Email marketing lets you connect digitally with customers and potential customers through emails, informing your target audience about your business’s products, services, and promotions. Email marketers are responsible for working with the marketing team to brainstorm promotions and find ways to raise brand awareness. 

Once you develop a strategy, write the copy and email your target audience to captivate them and boost engagement. Email marketing is part of a company’s online marketing strategy, which includes search engine optimization (SEO), pay-per-click (PPC), social media marketing, and more. The intent is to gain more online presence to reach your ideal customers and offer them information and incentives to become clients or customers. 

Explore the details you might find in an email marketing job description to decide if this is a career path you want to pursue. 

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What is email marketing?

Email marketing is a digital marketing method where businesses send emails to their target audience to gain new customers or clients by promoting their company and gaining an online following. It's an inexpensive strategy to build brand loyalty by contacting existing customers for repeat purchases and introducing your company, products, and services to potential customers. 

When you compare email marketing to other, more traditional strategies, such as print ads, email marketing saves money and time. It allows you to decide who you want to reach and how you can reach them.

You have the ability to target users on your email list by criteria, such as demographics, so you are sending them relevant emails, not an influx of information that will waste their time, also known as junk mail.

It also offers an effective opportunity to connect with your audience and add a personal touch to the relationship. 

Types of email marketing roles

Email marketers have many responsibilities that differ according to a company’s marketing strategy. Many businesses have email marketers with specific titles working in different capacities to help their company achieve its marketing initiatives. Jobs in email marketing play an important part in the success of a business and give you a way to directly reach your audience and measure the results. You’ll need a balanced mix of creative and technical skills to gain employment in an email marketing role. 

Some jobs you might consider under the umbrella of email marketing include:

• Email marketing specialist: In this role, your main purpose is to work on email campaigns by crafting emails, managing contact lists, and learning about your company’s target audience.

• CRM email marketing manager: As a customer relationship management (CRM) email marketing manager, you contribute to building relationships with customers to increase loyalty, which can help boost sales. 

• Campaign manager: In this job, you’ll develop, implement, and manage marketing and advertising campaigns and work with different teams, including sales, marketing, and advertising, to create campaign strategies that help the company reach its objectives. 

Email marketing duties and responsibilities

The responsibilities of an email marketer encompass more than just crafting an email and pressing send. Your chief duty will be creating brand awareness and customer loyalty by forming relationships with customers, which can encourage them to purchase from your business. Daily tasks email marketers perform may also include: 

• Creating emails to match segmented groups

• Building and managing the email list

• Corresponding with customers through emails and resolving any issues they may have

• Measuring campaign results and writing reports on the findings

• Adhering to all email compliance guidelines

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Essential skills for email marketing

While email marketing jobs require creativity and expertise in copywriting, they're part of the digital sector, so technical proficiency is imperative to perform job duties. You should have extensive knowledge of email marketing platforms like Mailchimp, Sender, and HubSpot, know which ones meet your business needs, and know how to automate emails. Other useful skills include:

• Creating triggered campaigns

• Interpreting and analyzing data 

• Editing templates using HTML and CSS

• Cleaning up your email list and deleting inactive subscribers

• Segmenting campaign lists so they reach your demographic

• Using analytical skills to explain metrics

Qualifications and experience requirements

Many businesses prefer you have a bachelor’s degree. Marketing, communications, and digital media are helpful areas to major in. If you don’t have a bachelor’s degree, taking an online course in digital marketing, such as the Google Digital Marketing & E-commerce Professional Certificate, can equip you with the specific skills and tools of an email marketer, such as CSS and HTML coding and email automation systems. 

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You might also consider completing an internship for practical knowledge and a chance to use your skills in real-life scenarios. Some internships may even offer the opportunity to create your own campaigns, which you can use to show potential employers how your campaign performed with actual metrics. When applying for jobs in this field, instead of focusing on salary, look for a position that will serve as a learning opportunity and allow you to grow. 

Example email marketing job description

Email marketing job descriptions will vary depending on the roles and companies. Each description usually includes an overview of the function and a list of what the company is looking for in a candidate regarding responsibilities, requirements or qualifications, and skills.

1. Responsibilities depend on the job title and can include creating and implementing campaigns, creating templates, copywriting, and proofreading all materials. More advanced duties might include executing A/B tests, email analysis, and monthly reports. Many companies look for candidates who can work seamlessly with other teams, including marketing and sales, to meet the company’s objective.

2. Requirements can vary but usually include understanding database concepts, knowledge of email and data compliance regulations, proven experience working with email marketing lists and platforms, and project management experience. If you don’t meet the requirements, consider taking a course from an online certification program in email marketing or marketing analytics to expand your email marketing knowledge.

3. Skills that a successful email marketer should possess are more than just technical. You should also have good workplace skills such as creativity, attention to detail, problem-solving, people management, and communication. One of the most vital skills to have is excellent collaboration. Email marketers must work well with other teams to ensure the campaigns meet all goals. The skills employers require will evolve and expand as you advance in your career.

Industry variations in the email marketing role

According to a survey by Forbes Advisor, 81 percent of companies incorporate email into their marketing strategy, making it a significant need for most companies [1]. Email marketing techniques can be used in many industries, so be sure your email marketing strategy is tailored to meet the needs of your business. Some examples include:

• E-commerce: Send emails about new products, discounts, and personal recommendations to specific customers depending on their purchase history to encourage repeat customers.

• Health care: Use your email campaign to remind patients about upcoming appointments and follow-ups, announce new services, and send newsletters with health tips and resources.

• SaaS providers: Create a campaign that combines various email types, such as an educational email that also includes promotions. You can also reach potential customers using onboarding campaigns with welcoming emails and tutorials on products or services, product updates, trial expiration reminders, and drip campaigns to turn leads into paying customers.

• Finance: Reach clients via email regarding market updates, saving suggestions, and personalized investment options. 

Career path and growth opportunities

As an entry-level email marketer, you can grow within the field or transition to related roles. Positions range from specialists who create and analyze campaigns to managers overseeing strategy and teams, all the way up to directors shaping vision and budgets. Career paths can also extend to content management, copywriting, social media marketing, and data analytics.

Learn more about email marketing on Coursera

Email marketers are vital to a company’s mission to engage with their audience, develop relationships, and gain more customers by gaining trust and loyalty. Sharpen your digital marketing skills and use of data analysis with the Google Digital Marketing & E-commerce Professional Certificate. Or go deeper into marketing by earning your BSc in Marketing from the University of London on Coursera. 

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Skills you'll build:

HTML, UI/UX design, JavaScript, Cascading Style Sheets (CSS), React, Version Control, Github, Bash (Unix Shell), Web Development, Linux, Web Development Tools, HTML and CSS, Responsive Web Design, Front-End Web Development, User Interface, React (Web Framework), Application development, Web Application, Web Design, Accessibility, User Experience (UX), Data Structure, Computer Science, Algorithms, Communication, Pseudocode, Test-Driven Development, Object-Oriented Programming (OOP), Unit Testing, Debugging

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