Career guide
Email Marketing Manager and Specialist: Job Description and How to Get the Job
An email marketing specialist builds, tests and sends a company's emails; an email marketing manager owns the email program's strategy, calendar and results. Both work on the same channel, but the manager answers for the revenue, retention and list health the program produces.
Key takeaways
- An email marketing specialist builds, tests and sends a company's emails, while an email marketing manager owns the program's strategy, calendar and results.
- Email marketing managers are measured on the revenue, retention and list health their program produces.
- Email platform skills, segmentation, testing and deliverability are the core skills to show on an email marketing resume.
- Many email marketers start as specialists or coordinators who send campaigns, then move up by owning a program and its numbers.
- Email marketing sits close to CRM and lifecycle marketing, so experience in one transfers well to the others.
Download all 2 templates (Word) Opens in Google Docs too.
The two titles cover the same channel at different depths, so this page has a job description for each. If a posting adds push, SMS and loyalty to email, it’s closer to a CRM manager job; if it’s mostly onboarding and activation for an app, look at lifecycle marketing manager.
What does an email marketing manager do?
An email marketing manager decides what the company sends, to whom and how often, and answers for what it earns. A specialist does much of the building and sending; at smaller companies one person does both.
A typical week for a manager:
- Planning the send calendar around promotions, launches and content.
- Writing briefs for copy and design, or writing the copy themselves.
- Reviewing the automated flows: welcome, abandoned cart, post-purchase, re-engagement.
- Reading results by campaign and by segment, then deciding what to change.
- Watching list health and deliverability: bounces, complaints, unsubscribes, inbox placement.
- Planning tests on subject lines, offers, send time and content.
- Reporting revenue or pipeline from email to the marketing lead.
A typical week for a specialist:
- Building emails in the platform from approved copy and design, often in HTML or a drag-and-drop editor.
- Setting up audiences and segments for each send.
- Testing rendering across devices and email clients, checking links and personalization.
- Scheduling and sending, then pulling the results.
- Keeping the list clean: suppressions, imports, preference updates.
Email marketing manager job description
Below are two templates, one for each level. Copy the one that fits and replace the [brackets].
Job title: Email Marketing Manager About [Company] [Two sentences: what you sell, to whom, and how email fits: main revenue channel, nurture for sales, retention.] About the role We're hiring an Email Marketing Manager to own our email program, from strategy to results. You'll plan the calendar, run our automated flows, grow and protect our list, and be measured on [email revenue / pipeline / retention]. You'll report to [title] and manage [a specialist / an agency / no one yet]. What you'll do - Own the email strategy and calendar for [audiences: customers, prospects, members]. - Build and improve automated flows: welcome, [abandoned cart, post-purchase, nurture, re-engagement]. - Grow the list through [sign-up forms, offers, events] and keep it healthy. - Write or brief all email copy and design and approve every send. - Run a testing plan and share what we learn. - Monitor deliverability and authentication with [IT / the platform]. - Report on revenue, conversions, list growth and unsubscribe and complaint rates. What you'll bring - [X]+ years in email or CRM marketing, including owning a program. - Hands-on experience with [Klaviyo / Braze / Salesforce Marketing Cloud / HubSpot / Mailchimp]. - Strong writing and an eye for what gets clicked. - Working knowledge of deliverability, CAN-SPAM and consent. - Comfort with spreadsheets and reporting; [SQL or HTML is a plus]. Pay and benefits [Salary range], [benefits], [location / hybrid / remote].
Job title: Email Marketing Specialist About the role We're hiring an Email Marketing Specialist to build, test and send our emails. You'll work with [the email manager / the marketing team] to get every campaign out on time, correct and on brand. What you'll do - Build campaigns and flows in [platform] from approved copy and design. - Set up audiences and personalization for each send. - QA every email: rendering, links, personalization, mobile. - Schedule sends and report results each week. - Maintain the list: imports, suppressions, preferences. - Help set up A/B tests and track the results. What you'll bring - [0-2]+ years of email, ecommerce or marketing experience, or a portfolio of emails you've built. - Experience with [platform] or a similar tool. - Basic HTML and CSS for email. - Close attention to detail. Pay and benefits [Salary range], [benefits], [location / hybrid / remote].
Skills and tools
The specialist’s skills are about building correctly; the manager’s are about choosing well and proving it worked. Both need the basics of deliverability.
| Skill or tool | What it’s used for | How to show it on a resume |
|---|---|---|
| Email platforms | Klaviyo, Braze, Salesforce Marketing Cloud, HubSpot, Mailchimp, Iterable | Name the platform and what you built in it |
| HTML and CSS for email | Building templates that render in every inbox | “Built [X] modular templates used for all campaigns” |
| Copywriting | Subject lines, preview text, body copy | A subject line test and its result |
| Segmentation and personalization | Sending the right email to the right person | “Split [list] by [behavior], lifting click rate [X]%” |
| Automation | Welcome, cart, nurture and re-engagement flows | The flow you built and what it earns or converts |
| A/B testing | Improving results one variable at a time | One test, the variable and the outcome |
| Deliverability | Staying out of spam folders | “Set up [SPF/DKIM/DMARC]” or “cut bounces by cleaning [list]” |
| Reporting | Revenue, conversions, list growth | A weekly report you owned and who used it |
Gmail tightened its rules for bulk senders in 2024. Its email sender guidelines require bulk senders to authenticate with SPF, DKIM and DMARC, offer one-click unsubscribe on marketing email and keep reported spam low. Knowing these well is an easy way to stand out in an interview.
