Getting ready for a job interview as a Digital Marketing Manager? These are the top 10 questions to prepare for:
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What’s a campaign you’ve worked on in the past that has been successful, and what deemed it a success?
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How do you see the digital marketing landscape changing in the next 5 years, and what are you doing to prepare for this?
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If you were to become our digital marketing manager, what strategies would suggest we implement, and why?
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What’s an engaging campaign you’ve recently seen from another brand? What did you like about it?
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How many people are on your current marketing team? What are their roles?
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How do you deal with negative feedback?
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What kind of environment do you thrive in?
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Are you data-driven or creative-driven?
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What is your experience working with in-house staff, clients, outside agencies, or contractors?
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What new skills would you like to learn in the next 3 years?
As the demand for skilled digital marketers continues to grow, marketing teams have expanded to now include specialized positions across a suite of key areas.
From social media, SEO, content marketing, automation, and analytics – there’s no shortage of key roles required in every marketing department.
Although each of these roles plays an essential part in driving value from their own medium, it’s just as important for marketing teams to understand how these roles collectively integrate to deliver the best overall performance.
To drive the most effective digital strategy, companies require a well-averse digital marketing manager that can identify opportunities and manage a team to deliver tangible results.
As the Digital Marketing Institute highlights;
Digital marketing managers are responsible for directing others and driving results through team collaboration. Click To Tweet
The main purpose of this role is to efficiently utilize each team members unique skills to coordinate and execute the most effective strategy across each channel. When done right, this will enhance the overall performance of any digital marketing team.
As a critical source of leadership, digital marketing managers are required to remain on the cutting-edge of the industry, allowing them to understand the latest trends and best practices.
Ready to become a digital marketing manager?
If you’re in the process of preparing for an interview as a digital marketing manager, it’s imperative to thoroughly articulate responses to likely questions you’ll be asked. By being well-prepared for your interview, it’ll not only assert your understanding of the industry, but also your organizational skills as a manager.
Unlike interviews for general digital marketing roles, the questions you’ll be asked as a digital marketing manager will require specialized answers to demonstrate your capabilities.
Throughout my career to-date, I’ve been fortunate enough to not only interview for the position of a digital marketing manager, but also interview others as I’ve grown digital marketing teams.
To help you best prepare for your interview, I’ve created a detailed list of the most important questions that relate to the position of a digital marketing manager.
As a digital marketer myself, I’ve also taken the time to write personalized recommendations on how to best respond to each query.
After reading this guide, you’ll be ready to confidently nail any interview and land your dream job.
Are you finding it tough to even land a job interview? I’ve recently shared my secret to using the side door when looking to source job opportunities.
1. What’s a campaign you’ve worked on in the past that has been successful, and what deemed it a success?
Why this question is important
In almost any digital marketing job interview, you’ll find most recruiting managers asking this question – for good reason.
This question is still so important as it helps a company gain a clear understanding of the tangible skills you possess as a digital marketer.
By sharing examples of the work you’ve completed, it can give a good indication of the strategies you’ve used, what tools you’re familiar with, and how well you can work alongside a team.
When a candidate can clearly summarize a previous campaign, it can help depict their problem-solving abilities, as well as the value they can contribute.
If a candidate has worked on similar problems or campaigns to the current company, it can also highlight relevant experience – indicating that they’ll be likely to succeed within the new position.
How to best respond
Before taking part in an interview, I’d recommend preparing a summary of a campaign for this exact question.
Take the time to actively review a past campaign from start to finish and identify the initial problem you faced, how you tailored a relevant strategy, and how you measured the overall performance of the campaign.
It’s essential to identify any key data points that highlight the success of the experience. Was there a particular amount of sales you helped acquire? Perhaps you were able to reduce the CPA by a certain percentage. Sharing this data expresses your understanding of the value digital marketing can add to a business.
By walking the recruiting manager through the end-to-end process of the campaign, it not only showcases the skills you have, but also your ability to review and understand why certain trends occurred.
I’d even suggest taking the time to share what you learnt after the campaign, and if there’s anything you’d do differently next time to improve the performance results.
The more information that you provide, the better chance you’ll have at nailing the interview.
2. How do you see the digital marketing landscape changing in the next 5 years, and what are you doing to prepare for this?
Why this question is important
The digital marketing industry is one that constantly evolves with new changes and trends.
