• by April Mullen , Columnist, March 16, 2016

A former client turned friend once told me, “I don’t believe in luck. Hard work, good decisions and passion are the contributors to success.” I’ve thought a lot about this sentiment over the years and firmly agree.

Because marketing today is harder than it has ever been, every now and then I love to dedicate a piece to all the email marketers out there working tirelessly to drive revenue for their organizations.

Here are some of the skills you’ve probably proven to master, showing how you’ve earned your place as a digital success story:

You know the customer. I would argue that no one on the marketing roster understands the customer better than the email marketer. As a resource that leverages first-party data, you have a keen definition of your customer segments and the rules that determine what segment a customer falls into.  You never speak in generics, but in specifics.

You are left- and right-brained. To plan, produce and send one email campaign, an email marketer is making right-brained decisions such as creative and content. On the left side, you are putting on your technical, analytical hat to code the emails and report on the results post-send. I’m oversimplifying the process required to get an email out the door, but there are a lot of different skills at work here that require an email marketer not just to be creative, but to also be strong from a technical and analytical standpoint.

You are a natural educator. In every role I’ve ever had as an email marketer, I’ve been a teacher to others at all levels of the organization. Ever had a colleague with a campaign idea that was sure to get your program hurt from a deliverability standpoint?  You probably had to explain how deliverability works and why the campaign didn't make sense.  Have your colleagues ever needed an explanation on what certain metrics mean?  You probably took the time to explain the trends and why they were good or bad.

These are teaching moments where you have the chance to shine and educate others around you—from your level all the way up to the C-Suite.

You can form a fierce argument while also being diplomatic. Speaking of those teaching moments, you know when to push back while maintaining respect among your internal clients. When you see disaster ahead, you know how to prevent potential pain, even if it means saying, “Let’s test that” and carving out the problematic idea into a small subset of your email send to prevent disaster—while honoring the idea and giving it a legitimate chance as a learning opportunity.

You are a comfortable presenter. I have not met many email marketing leaders who lack skills in putting together a killer presentation.  If you have mastered how to tell the story of how your program is driving value for your organization, you have positioned yourself well to move up within your organization and receive the recognition you deserve from your peers and leadership.

On this St. Patrick’s Day, I won’t say “You’re lucky” for working in such an exciting field.  You have earned your place in driving marketing success, and for that I’ll say “You’ve earned it!”

What are some other skills that email marketers have?  Let’s celebrate you by posting in the comments!