alone isn’t enough.
Despite the challenges, email remains highly effective. Usage of personalization is growing, and marketers who regularly A/B test still see a higher ROI. But at the same time, resources are limited—budgets are tightening, and many teams are doing more with less.
So the real challenge is: How do we efficiently achieve results, month after month?
Four Ways We Use AI in Email Marketing
1. AI-Powered Recommendations
We use Blueshift’s recommendation engine in both newsletters and automated flows. It helps us:
- Surface new and relevant classes
- Resurface content users previously engaged with
- Recommend based on similar items
A great example: we turned our previously manual class highlight newsletter into an automated, recurring campaign. Using AI-powered recommendations, it now runs in the background—and has a 71% higher click-through rate than our curated emails.
2. Localization with Crowdin Integration
Using the Crowdin + Blueshift integration, we localized email content efficiently—without spreadsheets and manual effort.
- Templates sync directly between Blueshift and Crowdin
- Translations are updated automatically
- Fully localized templates are deployed with ease
This resulted in:
- Higher open and click-through rates
- Lower unsubscribe rates
3. Campaign Optimization and Testing
We use multiple testing methods:
- A/B and A/B/C testing via Blueshift’s campaign tools
- Holdout testing with automatic winner selection
- Persistent segment testing using Blueshift’s control bucket attribute
One standout test: We revamped our class reminder email’s design and added dynamic class attributes. Result? 148% lift in click-through rates and major engagement improvements across related campaigns.
4. Generative AI for Copy and Send Time Optimization
We’ve used send-time optimization for years. It schedules messages when users are most likely to engage, based on their behavior—essentially bypassing time zone complications.
We also recently adopted Blueshift’s generative AI tools:
- Generates variations for subject lines, headers, and body copy
- Helps ideate and test faster
- Great for fighting creative fatigue and iterating quickly
It’s become a core part of our creative process.
Where to Start: Practical Advice
- Start small. Don’t try to boil the ocean—pick one use case (e.g., subject line testing).
- Inventory your data. Work with what’s available now, and build from there.
- Test everything. Even required changes (due to legal or product shifts) should be A/B tested to measure impact.
- Iterate constantly. Email is one of the most testable, iterative channels. Keep learning and evolving.
Q&A with Mary Aguililla
Ben: You use recommendations across campaigns. How do you choose the model?
Mary: For newsletters, we prioritize discovery—new topics and classes. For automated flows like class reminders, we focus on relevance to the current class or behavior. It’s all about intent and where they are in their journey.
Ben: How are you handling increased pressure and limited resources?
Mary: A few key changes:
- We cut redundant tools using Blueshift’s built-in features like email render previews.
- We modularized our templates—easier for both marketers and other departments to use, reducing production time.
Ben: Any recent examples of generative AI impact?
Mary: Yes! We’ve used it to refresh messaging in automated flows. It's helping us scale subject line and preheader tests—and even when AI variations don’t win, it speeds up the process. We’re also planning to use it for push messaging.
Ben: How do you balance creative with performance?
Mary: We love sending bold, fun emails—but they have to drive value. We learn from each campaign, even the flops. Data tells us what’s working. Creative plus data—that’s the sweet spot.
Ben: Skillshare has been with Blueshift for years. What’s the biggest benefit?
Mary: Having everything in one place—data, segmentation, campaigns, reporting—makes it easier to train new team members, scale our program, and stay aligned.
Ben: Favorite recent campaign?
Mary: Our new Month in Review email. It recaps classes taken, badges earned, and more. We worried about tone—but it’s been a huge hit. Engagement is high, and now we’re testing new ways to evolve it further.
Ben: That’s awesome. Thank you, Mary—and thanks to everyone for joining!
