Email marketing job responsibilities

In our blog, we often discuss various aspects of email marketers' work. This time, we invited several top experts to share their insights on development paths for junior, mid-level, and senior email marketers. We also asked them about the challenges they've faced in their careers, how difficult it is to enter the field today, and what business owners should consider when looking for an email marketer to join their teams.

So, we invite you to an extensive story with priceless insights. Brew yourself a relaxing cup of tea or coffee and get ready for some inspiring tips from email marketing professionals.

Junior email marketer

Whether you're looking to hire or aspiring to become a junior email marketer, understanding the job's core requirements and expectations is crucial. Here's some expert advice on the skills and attributes needed to excel in an entry-level email marketing role.

When hiring email marketers for different levels of responsibility, you'd expect a level of understanding of most aspects of email marketing, but with deeper knowledge at higher levels. At a junior level, you're looking for an overall understanding of platform functionality and the ability to use it, as well as the ability to manipulate template design, upload contacts, create and maintain email lists, segment the target audience, execute A/B testing, and monitor deliverability. You also expect a grasp of analytics. At this level, I wouldn't necessarily expect an email marketer to put a strategy together, but they should be able to execute it and troubleshoot.

Being detail-oriented is vital for a junior email marketer, but first and foremost, they must be genuinely interested in the channel! They should be able to share at least one recent example of an email from their inbox that they liked/disliked and explain why.

In my opinion, a junior email marketer should have these skills:

1. Familiarity with email standards and various features of integrated marketing channels, such as push notifications and messengers.
2. A proactive attitude toward learning new tools and techniques and adapting strategies to meet evolving market demands.
3. Ability to maintain the corporate style and tone of voice during campaign creation.
4. Basic ability to interpret campaign performance data and modify strategies based on these metrics.
5. Knowledge of creating briefs for designers, copywriters, and developers to ensure cohesive project execution.

A junior email marketer must be creative, especially when crafting engaging email content and subject lines. Attention to detail is crucial for avoiding errors when building, segmenting, and scheduling email campaigns. I don't really expect technical proficiency but a willingness to learn about strategies, techniques, and coding languages, such as CSS and HTML.

When hiring a junior email marketer, I'm looking for someone who is curious and asks the right questions about our program, marketing strategy and tactics, and emails.

The most important part for an email marketer at any level is to show that they know the value email marketing can bring and that they're passionate about it. Experience in the field is, of course, relevant to the job level, but showing dedication and enthusiasm for email marketing is the most important thing.

An important aspect is a comprehensive understanding of email marketing, what this channel entails, and where it is positioned in the customer life cycle. Equally important is the ability to think flexibly and creatively in task implementation, as crafting emails and automating them often require nontrivial solutions. Another criterion is the ability to analyze the work done and to generate reports.

To summarize our experts' opinions, when applying for a junior position, you should have:

1. A basic understanding of email marketing platforms and the ability to use them.
2. Skills in uploading contacts and maintaining email lists.
3. Ability to effectively segment the target  audience.
4. Ability to execute A/B tests to optimize email performance.
5. Ability to track and improve email deliverability.
6. A basic understanding of email analytics and reporting.
7. Ability to execute email strategies and troubleshoot issues.
8. Keen attention to detail to avoid errors in campaigns.
9. Creativity in crafting engaging email content and subject lines.
10. Proactive attitude toward learning new tools, techniques, and coding languages (e.g., CSS and HTML).
11. Ability to maintain the corporate style and tone of voice in campaigns.
12. Basic ability to interpret campaign performance data and adjust strategies accordingly.
13. Knowledge of creating briefs for designers, copywriters, and developers.
14. Genuine passion for email marketing.
15. Curiosity and ability to ask the right questions about email programs and strategies.
16. Comprehension of the role of email marketing in the customer life cycle and its overall value.
17. Ability to think flexibly and creatively in task implementation.
18. Capability to generate and analyze reports based on campaign performance.

Middle email marketer

For those looking to hire or step into a mid-level email marketer role, it's essential to understand the advanced skills and deeper knowledge expected at this level. Here's some expert advice on what makes a successful mid-level email marketer.

The higher you go, the deeper I expect your knowledge to be. I also expect greater knowledge of the technical aspects of platform setup, such as advanced segmentation ideas, and DNS and DKIM authentication. You should be increasingly involved in the overall email strategy, keep up with email marketing best practices, and monitor competitors and trends in the market.

In mid-level email marketers, I look for critical thinking and problem-solving skills alongside experience with A/B testing, personalization, and segmentation. Depending on the role and the company, a balanced mix of creative and analytical skills is essential. Some experience with graphic design, copywriting, and coding is a big plus!

