Top Interview Questions to Identify the Perfect Digital Marketer for Your Team

Table of Contents

• [toc headings="h2" title="Table of Contents"] The majority of consumers today use the internet to shop, evaluate companies, and discover new products or services they want to try. This makes an effective digital marketing strategy critical for driving business growth--and puts professionals who have skills in this area in very high demand. Among the top 10 fastest-growing skills in Coursera's 2024 Job Skills report are media strategy, SEO, and marketing management, showing that not only is digital marketing talent highly sought after today, but it will likely continue to be in high demand for years to come.  For companies that need to add digital marketing skills to their team, this high demand can make it very challenging to find and hire employees who have them. Knowing the right questions to ask can go a long way. Here are 22 questions to ask during digital marketing interviews to make sure you hire the right people. 

• Why it's important to hire the right digital marketer

• Marketing professionals have a lot of control over how companies are perceived by their customers. These individuals are the ones who craft your online brand identity and have the most control over both your messaging and your ranking in searches. Considering that 81% of consumers research online before making purchase decisions, a skilled marketer can have a massive impact on your sales and revenue.  A professional's knowledge of the online advertising landscape isn't the only thing you need to assess before hiring them, either. It's just as important that you bring on talent who understands your goals and identity as a business so that they can fully and accurately convey that to site visitors or individuals who see your display ads.  The truth is, few members of an organization have more direct control over its potential growth than the digital marketing team. This fact alone makes it absolutely critical to hire the right person to take on these tasks. 

• Technical interview questions: Core skills for digital marketing professionals

• One of the things you want to verify during the interview process is whether candidates have the right combination of skills and knowledge for your job. Bear in mind, not every role in digital marketing requires the same skills. If you're hiring someone to manage your social media marketing, for instance, it may not matter whether they also have experience in areas like email marketing or SEM. On the other hand, if you're hiring someone to design and oversee all of your digital marketing campaigns or develop your marketing strategy, a candidate with strengths and skills in multiple areas will be the best fit.  Some of the technical skills that businesses often look for in digital marketing professionals include: 

  • Search Engine Optimization (SEO) and Search Engine Marketing (SEM) - SEO is of utmost importance at every level of digital marketing. Candidates across roles should at least have an understanding of the best practices to optimize content for search engines. 
  • Content marketing - This is another concept at the core of just about every digital marketing role. Content doesn't just mean writing articles and social media posts. It also includes images, videos, webinars, audio files like podcasts, and email and website content. 
  • Video marketing - In a 2024 survey, 91% of business leaders use video as a marketing tool, and 88% see it as an important part of their strategy. Video excels at building customer trust and engagement, so skills in this area can be very valuable on a marketing team. 
  • Social media marketing - Social media platforms remain among the best marketing tools for any business. Ideally, you want to hire a marketer with expertise in the specific platforms best for connecting with your audience.
  • Email marketing - Email is another tool that allows brands to engage directly with their customers. Experience in crafting and testing email campaigns is very valuable in a digital marketing candidate. 
  • Data analytics - The ability to refine and improve strategies and campaigns over time is very useful in a marketing team member, and smart use of data allows people to do this. At minimum, candidates should understand tools like Google Analytics, and know which KPIs and metrics to pay attention to when they're reviewing past marketing campaign performance.
  Now that you understand the core skills you want to look for, read on in the next section for interview questions that can help you identify whether a candidate meets these technical qualifications. 

• 10 technical interview questions

• What digital marketing platforms, products, or software do you prefer? Which have you used the most?

• While it's not necessarily a deal breaker if the candidate prefers a different platform or program than your company uses, it will make their transition into the role easier if they at least know the basics of how to use it. Knowing what kind of marketing systems and software they've used in the past can help you envision how well they'll transition to your team.

• Talk me through your typical steps when conducting keyword research. How do you identify the best keywords? What is your approach to integrating them into content?

• Using the right keywords on your website, blog, social media posts, and other content can help increase your visibility and grow brand awareness by driving more traffic from searches. Look for a candidate who can speak confidently about their preferred SEO and keyword tools, and who has a method for deploying keywords in content. 

• Tell me about the last digital marketing campaign you worked on. How did you approach the task? What aspects of it were successful, and where do you think you could have done better?

• This question can give an interviewer a few valuable insights. For one, it's a chance to hear about the candidate's background in developing and executing marketing strategies. It can also give you insights into their strengths and weaknesses, and how they analyze campaigns after the fact to gauge their effectiveness and drive future growth and improvements.

