How to become an email marketing expert (2023)

Every day you receive dozens of emails from companies you've bought from or expressed interest in.

Each one was designed and sent by an email marketing specialist.

Mainly responsible formaintain customer relationshipsand improve interaction with email content, this is a critical role that requires specific expertise.

In this article, we'll discuss what an email marketing specialist does, what results they bring, and how to become one if you're pursuing a career in email marketing.

What is an email marketing specialist?

An email marketer is a digital marketing specialist with specific expertise in building and growing email lists, creating and distributing email content, nurturing leads, and maximizing email engagement. email throughout the customer journey.

The specific functions that an email marketer is responsible for vary by company. Larger organizations may have specialized designers who oversee email formatting, layout, and UX design elements.

However, email marketers are largely responsible for improving engagement with marketing emails (promotional emails, lead nurturing campaigns, newsletters, etc.).

They track key metrics, such as email open and click-through rates, and work closely with other members of the marketing team (such as a marketing manager, copywriter, or design lead) to influence marketing. those results.

What does an email marketer do?

In smaller organizations, email marketer responsibilities tend to be more diverse. You will be responsible for a number of aspects of email marketing, including list writing, design, and management.

At enterprise-level companies, email marketers may be more specialized. They work closely with writers, graphic designers, and other subject matter experts so they can focus on campaign performance and email automation workflows.

Design and management of email marketing campaigns

Email marketers focus on the success of email campaigns (a series of marketing emails sent to a list of recipients).

As an email marketer, you are responsible for designing and executing campaigns to achieve a specific goal.

For example, an email marketer at a B2B SaaS company might create an onboarding sequence where new users get one.Welcome Email Seriesintroduce them to the platform and help them get the most out of the product.

Writing and proofreading email copies

Copy (the words used in marketing materials) is the backbone of email marketing.

Email writing is a niche skill. You have a message to communicate and it should be as concise as possible than the shortest emails (between 50 and 125 words) tend to work better.

However, they have a secondary goal: to persuade the reader to act. This could be browsing your newly arrived products, signing up for a webinar, or becoming a paid user.

Email marketers need to pay attention to both writing basics (grammar and spelling) and word choice.

Optimizing email delivery for mobile usability

Hoy,42%of emails are opened on a mobile device.

As such, one of the main responsibilities of email marketers is to ensure that their communications appear as expected on both desktop and mobile devices.

This involves careful attention to design elements, ensuring that text and images are scalable, and creating preheader text (the copy that appears below the email subject line) so it looks clean.

Manage, build and delete email lists

Ensuring email deliverability is an important task for email marketers. List management is an essential part of this.

One of the goals of your email marketing strategy is likely to be to grow your email list, but in some cases removing recipients is a necessary process (such as when you receive a bounced email or unsubscribe).

Cooperation with authors, designers and marketing managers.

As an email marketer, you may need to work closely with content marketers or digital marketers on design, writing, and data security, making collaboration crucial.

It can be in-house staff or a freelancer to help with this type of marketing effort. Therefore, communication skills and the ability to collaborate effectively are important for this role.

Measure and report on the effectiveness of email campaigns

Each of its initiatives has a specific objective. You could be influencing engagement metrics like open, click, and conversion rates to improve lead generation or retention of existing customers.

In either case, you are responsible for tracking email marketing metrics and reporting the results to your line manager (for example, a digital marketing manager).

Segment email lists to optimize campaign performance

Many organizations have more than one target group.

As your email list grows, you'll want to communicate with everyone differently (some email content is only relevant to certain subscribers).

AudiencesegmentationIt involves identifying what makes audience members different, storing that data in your email marketing platform, and sending segment-specific emails to maximize engagement and email performance.

Manage email automation workflows

Email marketers send thousands of emails each week, so sending each email manually is unrealistic.

They use pre-built email templates, connect your email automation platform to your CRM, and design (and modify) automated sequences.

Optimization of the email subscription and registration process

You want to make it easy for new customers to sign up for your email newsletter, but you also want to collect as much data as possible to help with segmentation and lead generation.

So part of the role of the email marketer is to optimize the signup process to find the ideal balance between these two needs.

Collect and report on the audience

How your audience engages with your email marketing efforts gives you insight into how different segments are performing, where customers are on the buyer's journey, and which demographics they are most likely to convert.

You can then share this data with other experts (such as SEOs and social media marketing team members) to gain insights into targeting and new customer acquisition.

What results do email marketers bring?

Email marketers bring specific skills to the marketing team. If you're considering a career in email marketing, here's what you need to know.

Knowledge of key metrics and measures.

The primary goal of an email marketer is to improve engagement with marketing efforts. Depending on your more specific organizational goals, measure this success in different ways.

Email marketers should be familiar with the followingEmail marketing metrics:

• open range.The percentage of recipients who open a specific email.

• click rate.The percentage of recipients who click a link in an email.

• Spam complaint rate.The percentage of recipients who mark your email as spam.

• To unsubscribeValuation.The percentage of recipients who unsubscribe from communications after receiving an email.

• Exchange rate.The percentage of recipients who take a desired action (for example, download a guide).

• availabilityvaluation. The percentage of emails you send that reach recipients' inboxes.

• revenue per subscriber.The amount of revenue your business earns for each subscriber to your email list.

Experience with email marketing software platforms.

Email marketers don't use consumer tools like Gmail and Yahoo. To send large-scale marketing campaigns, you need to be familiar with email marketing and automation platforms.

In particular, you should be familiar with the use of such tools to:

• Create and design emails

• segment audiences

• Automate email sequences

• Review and analyze email engagement data

• Run A/B tests to optimize campaigns

  (Video) How to Master Email Marketing (2023)

Experience in writing texts and messages.

