A marketing interview can be overwhelming when you’re unclear about the questions you will be asked. This sense of mystery can cause stress and hinder your performance.
However, there’s good news. Each marketing interview has some questions that are almost similar. However, each interview is likely to have variations of these questions.
You can learn about these marketing questions to improve your chances of getting hired and reduce the pre-interview suspense. Therefore, in this post, we will discuss 10 basic marketing interview questions and how to answer them.
It is important to know that learning about and practicing these interview questions should go hand in hand with the pre-interview research.
Pre-interview research should allow you to learn as much as possible about the role, the company, its recent marketing campaigns, its highest-performing campaigns, and its clients.
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10 Basic Marketing Interview Questions and Answers
Remember these are the commonly asked questions, and the objective is to give you some clarity about what interviewers might expect from you. You should expect variations in basic questions.
1. Can you Describe Yourself in a Few Sentences?
This question is asked in different ways, such as “Tell us about yourself” or “Tell us about your background.” Basically, the interviewer wants to know about the experiences that have prepared you for this job.
It is a popular question often asked at the beginning of a marketing job interview. It gets the conversation started and gives you an excellent opportunity to explain why you could be the perfect fit for the role.
When answering this question, the goal is to put yourself in the role and think like a marketer. You can talk about the skills most relevant to the job and how you acquired them. You can also discuss the past experiences that made you interested in marketing or the role in particular.
It is an open-ended question that leaves room for creativity while also making it easier for you to relate to the role and the company more personally.
2. What attracts you to a marketing career?
You can translate this question into simple language, such as “Why are you applying for this job?”. The interviewer wants to know your motivations for applying for this position and how they connect to your career goals.
To answer this question, you can discuss the skills this job will help you develop while also talking about the skills you have that will help you perform this job efficiently.
Secondly, you can weave your past experiences with your career goals and discuss how this role will help you grow on your ideal career trajectory.
Answering this question accurately will also help your employers align you with the right team and avoid assigning positions that might hinder your career goals.
3. What is a marketing campaign that resonated with you on a personal level?
By asking this question, the marketer wants to know what are the qualities of a good marketing campaign in your opinion.
Moreover, it’ll also help them learn how you can implement those techniques in their company. This question also shows whether your taste and preferences match the company.
While answering this question, think of the most successful campaigns vis-a-vis consumers and markets that you’ve come across.
If you’ve done your research, you can connect those campaigns with the company’s values. The key is to be analytical and point out what performed well and why.
Dive deeper into the answer by discussing how you’ll implement similar strategies for positive outcomes when working for the company. Learning about the company’s clients will also help you elucidate how a campaign you liked can work in tandem with a client’s goals and vision.
4. Do you have any feedback or opinions on the marketing campaign we just completed?
This common marketing question aims to learn your knowledge of the company’s marketing campaigns you’re interviewing for. However, that is not all.
The interviewer’s goal is to learn whether you have deeply analyzed the company’s marketing campaigns, its strong points, and things that can be better.
Your answer will help them understand whether your marketing experience can add value to the company. Therefore, you
Must prepare in advance and take time to learn about the company’s recent campaigns and clients.
Should look for any new product launches and the strategies the company used to make them successful.
Learning about their clients and seeing if they implemented any new marketing campaigns is also a good idea.
Once you have found an interesting campaign, look closely and see if there’s room for improvement. Your goal should be to first explain why you liked the campaign, followed by gentle feedback.
For example, you can present feedback as a question by saying, “I observed that you focused heavily on advertising the product on Instagram; what made you not pursue Facebook marketing, considering it already has a large following for your client’s page?”
5. How would you plan and execute the launch of a new product?
This question aims to learn how you’d handle a real-life marketing challenge, like launching a new product in this instance. It can also be phrased in different ways, such as asking you about building brand awareness for a client.
The goal is to learn about your marketing knowledge and decision-making skills depending on a particular scenario. Your answer should cover your approach toward a product launch campaign from start to finish.
You should begin from the ideation phase and discuss each step all the way to the post-event meetings and the company’s long-term goals. You can discuss examples from your previous experiences and explain how you’d implement those lessons here.
If you feel you have some weaknesses, you can approach them by saying that you’d like to learn and grow in these areas by working in this role and company. It will show your interviewer you’re eager to learn and that you’re a self-aware professional.
6. How do you stay motivated?
It is easy to lose motivation and interest when working for a company that doesn’t align with your preferences. This question aims to learn whether you’re a good fit in terms of the company’s culture and environment.
When you answer this question, talk about the positive things about the company’s culture and its team and how these factors will motivate you to do your best work. You can give an example of something the company does that you like.
For example, you can mention how the biannual nature retreats arranged by the company can help you disconnect from work for a while and return with fresh perspectives and ideas.
Ultimately, you should frame your answer to show that you view the company’s culture, practices, environment, team, and values positively.
7. What do you do when you’re not working?
This question is more about your personality than what you do in your free time. By learning about you when you’re not working, an interviewer wants to learn if your colleagues and coworkers are compatible with you and vice versa.
This question helps you build a deeper connection with the hiring team if you talk about shared interests and preferences.
For example, you might talk about your habit of reading books related to marketing, sales, or copywriting to show that you’re always curious and learning.
You can answer this question well if you’ve done pre-interview research into the company’s culture and workforce.
The goal is to talk about things you’re passionate about that are not directly associated with work but relate to it in some way. Other variations of this question might be when you’re asked about your hobbies, leisure activities, etc.
8. Can you describe what makes you stand out as a candidate compared to others applying for this position?
We’d suggest keeping any special experience or marketing skills a secret until this question is asked.
The goal of this question is to learn what gives you a competitive advantage over other applicants. It should be something not already mentioned on your resume and something that sets you apart from other professionals.
For example, communication is one of the core soft skills in marketing. If you have any special skills, certification, or experience in “communications,” you can present it in a way that is relatable to the role.
9. Where do you see yourself in five years?
This is a standard question that is not just unique to marketing interviews. The goal is to learn about your career ambitions and whether they align with the company’s roles.
You can discuss things you want to learn during your career to help you climb the ladder of success. Take some time to brainstorm the career trajectory you want to follow before the interview and answer this question in a step-by-step process.
If you have figured out how this particular role and company can help your career goals, make sure to mention it to exhibit you’re a good fit.
10. Do you have any questions?
This question is frequently asked as a closer to wrap up the interview. This question aims to learn how curious you are about the role and the company.
Be attentive throughout the interview and mentally note things you want to ask later to answer this question. You can also ask questions during the interview, but it’s good to save some for the end.
Focus on asking questions highly relevant to the role and your career. Some questions that you can ask are:
What are the things that might improve my chances of getting hired for this role?
Are there any concerns about my experience or work that might hinder my chances of getting hired?
What are the next steps I should know about?
What does growth look like in this role?
When you have prepared for these basic marketing interview questions, you’ll feel much more relaxed and confident when appearing in the interview. Take your time to practice these questions from different angles and perspectives.
Ultimately, these questions will also test your knowledge about the company and role, so make sure not to ignore this crucial aspect either. For more useful information on topics related to marketing, business, and entrepreneurship, stay connected with the marketing tutor.