I expect the following skills from a mid-level email marketer:

1. Deep understanding of customer data platform (CDP) functionality, including segmentation, personalization, and optimization techniques.
2. Capability to independently develop, implement, and refine email marketing strategies based on detailed metrics.
3. Proficiency in conducting A/B tests to validate hypotheses and enhance user engagement.
4. Ability to lead campaigns and coordinate effectively with other team members.

A mid-level email marketer should have a few years' experience working in email marketing roles, demonstrating proficiency in email campaign management and optimization. They must understand audience segmentation and tailor email campaigns to different customer segments. A/B testing experience is desirable.

When hiring for a mid-level or more senior position, I look for someone who can join the team and think of new strategies and campaigns to achieve our business goals and who can help me find solutions to some of the problems we're facing. Depending on the seniority level of the role, some technical expertise may be helpful, but that's something that can be learned.

Let's summarize the list of skills necessary for mid-level email marketers:

1. Ability to implement advanced segmentation ideas to effectively target specific customer groups.
2. Proficiency in platform setup, including DNS and DKIM authentication.
3. An understanding of CDP functionality for segmentation, personalization, and optimization.
4. Involvement in overall email strategy development.
5. Capability to independently develop, implement, and refine email marketing strategies based on detailed metrics.
6. Ability to keep up with email marketing best practices.
7. Ability to monitor competitors and trends in the market.
8. Strong critical thinking and problem-solving skills.
9. Experience with A/B testing to validate hypotheses and enhance user engagement.
10. Proficiency in personalization techniques to tailor emails to individual recipients.
11. A balanced mix of creative and analytical skills.
12. Experience with graphic design, copywriting, and preferably coding.
13. Proficiency in email campaign management and optimization.
14. Ability to lead campaigns and coordinate with other team members.
15. Ability to come up with new strategies and campaigns to achieve business goals.
16. Problem-solving skills to find solutions to issues the team may face.

Senior email marketer

For both hiring managers and professionals aspiring to senior email marketing roles, a comprehensive skill set and strategic vision are paramount. Here's some expert opinions on what makes a successful senior email marketer, which highlight the blend of technical prowess and soft skills necessary at this level.

For senior email marketers, it becomes super important to have literacy in all areas of email. I strongly believe in the motto "Know what you don't know." You may have yet to memorize every RFC and SMTP code, but you have some understanding of what they mean, and you know where to look (or who to ask) for more information.

Soft skills such as empathy, time management, communication, teamwork, public speaking, and diplomacy are often undervalued, yet they are invaluable at all levels. Your holistic skill set, which includes these soft skills, is what makes you a well-rounded senior email marketer.

The skill set of a senior email marketer includes:

1. Comprehensive knowledge of all technical aspects of email marketing, including a thorough understanding of compliance regulations, like GDPR.
2. Proficiency in utilizing external databases, such as BigQuery, to extract and interpret complex datasets for actionable insights.
3. Strong ability to mentor junior staff, provide training, and lead by example in adopting best practices.
4. Motivation to continually seek out and implement new technologies and methods to establish email marketing practices and tool standards.

At the senior level, your extensive experience in email marketing, strategy development, campaign execution, and optimization is highly valuable and integral to the team. We also value your refined project management skills in running multiple campaigns simultaneously as well as your data-driven decision-making and innovation capabilities.

So, if you want to become a senior email marketer, your competencies should include:

1. Technical proficiency:

• comprehensive knowledge of all technical aspects of email marketing;
• understanding compliance regulations, such as GDPR;
• familiarity with RFC and SMTP codes and ability to find more information when needed.

2. Data handling and analysis:

• proficiency in using external databases, such as BigQuery;
• ability to extract and interpret complex datasets for actionable insights.

3. Mentorship and leadership:

• ability to mentor and train junior staff;
• ability to lead by example in adopting best practices.

4. Strategy development:

• extensive experience in email marketing strategy development;
• ability to continuously search for and implement new technologies and methods;
• ability to set standards for email marketing practices and tools.

5. Campaign management:

• proficiency in campaign execution and optimization;
• refined project management skills to run multiple campaigns simultaneously.

6. Soft skills:

• empathy, time management, communication, teamwork, public speaking, and diplomacy.

7. Innovation and decision-making:

• data-driven decision-making capabilities;
• innovation in developing new strategies and improving existing practices.

Career challenges in email marketing

We asked our experts what challenges they faced during their professional development and how difficult they think it is for others to do the same in 2024.

