Email Marketing Manager: Role, Responsibilities, Skills, and Career Path

Email Marketing Manager is undoubtedly one of the most influential positions within any marketing department. This person is accountable for managing the marketing channel that generates the best ROI within digital marketing, as well as many other aspects such as strategy, automation, copywriting, delivery, and reporting.

If you are thinking of becoming an Email Marketing Manager or need to find one, this guide will help you learn all you should know about the role.

Table of Contents

What Is an Email Marketing Manager?

The email marketing manager creates and implements the email marketing strategy of the company. He is involved in every stage of the email marketing process, including building a subscription list and analyzing the effectiveness of the campaigns.

While the email marketing specialist is the person who implements the tasks, the email marketing manager is the one who develops the strategy.

Core Responsibilities of an Email Marketing Manager

Strategy and Planning

Create overall email marketing strategy consistent with the business objective
Create the email content calendar
Create the strategy for audience segmentation
Create KPIs/performance metrics for email marketing

Campaign Management

Coordinate the development, testing, and launch of all email campaigns
Collaborate with copywriters, designers, and content team
Approve email campaigns
Maintain brand integrity in emails

Automation and Lifecycle Marketing

Construct and optimize automated email campaigns (welcome series, abandoned cart, reengagement, after purchase)
Chart the customer journey to determine areas for automation
Regularly audit automated email campaigns for effectiveness

List Management

Implement list-building strategies
Keep your list clean (unsubscribe inactive users, respect unsubscribes)
Create and manage segmentation and tagging systems
Stay compliant with CAN-SPAM, GDPR, and CASL

Performance Analysis

Monitor and analyze key email marketing metrics (open rate, click-through rate, conversion rate, revenue per email)
Conduct A/B testing on subject lines, emails, and sending time
Provide data-driven advice and insights
Present outcomes to senior management

Deliverability

Track sender reputation and delivery rates
Control authentication settings (SPF, DKIM, DMARC)
Control feedback loop sign-up and spam complaints tracking

Skills Every Email Marketing Manager Needs

Technical Skills

Extremely high expertise in at least one of the major ESPs (Mailchimp, Klaviyo, Hubspot, Salesforce Marketing Cloud, Braze)
HTML/CSS coding
Marketing automation logic & workflow creation
Data analysis & reporting
Knowledge about basics of email deliverability
CRM integration knowledge

Marketing Skills

Copywriting: Writing strong subject lines and emails
A/B testing process
Segmentation and personalization of customers
Principles of funnel and lifecycle marketing

Leadership and Communication

Managing multiple projects at once
Collaboration across departments (design, product, data, sales)
Reporting and presenting information to key people
Managing the team (for managers who lead specialists)

Email Marketing Manager vs. Email Marketing Specialist

It is critical when you are forming a team or designing your career path.

Email Marketing Specialist

Campaign execution
Email building using the ESP
Metrics monitoring
0-3 years of experience expected
Supervised by the manager

Email Marketing Manager

Strategy setting
Result ownership
Decision making on tools usage, segmentation, and automation
3-7+ years of experience expected
Can lead an email marketing team

Email Marketing Manager Salary

Salaries can be quite different from one another depending on the field, firm, and place.

United States Averages

Entry-level Email Marketing Manager: $55,000–$75,000
Mid-level Email Marketing Manager: $75,000–$100,000
Senior Email Marketing Manager: $100,000–$135,000
Director of Email Marketing: $120,000–$170,000+

Highest-Paying Industries for Email Managers

E-commerce and direct-to-consumer brands
Software as a service companies
Financial services
Enterprise software technology

Remote positions typically earn comparable salaries to the large metropolitan area office positions.

Career Path for Email Marketing Managers

Most email marketing managers will have one of the following career paths:

Path 1

Specialist → Manager → Senior Manager → Director of CRM/Email → Vice President of Marketing

Path 2

Specialist → Manager → Consultant or Agency Lead

Path 3

Manager → Product Marketing → Marketing Operations → VP/CMO

As an Email Marketing Manager, one can develop many transferable skills in the areas of Data Analysis, Automation, Copywriting, and Customer Lifecycle Strategy.

How to Become an Email Marketing Manager

For those who are at the beginning stages of their careers and want to become an email manager, here is the path for them:

1. Start in an Email Specialist Role (or Adjacent Marketing Role)

One has to have practical experience in doing email campaigns before being able to manage them strategically. Usually, it takes about 2–3 years of experience in this field.

2. Get Certified

HubSpot Email Marketing Certification (free)
Klaviyo Product Certifications
Mailchimp Academy
Salesforce Marketing Cloud Email Specialist Certification

3. Build Expertise in Automation

The biggest requirement from email managers today is marketing automation. Learn the logic, construct flows, and track the results.

4. Develop Your Copywriting Skills

Even though later on you will have copywriters under your command, an email manager who knows how to create persuasive emails instantly gains credibility.

5. Learn to Read and Present Data

Email managers are evaluated by results. Get used to metrics, attribution, and constructing reports understandable to non-marketers.

How to Hire an Email Marketing Manager

This is what to look for in a marketing person:

Must-Haves

Track record of successfully managing email campaigns with visible results
Familiarity with your email marketing platform (or the ability to learn it fast)
Solid knowledge about segmentation and automation
Numbers-driven, should always start with numbers when talking about their achievements

Nice-to-Haves

Industry experience or experience working with similar audience
HTML knowledge for templates editing
Team management experience
Multi-channel marketing experience

Interview Questions to Ask

“Tell me about an email program you’ve created or substantially enhanced. How did the metrics compare pre and post improvements?”
“What drives your decision-making regarding what to A/B test and in what order of priority?”
“Can you talk about an instance where you identified and solved an issue with deliverability?”
“How do you keep up-to-date with current best practices and platform changes in email marketing?”

Final Thoughts

Email marketing manager is a job function that combines data, innovation, and strategy. It is one of the most valuable jobs in marketing, since the channel under their purview out-performs all others in terms of ROI.

Building a career or a team as an email marketing manager is one of the best investments you can make in digital marketing.