In today’s dynamic digital landscape, a robust email marketing strategy is vital for business growth. Whether you’re a business manager seeking to build a high-performing team or a professional aspiring to specialize in email marketing, understanding the key roles and specializations is crucial. This guide provides a comprehensive overview of typical email marketing job descriptions, ensuring you cover all essential areas for success.
Core Areas of Email Marketing Specialization
The field of email marketing is incredibly diverse, encompassing a wide array of skills and expertise. We’ve organized the most common email marketing job titles into five distinct areas:
- Strategy and Planning
- Client Services
- Email Design and Development (Production)
- Deliverability and Compliance
- Platform Innovation and Development
These five areas often interact across different organizational structures. Here’s a quick look at where you might typically find these specializations:
| Area of Specialization | Found In-House | Found at External Agency/Freelancer | Found at Email Sending Platform (ESP) |
|---|---|---|---|
| Strategy and Planning | Yes | Yes | Sometimes (Consulting) |
| Client Services | N/A | Yes | Yes |
| Email Design and Development | Yes | Yes | Yes (Services Arm) |
| Deliverability and Compliance | Sometimes (Internal Policy) | N/A | Predominantly |
| Platform Innovation and Development | N/A | N/A | Predominantly |
Email marketing roles span a wide spectrum, from strategic planning and creative design to highly technical functions like coding and deliverability management. Modern email marketing success often relies on a blended approach, combining in-house talent with the specialized support of agencies, freelancers, and the service arms of chosen email sending platforms.
Email Marketing: A Collaborative Team Effort
Effective email marketing in today’s business environment is increasingly a team sport, moving away from being the sole responsibility of a single individual. Data from the Econsultancy’s Email Marketing Industry Census 2017 highlights this shift, reporting that reliance on teams rose to 45% in 2017, up from 40% in 2016. Conversely, the reliance on individual marketers decreased from 41% to 34% among agencies surveyed.
This trend underscores the growing complexity and multifaceted nature of email marketing, necessitating diverse skill sets working in synergy. Let’s delve into the specific job roles within each specialization area:
1. Email Strategy and Planning
Professionals in strategy and planning are instrumental in defining how email marketing can best serve a business’s overarching marketing objectives. They lay the groundwork for campaigns and long-term email programs.
Email Marketing Strategists
These experts provide crucial support and consultation to both clients and internal teams. Their role typically involves a blend of strategic thinking (around 60%) and team/client management (around 40%), guiding the overall direction of email initiatives.
Email Marketing Managers
Email Marketing Managers are central to both strategy and the practical execution of campaigns. They contribute to strategic direction, content planning, creative oversight, subscriber acquisition efforts, and compliance adherence. Similar job titles include Email Campaign Manager and Email Project Manager.
2. Client Services
Individuals in client services act as the primary liaison between a client and the email marketing team. They are responsible for communicating strategy, project progress, and campaign results. Client Services professionals adeptly interpret client feedback and translate it into actionable requirements for the team, ensuring projects remain aligned with client expectations.
You’ll typically find client services roles within external agencies and email sending platforms. These professionals often possess a strong grasp of broader digital marketing principles, allowing them to understand how email integrates with a client’s entire marketing ecosystem.
Account Managers
Account Managers oversee daily project operations within an agency, maintaining consistent client contact. They are vital in proposing innovative, forward-thinking ideas and often contribute to strategic planning, ensuring email marketing efforts align with broader marketing and communication channels for a client.
Customer Success Managers (CSMs)
Prevalent in technical companies like Marketing Automation and Email Sending Platforms, CSMs cultivate strong customer relationships to foster retention and loyalty. They often provide valuable technical support for the platform’s products, ensuring clients maximize their investment.
Support Specialists
These roles offer specific technical assistance related to the functionality and usage of an email sending platform, resolving issues and guiding users.
3. Email Design and Development (Production)
The email production team is the engine room of email marketing, directly responsible for creating and coding emails. Team members possess a deep understanding of email-specific design principles and coding best practices.
While smaller teams might rely on a “jack-of-all-trades” who handles multiple aspects, larger organizations allow for greater specialization. Production teams can be found in-house, within external agencies, or as a service offering from an Email Sending Platform (ESP).
