What Does an Email Marketing Strategist Do?
An email marketing strategist helps you create a clear plan for how email supports your bigger business goals. Because "send a newsletter every week" isn't much of a strategy is it?
Instead of sending newsletters to "stay in touch" with your audience or only emailing your list when you have something to sell, you have a strategy behind what you're sending and why.
As a female founder, it's easy for email marketing to become another thing on your never-ending to-do list. You know you should be emailing your audience regularly, nurturing new subscribers, and making better use of your list, but figuring out what to send, when to send it, and how it all fits together takes time and strategy.
That's where an email marketing strategist can help. We give your email marketing a clear direction based on your audience, offers, and business goals, so every email has a reason for landing in someone's inbox.
In this article, you’ll learn…
What an email marketing strategist does
How an email marketing strategist differs from an email copywriter
How to know when it might be time to hire one
What it's like to work with an email marketing strategist
What factors affect the cost of hiring an email marketing strategist
What you can realistically expect from your investment
What Does an Email Marketing Strategist Do?
An email marketing strategist figures out how to use email to help you reach your business goals. We look at what you're already doing, what's missing, and where email could be working harder for your business.
Depending on what you need, that could include:
Creating your email marketing strategy: We look at your audience, offers, goals, and current email marketing to figure out what you need and what to prioritize first.
Planning your email marketing content strategy: We help you decide what to talk about in your newsletters, how often to email your audience, and how to balance nurturing your subscribers with promoting your offers.
Planning your funnels and automations: We figure out which emails should happen automatically, such as welcome sequences, lead magnet delivery emails, nurture sequences, sales sequences, and client or customer follow-up.
Planning promotional campaigns: We map out the emails you'll send around a launch, promotion, or offer, including what your audience needs to hear before they're ready to buy.
Reviewing what's working: We look at results like clicks, conversions, unsubscribes, and list growth to see what's resonating with your audience and what we should test or change.
The exact strategy will look different for every business. You don't necessarily need more emails or a more complicated funnel. You need to know which pieces make sense for your business and what deserves your attention first.
What’s the Difference Between an Email Marketing Strategist and an Email Copywriter?
An email marketing strategist determines what emails you need and why, while an email copywriter focuses on what those emails say.
| Email marketing strategist | Email copywriter | |
|---|---|---|
| Main focus | Decides what emails you need and why | Writes the emails |
| Planning | Plans content, campaigns, funnels, and automations | Uses the strategy to guide the copy |
| Key questions | What should we send? Who should receive it? When should we send it? | What should we say? How do we get the reader to take action? |
| Goal | Makes sure your emails have a clear purpose | Makes sure your emails connect with your audience and encourage action |
The two roles are different, but they work closely together. Great copy can only do so much if you're sending the wrong emails at the wrong time. And a solid strategy won't get you very far if the emails themselves don't connect with your audience or give them a reason to take action.
Do You Need an Email Marketing Strategist?
You may need an email marketing strategist if you feel like you're randomly sending emails without much rhyme or reason behind what you're sending or when. Maybe your newsletters feel disconnected from the rest of your marketing, your automations haven't been touched in years, or you only show up in your subscribers' inboxes when you have something to sell.
You know your email list should be a valuable asset for your business, but you don't feel like you're using it to its full potential.
Some signs it might be time to bring in an email marketing strategist:
Your newsletters feel random or disconnected from your business goals.
People are joining your list, but you don't have a plan for what to send them next.
You have automations in place, but you're not sure if they're doing what you need them to do.
You know your email list could be doing more for your business, but you aren't sure how to get there.
Your business has grown to the point where you don't want to keep managing your email marketing on your own.
If you're ready to stop making email decisions on the fly and want someone to take the lead on your strategy, it’s time to bring in help.
How Much Does an Email Marketing Strategist Cost?
The cost of hiring an email marketing strategist varies based on the scope and complexity of the work. There isn't one standard price because every business needs a different level of support.
