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How to Become a Email Marketer

The advances in technology and techniques during the digital era have taken marketing to new heights. Email marketing efforts have become an essential tool for businesses of all sizes to capitalize on. With tools like Google Analytics, email automation, and Constant Contact, learning new email marketing tips to improve campaign performance is easier than ever. 

An email marketer must have an in-depth understanding and even appreciation for the nuances that come with successful campaigns, research, and initiatives. The last thing you want is for your promotional content to end up in someone’s spam folder. Read our guide to find out how to become an email marketer. 

What Is an Email Marketer?

Email marketers are the masterminds behind attention-grabbing campaigns that are focused on click-through rates and conversions. This job is about more than creating email lists and sending marketing emails. Email marketing campaigns are what connects the company to its clients, converts potential leads, and builds the brand image on a massive scale. 

They’re the experts at using email personalization to make mass email messages feel like they’re being sent to each person individually. Business owners rely on email marketing to increase their click-through rate. Most people have an email address, so the email marketing platform has become an important channel for ambitious marketers. 

Email Marketer Job Description

An email marketer specializes in digital marketing, which involves more than putting together eye-catching promotional emails. They focus on maintaining, reviewing, and contacting various contact lists. In addition, they develop campaign strategies based on research, feedback, and statistics. They also generate leads and nurture initiatives that drive sales and communication. 

Email Marketer Salary and Job Outlook

According to PayScale, the average salary of an email marketing specialist is about $54,000.  An entry-level email marketer with one year of experience can expect to earn about $45,000 a year with a late-career projection salary of about $62,400. The Bureau of Labor Statistics (BLS) lists a job growth percentage of about 10 percent for similar jobs in the coming years. 

Top Reasons to Become an Email Marketer in 2021

No matter how automated a company may make its email campaigns, email marketers need to be creative, people-driven, and adaptable. They have to be able to create customer loyalty to increase sales. Below are some of the top reasons to become an email marketer in 2021.

  • Career Path Openings. Email marketing is a gateway to several career paths, providing you with the skills needed in many different positions. One of the most common positions email marketers choose to pursue is a marketing specialist, but you can also work as an account manager, sales director, or digital marketing coordinator.
  • Enhance Multiple Skills. Just as email marketing opens up many different career path opportunities, it also provides the chance to learn a wide variety of new skills. Customer relations, statistical analysis, lead generation and nurturing, and even database structure are all examples of skills you can hone as an email marketer.
  • Creative Outlet. The best candidate for an email marketing position is someone who is driven by creativity and change. This is a position that relies on constant improvement and feedback, so you’ll be surrounded by ever-changing projects and opportunities for improvement.

Email Marketer Job Requirements

Depending on your company’s budget and needs, your duties can vary. Below are some of the most common requirements employers will expect from a potential email marketer.

  • Experience. Employers will expect a candidate to have experience in a marketing, business, or communications position. Previous work, including marketing campaigns, graphic design, and customer relations, is crucial.
  • Digital Media. It’s beneficial if you have experience in email campaign creation, social media marketing, or digital content creation.
  • Communication. Quality communication skills are a non-negotiable requirement for email marketers. This includes customer relations, handling support and feedback, team and internal staff communication, and occasionally an understanding of Business-to-business (B2B) negotiations and discussions.
  • Database and automation management. Your prospective company will most likely use software that logs their potential, current, and past clientele information. Additionally, automation software is becoming more widely used to schedule, monitor, and develop marketing campaigns.

Types of Email Marketer Careers

Email marketing opens potential doors for a variety of career paths. Whether you’re looking to take your designs to the next level or work more closely with your customer base, you have the opportunity to practice those skills as an email marketing specialist. We’ve listed some of the more common email marketing careers below. 

Digital Marketer

While email is still a significant player in any digital campaign, there are many other outlets to capitalize on. With the ever-growing presence of social media, web development, and technological advancements in automation software, you have the opportunity to perfect your skills in each of these channels.

CRM Manager

Being directly involved with your audience is a major factor in email marketing and developing effective campaigns. Many email marketing specialists find they have a deep interest in customer relations, building off of feedback, supporting new initiatives, and developing content and campaigns that appeal to targeted groups.

Social Media Marketer

Social media marketers are more important now than traditional email marketers. While many of the skills of social media marketers and email marketers overlap, social media marketing requires more monitoring of social media channels and varied communication tactics. Instead of only sending emails, you may be posting on sites like Facebook, Twitter, and Instagram.

Email Marketer Meaning: What Does an Email Marketer Do?