When I first started in email marketing, the concept was still in its infancy. It was basically about "e-blasts." Back then, platforms were quite basic—certainly nowhere near as sophisticated as they are now. I had the opportunity to grow with the sector, learning programs and platforms as I went along. I could tell this was going to be a huge sector, so I set out to make sure I understood every aspect of the channel and to learn about as many platforms as possible, and I kept working to ensure I understood changes in legislation and trends.

I think in 2024, getting started with a career in email is easier in some ways because there are structured learning processes to go through, so if you have an aptitude for the channel, you can grasp it very quickly. And everyone wants email marketing, so there are plenty of job opportunities for people who really understand how email works and how the tools work. Staying in email requires dedication, as it's a highly competitive area, so you have to stay abreast of trends, new platforms, changes in functionality, and legislation. That's the key. There are so many people in email now that you have to be constantly learning and growing to stay ahead of the curve.

One challenge I've had to overcome in my email career was letting go … particularly when it came to newsletter ownership. With any project, there's a risk you might get too attached and develop tunnel vision, unintentionally holding yourself back from learning new skills and seizing opportunities.

About five years ago, I realized that what I enjoyed most was creating spaces for marketers to get inspired by each other, collaborate, and nurture their skills. But the great thing about email is that you have a lot of variety when it comes to applying your experience to different business models and industries, so I've never felt bored of discovering and exploring my options for career growth.

Email marketers who are looking to embrace a circular career growth model or develop a specialization will not have a hard time finding opportunities to progress in 2024. But like in any industry, if you're looking to quickly climb the ladder or you have a very specific goal in mind, that's going to be much harder! There are no shortcuts in email.

As someone who has been in the profession since 2012, I would speak of transformations rather than challenges.

Previously, there was a lot of work involved in email coding, which shifted the focus from marketing to more technical tasks. However, with email services constantly improving the work of email marketers—and I often use Stripo as an example—I've almost forgotten how to work with HTML. Recently, I needed to make a button, and I couldn't remember how 🙂 because I haven't had to do any coding for five years. So now, perhaps the main challenge is to really engage not in routine tasks but in actual email marketing and to do it correctly.

As for your professional development, I would advise the following:

Keep up with technological advancements
Email marketing tools and platforms are constantly evolving. For instance, the active development of AI technologies, the scaling of email service providers (ESPs) to customer data platforms (CDPs), and the progression from multichannel to omnichannel and cross-channel strategies are all crucial trends. Email marketers must not only stay informed about these developments but also continuously learn and adapt to remain effective.

Adhere to data privacy regulations
Recent data protection laws, such as GDPR and CCPA, have significantly altered how marketers collect, store, and utilize data. Ignoring these regulations can lead to severe consequences, including heavy fines and damage to brand reputation. It is essential for marketers to understand and comply with these laws to ensure both legal and ethical marketing practices.

Enhance personalization and engagement
Today's subscribers expect unique, personalized interactions. Generic mass promotional emails are less likely to capture their interest. To engage customers effectively, marketers need to leverage every tool available, such as gamification and interactive content using AMP technology, and to implement hyper-personalization based on the available data. These strategies ensure that communications are both relevant and appealing to recipients.

What I've found most challenging is keeping my skills up to date. The industry is constantly changing. You must keep up with trends, regulations, certifications, and techniques to run email campaigns. The industry demands more technical knowledge to implement ultra-personalized and automated campaigns while maintaining high design standards.

To be honest, I believe there are significant opportunities in email marketing. You can choose to focus your career on CRM or look for marketing automation positions.

Email marketing is relevant to many marketing areas and projects, and I think this makes email marketers well positioned to advance their careers. If interested, email marketers have a chance to work on acquisition, activation, retention, and more, collaborate with a lot of cross-functional partners, and bring great value to their companies. Many companies are well equipped to track the effectiveness and performance of their acquisition efforts, but when it comes to engagement and retention, business impact can be harder to measure. And this can be a challenge when customer engagement is at the core of your job.

In the past, I struggled to find the right path in digital marketing. Fortunately, I had the opportunity to investigate and evolve in email marketing. The greatest challenge was to convince upper management that email was the best channel there was. It's very efficient and offers high personalization and the best costs vs. profit. A lot of people used to see email as an old and dusty channel, but we, as email marketers, have proven that it's still one of the most effective means of digital marketing.

I've never had any serious difficulties with career growth and development, as the profession of an email marketer offers several avenues for progression. The new challenges in 2024 are mostly related to the active integration of AI into all aspects of marketing. It's necessary to rethink our approach to work and delegate routine tasks to AI, focusing more on complex and nontrivial tasks. This requires delving deeper into marketing automation and mastering a growing number of tools.