It’s more important than ever for marketers to remain on the cutting-edge of the landscape, giving them a competitive advantage. Click To TweetMost brands understand that specific digital marketing skills can be taught over time, however, having a willingness to learn is what allows candidates to stand out. By actively embracing new trends and information, marketers can remain at the forefront of the industry and push the boundaries of what’s possible.
The core function of a digital marketing manager is to successfully direct a team, which is why it’s essential for the right candidate to foresee how emerging trends will uncover new opportunities and challenges.
This question is so important as it allows recruiting managers to easily segment candidates by those who have a genuine passion for the industry.
How to best respond
When answering this question, it’s important to portray the genuine passion you have for the industry. Are there any key trends you’re excited about that will influence the way you work?
I’d recommend sharing your thoughts on the industry changes that will be most relevant to the current company.
If you’re interviewing at a D2C brand, you could mention how you’re excited to start using shoppable posts on TikTok to drive eCommerce conversions.
This shows that you have a thorough understanding of their market, and you can immediately add value to their brand in the future.
It’s also just as important to reference how you proactively remain on the bleeding-edge of everything new.
Take the time to reference any resources you regularly use like blogs or industry podcasts to stay up to date.
If you’re working in the social media landscape, you could mention how you love reading the Social Media Examiner each day to help uncover new Facebook ad strategies.
I’d even recommend sharing actionable examples of times where you’d taken new industry knowledge and implemented it within your work e.g. I’d previously read about the benefits of using campaign budget optimization (CBO) in Facebook campaigns. After taking the time to experiment with this bidding strategy, I found that the average CPA dropped by 10%.
Providing an example actively demonstrates your ability to not only understand emerging trends, but also put these into practice by getting your hands dirty.
3. If you were to become our digital marketing manager, what strategies would suggest we implement, and why?
Why this question is important
This question is critical as it gives the recruiting manager a deeper understanding of how well you’ll perform within this specific position.
Instead of just learning more about your past experience, this sets a precedent for what you’re capable of achieving in the future.
As a digital marketer, you can often feel reluctant to answer this question in full detail. When I ask my network about their sentiment towards this topic, they’re sometimes cautious about brands trying to source free consulting advice.
At no point is the case.
For recruiting managers, this question is often the most important query as it indicates how well you can understand their brand, and what tangible value you can immediately add within the role.
By not providing a detailed response, you’ll only hinder your chances of becoming the successful candidate.
How to best respond
It’s important to use this opportunity to show that you not only understand the dynamic of the brand, but have already thought about what future value you can bring to their company.
Before your interview, take the time to review the brands existing digital strategy. Understand what channels they use, what content they publish, and if there’s any areas of opportunity they should pursue.
Perhaps the brand has traditionally shied away from SEO, but you’ve researched some relevant search phrases with high search volumes.
Taking the time to uncover these insights not only shows how prepared you are as an individual, but also how skilled you are as a digital marketer.
As a bonus, I’d even recommend asking the recruiting manager questions about their current strategy.
In this case, you could consider asking why they haven’t prioritized SEO, or even if they’ve taken the time to do this research themselves.
By asking questions, it shows that you’re a domain expert and have a thorough understanding of the meaningful contribution you could make as their digital marketing manager.
4. What’s an engaging campaign you’ve recently seen from another brand? What did you like about it?
Why this question is important
Being able to identify the competitive landscape is an essential skill for any digital marketing manager. When leading a brand, it’s important to actively be aware of the strategies others use, then determine how you can recreate your own and maintain a competitive advantage.
This question can also indicate how effectively a candidate can prepare competitive research to understand new best practices. If a brand is passionate about maintaining a top position in their industry, it’s paramount to remain on the pulse of new experiences and strategies.
Above all, this question shows just how interested a candidate is about digital marketing outside their regular office hours. Those who communicate a genuine passion for digital marketing beyond their day-to-day duties are more likely to remain progressive and agile as a marketing manager.
How to best respond
It’s important to take the time to thoroughly explain your answer with specific details that can showcase your knowledge of the industry.
While most digital marketing candidates might mention an engaging Facebook ad they’ve recently seen, the best candidate will begin to explain thorough details about why they found it engaging.
Did the ad use a unique image asset or ad format? Perhaps you reviewed the transparency settings of the ad and could see that it was targeting a lookalike audience.
On top of this, it’s important to then share the additional research you conducted beyond this initial ad.
