It’s finally here: your dream digital marketing job has answered your application and asked to chat about the role and your experience. But once your initial excitement dies down, another emotion comes to the front: stress! What is a digital marketing interview like? Is there something you should prepare?
In this article, we’ll dive into the nitty-gritty of digital marketing interviews, helping you prepare as much as possible for any and all upcoming interviews within the digital marketing sphere. In addition, we’ll review the different interviews you’ll have, highlighting specificities for different roles. And although we’ll keep this general so that it can be applied to any role within digital marketing, remember that the more in-depth you can go with your interviewer, the better.
The Initial Digital Marketing Interview
For almost every role within digital marketing, the first interview will be a brief one, and could be with your future manager or an HR representative to ensure that you align on the most basic aspects of the role. During this interview, you can expect the following:
To hear more information about the job itself, your potential responsibilities, and the company’s goals.
To make sure that you and the position align when it comes to basic requirements, such as in-office vs. remote arrangements, salary expectations, and hours.
To share some of your experience to ensure your skills match what the job demands.
If you’re applying for a specialist role, you can expect to go into a bit more detail about your qualifications but generally speaking, this interview is just to ensure that you and the job would be a good fit.
The General Interview
Once the company is convinced that you would be a good fit for the role, you’ll head to the next round: an interview with a person who will be directly involved with the role, usually a supervisor or manager. In this interview, you’ll be expected to show off what you know and learn even more about the role and what the team actually does.
Because the field of digital marketing is so broad, we’ve broken down some of the most common digital marketing positions and what you may be asked during the interview:
Copywriters: the company will want to know how you write and the sectors in which you’ve had experience before; they’ll also ask about the different mediums for which you’ve written, such as email, social media, blog, and websites and your experience with SEO optimization.
Social media managers: questions will revolve around the social media accounts you’ve managed previously, with a special focus on engagement and followers.
SEO roles: when applying for any role specializing in SEO, be prepared to talk about various updates within the SEO sphere, your techniques for success, and your experience with data analysis.
Product marketers: for product marketing roles, companies will want to know what you’ve worked with in the past and the products you’ve brought to the market. Get ready to explain the entire lifecycle of products you’ve developed and your research strategies.
Paid marketers: questions will focus on your previous management of paid campaigns, budget allocation, and understanding of paid advertising strategies.
Regardless of the role for which you are applying, be prepared to answer these questions:
What are some successes you’ve had?
What are the biggest challenges you’ve faced?
What is your biggest strength?
What is your weak point?
Next Steps in Digital Marketing Interviews
If your interview with a team member went well, you will be advanced to the next round of interviews, which is typically a sort of test to test your skills which you can complete on your own time and then send to the interviewer. Depending on your area of expertise, the test will look something like this:
Copywriters: you will be asked to create copy for the brand and possibly for various channels to see how you create copy across different mediums.
Social media managers: you might be asked to review the brand’s social media and create a new strategy or make suggestions for improvements.
SEO roles: you might be provided with the brand’s current SEO rankings and goals and asked to create a strategy to improve overall SEO standings.
Product marketers: for either an imaginary product or one that relates to the brand, you’ll create a demo product lifecycle to show how you research and create your product plan.
Paid marketers: you could be asked to create a paid marketing campaign for the brand, specifically targeting certain demographics or audiences.
When working on your test, it can be easy to get caught up in perfection and trying to match what you think the company wants to see, but don’t get too carried away–the ultimate goal of the test is to see what you can do and how you will bring your uniqueness to the role. It’s your time to shine–let your creativity flow!
Final Digital Marketing Interviews
If the company is pleased with your skills test, you may receive an offer directly, or you might do one final interview with the team/another colleague to see how you’d fit in, personality-wise. This step is dependent on the number of candidates left in the process and typically reserved for the top candidates.
For culture fit or team interviews, just be yourself! Remember, the company isn’t just interviewing you–you’re also trying to determine if the company would be a good fit for you. Asking these questions can help you get a better idea of what working together would be like:
What is your typical work schedule?
How is feedback provided within the team?
What do you do when there is more work to do than time to do it?
What do you enjoy about the team/company?
How is success measured in this role?
Preparing for a digital marketing interview may seem daunting, but with the right mindset and preparation, you’ll be able to confidently navigate each step of the process. Whether you're applying for a copywriter position or an SEO specialist role, remember that your unique experiences and skills are your greatest assets. Keep calm, stay focused, and don't forget that interviews are a two-way street—you’re assessing whether the company is the right fit for you, too. Best of luck!
About the Author:
Juliette Carreiro is a tech writer, with two years of experience writing in-depth articles for Ironhack. Covering everything from career advice and navigating the job ladder, to the future impact of AI in the global tech space, Juliette is the go-to for Ironhack’s community of aspiring tech professionals.
