As an Email Marketing Specialist I am constantly sending out emails, however that is not as simple as it sounds. The process itself is much more time consuming with multiple steps. Building an email campaign takes hours from start to finish. The email itself must be curated to the company branding and may need extensive HTML/CSS work. On top of that programs need to be built out in both the CRM and the email marketing software.

However I am constantly being told to hurry up and get emails sent in quick deadlines. This process should be a 24-36 hour turn around, yet that is not what is asked of me. This is because the Field Marketing Managers, Campaigns Managers and other Project Managers do not understand the process it takes to get an email sent out.

Many projects include multiple emails, including segmentation of leads and different follow-up/confirmation emails based on location and if the lead attended the event. The leads may come from our database or they may come from an event. When they come from an event we must properly scrub and reorganize so the list can then be uploaded and assimilated into our CRM. This process can take hours depending on the size of the list.

In MS5102 we have been looking at processes and trying to understand systems. I thought drawing out a Swim Lane Diagram would be helpful to show the multiple steps of a simple email send process, so that project managers will better understand what it takes.