Tasks, projects, and control over campaigns will vary depending on your company, team size, available resources, and types of email campaigns. Below are some of the most common tasks and projects you’ll be responsible for as an email marketer.

Develop, Design, and Schedule Emails

An email marketer is responsible for the creation of effective email campaigns. As such, it’s your job to design email marketing templates and layouts, enhancing them through consumer feedback and A/B testing. You’ll be able to determine the best times and days to send out campaigns based on database research and your campaign statistics.

Maintain Email Database

Whether you're using automation services like MailChimp or Zoho, maintaining email databases requires more than just adding new leads to the list. You'll need to regularly purge, update, and review your database. Not only does this help you get rid of unwanted emails like duplicates or bots, but it can also allow you to look into email campaigns for related groups.

Create and Contribute to Campaigns

On the subject of campaigns, email marketers are significant figures in the development and execution of effective marketing campaigns. Whether you’re developing new email initiatives for you and your team, or you’re a part of a larger marketing project, you’ll be expected to contribute research and content for a successful and insightful initiative.

Essential Email Marketer Skills

Marketing Campaigns

As an email marketer, you’re typically not going to be given a campaign agenda and be asked to write something similar. Instead, you and your team will be directly involved in the research and statistical analysis to develop a comprehensive initiative that reaches its goal. You’ll study email marketing analytics to develop future campaigns that maintain an engaged audience. 

As a digital specialist, you’ll be responsible for providing quality insight and guidance on the best way to reach your audience through email marketing. You’ll be prioritizing click-through rates, lead generation, and connectivity. The success of a company often depends on marketing campaigns, and you’ll have a lot to contribute as an email marketer. 

A/B Testing

Email marketers need to be able to effectively use A/B testing research and results. By making small adjustments in a campaign, your team can discover consumer interests that may have previously flown under your radar. 

While A/B testing can be as simple as changing text on a button or adjusting the layout of an email, this information is what fuels your development process and gives you a better understanding of your clientele's needs and preferences. You can have a huge impact on your company’s response rates simply by tweaking your email templates. 

Graphic Design

While you'll most likely have a graphic designer that separately works on company branding, it's important to have your own understanding and proficiency in graphic design. Whether it's developing infographics, digital media, or visual layout improvements, your expertise with graphic design can be what puts you ahead of other candidates. 

How Long Does It Take to Become an Email Marketer?

It depends on how quickly you can pick up new skills, capitalize on trends, and adapt to ever-changing email marketing tools. Becoming an email marketer doesn’t need to take years of studying to earn a college degree or train for certification exams. As long as you can create compelling content with an attention-grabbing subject line, you’ll be great in this position. 

Can a Coding Bootcamp Help Me Become an Email Marketer?

Yes. There are bootcamps for digital marketing, and a coding bootcamp can contribute to your skills as an effective email marketer. Providing necessary training on social media, SEO, ad campaigns, and, yes, even coding. Having an understanding of certain coding languages and data science can place you above the competition.

Can I Become an Email Marketer From Home?

Yes. Not only is it an easily adjustable work-from-home position, but there are also online courses and tutoring to help you expand your digital marketing skills. You can choose from any number of at-home training programs to help you become an expert in things like email marketing automation and digital communication. 

Whether you're looking to be a freelance email marketing specialist or lock in a long-term job at an industry-leading company, there are several online resources that can help you become an email marketer from home. We’ve laid out the process for you below. 

How to Become an Email Marketer: A Step-by-Step Guide

It's important to have the right guide to become the most efficient and qualified candidate. Follow this step-by-step guide to get on the right track.

Step 1: Prepare Your Skillset

Unfortunately, email marketing is not as simple as writing a politely worded letter and sending it out to thousands of potential clients, current customers, and internal staff. Instead, you need to develop and improve the essential skills needed to become successful in digital marketing. 

Step 2: Get the Proper Certifications

While it's not impossible to find an email marketing position without a degree, it can be difficult to move up the career ladder. Typically, companies will require at least a Bachelor's Degree in Marketing, Business, Communications, or a similar field. However, attending courses at coding bootcamps can help you present the fortified background needed for the position.

Step 3: Plan Your Career Path

Your marketing journey doesn't necessarily start and end as an email marketer. As previously mentioned, this position can take you down several paths, depending on which of your skills you most enjoy expanding on. It's important to have a general idea of the future, set an email marketing goal, and realistically gauge your time with a company.

