Good developers are hard to find. And, for a niche like email marketing, it can sometimes feel impossible. Luckily, almost any resourceful developer should be able to quickly get up to speed and become productive-but how do you know they'll succeed? There are traits and skills that can help ensure you are making a solid hiring decision.

Seek HTML Email Experience

It may seem like a no-brainer, but try to find someone that has actual experience with building HTML emails. This is crucial-past development implies that the person has two important traits: (1) the basic skills that are required, and (2) some level of interest. Even the most basic email development will often uncover many of the day-to-day challenges with developing email, so have someone that's prepared to meet them headfirst.

If you're looking for a more advanced developer, see if they've utilized any of the dynamic content capabilities available in the market. Nearly all of the major email service providers (ESPs) allow for customization of content with some sort of scripting. Each is proprietary and unique in its own way, but they are all fairly simplistic "languages." Understanding even just one of these should translate to an easier learning curve with others.

The Next Best Thing

As mentioned before, developers with email experience are often hard to find, so what's the next best thing? The answer is knowledge of basic front end web development, meaning HTML and CSS. Until email clients can step up their support game, there's still a need for strong understanding and comfort with using tables.

A developer who learned HTML in the last five years will more than likely feel less comfortable than one who learned more than five years ago. Don't despair, tables aren't a complicated concept. It's important to be aware of this, and not assume that a developer wouldn't be able to pickup this skill.

Avoid Bloated Code

Being comfortable with "hand-coding" HTML is also very important. This doesn't mean that a developer needs to literally hand code email content. However, many WYSIWYG visual editors (pronounced "whiz-ee-wig," an acronym for "what you see is what you get") have limitations. They can generate "hairball" code, where there are several unnecessary, overlapping tags and/or invisible code that serves no purpose. The ability to quickly clean these up "by hand" can save hours of frustration and bloated code.

Check back for my second post with tips and guidance on finding the right email developer for your organization!