THE PERSON WHO HELPS YOU send out your next e-mail campaign may be a kid, but he's part of a young and growing industry and quite possibly has more job security than you.
E-mail marketing-related employment is expected to rise by 8% by the end of the year, according to a recent study by the Direct Marketing Association.
Can Spam-compliant e-mail marketing accounted for 65,600 jobs in the United States in 2005, according to the DMA's Power of Direct economic impact study released this fall. The DMA says e-mail marketing will employ 70,900 Americans in 2006.
Not only is the industry surprisingly small, executives' tenure at e-mail service providers often is unusually low. A recent report from JupiterResearch notes that the average length of experience across all e-mail service providers is just 4.4 years.
The figure indicates that “a large number of ESPs staff their teams with individuals who potentially have less e-mail marketing experience than do the marketers procuring the services,” states the report by analyst David Daniels. “Finding qualified e-mail marketers to assist with services — either hired internally or procured through ESPs — will be a frustrating but unspoken challenge in the market during the next few years.”
However, John Rizzi, CEO of e-mail service provider e-Dialog, claims he doesn't have much trouble finding talent: “We're growing so fast, as is the whole industry, e-mail is so hot, and [e-Dialog] is a downright cool place to work.” He adds that his company's Boston-area location helps too, thanks to the strong direct marketing presence in the region.
In any case, the industry is poised for healthy growth.
Jobs in the field are expected to climb to 80,900 in 2007 and 118,600 by 2011, and show a compound annual growth rate of 10.8% between 2006 and 2011, the DMA says.
However, comparatively few of these people are involved in actual e-mail marketing. The vast majority are employed because of a need to respond to orders the channel generates.
For example, of the 65,600 U.S. e-mail marketing jobs in 2005, just 2,800 people were advertiser employed, or dedicated to developing and implementing e-mail to stimulate demand for products and services, according to the DMA.
The rest (62,800) were seller employed — those hired to respond to demand for products and services resulting from e-mail marketing.
The DMA projects that at year's end, 3,200 will be advertiser employed and 67,600 seller employed. By 2011, the advertiser side should account for 6,900 jobs and the seller side 111,600.
