Ten Toughest Marketing Interview Questions

As an interviewer, you need to ask questions that allow you to uncover the strengths and weakness of the candidate you are interviewing. You are not going to achieve your objective by asking rudimentary questions. To help you achieve your recruiting goals, we have compiled a list of the top ten toughest marketing interview questions to test your marketing talent.

1. Which Marketing Method Is Best- Education-Based Marketing or Selling Based Marketing?

There is a fine line between sales and marketing and this question would help you identify if the candidate is from marketing or sales domain. The right answer to this question is education-based marketing.

Education based marketing gives the customers what they want – advice and information. This helps them take the right purchase decision. Selling based marketing is more likely to fail as it is designed with the sole purpose of selling.

2. How Would You Ensure the Money Used in a Marketing Campaign Is Not Wasted on Targeting the Wrong Audience?

The candidate should ask questions to get a clear idea about the target audience. After you define your target audience, the candidate should be able to mention different ways to reach the target audience. Some ideal ways to reach the target audience can be PPC, social advertising, direct mail, display ads in trade publications, feature articles, and even tv and radio spots.

3. Have You Worked in Sales?

If the candidate has worked in Sales, it is a plus point. Only a person who has worked in sales would know how people make buying decisions that would ultimately help in creating effective marketing strategies.

4. Do You like to Work Alone or in a Team?

This question is aimed to know more about the personality and the preferred method of completing a task. There is no right answer for this question and you need to evaluate the answer on a case-by-case scenario basis. Different situations may require the marketer to work alone while some situations may need efforts from all members of the team.

5. How Do You Measure Marketing Success?

This is one of the marketing interview questions that give you an opportunity to discuss tools that are useful in the day-to-day job duties. For example, for online marketing, you can ask the candidate if he/she is familiar with Google Analytics and with metric acronyms like CPA, CPC, and CTR.

6. What Is Your Biggest Marketing Failure?

Majority of marketing candidates face failure at some point in their career but many would not be willing to talk about it. Some marketing failures come due to personality conflicts while some come due to lack of experience.

Only genuine candidates would accept failures or show the readiness to take responsibility for it. Try to find out the reasons behind failures, what went wrong, what the candidate did to put things in place.

7. If Your Marketing Campaign Does Not Work, What Could Be the Reasons Behind It?

This can be a follow-up question for candidates who tell they have not met failures in their marketing careers. The answer to this question will help you determine whether the candidate would take responsibility for his efforts or put blame on someone else.

8. What Do You Know About the Role You Are Applying For?

Each marketing role is different, and its success is measured differently. The candidate should have complete knowledge about the job profile and the responsibilities related to it. You need to ensure the candidate can live up to your expectations.

9. Which social media channels do you have experience with?

Find out if the candidate has proven experience in social media marketing on popular channels Facebook, Instagram, and LinkedIn. If you are looking for something with a younger demographic, look for candidates that have had success with platforms like Reddit or Snapchat.

10. What Kind of Management Style Do You Prefer?

Some marketers prefer hands-on-style with a lot of direction while some like to be given their space to work. You need to look for a candidate who knows how to stay composed, professional, and diplomatic in different situations.

These are some of the toughest marketing interview questions that would help you get more visibility of the candidate’s skills and personality and help you select the best candidate for your next marketing role.