Some of the biggest factors that can affect the cost include:
How much support you need: Consulting only will have a smaller scope than having someone handle the strategy, copywriting, and execution for you.
Whether it's a one-time project or ongoing support: A single audit, flow, or campaign is a different scope of work than having an email marketing strategist manage your email marketing month after month.
How complex your email marketing is: Multiple offers, audience segments, funnels, and automations usually require more strategy and management than a simpler email setup.
How many emails you need: The amount of content you're sending matters, whether that's the number of emails in a sales campaign or how frequently you're emailing your list each month.
How much needs to be built or managed in your email platform: Writing the emails is one piece of the work. Building automations, setting up emails, scheduling campaigns, segmenting subscribers, and managing the backend adds another layer of support.
Ultimately, the cost comes down to what you need an email marketing strategist to take responsibility for. The scope can range from providing strategic guidance to managing your email marketing from strategy through execution.
What Does Working With Me as Your Email Marketing Strategist Look Like?
Working with me as your email marketing strategist looks different depending on the kind of support you need. You might want someone to take the lead on your ongoing email marketing, help you improve what you already have, plan and write a new flow or campaign, or give you strategic guidance while you handle the writing yourself.
No matter how we work together, I want to understand your business before I start making recommendations.
We Start With Your Business
I want to understand your offers, audience, goals, and what you're already doing with email. I also look at what's happening elsewhere in your marketing so the recommendations I make make sense for your business as a whole.
From there, I can identify where you need support and what we should prioritize.
You Can Hand Off the Strategy, Copy, and Execution
Depending on the service, I can handle your email strategy, write the copy, AND manage the backend of your email marketing platform. That means you aren't left with a strategy document or a folder full of email copy that you still have to figure out how to implement yourself.
For ongoing email marketing, I can plan your email calendar, write your emails, build and schedule them in your email marketing platform, and manage the day-to-day execution. For a flow or campaign, I can map out the emails, write the copy, and get everything set up and sent.
If you prefer to stay more hands-on, that's an option too. I also offer strategy consulting for female founders who want expert guidance but prefer to handle the writing and execution themselves.
Is Hiring an Email Marketing Strategist Worth It?
Hiring an email marketing strategist is worth it when you have an engaged audience and a validated offer, but you know your current email marketing isn't doing enough to nurture those subscribers or drive sales.
That said, hiring an email marketing strategist doesn't guarantee a certain number of sales. I cannot stress this enough. Any honest email marketing strategist worth their weight will NEVER promise you specific results.
Because we can’t. Your email strategy is only one part of the equation, and factors outside our control will influence your results.
You also need to give your strategy time. I recommend giving ongoing email marketing at least three to six months to test different approaches, gather enough data to see what's working, and make informed changes based on what we learn.
Frequently Asked Questions
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An email marketing strategist is someone who plans how your business uses email to nurture subscribers, promote your offers, and support your marketing goals. We look at your audience, offers, content, campaigns, automations, and email performance to determine where to focus your efforts.
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An email marketing strategist determines what emails your business needs, who should receive them, when they should be sent, and what they're meant to accomplish. Depending on the scope of work, we might also plan your content, map out funnels and automations, analyze performance, write your email copy, and manage your email marketing platform.
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An email marketing strategist focuses on developing the strategy behind your email marketing, while “email marketer” is a broader term. An email marketer might handle strategy, copywriting, email setup and scheduling, campaign management, analytics, or a combination of those responsibilities.
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Yes, but growing your list with engaged subscribers should be a priority. An email marketing strategist can help you create a list-building funnel designed to attract the right people and turn new subscribers into an engaged audience.
That might include developing a lead magnet, creating an opt-in or landing page, writing a welcome sequence, and planning how you'll stay connected with new subscribers. As your list grows, you'll also have more data to help you understand what your audience responds to and improve your email marketing over time.