On the legal side, the FTC’s CAN-SPAM compliance guide covers US commercial email: honest headers and subject lines, a valid postal address, a clear way to opt out, and honoring opt-outs within 10 business days. Free certifications from HubSpot Academy and paid ones like Salesforce’s Marketing Cloud Engagement Specialist can help when you have little on-the-job experience.
How to become an email marketing manager
Most email managers start as specialists or coordinators who took over the email tool and got good at it. Here’s the usual route.
- Start building emails. A specialist role, an ecommerce coordinator job or the newsletter for any organization teaches you the platform and the QA habits.
- Learn enough HTML to fix a broken template. You don’t need to code from scratch, but you need to know why an email looks wrong in Outlook.
- Own a flow. Ask to take over the welcome series or abandoned cart flow, improve it and measure the change.
- Start writing up tests. Keep a simple log: hypothesis, variable, result, decision. It becomes your interview material.
- Talk about revenue and retention. The move to manager comes when you report what email earned, not what it sent.
Without the title, run email for a small online shop, a creator or a nonprofit; build a sample welcome series in a free platform account; or redesign three real emails you receive and explain your changes. A short portfolio of before-and-after emails works well, and you can start it today with the next promotional email in your inbox. Our marketing portfolio guide covers how to present it.
Career path
Email is a common starting point for CRM, lifecycle and automation careers.
- Before: marketing coordinator, ecommerce coordinator, marketing assistant, email production or email developer.
- Email marketing specialist, then email marketing manager.
- After: senior email manager, CRM manager, lifecycle marketing manager, head of CRM or retention, director of lifecycle.
- Sideways: marketing automation specialist or marketing operations if you enjoy the systems more than the messages.
How much does an email marketing manager make?
The US Bureau of Labor Statistics doesn’t publish a separate figure for email marketing roles. Specialists fall in the group BLS calls market research analysts and marketing specialists, shown on our marketing specialist salary page. Managers who own a program and a team are closer to the marketing manager salary figures.
Interview questions to expect
Email interviews mix craft questions with questions about judgment and measurement. Expect questions like these:
- "Walk me through how you build and QA a campaign." Tests process and attention to detail (specialist roles especially).
- "Tell me about a test you ran and what you did with the result." Tests whether you test to learn, not to tick a box.
- "Our open rate dropped this month. What do you check?" Tests diagnosis, and whether you know open rates became less reliable after Apple’s Mail Privacy Protection.
- "How do you decide how often to email someone?" Tests your view on frequency, fatigue and list health.
- "An email just went to the whole list with a broken link. What do you do?" Tests calm under pressure: fix the link at the source if the platform allows it, decide whether a correction is worth another send, and add the QA step that would have caught it.
- "What would you change about our emails?" Tests whether you signed up and read them before the interview. Do that.
- "How do you keep a list healthy?" Tests deliverability knowledge: authentication, sunsetting inactive subscribers, consent.
Sample answers are on our email and CRM interview questions page. Borrow their structure, not their wording: talk through your own flows and tests the way you’d explain them to a teammate, and let your enthusiasm for the details show.
Get your resume ready for an email role
Email postings name specific platforms and programs, and the match matters. Recon compares the posting with your resume and suggests rewrites that bring your closest experience forward, using only facts already on your resume.
FAQ
What’s the difference between an email marketing specialist and an email marketing manager?
A specialist builds, QAs and sends emails and reports results. A manager owns the strategy, calendar and results of the whole program, and often manages the specialist or an agency.
Do email marketers need to know HTML?
Specialists usually do, at least enough to edit templates and fix rendering problems. Managers need to understand it well enough to review work and spot problems, even if they rarely code.
Is email marketing a good career?
It’s a solid one with clear routes into CRM, lifecycle, automation and broader marketing leadership. The results are measurable, which makes your impact easy to show on a resume.
What does an email marketer’s resume need?
The platforms you’ve used, the flows and programs you owned, and results tied to revenue, conversions or retention. Our marketing resume guide has examples of strong lines.
Can email marketing managers work remotely?
Often, yes. Email work runs through an email platform, a design tool and analytics, so many email and CRM roles are remote or hybrid. Our remote marketing jobs guide covers where to look.
What do email marketing manager interviews ask?
Expect questions about a campaign or flow you built and its results, how you’d segment a list, how you handle deliverability problems and how you’d test a subject line. Our email marketing interview questions page has the common ones with example answers.