Did you analyze what alternative ad variations the brand was running through Facebook’s ad library?
Did you click-through to the landing page and intentionally register to their email list?
Can you explain how engaging the brands automation workflow was?
Were you retargeted with additional ads across channels like YouTube or SnapChat.
By taking the time to summarize your experience, it shows your ability to understand the full semantics of a campaign and the role that each unique channel can play in a larger funnel.
5. How many people are on your current marketing team? What are their roles?
Why this question is important
The key role of a digital marketing manager is to become the driving force of a team – understanding how to utilize the strengths and weaknesses of each individual member.
With the responsibility to lead a team, it’s important for a recruiting manager to learn more about each candidates past experiences in a team environment – even if they’re not currently a manager.
By uncovering more about the dynamic of your current team, it can depict how effectively you work with others and handle leadership responsibilities.
It’s also helpful for recruiters to learn more about the specific structure of your current organization. These insights can attribute how we’ll you’ll suit the new company’s current organizational style.
If, for example, the recruiting company is a startup that has a flat organizational structure and makes agile decisions, the company would be interested to find a candidate who has experience working in teams where they take ownership of their work and understand how to proactively collaborate with others.
How to best respond
There’s no right or wrong answer to this question, but it’s important to know how you should best respond while remaining as transparent as possible.
Take the time to explain the role each member within your current team and share what value they contributed to the overall goal. This shows that as a manager, you can clearly understand what function each role plays within the overall strategy.
As a side note, if you’re applying to become a digital marketing manager, I’d recommend taking the time to discuss experiences where you’ve taken leadership responsibilities in the past. You may have previously directed a campaign, or used your initiative to work across departments with other team members. These skills show that you have experience managing and driving initiatives on your own.
6. How do you deal with negative feedback?
Why this question is important
Understanding how someone handles negative feedback can reveal a lot about their personality and skill set.
Handling feedback is an essential task for any digital marketing manager. When running a marketing team, you’ll be faced with ongoing feedback loops from both your team members and upper management.
Creating the right processes to properly mitigate negative feedback can determine how well you’ll perform within this management position.
Recruiting managers are interested in candidates who can harness negative feedback to their advantage and remain agile to ongoing changes.
With the industry moving so quickly, digital marketing managers must embrace any feedback and quickly identify how it will impact their overall brand strategy.
How to best respond
One of the best responses to this question is to start by acknowledging the inevitability of receiving negative feedback.
By sharing your awareness of feedback cycles, it can highlight how competent you are to deal with this kind of communication.
You should use this time to suggest building a proactive internal structure in advance, mitigating the need for negative feedback in the first place.
What do I mean by this?
By creating a clear line of communication between all teams, it can allow you to uncover the early signs of poor performance across the key areas you manage. By taking the time to properly resolve issues as they arise, it prevents them from turning into problematic scenarios.
This response not only shows your ability to remain transparent, but can also showcase your willingness to take ownership of work and progressively adapt within a role.
The best way to avoid negative scenarios is to turn the potential downfall into something positive.
7. What kind of environment do you thrive in?
Why this question is important
This question may not be unique to just digital marketing interviews, it’s an important query that can set a precedent for how well you’ll perform within a role.
Although you might have the necessary skills for a position, you’re unlikely to perform well in an environment that’s not optimized for your personal conditions. Click To TweetBy understanding your preferred working environment, the recruiting manager can evaluate if you’ll culturally fit within the company. This is an important indication of how successful you’ll be in the long-term.
This question can also uncover what expectations a candidate might have for a company. This is important to clarify as early in the recruitment process as possible.
How to best respond
Before sitting an interview, take the time to properly research the dynamic of any company (this goes without saying).
Hint: You can uncover the values of some pretty awesome marketing teams here
By learning more about a company’s internal culture and values, you can start to depict if this is an environment that’s well-suited to your personal preferences.
When answering this question, it’s also important to remain as transparent as possible. By clarifying your preferences, it’ll give a proper insight into the dynamic of your work.
Even if a company doesn’t align with your ideal environment, remaining transparent can create opportunities to ask questions about their current ethos.
If, for example, you work better from home without distractions, but the company doesn’t offer a remote working policy – you can use this opportunity to ask about their position on the topic.
You might learn that it’s something they’re currently considering, in which case, it would indicate that you’d be a suitable candidate in their evolving workplace.