Step 4: Build Solid Relationships

As an email marketing specialist, it’s crucial to stay on top of market trends, digital advancements, and new research opportunities. Developing a wide network of colleagues, mentors, and friends gives you the ability to increase job opportunities, stay updated on trends and flops, and develop a support system that can provide quality feedback.

Step 5: Keep Moving Forward

Whether you’re looking to get ahead in your career, develop a new and improved technique, or absorb as much knowledge as you can on the subject, there will always be something new to challenge you. It’s important to always look for the next skill to learn and improve upon.

Best Schools and Education for an Email Marketer Career

Email marketing is a widely used and effective technique to promote a product or service. This digital marketing strategy casts a wide net around important market segments for companies. Taking a specialized course in email marketing is possible with a degree in digital marketing.

Being a good email marketer requires preparation, precision, and the intention to learn. In this discipline, you will rely on market analysis and studies to carry out your duties. See below which educational centers can help you in your professional preparation.

Email Marketer Bootcamps

The objective of these bootcamps is to improve relationships with potential clients and manage the traffic of messages related to the marketing of products and services. In addition, you will learn to gain visibility in the market even faster than with social media. You can link the emails with your social networks to generate more engagement in the user community.

The duration of these programs ranges from 12 to 24 weeks. At bootcamps such as General Assembly, BrainStation, or Skillcrush, you can learn to do marketing research, advertising projects, and use information technology tools. With this learning, you can optimize your relationship with customers.

Community College

A community college program lasts approximately two years. At these institutions, you can earn an Associate Degree in Marketing that will easily land you a job as an email marketer. Some schools teach email marketing with a special focus on branding, social media, data research, and copywriting.

Email Marketer Degrees

Instead of pursuing a degree specifically in email marketing, you're more likely to graduate with a Bachelor's or Associate Degree in Marketing, Business, Communications, or a similar field. Your primary skillset will revolve around digital marketing and social media technical skills. 

The Most Important Email Marketer Certifications

You don’t necessarily need to have marketing certifications to secure a position as an email marketer. However, here are a few certifications that can help you stand out and improve your skillset. If you want to be a certified email marketer, check out these three options. 

Email Marketing Certification Course | HubSpot Academy

With this certification, you will become an email marketer with a broad command of customer relationship management (CRM) systems and customer service tools, and you will know how to promote products and services. This course provides an academic load of nine lessons, 28 videos, nine quizzes, and a total of three hours of content.

Email Strategy and Optimization Course | LinkedIn Learning

LinkedIn offers this course to teach you how to optimize the content you write in emails. The effect of a good email marketing strategy is to improve the quality of the message so that the target audience responds with the intention to purchase.

Email Marketing Basics | Google Digital Garage

Google Digital Garage is a very prestigious accreditation that consists of a digital library on any subject of digital marketing. Its study program provides 30-minute content on valuable tips for email marketing. You’ll learn how to design email content to avoid spam filters and increase a company’s return on investment. 

How to Prepare for Your Email Marketer Job Interview

Course credentials will increase the credibility of your marketing skills. However, having strong communication skills will ultimately help you the most during the interview process. Be ready to raise proposals and ideas during your interviews. To help your performance, pay attention and take note of the practice questions below.

Email Marketer Job Interview Practice Questions

  • Why do you want to work in this company?
  • How many clients do you think you're capable of contacting by email in a day?
  • What would be the main structure of your emails during a marketing campaign?
  • How many campaigns have you helped to succeed with your marketing strategies?

Should I Become an Email Marketer in 2021?

Yes. Having this specialization in digital marketing will make you a very valuable professional for companies. In addition, you can make a decent salary in this field. According to Glassdoor, an email marketing specialist earns an average salary of $108,159 per year

Another reason to delve into email marketing is all of the related skills you will learn while working as an email marketer. Your professional profile will grow, and you will easily promote within the company.

FAQ

Can You Become an Email Marketer Without a Degree?
Yes. There are specialized courses with exclusive email marketing certifications. There are also digital marketing bootcamps that can help you gain the necessary skills.
Is It Hard to Become an Email Marketer?
No. However, you need to have the appropriate educational and professional background and you need to be able to present a portfolio showcasing your success.
Should I Use HTML or Plain Text-Based Emails to do the Work?
It all depends on the visual standards required for your project. Try applying both methods and discover which of the two is more effective in transmitting the campaign's message.
Where Do Email Marketers Work?
According to the BLS, 49 percent of marketers work in the advertising, public relations, and related services sectors. In the specific case of email marketers, they perform their functions in digital media campaigns. They perform market research and target customers through websites, social media, and live chats.
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