• How have you used Google Analytics or similar tools in your current or past marketing roles?

• Excellent answers to this question should discuss not just the capabilities of the tool they've used, but also the specific ways they made use of the information provided to improve the conversion rate, visibility, or overall effectiveness of their search ads, content strategy, or other marketing efforts.

• What is the difference between inbound marketing and outbound marketing, and what tactics do you find the most effective for each? Which do you see as the most effective overall?

• With this question, interviewers can get a sense of marketers' depth of knowledge about the industry. While these two types of marketing often use similar content, the best techniques to reach your target audiences will be different for each. The candidate's response tells you how well they understand this, in addition to the specific methods they prefer to utilize. 

• What tools or processes do you use to define the KPIs for a marketing project?

• Not every campaign will have the same goals. Accurately assessing the impact and success starts by knowing what type of data to track in order to gauge progress. They should also be able to explain their reasons for using these specific metrics and the tools they use to generate these reports. 

• What is your experience with marketing automation?

• When used correctly, marketing automation software can do more than save time and resources. These tools can also increase conversion rates and customer engagement by allowing for more personalized, timely communication. Top marketing talent understands this, and should be able to give examples of times they've used automation to improve both the efficiency and the ROI of past marketing projects. 

• What are the key components of an effective sales funnel? What are the steps to establish or refine a sales funnel?

• Attracting and nurturing leads is step one for many marketers. A well-crafted sales funnel helps to guide these leads through their journey from start to finish, turning them into loyal customers. A successful candidate should have ideas for each stage of the funnel, including how to best capture strong leads and move them through these stages. 

• What emerging trends do you see having the biggest impact on the future of the industry? What resources or tools do you use to identify and track industry trends?

• One of the tricky things about digital platforms in general is that they're always evolving. With each new innovation or technology, the best approach to reach your target audience shifts. Marketers need to have their finger on the pulse to stay current with these changes, and this question can help you assess whether the candidate is prepared to do so. 

• What is your experience with creating a digital marketing budget? How do you ensure that you're making the best use of the budget when designing or executing a new marketing campaign?

• Marketing expenses are different from other costs of doing business in that they can directly and actively drive revenue. Even so, though, marketers still need to work within their allotted budget to be successful with their campaigns. Listen for a candidate to explain how they maximize the return on the money they spend, as well as their strategy to ensure their distribution of funds is aligned with the company's goals. 

• Soft skill interview questions 

• While digital marketing experts don't engage with consumers one-on-one the way sales and customer service teams do, they're still primarily focused on building customer and client relationships. This makes soft skills critically important to their success in the role, and the interview stage of the application process is the ideal time to assess these traits.  Some of the most important soft skills for an employer to look for in digital marketing talent include: 

  • Communication - This starts with a professional's ability to convey the right message about your brand to the world. They also need to be great listeners, allowing them to take feedback from customers and users and use it to drive more engagement and conversions.
  • Creativity - The sheer volume of content on the internet can make it challenging to get eyes on your branding materials. Unique advertisements are more likely to attract customer attention and compel them to take action, making creativity a critical part of an effective marketer's toolbox.
  • Teamwork - Even in a relatively small company, marketers need to collaborate with leadership, product developers, web designers, and advertising and sales teams to ensure they're sending the right message and building a consistent brand. 
  • Problem-solving - Not every marketing campaign succeeds from the start. The ability to identify and resolve issues to improve performance over time is very valuable for a marketer, and strong problem solving skills make that possible. 

• 7 soft skills marketing interview questions 

• How do you communicate marketing campaign progress and results to your team, leadership, and other stakeholders?

• Marketing is all about communication, and that's just as crucial internally as when engaging with clients or customers. An experienced professional should be able to explain how they select and present the key performance indicators to show campaign effectiveness, as well as have the communication skills to convey these accurately to other team members.

• Tell me about your worst failure in the workplace. What led to it, how did you recover, and what did you learn from the experience?

• Even the best marketer isn't going to be successful all the time. The ability to bounce back and learn from failures is of great value for professionals in the marketing industry because it lets you turn a loss into a win. How someone responds to failures can also give you a sense for how they respond to challenges more generally and how adaptable they are overall as a professional.

• What is your experience with collaborative digital marketing campaigns?

• Most marketing efforts involve teamwork to some extent, but some are more collaborative than others. Knowing whether the candidate prefers to work individually or as part of a team can be very useful when you're choosing the person to hire into your role. 