Campaign Managers
Campaign Managers manage the day-to-day, hands-on execution of email marketing programs. Their responsibilities include the setup, ongoing maintenance, and performance review of both recurring and triggered email communications. Their role typically breaks down into execution (50%), strategy (30%), development (10%), and analytics (10%).
Digital Designers
Digital Designers are responsible for the visual aesthetics of email and overall campaigns. They merge artistic creativity with technical understanding to craft compelling designs across digital channels, including email, websites, and landing pages. They ensure brand consistency across all digital customer touchpoints, translating marketing requirements into effective visual campaigns.
Email Developers
These specialists handle the development, execution, analysis, and management of email campaigns, covering marketing, transactional, and auto-generated triggers. Email Developers are adept at coding emails to render flawlessly across diverse screen sizes and a multitude of email clients, ensuring a consistent user experience.
Content Marketing Specialists
Content Marketing Specialists create engaging and valuable content for various channels, including email, blogs, and social media. Their work provides compelling reasons for visitors to engage with a brand, with their expertly crafted content forming the backbone of email newsletters and campaigns.
4. Deliverability and Compliance
These highly specialized roles are predominantly found within Email Sending Platforms (ESPs). Deliverability and compliance are foundational pillars for any platform, as shared infrastructures mean the sending practices of all users impact the overall health and reputation of the platform.
Compliance Specialist / Abuse Desk Specialist
These professionals are critical for ensuring emails successfully reach inboxes. Their work includes remediating blacklists, identifying and managing spam traps, collaborating with Internet Service Providers (ISPs) to optimize sending rates, and guiding clients on email sending best practices to maintain a healthy sender reputation.
Deliverability Manager and ISP Relations
Responsible for the platform’s overarching capability to deliver emails, Deliverability Managers maintain strong relationships with ISPs. They monitor email delivery rates, troubleshoot issues, and implement strategies to ensure maximum inbox placement for all users.
5. Platform Innovation and Development
Email Sending Platforms (ESPs) must continually innovate to enhance their functionality and user experience. The Econsultancy’s Email Marketing Industry Census 2017 noted that user-friendly interfaces have become the standard, driving marketers to seek platforms with advanced capabilities.
Email Platform Engineer
Engineers are at the forefront of innovation, expanding and refining an email platform’s capabilities. They develop new integrations, work on Application Programming Interfaces (APIs), and ensure the platform remains robust and scalable.
Email Operations Manager
This role oversees the critical infrastructure of an ESP. Responsibilities include managing technical support, maintaining preference centers, and developing comprehensive reporting mechanisms to track platform performance and user engagement.
Services Arm (Email Production Team Members)
Many ESPs offer a services arm that can include email production team members. These teams provide direct support to clients, helping with email design, development, and campaign setup, depending on the range of services offered.
Celebrating the Email Marketing Community
The vibrant email marketing community is a fantastic resource for professionals at all levels. A special acknowledgment goes to the Women of Email community. Members of this association generously contributed insights to this article by sharing details of their job titles and responsibilities. Women of Email is dedicated to promoting leadership and professional growth among women in the email space, boasting a very active Facebook group with over 2,300 members. Membership is open to women working in email marketing related careers.
For anyone passionate about email design, development, and the technical intricacies of email, the Email Geeks Slack group offers a welcoming space to connect, share knowledge, and collaborate with fellow enthusiasts.
Crafting Your Ideal Email Marketing Team
The vast variation in job titles and descriptions means an email marketing manager in one company might focus on strategy, while in another, they handle hands-on production. Building the perfect team often depends on budget and specific business needs.
For a business owner establishing an email marketing team with a limited budget, prioritizing essential roles is key to achieving measurable success. At a minimum, consider including:
- A Digital Marketing Strategist: An individual with broad digital marketing skills can provide strategic guidance not just for email, but across other digital channels, maximizing overall marketing impact.
- A Campaign Creator: If you must choose between a designer and a developer, consider a developer who also possesses some design skills. Email developers are typically more familiar with the intricacies and rendering challenges of various email clients, which is invaluable for daily campaign management.
If design is a primary concern, here are two strategies to ensure visual consistency and quality:
- Invest in a Professional Template Design: Have your core email templates professionally designed upfront, allowing developers to work efficiently within established guidelines.
- Develop a Style Guide: Implement a comprehensive style guide to ensure consistent branding and visual styling across all email communications, regardless of who is producing them.