What Is an Email Marketing Manager? How to Become One, Salary, Skills.

Email marketing managers direct all activities of an email marketing campaign, from message curation to hitting send. Here’s what to know about an email marketing manager’s needed skills, salary and how to become one.

What Is an Email Marketing Manager?

Email marketing managers lead the planning, development and execution of a company’s email marketing strategy. They play an important role in understanding potential customers as well as increasing user conversion rates and revenue.

What Do Email Marketing Managers Do?

Email marketing managers decide email marketing content, analyze email campaign performance and determine customer needs.

Email Marketing Manager Responsibilities

• Research brand demographics and identify key audiences.
• Design email marketing campaigns based on audience analysis.
• Choose and organize included email content.
• Use email segmentation to send curated content to specific audiences.
• Conduct analysis on campaign performance and make necessary adjustments.

Day-to-Day Responsibilities of Email Marketing Managers

• Ensure email formatting, spelling and send times are accurate to industry best practices.
• Create email databases to store contacts and conduct customer lead analysis.
• Edit email templates for desktop and mobile use.
• Set up automated email sequences and schedules.
• Track conversion rates and related revenue from campaigns.

Email Marketing Managers Within a Company

Email marketing managers are usually part of a marketing team within a company. They may report to a digital marketing manager or a digital marketing director.

Importance of Email Marketing Managers

Effective email marketing helps companies build and maintain relationships with potential and existing customers. It’s also a way to promote sales and special events, as well as keep audiences up to date on what the company is up to. Email marketing managers ensure these email campaigns perform as intended.

What Skills Are Needed to Be an Email Marketing Manager?

Qualifications to Be an Email Marketing Manager

• Two or more years of experience in email marketing, digital marketing or similar roles.
• Ability to implement lead nurturing strategies and cultivate customer relationships.
• Ability to conduct and apply web analytics.
• Proficiency in copywriting for digital content.

Email Marketing Manager Prerequisites

• Bachelor’s degree in marketing, communications or a similar field.
• Experience and/or certifications related to email marketing software.

Email Marketing Manager Hard Skills

• Knowledge of email marketing automation tools.
• Familiarity with email list management tools.
• Experience with HTML, CSS and content management systems.
• Expertise with web and user analytics tools.

Email Marketing Manager Soft Skills

• Leadership skills.
• Problem solving skills.
• Project management skills.
• Verbal and written communication skills.

Tools and Programs Email Marketing Managers Use

• ActiveCampaign
• Campaign Monitor 
• Constant Contact
• CSS
• Drip
• HTML
• HubSpot
• Mailchimp 
• Omnisend
• Zoho Campaigns

How to Become an Email Marketing Manager

Email Marketing Manager Education and Experience

Email marketing managers typically earn a bachelor’s degree in marketing, communications or a similar field.

Email marketing managers will also need to obtain two or more years of experience in email marketing, digital marketing or similar roles. Knowledge in the areas of email marketing best practices, marketing campaign design, lead nurturing strategies, web and user analytics, SEO and copywriting as well as project management are recommended. 

Email Marketing Manager Certificates and Courses

• 20 Content Marketing Courses & Webinars to Know
• Digital Marketing Accelerator
• Digital Marketing Masterclass - 23 Marketing Courses in 1
• Marketing Analytics: Stand Out by Becoming an Analytics Pro!

Email Marketing Manager Career Path

Before becoming an email marketing manager, professionals may start their career as an email marketing specialist, digital marketing specialist or similar role. After experience as an email marketing manager, professionals can move into eventual roles like digital marketing manager, marketing director or chief marketing officer (CMO).

Email Marketing Manager Salary and Job Outlook

Email marketing managers are expecting future job growth, with marketing manager roles to increase 10 percent by 2031.

The full compensation package for an email marketing manager depends on a variety of factors, including but not limited to the candidate’s experience and geographic location. See below for detailed information on the average email marketing manager salary.