• How do you seek out and utilize feedback on marketing campaigns?

• Gathering and using consumer and user feedback can help marketers refine their decision-making about things like which social media channels are best for reaching a given customer segment, or what types of content work best to drive engagement and start a conversation. Just as important is how they respond to feedback from within the organization. A person who gets defensive in response to criticism may prove to be a problem in a workplace context.

• What are the biggest challenges you see facing digital marketers currently, and how do you plan to address or overcome that challenge?

• This is another question that can give interviewers a lot of insights into how the candidate approaches their profession. For one thing, it's a chance to hear what they see as challenging. It also shows you how they go about finding solutions to problems they encounter in the course of digital marketing projects. 

• Tell me about a time you experienced a conflict with a coworker or boss. What caused the conflict, how did you resolve it, and what did you learn from it?

• Digital marketing professionals often need to communicate and work with a variety of other team members, from the sales and advertising teams to the developers who create web pages and the leadership team who determines budgets, goals, and expectations for campaigns. This is why it's often critical for marketers to be excellent team players. How they approach conflict can help you gauge how they'll get along with everyone in your company. 

• What do you see as the key qualities that define an exceptional leader or manager in the digital marketing space?

• In a job interview for a senior or management role, this question can help you assess whether the candidate's philosophy or approach to leadership aligns with your team and culture. For individual contributors, it can help you assess whether the candidate will work well within the leadership structure already established in your company.

• Assessing personality and culture fit

• Culture fit is another way to say that a candidate shares your company's values and will be compatible with your other team members and overall goals and workplace environment. This is important for any employee, but especially so for brand marketing. After all, marketers are the ones who share your brand with customers, something they'll be able to do much more authentically and accurately if they fully buy-in to it.  Personality assessments are one way you can gauge how well a candidate fits your culture needs. The questions and answers in an interview can help you to assess this, too. Here are some top questions to ask to determine a candidate's cultural fitness. 

• 5 culture and personality interview questions

• Why do you want to work on our digital marketing team?

• There are really two parts to this question and the answer to each is important. First, why the candidate is interested in the field of digital marketing overall, and second, why they want to join your specific team. Getting a sense for their goals, aspirations, and passions can help you identify whether they're the best fit for your team. 

• What is your favorite thing about working in digital marketing? Your least favorite thing?

• Asking this question can give you very useful insights into the way the candidate approaches their role and what aspects of the industry appeal to them the most. This doesn't just give you an idea of whether they're a good fit for your current role, but also what other positions they may want to take on in the future.

• What is your philosophy about digital marketing?

• There are many different ways to approach marketing. Some see it through a transactional or analytical lens, while for others it's more about building a community or starting a conversation. Determining how the candidate approaches and views their work generally can help you decide if they align to your needs. 

• How do you respond to negative comments or feedback?

• Some people welcome negative feedback as a chance to improve. Others have a tendency to get defensive in response to criticism, or even to lash out at the person who gave it to them. The ability to separate work from ego, and to take criticism or negative comments in stride, is very valuable for a digital marketer, facilitating a mindset of continuous improvement that can make them a strong overall employee.

• What motivates you to excel in the workplace? What things do you find demotivating in a work environment?

• Not every professional needs the same environment to thrive. Hiring someone who will be a natural fit for your company's workplace model, management style, and team dynamic will set both of you up for success. 

• Final tips for successful digital marketer interviews

• Having a great list of questions prepared is a good first step to conducting an effective job interview, but how you ask them is just as important. First and foremost, aim to ask the same questions of every candidate. This will be a big help in assessing the applicants since you can compare them on equal footing.  While a standardized list of questions is smart, that doesn't mean you want to be robotic in your approach. Listen carefully to the candidate's answers and ask follow-up questions about anything that intrigues you. Taking a conversational style with your interviews can give you a better sense of the candidate's personality, which can be a big help in deciding if they'll fit on your team.  Finally, make sure that you prepare for interviews to the same degree that you expect candidates to do so. Re-read their resume and cover letter before starting, and consider taking a tour through their social media profiles or other online presence to expand on the information they provide. This kind of pre-research can be particularly valuable with a role in digital marketing. If someone has a high number of followers on their personal Instagram, for instance, or their personal blog ranks high in search engine results, you can feel confident they'll bring that same expertise to your company channel. Hiring a digital marketing professional can be a challenge. Asking the right questions in the interview can help you ensure you choose the right candidate for your needs, and the questions on the list in this article can get you off to a great start.