Building a strong marketing team isn’t easy, but it is crucial to grow your business and expand your reach. There are countless companies that are competing for top talent. And it is not just top talent you are looking for, you also need someone that fits your values, strategies, and has qualities you are in search of. Then there is the cost of a mis-hire and having to spend time, resources, and money training the new candidate. This is why it is so important to hire the correct candidate the first time. And it is increasingly important to identify this talent in the marketing interview questions.
The key to sorting through your applicants and finding the correct candidate is the interview process. But if your marketing interview questions is subpar you will not get the information you are seeking in order to discover who is truly the correct candidate.
Questions To Ask
1. What is one of your hobbies? How do you do it?
These questions will help you assess how the candidate is able to explain a concept they know well to someone who may not know much about it. If their hobby is something technical such as training for a triathlon, ask them what advice they would give you.
2. What brands do you like or follow on social media and why?
This is another casual but very useful question as it will tell you about both the candidate’s personal interests and how they perceive marketing on social media. This will give you an idea of their marketing style as you now know what they are influenced by. The best answers go past what brands they like to purchase from. They go into why they trust these brands, what they do, and how they do it.
3. What do you read and how often do you consume information?
Marketing is constantly changing and it is important to keep up to date with the changing trends. This question is important to understand if they are keeping up to date and in what way.
4. What’s an example of a lead generation campaign you would be excited to run here?
This question allows you to see what type of marketing initiatives they are most excited to use. Not only that, but you are able to see how much knowledge they have about your company and if their ideas match what you are currently running/have run.
5. Why do you love marketing?
Everyone likes marketing for different reasons and this will influence what they focus on. This answer will help you understand if they are passionate about what you are looking for or if they may be unhappy with the work they are given if it doesn’t align with their interests. You want someone who is both qualified to do the work and are interested in doing the work you need.
6. What is your ideal work environment?
You may have an idea of this from the question about what brands they like. But this way you understand if your business environment will meet their expectations. This goes back to having someone who is not only qualified but also is interested and wants to do the work you want. If your employees are not happy in your space, their work may reflect this.
7. Why are you pursuing a career in marketing? What is your end goal?
This will give you an idea of their trajectory and if you fit within that. If their goal is to work for an environmental non-profit, do you fit within a path of theirs? Or are they applying here for a job and may only be here until what they are looking for becomes available.
8. What are the three most important skills for a marketer?
This question will prompt them to list their three top skills or in the best answers, they will list answers such as Analytics, SEO, and storytelling, and will tell you how they plan to develop these skills.
9. If a customer writes a negative review of a product we’re marketing, how would you respond?
This is an important question as no product is loved by absolutely everyone. As good reviews are important, so are bad reviews. It is extremely important you respond to reviews, especially bad reviews, in a professional manner.
10. What makes you stand out from other candidates applying for this position?
This is a bit more of a generic question but if used towards the end of the interview they will be hesitant to use any answers they used in previous questions. This way you will learn more about who they are and the accomplishments they have achieved. As well as previous work and experiences.
11. Tell us about a product you successfully marketed. What was your strategy?
This answer may be self-explanatory on why it is important. But this way you learn about their experiences and how they come to decisions about a product.
12. In the case of the product you successfully marketed, how did you assess the impact of the campaign?
This also may be self-explanatory. But this question is important as you can see the metrics they measured, any testing they did, and how they determined what worked best for them. Every product is unique and strategies are not one size fits all. It is important to test and see what works.
13. What do you know about our company?
“What do you know about our company” is a variation of “Why do you want to work here”. Any good marketer knows how to do research. This is a great opportunity to see how well they did their own research prior to your interview.
14. How has your experience prepared you for this role?
Whether an applicant is a recent grad or a marketing manager with 15+ years of experience, this is a great question. You can learn a little more about their past, as well as learning how they will be able to apply their current knowledge to the job.
15. Where do you see yourself in 5 years?
If you’re looking for someone to fill a long-term role, you might want to ask your applicant this question. While there’s no way to predict that they’ll still be with your company, you can learn what they are wanting to do with their career. As an example, if a new grad says that in 5 years they want to be a marketing manager, this can be a great opportunity for your company to train them and ensure they are a good fit for that position.
Wrap Up
Now, these are of course not the only questions you should be asking in your marketing interview questions. There are plenty of generic questions you can ask in any interview for any position. Those questions should still be asked as you will learn about who they are and why they are there. The questions listed above are designed to focus on specific areas.
Not only are there generic questions you can ask them, but there are also specific technical questions you can ask that pertain specifically to your business and ask for their insight. These are questions that are specific to you and may not be applicable to other businesses.