Advice for newcomers to the email marketing profession

Entering the email marketing field can be daunting, but with the right mindset and guidance, you can navigate it successfully. Here's what top experts recommend to those just starting their careers.

If you're a newcomer to email marketing, the best advice I can give you is to be hungry and stay curious. Make sure you understand the basics of email marketing at every level. You may not know how to set up DNS records, but you must know that they need to be set up and why. You may not know how to create a whole strategy, but you must understand the basics of devising a strategy and why it's important to have one—from a basic welcome email to a post-purchase "thank you" message. Keep up with the trends and get those RSS feeds filled with news from experts in the business.

For newcomers, my number one piece of advice is to network. Ask for informational interviews, attend in-person events, follow influencers, comment on posts, join a group, or show up at webinars. 

1. Learn continuously through courses and follow industry publications and certifications.
2. Update your skills, especially in data analytics and content creation. Understanding automation tools can set you apart.
3. Select a specialization. Some email marketers believe that specializing in a specific niche, such as e-commerce, B2B, or nonprofit email marketing, offers a competitive advantage.
4. Engage in networking. Being active in the industry can open up opportunities for mentorship, partnerships, and jobs.

There is a fine balance between creativity, data analysis, and strategy in email marketing. Develop multidisciplinary skills. Personalization is essential when it comes to email marketing. And the most important thing: get to know your users. Analyzing data will help you with that.

My advice to newcomers to the profession is to be humble and curious. Ask questions about the customers, the user life cycle, the products or services you are marketing, the data that is available to you, and all other things you want to know. Sending personalized, relevant, and well-timed emails is the best way to engage users and prospects, and it all starts with a good understanding of your product or service and the value it provides to the user.

Learn to work with AI as your best assistant. Don't limit yourself to knowledge of just one tool in email marketing. Get acquainted with analytics platforms and behavioral analysis and master no-code solutions for marketing automation.

Key considerations for business owners hiring an email marketer

Hiring an email marketer can significantly boost your business's ROI, but it's essential to make informed decisions. Here's some expert advice on what business owners should consider when bringing an email marketing professional on board.

As a business owner considering whether to hire an email marketer, consider this: email marketing, when done right, can deliver a return of around £40 for every £1 spent or even more in some sectors. So, there's no question about whether you need to adopt email marketing; the question is whether to hire or outsource. Be prepared to pay according to skills, knowledge, and experience. If you're willing to grow talent, then hire and train, expecting a few bumps on the road. Unexpected things can always happen in email marketing, and the less experience someone has, the more impact you'll feel. If you go down the outsourcing route, make sure you get references from companies that the agency claims to have worked with so you can be sure of the quality you're paying for.

For businesses, do not assume that email is cheap and easy because everyone uses it. Sure, it may have a better ROI than most other channels, but it takes a lot of skill and consistency to scale and maintain growth.

In my experience, when you decide to hire an email marketer, be sure to hire someone who thinks of more than one way to create a campaign—someone who can bring more than one solution and is willing to experiment to get the best outcome.

Email should always be part of your marketing strategy. It’s valuable at all stages of the marketing funnel, and it can drive great results when used with other channels. Emails allow for long-form content and remain in your users’ inboxes for a very long time. Email marketers, overtime, develop a very good understanding of your data, as they use it to trigger and monitor their campaigns, and can offer valuable insights for all your marketing efforts.

Search for a passionate candidate who sees the true value of the channel and has the drive to learn, improve, and stay on top of the ever-changing email game.

Today, the email channel is an indispensable marketing tool. It's hard to imagine a product, store, or bank without it; email marketers are needed everywhere! Moreover, email marketing now goes beyond simply sending emails. Email specialists have become versatile players in marketing teams, capable of working with CRM systems, setting up behavioral analytics based on emails, conducting basic lead scoring, and much more. So, consider hiring an email marketing specialist with all these factors in mind.

Follow your heart... But be scrupulous about the candidate's resume 🙂.

Wrapping up

In this article, we explored the various roles and responsibilities within the email marketing field, drawing insights from top experts to paint a clear picture of what it takes to succeed at different career stages. We covered key skills for junior, mid-level, and senior email marketers. We also discussed the challenges facing email marketers, experts' advice to newcomers, and critical considerations for business owners hiring email marketers.

If you want to start working in this field, stay curious, keep learning, and don't be afraid to implement new technologies and strategies. Stripo is here to support you with tools for real email marketing pros!