Can you capture people’s attention and persuade them to take actions they’ll benefit from? Well, this is an email marketer’s main skill set and function. And they’re paid quite handsomely, too – senior email marketers can earn between $70,000 and $100,000 annually!
Like all of us, you receive emails every day. You might even open a link in the email, subscribe to a newsletter, take a survey, or purchase. Have you thought about getting in on the other end of the transaction? You could be the one creating those emails!
Being a successful email marketer isn’t easy, but it’s not rocket science either. In this article, we’ll take you through the components of email marketing and what skills you need to develop to become an expert. Let’s dive into it!
What is an Email Marketing Specialist?
Email marketing specialists – basically wizards behind successful email marketing campaigns. They use dedicated software to nurture leads through an email marketing funnel.
Email marketing specialists build email lists (or develop already existing ones) and use them to increase brand awareness, boost sales, and encourage customer engagement by shaping and delivering a perfect message to the target audience.
What Do Email Marketing Specialists Do?
An email marketing specialist’s responsibilities depend on the company’s size and its product or service scope. However, generally, the duties of an email marketing specialist can be divided into two categories:
- Creating and cultivating an email list of leads and interested parties (these could be clients, customers, or investors)
- Creating and monitoring email marketing campaigns
Like a chef who’s creating exquisite dishes must first get together the necessary ingredients, an email marketer can do nothing before she/he builds an email list.
Build an Email List
An essential part of an email marketer’s responsibilities is growing email lists. The email marketing specialist will work with other marketing team members to develop surveys, popup campaigns, loyalty programs, social media outreach, and other strategies to build email lists organically. Email lists can also be purchased, but those lists are less effective at providing results, so we’d recommend avoiding this strategy.
Design and Manage Email Marketing Campaigns
By using the most eye-catching subject lines and openings, the email marketing specialist knows how to design marketing campaigns that get the recipient to open the email and then engage with its content. There’s almost always a call-to-action associated with each campaign, and the success of the campaign is often determined by the percentage of calls to action completed.
Write & Proofread
The email marketing specialist is proficient in the written language he or she communicates in. This means writing without grammatical errors and in a way that’s engaging and clearly understood even by readers whose mother tongue is not the language the content is written in.
Optimize / AB test
The email marketing specialist continuously seeks ways to improve three key facets of an email marketing campaign.
- Deliverability – the percentage of emails that end up in the recipient’s inbox as opposed to the spam folder
- Engagement – the percentage of emails that recipients open
- Conversion – the percentage of emails that lead to a successfully completed call to action
One of the ways email marketing specialists seek to optimize the performance of their email marketing campaigns is through A/B testing. This consists mainly of launching two email marketing campaigns simultaneously that are essentially the same except for one key factor (such as subject line, accompanying image, font size, etc.).
Tracking the performance of these simultaneous campaigns allows the email marketing specialist to determine the effect of that variable on the three key facets mentioned above.
Also read: A/B Testing in Email Marketing & Best Split Test Practices
Measure & Analyze
The email marketing specialist measures the performance of email marketing campaigns and compares them to past campaigns and campaigns conducted on other channels, such as social media. These comparisons are then communicated to the marketing director and/or other people within the marketing department.
Segment Audience
In order to produce more effective email marketing campaigns, the email marketing specialist will craft the content and approach of the campaign according to key characteristics shared by people on the email list. This is known as segmentation, or creating groups of recipients who share similar characteristics so that the marketing campaign can be crafted to better suit their preferences, needs, habits, and expectations.
Create & Manage Automation Flows
Email marketing campaigns are generally carried out on a frequent and regular basis. The exact nature of the campaign (the wording of the subject line, the type of content included, the call to action) will often depend on an action the recipient takes or does not take. This is why the email marketing specialist often works with automation software and customer relationship management platforms.
What Do Email Marketing Specialists Have to Know?
Best email marketing practices and optimal techniques are regularly changing as tools develop and change, and so are the expectations and habits of the consumer. Therefore, an email marketing specialist should keep track of trends and developments in the field of marketing.
Types of Email Marketing
Email marketing campaigns accompany the client or customer through each phase of the sales funnel. The stage of the sales funnel the client is currently in will determine the email’s tone, form, and objective.