8. Are you data-driven or creative-driven?
Why this question is important
It’s more important than ever for digital marketers to understand where their skills sit between being data-driven or creative-driven.
Why is this so essential?
The tasks and expectations required for each skill set are unique and vastly different. As brands embed these values into their team culture, they influence the processes within each role and how team members make decisions.
By identifying what skill set you align with, it can indicate how well you’ll perform working for a particular brand. As a digital marketing manager is responsible for leading a team’s overall strategy, it’s essential that their skills align with the brands preferred practice.
How to best respond
Once again, it’s important to do your research before interviewing with any team. By understanding their values, it can indicate if you’ll be a suitable fit for the role.
Hint: My directory of brands also allows you to filter through marketing teams that identify as being data-driven or creative-driven.
When answering this question, it’s also important to reinforce your response with actionable examples of how you fit into a specific category.
If you’re a data-driven digital marketer, can you share some examples of previous campaigns you’ve created where data has influenced your decision-making process?
Perhaps you’ve had experience working alongside a product team that measured event data, helping determine which specific users to target in a campaign.
This highlights that you actively know how to integrate this approach within your strategic planning.
As always, remember to be honest with your response. Simply providing an answer the company wants to hear is a fast way to landing a role that you’re not suitable for.
9. What is your experience working with in-house staff, clients, outside agencies, or contractors?
Why this question is important
No two marketing teams are the same. With different skill sets and capabilities, every brand has a unique way of delivering outcomes.
As a digital marketing manager, you’re not only responsible for directing each internal team member, but also every external party that actively contributes to the shared workload.
As most brands rely on external partners to help balance tasks, it’s essential for a marketing manager to determine how these resources can be best utilized to deliver the most value.
Recruiting managers are interested in uncovering how well you can communicate with these partners, and if you understand the value they can each contribute.
How to best respond
Within your previous role, how have you relied on external partnerships, and why were these necessary?
By sharing an overview of these partnerships, it communicates your understanding about the skills required within a team, or where you can outsource these skills if you don’t have the internal resources.
Take the time to discuss how you managed these partnerships from within the company. This is a great opportunity to show your existing leadership skills.
If you haven’t had an opportunity to work with external partners, you might have experience working as one – whether it be contracting or working for an agency.
By sharing your experiences working as an external partner, you can demonstrate your understanding of the value they can contribute when working with an internal team.
10. What new skills would you like to learn in the next 3 years?
Why this question is important
As a recruiting manager, it’s important to know if a candidate is interested in growing in the same direction as a brand.
As teams continue to grow and explore new marketing channels, it’s within their best interest to recruit those who are eager to learn and drive new initiatives.
By understanding a candidates future aspirations, a brand can identify if they have the necessary resources to support their long-term development.
Whether it be relevant training or mentorships, most marketing teams have programs to help foster the growth of each team member.
How to best respond
Use this opportunity to share a list of the skills that you believe this role will help you develop.
For example, you might have some experience managing a small team, but you’d like to learn how to manage a larger team at scale.
By listing skills that can be taught within the role, it indicates how attentive you’ll be throughout the new position.
I’d also suggest taking the time to share what value these new skills would add to your personal or professional life e.g learning SEO would allow you to build better content marketing strategies and drive growth through this medium.
Do your research beforehand and identify what’s involved in learning these new skills. Perhaps there’s a particular course you could take?
By suggesting specific resources that can help with your development, it shows that you’re proactively looking for solutions to better prepare for the future.
The recruiting manager can also determine if the resources you need are within their control. Brands are always passionate about upskilling their team members.
It’s also important to remember that nailing a job interview requires more than just answering the questions from a recruiting manager. Candidates should also take the time to ask thoughtful questions about the company they’re interviewing with.
These questions can include things like:
- What projects will I first work on, and what metrics will determine my success?
- How do you ensure your marketing team remains relevant and up-to-date with the digital marketing landscape?
As a digital marketing manager, this shows your ability to actively seek more information and make well-informed decisions.
This not only highlights your genuine interest in the company at hand, but will also help uncover if the company is the right fit for you.
If you’d like to learn the 10 best questions to ask a recruiting manager throughout your interview, I’d recommend reading my guide in the post below.
HOW TO STAND OUT IN A MARKETING INTERVIEW [ASK THE EMPLOYER THESE 10 QUESTIONS]