The best email marketers are the ones who know how to write concisely, get the message across, and choose the perfect word to motivate readers and inspire action.

Additionally, they have experience testing different types of A/B copy and then analyzing the results to inform future email creation.

Even if you have a dedicated writer on your team, some messaging and writing experience will come in handy here.

A set of skills in email data analysis

Email marketing is a discipline that requires creative and logical thinking. The creative muscles are flexed when designing graphics or editing copy, but the best email marketers are those who are also good with numbers.

For example, suppose you want to understand whether a recipient's interaction with email content can be used to predict the likelihood of a conversion.

You need to analyze:

• What engagement metrics matter

• Who on your email list became a paying customer

• How they have handled marketing emails in the past

You then need to design experiments to test your theory and analyze those results to confirm it.

Knowledge of antispam legislation and data collection.

Email marketers, in particular, are subject to various privacy laws.GDPR(a European data protection regulation).

The tools you use to store customer information should offer some protection here (for example, data encryption), but to make sure your business complies with all laws, email marketers need to be up to date on the latest changes to the current state. date.

Some design skills

The amount of design knowledge and experience you need depends on your specific role and the composition of your team.

In smaller organizations, email marketers are often responsible for creating an email send from start to finish, which means they are familiar with design tools like Illustrator and Photoshop, as well as HTML formatting.

A broad understanding of digital marketing strategies.

Email marketers don't work in a vacuum. They partner with other digital marketers striving for the same goals—fostering new customer acquisition and retaining existing customers—while working on different aspects of the marketing strategy.

Your email marketing efforts fit into a larger marketing strategy that is inseparable from social media strategies, sales initiatives, and SEO and content marketing efforts. Therefore, it is important that email marketers also have a thorough understanding of how each of these aspects of digital marketing works.

What is the typical salary of an email marketing specialist?

Salaries for email marketers vary by location, company size, job expectations, and experience.

In the US, 2022 is the average salary for this positionbetween $61,000 and $155.00 per year, with an average salary of around $90,000. Those with more than ten years of experience can expect an average salary of $100,000.

The region in which your company is located also has a great influence. Here is the average salary for email specialists in other countries.

• You have: CA$59,000 to 82,000

• United Kingdom: £36.000 a £54.000

• Australia: AUD75,000 up to AUD110,000

• New Zealand: NZ$85,000 to $100,000

• Germany: €40,000 to €41,000

How to become an email marketing specialist

Every email marketer's career path will be slightly different, so don't feel like you need to follow these steps exactly.

However, you can use the following as a helpful framework to develop the skills needed to be successful as an email marketer.

Get started with an email marketing course

The ideal first step is to study aEmail Marketing Course. This is the fastest way to gain the skills necessary for an entry-level job.

A bachelor's degree in a marketing discipline is possible, but absolutely not required.

Many email marketers will take some general digital marketing courses, and these can be useful for learning specific skills like CSS and HTML coding, and getting familiar with tools like Google Analytics and email automation platforms.

However, these courses are best when they complement the experience.

Get some experience under your belt

Email marketing is a discipline best learned through experience. The standard catch-22 applies here (it's hard to get a job without experience, but you have to get the job to get the experience).

Before landing your first full-time job as an email marketer, consider how you can build experience.

Some options include:

• get an internship

• Create your own email newsletter and subscriber list

• voluntary work

• Work as a freelancer or contractor

put together a portfolio

When applying for jobs, hiring managers will primarily assess your application based on two dimensions:

1. Your CV (more on this shortly)

2. your purse

Your portfolio is essentially your way of demonstrating your skills. It shows recruiters that you're competent in the areas required for that job, supports the claims you've made on your resume, and allows you to highlight past accomplishments.

In your own portfolio, add a few sample emails that you've designed or written. If possible, supplement this with key email marketing metrics (open rate, click-through rate, etc.) that you've achieved with previous campaigns.

Create an Email Marketing Specialist Resume

Your resume is a summary of your relevant work experience and education. Add any relevant qualifications you have and list your work experience, including for each role:

• your main tasks

• Main achievements in this role

• How your experience in this position is relevant to the position you are applying for

Add your relevant contact details (email, phone, LinkedIn) and be sure to include a link to your portfolio.

Look for entry-level jobs

When you have your portfolio and resume ready, it's time to hit the job boards and start looking for openings.

The idea here is to find an opportunity where you can learn and grow (think learning vs. earning).

As a beginner, don't aim for salaries in the upper range of the salary class. Instead, focus on applying for jobs at companies that offer significant learning and development opportunities.

Impress your hiring manager with a compelling email

You have quite a unique opportunity here; Submitting an email application to your recruiter or hiring manager gives you an immediate opportunity to showcase your skills.

Take advantage of your greatest strength. If you're coming from a writing background, get creative with your introduction and cover letter.

If you're more of a designer, send your marketing email-style app in HTML format.

In either case, make sure that both your resume and cover letter match the job description. Look for keywords (for example, "comprehensive understanding of digital marketing tactics") and include them when discussing your own experience and knowledge.

Email Marketing Specialist Job Description

Of course, job descriptions vary by company and position. Below is an example of the type of job description you can expect when applying for a job as an email marketing specialist.

final thoughts

A career as an email marketing specialist can be incredibly fulfilling, offering a decent salary and great potential for growth.

As companies hire young email marketers (everyone has to start somewhere), you have a better chance of getting your foot in the door if you first figure out some email marketing basics.

see moreEmail Marketing Articlesand start building your email marketing knowledge today.