The variety in types of emails the specialist works on means that an email marketing specialist will get to show off their many skills – namely being welcoming and engaging, informative, and persuasive. Some of the more common types include:
- Welcome emails – These are generally generated through automation based on an action carried out by a user, such as signing up for a newsletter
- Promotional emails – These are generally punctual emails meant to inform past or prospective customers about a current promotion or event
- Newsletter emails – These are meant to foster loyalty and continued interest among past and prospective customers
- Re-engagement emails – These are a kind of lead nurturing email; however, they’re targeted to users whose engagement with the company or brand has dipped or dropped out entirely
How to Become an Email Marketer
Email marketing is a field that’s currently experiencing a healthy amount of growth. Industry experts have estimated the growth of email marketing in terms of volume and frequency to be around 4% annually.
And while the U.S. Bureau of Labor Statistics does not provide data on email marketing as a specific niche, the U.S. Bureau of Labor Statistics does report a growth in the broader category of promotions and marketing managers of around 10% annually – much faster than the average rate for other industries.
Here’s a step-by-step guide on how to become an email marketing professional:
- Learn the basics
Study topics like list building, email segmentation, A/B testing, and email deliverability. You can find various online courses, blog posts, and other resources to get you started. - Gain practical knowledge
Practice what you’ve learned by creating and managing your own or other people’s campaigns. Experiment with different types of campaigns, content, and strategies to see what resonates with audiences. - Study email marketing software
Familiarize yourself with popular email marketing tools. Learn how to navigate their interfaces, create emails, and set up automation workflows. - Obtain certification
Consider earning certifications in email marketing to validate your skills. - Apply for jobs
Once you feel confident in your skills, start applying for email marketing specialist positions in companies or marketing agencies. Tailor your resume to highlight your experience and relevant skills.
Technical and Soft Skills Required for an Email Marketing Specialist
When it comes to the field of digital marketing, while academic credentials such as a bachelor’s degree are a definite plus (especially in the field of marketing or communications), recruiters and HR professionals more often than not prioritize prior work experience and professional training.
Working knowledge of CRM tools is a must. If you don’t have experience using CRM software, the more popular CRM platforms such as Hubspot, User.com, and Pipeline offer free online training. Completion of these training modules will give you a good understanding of the tools, and it looks good on your resume.
Additionally, many email marketing jobs require working knowledge of SEO and web analytics, including HTML, CSS, and web design tools such as Webflow or WordPress. As is the case with CRM tools, all the top developers of SEO and web design tools offer free online training, which you can complete in a matter of days. Consider Surfer Academy, Ahrefs Academy, and Webflow University.
An email marketing specialist is detail-oriented, an analytical thinker, well-organized, and possesses good interpersonal and communication skills. Each campaign the marketing specialist works on will present unique challenges, so the marketing specialist needs to be flexible and able to adapt to a variety of circumstances.
The ideal email marketing specialist possesses the following skills:
- Excellent writing and editing (grammar, style, and tone)
- Creative thinking
- Strategical thinking
- Project management
- A keen eye for visual presentation
- Analytical thinking
- Data analysis
- Customer empathy and an understanding of the customer journey
- Strategical thinking
- Working knowledge of CRM tools
- Basic web design protocol (HTML, CSS)
- Reporting skills
Salary Expectation for an Email Marketing Expert
The salary range for an email marketing professional varies wildly – anywhere between $45,000 to $80,000 annually. The discrepancy is due largely to the size of the company and the prior experience of the marketer.
When looking for an email marketing job, often, the specific salary is not included in the job description. It is a good idea to state your salary expectations upfront with a salary requirements cover letter rather than let the recruiter or hiring manager take the lead on this important topic.
Key takeaways
Email marketing is still an expanding and developing field. Experts in the industry always keep their eyes on the latest trends – especially when it comes to CRM and automation tools. They are constantly looking for ways to optimize email campaigns and increase the percentage of emails opened, engagements, and successfully completed calls to action.
The successful email marketing strategist…
- Uses marketing tools to build email lists
- Creates engaging content to nurture leads
- Analyzes data to make necessary adjustments to marketing campaigns
- Has a great understanding of consumer personas and crafts email content accordingly
- Is comfortable with automation tools and can easily learn and assimilate new tools as they are developed
There’s no reason why you can’t have a long, successful, and financially rewarding career as an email marketing specialist. Wishing you all the best!
Also read: 13 Email Marketing Strategies for Startups
Author Bio
Gergo Vari, the CEO of Lensa, has a singular mission: to revolutionize the job search process for companies and professionals. Having embarked on a journey of founding, funding, and successfully exiting startups, he has gained valuable insight— the hiring process is flawed. Consequently, he is driven by the shared aspiration to develop recruiting and human resources technology that prioritizes people’s needs above all else.
