Email Marketing Specialist
The Email Marketing Specialist runs the online store's email program: automated flows, segmentation and repeat sales, plus email deliverability and revenue from email.
What a Email Marketing Specialist does
The Email Marketing Specialist builds and manages the email channel for an online store: welcome and abandoned cart flows, triggered emails, regular newsletters and customer win-back programs. In e-commerce, email often delivers one of the cheapest repeat sales, so this role directly affects revenue and the share of orders that come in without paid advertising.
In high-risk and adjacent verticals, for example e-commerce with bar or nutra offers, the email channel is limited by platform rules, spam filters and requirements for unsubscribes and consent. The Email Marketing Specialist makes sure emails pass filters, avoid the spam folder and do not generate complaints that damage the domain's reputation.
The role usually sits within the CRM or retention department and reports to a CRM Manager or Head of CRM. It works closely with marketers, email designers, copywriters, analysts and developers who set up integrations with the website and order system. In small teams, the Email Marketing Specialist handles all of these tasks alone.
Responsibilities
- Plan the email send calendar and align it with promotions, launches and stock levels
- Set up automated flows: welcome series, abandoned cart, viewed product, post-purchase and reactivation of lapsed customers
- Segment the database by behavior, purchases, average order value and activity
- Write or assign email copy and test subject lines, preheaders and offers through A/B tests
- Check layout and the accuracy of personalization, variables and links before sending
- Monitor deliverability: domain and IP warm-up, SPF, DKIM, DMARC, complaint and unsubscribe rates
- Clean the database of inactive and invalid addresses, and maintain unsubscribe and consent rules
- Analyze campaign results and prepare reports on revenue from email
- Coordinate with development on integrations, events and order data
Skills
- Understanding of the e-commerce funnel and how emails map to purchase stages
- Segmentation and building triggered flows
- Basic HTML/CSS for emails and testing rendering across email clients
- A/B testing and statistical interpretation of results
- Copywriting short, persuasive texts in Russian and English
- Knowledge of consent requirements for email marketing and unsubscribe mechanisms
- Understanding of deliverability principles and the causes of spam placement
- Analytical thinking and working with spreadsheets and data exports
- Communicating with development and design based on a technical brief
Tools
- ESP platform (bulk and triggered email service)
- CDP or event tracking system for website data
- Google Analytics and UTM tagging
- Google Postmaster Tools and deliverability testing tools
- Google Sheets or Excel for exports and segments
- SQL for queries on customer and order data
- Online store CRM or order management platform
How performance is measured
- Share of email revenue in total revenue
- Revenue per recipient (RPR) and revenue per thousand emails
- Open rate and click-through rate, adjusted for changes in email clients
- Conversion from email to order for each flow
- Spam complaint rate and unsubscribe rate
- Deliverability (inbox placement) and bounce rate
By vertical
E-Commerce
In an online store, email mainly drives repeat purchases and average order value: abandoned carts, related product recommendations, replenishment reminders and back-in-stock notifications. The role depends heavily on order and catalog data, so the Email Marketing Specialist works closely with development and the warehouse.
Levels
Specialist
The specialist runs individual flows and regular campaigns based on a ready brief: builds segments, writes and tests emails, and prepares reports. The head of the department makes decisions on database strategy and budgets, while the specialist is responsible for accurate launches and clear results for their own campaigns.
How to get there
Most people move into email marketing from related roles: marketing assistant, content manager, copywriter, support specialist with experience handling customer databases, or a marketer who has run email campaigns in a project. Experience with data and spreadsheets is useful, as is an understanding of how a purchase works in an online store.
To get into the profession, practice with an ESP platform: build a test contact list, set up a simple welcome series and abandoned cart flow, check the layout and send test emails. It is important to learn SPF, DKIM and DMARC, understand deliverability metrics and be able to read reports. A good way to demonstrate your skills is to review someone else's email campaign and suggest improvements with an estimated impact.
Growth usually comes from running individual flows to taking full responsibility for the channel: database strategy, budgets, managing several brands or markets, and leading a team. The key strength is linking email to revenue and showing the channel's contribution to the store's overall performance.
Next steps: Senior Email Marketing Specialist, Email Marketing Manager, CRM Manager, Retention Manager, Head of CRM
FAQ
Who is an Email Marketing Specialist?
This is a specialist responsible for an online store's email campaigns: automated flows, regular emails, database segmentation and revenue from the email channel. They also make sure emails reach the inbox rather than the spam folder.
What does an Email Marketing Specialist do in an online store?
The core work is setting up flows such as the welcome series, abandoned cart and post-purchase emails, launching regular promotional campaigns and testing emails. The role also monitors deliverability, cleans the database and prepares reports on revenue from email.
What skills do you need to become an Email Marketing Specialist?
You need an understanding of the purchase funnel, segmentation skills, basic work with HTML emails and analytical ability. It is useful to know the technical basics of deliverability: SPF, DKIM, DMARC and the causes of spam placement. Being able to write short copy is also important.
Does an Email Marketing Specialist work differently in high-risk verticals?
In e-commerce with restrictions on offers and advertising, email platforms and spam filters are especially strict, so the role requires care with wording and consent. Database errors or complaints can get a domain shut down, so monitoring unsubscribes and list quality is critical.
What determines an Email Marketing Specialist's income?
Income depends on the level of responsibility, the size and quality of the database, the channel's contribution to store revenue, and whether the specialist owns strategy or only execution. Knowledge of data and experience managing several brands also play a role.
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