Top Interview Questions to Hire the Best Marketing Candidate

You might find it difficult to weed through the heaps of applications you receive and may want to fill up the vacant positions quickly to get the ball rolling. But a wrong hire can cost you badly.

To put things in perspective, $4,129 was the average cost-per-hire in 2016 as per the 2016 Human Capital Benchmarking Report. Hence, it is important to take your time and prepare dynamic questions and not just stick to routine marketing questions.

This will help you to analyze the candidate’s aptitude and how he/she can bring value to the table and most importantly if the candidate will fit into your team dynamics. Here’s a list of top interview questions for hiring the best marketing candidate.

Questions To Ask During A Marketing Interview

You can prepare your questionnaire into different categories to assess the candidates in all aspects.

Personality Questions

Many interviewers shy away from asking personality questions because they think it might be intruding into a person’s private space. It may be true if done with tact, However,  if you know how to ask the right questions, you can get an insight about the person, and get to know him/her personally. After all, you’re hiring a human being and not a robot!

To begin with, ask questions like “tell me your story”. This open-ended question gives the candidate enough space to talk about his life in a nutshell with his past job transitions, why he chose a career in marketing, and everything in between.

Marketers need to be great storytellers, so look for traits like storytelling, connecting with brands, creating content, building a brand, etc. Other personality questions could be — “what is that one thing you are most passionate about?” or “how to achieve work-life balance?” “do you prefer taking work home?” etc.

Culture-Focused

As mentioned in this LinkedIn blog, poor culture-fit accounts for 89% of hiring failure. While a positive culture-fit can produce tenured employees, who will thrive and contribute to your organization’s growth positively.

Ask questions on what kind of environment the candidate wishes to work in? Does your work environment match to it? For example, if you have a start-up culture and if the candidate prefers a traditional corporate culture, chances are there for a mismatch. You may also ask questions like “how do handle stress at work?” or “how do you tackle a heated argument with a colleague?” or maybe “what kind of relationships you had in the past with your co-workers?”

Team – Focused

A marketing associate usually works in synergy within the team as well as with other teams. So, collaboration is an important trait that you should look for in your prospective candidate.

Ask questions like “Tell me about a past project where you effectively worked in cross-functional collaboration.” Or, maybe you can ask instances when the candidate had to manage vendors, copywriters, designers, etc. within a team for successful project deliveries.

Marketing – Related

Ask tactical questions in this phase that are focused directly on the job requirement. Ask technical questions like how would you manage a new product launch to gauge the knowledge of the candidate about the marketing process – from start to finish. You can also ask about your organization’s current social media presence and ask for suggestions on how it can be improved.

Ask questions around content marketing and ask for an example of a great piece of content marketing that has caught the candidate’s attention recently. In this age of digital transformation, don’t forget to ask about marketing tools and software that the candidate has worked on and the ones that are used in your organization.

Remember a great interview ends with a discussion and not just a monologue. There are several things to keep in mind when hiring a candidate and it is not limited to discussing past work experiences. So, ask open-ended questions that lead to a healthy discussion.

In the end, ask the candidate if he/she has any questions to ask you. Finding the right candidate takes time, so don’t rush in to hire the wrong candidate. To succeed, you need to prepare as much as the candidate does.