Email isn’t dead. It’s just misunderstood.
While brands chase the next big social trend or invest heavily in paid ads, it’s email marketing that quietly drives revenue, builds loyalty, and keeps customers coming back. But to get it right, you need more than a Mailchimp login and a discount code. You need a specialist.
Email marketing specialists sit at the intersection of data, creative, and conversion. They’re not just hitting “send.” They’re segmenting audiences, running lifecycle flows, A/B testing subject lines, and building scalable retention engines.
If you’re serious about growth, hiring a strong email marketing specialist should be a priority. Not an afterthought.
Social media platforms change their algorithms. Paid media costs rise. Attribution gets murky. Email stays consistent. According to Litmus, email generates $36 for every $1 spent. Far more than most other marketing channels.
Done well, it’s not just a sales channel. It’s a brand builder. A community builder. A retention driver.
But here’s the thing: most brands don’t do it well. They send generic newsletters, skip segmentation, or treat email like a broadcast channel. That’s where an email marketing specialist makes a difference.
They:
This isn’t just a “newsletters and promos” role. Here’s what a high-performing specialist typically handles:
They define your email calendar, build flows (like welcome series, abandoned cart, post-purchase), and align email touchpoints with product launches, campaigns, and key ecommerce moments.
From Klaviyo to Braze to Mailchimp, they set up automations, build responsive templates, and maintain clean lists. They also manage deliverability, keeping your emails out of spam.
A strong email marketer doesn’t treat your list as a monolith. They slice it into actionable segments such as VIP customers, lapsed buyers, browse abandoners, so each email feels tailored.
They write subject lines that get opened, CTAs that get clicked, and flows that feel like a conversation, not a campaign.
They track open rates, click-through rates, conversion, revenue per recipient, unsubscribe rate and adjust based on what’s working.
In short: they combine strategic thinking, creative judgment, and hands-on execution. And that mix is hard to find without a specialist lens.
You’re ready to hire an email marketing specialist when:
Whether you’re hiring full-time or fractional, what matters is focus. Dedicated attention to your email engine will almost always produce compounding results.
The best email marketing specialists aren’t just platform-certified. They think in flows and friction.
Here’s what to look for:
Great email marketers don’t “set and forget.” They test constantly, refine relentlessly, and pay attention to every drop-off point.
Do they understand the customer journey, from welcome to churn reactivation? Can they build an email plan that spans that full lifecycle?
Can they handle dynamic tags, ESP integrations, conditional logic, or custom triggers? They don’t need to code but they need to know what’s possible.
Even if you have a copy team, your email hire should be able to write clear, concise, persuasive copy.
They should talk about email in terms of revenue, retention, LTV, and cost savings. Not just “open rates.”
Ask for case studies or portfolio examples with data. What were they trying to improve? How did they do it? What changed?
Hiring for this role means digging beneath the resume. These interview questions help reveal how someone thinks:
This shows if they understand structure, segmentation, content strategy, and optimisation.
A strong candidate will talk about subject lines, send times, layouts, or segmentation logic and what the data told them.
You’ll learn how they handle failure, analyse performance, and iterate.
This reveals whether they rely on basic segments or go deeper using behaviour, purchase frequency, or engagement.
Look for answers like revenue per recipient, conversion rate, and deliverability, not just vanity metrics.
The goal isn’t to quiz them. It’s to understand how they think, solve, and connect email to bigger business goals.
You don’t always need to hire full-time from day one. Many brands start with a fractional or freelance ecommerce specialist. Especially during growth sprints or retention push periods.
Pros of freelance:
Cons:
A full-time hire makes sense when:
Whatever the model, you need someone who treats email as a growth engine. Not a checkbox.
You’ll know your hire is working out when:
It’s not about doing more.it’s about doing it with purpose and precision.
Rates vary by experience, location, and scope.
Freelance:
$60–$150/hour depending on platform expertise and project depth.
Full-time US-based:
If you’re hiring in emerging markets, rates may be lower but always benchmark against local standards and expected output.
Email is one of those “should be simple” channels that rarely is. That’s where we come in.
At Constant Hire, we are ecommerce recruitment experts and we help ecommerce brands build retention-ready teams. From freelance email strategists to full-time lifecycle leads, we’ll help you:
We’ve placed top-tier talent across DTC brands, subscription boxes, marketplaces, and more. We know the difference between someone who can hit send and someone who builds a retention machine.
If email’s on your list, let’s help you hire like it matters.
A great email isn’t magic. It's a method.
When you treat email marketing as a growth function you get compounding returns: higher LTV, stronger customer relationships, and lower reliance on ads.
Hiring a specialist is the start. Finding the right one — that’s where Constant Hire makes the difference.
Let’s make email your secret weapon.
Top talent on your calendar in under 5 days.
