As an employer, digital marketing recruitment has become more important than ever. With the advent of AI and the explosion of worldwide social media obsession, digital marketing managers have become uniquely integral to the success of a business.
While vetting applicants in the beginning stages of the recruitment process is brilliant for refining a large pool of talent, interviews are the only way to truly pinpoint who will lead your business to new heights.
When interviewing a potential candidate for the role, you want to go beyond their rudimentary technical know-how and find out more about their problem-solving skills, strategic thinking, industry involvement and creativity – things that you might not necessarily get from the first glance at their CV.
Here are some of the most meaningful questions to ask in a digital marketing interview.
1. Tell us about a recent project that generated positive results. What strategies did you use and how did you measure the results you achieved?
Before making your hiring decision, you need to know your candidate’s approach to work. The candidate should be able to give you a detailed description of their campaign, including goals and targets they put in place from the outset. Try to learn how they went about preparing their strategy, resources they leveraged, and marketing channels they used.
Of course, this question is all about the results, too. So, they should wow you with what they achieved in relation to their targets— whether those were increased conversion rates, higher click-through rates, better customer engagement, or all the above. The more specific they can be, the better.
2. What KPIs do you prioritise in your digital marketing campaigns, and why?
While hopefully, they will have explained this in their response to the question above, it’s worth digging into KPIs a bit more.
Your interviewee should tell you which metrics they like to focus on (and impose on their team) when putting together a campaign, for example customer acquisition cost, customer lifetime value, click-through rates and conversion rates.
They should also tell you why these KPIs are important, and how they help to assess the effectiveness of their campaigns. This is an easy way to figure out whether their priorities are aligned with your goals for your business.
3. How do you stay current with the latest industry trends and technologies?
A great digital marketing manager is one who has an insatiable desire to stay up to date and involved in the marketing world. That means going to industry networking events, actively participating in online forums and communities, following leading publications, listening to podcasts, and attending upskilling workshops. Take time to ask them about where they draw marketing inspiration from, and what keeps them enthusiastic about their job (and your industry).
4. How do you think you can make an impact with regard to our key business objectives?
Ultimately, the right digital marketing manager needs to be able to push the needles that matter most to your business. Laying out some of your key business objectives, and asking how they think they can impact these, is a must.
This question isn’t about getting a perfect answer. Rather, it’s about giving the candidate an opportunity to showcase that they clearly understand how their role can ladder up to overall business objectives and lay out a path to ensure this happens successfully. If they can do this, chances are they'll be a good fit.
5. Describe a time you disagreed with a manager. How did you go about handling this and what was the result?
This showcases conflict resolution skills and people skills, and will give you some insight into how your applicant behaves in difficult situations. Pay close attention to how they describe the point of contention — do they hold a professional and pragmatic perspective, or have they perhaps not fully reconciled the conflict?
6. Tell us about a campaign that went wrong. What happened and how did you address it?
This question isn’t designed to put your interviewee on the spot. Rather, it helps you to gauge their problem-solving capabilities and adaptability, which are essential qualities in a good digital marketing manager. It will also give you peace of mind that if a challenge arises in a campaign, they’ll be able to handle it.
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