Professional marketing interview questions. Marketing interview and economist interview. Important and not important

Marketer interviewing

How to prepare for a marketer interview? This is a question often faced by candidates for a marketer job. This is especially true for applicants with experience and who want to show their professionalism at the interview. I have interviewed marketers on numerous occasions. Some recommendations that I had to give to the candidates I liked in order to facilitate the passage of the next stage of the interview, with several stages of selection, are given below.

A lot has been written about general preparation for an interview, today I will talk about how to prepare for an interview that affects professional competence... A marketer, especially if he already has significant experience, should focus on a company with classic marketing. Of course, there are options when, due to the market situation in which the company is located, the focus of the interview shifts to one side or the other. But it is always easier to move from understanding the general situation to the specifics of one of the areas of work of a marketer than to change the logic of the story during the interview.

If your prospect is a marketing professional, chances are he expects you to do the same. systemic view on the marketing that has developed with him. The success of the interview depends on your ability to show the ability to take on the routine work of collecting and analyzing information to prepare decisions. And this, in turn, depends on the knowledge of the models that are used by the company's marketers, the ability to apply them and the logic of your reasoning when making marketing decisions.

Understanding Marketing

There are more than a thousand definitions of marketing, it is not necessary to know all of them, but you should have your own understanding of marketing. How else can you show what field you are a specialist in.

There is no universal definition that would be accepted by all. Nevertheless, the purpose of marketing is quite clear - marketing helps to increase the company's competitiveness, and therefore its profitability, through understanding the consumer and using marketing tools.
If you want to show erudition, say you agree with the American Marketing Association's definition of "an organizational function and set of processes to create, promote, and deliver value to the customer, and manage customer relationships that benefit all stakeholders."

Use Abel's Model as the basis for the structure of the story in the interview

Any business fits into a model adapted to marketing, D. Abel: Who do we sell (consumers)? What are we selling (product)? How do we sell? (Technologies). Accordingly, it is convenient to talk about how you helped increase the company's profit by previous location work (and a question about your previous experience will surely be asked) in a similar vein.

  • Show customer understanding - how did the company build customer service?
  • Describe how you helped develop the company's product.
  • Demonstrate an understanding of the company's market environment.
  • Explain what marketing tools the company has used to improve business results and how you were involved.

Of course, in the company where you worked (or work), you could only be responsible for part of the marketing functions, but this does not prevent you from showing a general understanding of marketing and its objectives. Accordingly, by telling who and how solved them, and how you helped in the implementation of these tasks, you will show your understanding of the marketing tasks in the company and your experience in solving them.

Customer insight

The main thing that is expected of you is the ability to understand what the client needs in order to offer the best solution.
The easiest place to start is by describing the market (customers) in which the company operates. It will be a big plus if you can show how you estimated the market size. This is one of the difficult questions, the answer to which is best thought out in advance. Do not forget about the sources of information that you used. The argument "I think so" without justification will not work. It is unlikely that someone will check you, unless, of course, you plan to work in the same market, they will rather evaluate your ability to use the available information.

Tell us about your role in the development of the company's product

Therefore, be prepared to talk about the structure of the assortment and the main positions in each group. And most importantly, show how your products have taken into account the interests of those segments that you talked about earlier. If you have experience working in a product development team (creating, improving, expanding the range, etc.), be sure to demonstrate it.

It is logical if, when talking about products, you mention the main products of competitors with whom you had to compete for the consumer. Tell us about the key differences between your product and competitors' products. The more convincing your argumentation, the best experience you will produce. This means that in a new market, you will be able to pick up arguments in order to distinguish the product from the competition.

Understanding the market environment

A marketer, like no one else, must understand in what market environment the company operates.

Tell us about the market environment of the company

Sometimes a marketer gets lost when asked to describe the market in which a company operates, even more difficult when asked to portray him. In order to make it convenient to answer this question, you can use the scheme of commodity circulation in the sales channels. Then you will not forget to tell about the main competitors, how sales are carried out in different segments and what intermediaries the company works with. If the company is an intermediary, then it is worth talking about the main suppliers operating in the market.

This scheme can be supplemented by M. Porter's model of intra-industry competition. In this case, along with suppliers, customers and competitors, it is possible to touch upon the topic of substitutes, as well as the problem of the emergence of new competitors if the market is characterized by low barriers to entry.

You talked about competitors' products and comparing them with the company's products earlier, but if you want to touch on some aspects additionally to show your strengths, for example, work with information about competitors, it is advisable to do this at this stage.

Most likely, there will be a question, where do you get the information you need - this is good reason, when talking about the market, focus on the ability to receive information. And not only from the Internet, but also when communicating with partners and employees of the sales department.

Possession of marketing tools

Actually, we come to the most important thing. Here you have to convince the interlocutor that you know how to benefit the company. Depending on the specific situation your interviewing company may need your various skills. What will be interesting for your potential manager to hear in the interview - how do you decide practical tasks or at least how you approach them. So try to prepare yourself by answering the following questions:

How did you help improve your company's product? Tell us how you work with your clients. What polls were carried out. What conclusions and recommendations did you give and how did you substantiate them. This may not only apply to manufacturing companies; trading companies are also optimizing their assortment. And customer service plays an important role in the development of the company.

How did you participate in pricing? Marketers in Russian companies are not often responsible for pricing, but at least talk about how you controlled the price ratio between the prices of your company's products and the prices of competitors, and what pricing policies the company used, you should know. Also, how should you be able to explain how the prices for your goods were determined, even if this is a banal cost + margin method?

What was your assistance in the development of a sales network? Most of all, in this case, the company is interested in your experience in assessing the local market and preparing recommendations for partners. If you have participated in the opening of branches or stores, be sure to tell us. Also, it is worth noting especially if this work was carried out constantly and you have typical developments.

Concerning promotion block, then the companies may have completely different approaches, so rely on your real experience and see the reaction of the interlocutor. The most important point that you should definitely mention is evaluation of the effectiveness of the company's marketing communications... Few people are interested in using the budget now - tell us how the results of the promotion activities were assessed.

What I would like to draw your attention to - the work of sellers is directly related to marketing communications, remember that “direct selling” is part of the “promotion” block, so do not forget to talk about how you helped your sellers - preparing texts, presentations, etc. directly related to the tasks of a marketer.

Of course, all of the above is just an outline for your story. Most likely the conversation on interview will take place in dialogue, and the suggested tips will only help you to emphasize your professionalism and show the facets of your experience.

Good luck with your interview!

Often, a recruiter has to select employees for the company, about whose positions he has the most general idea. How to select worthy candidates in such a situation and what should be guided by when inviting applicants for an interview? In the material, we will talk about the interview of a marketer, economist and analyst.

From the materials of this article, you will learn:

here.

If it is necessary to select not a marketer, but an "advertiser", the interview can be conducted according to a similar scheme, however, the questions on professional topics should be different. To clarify questions, it is necessary to hold a conversation with the head of the department in which the new employee will be employed.

Analyst interview

At the interview of the analyst, as well as at the interview of the marketer, it is necessary to find out how high the level of professional knowledge of the applicant is. This can also be done through professional questions. However, when preparing for your interview with a potential analyst at the firm, you should speak with a company expert on this issue and find out exactly what responsibilities the analyst will perform. This is due to the fact that analytics - broad scope activity and it is quite difficult for a recruiter to navigate in it without outside consultation.

Sample professional questions to assess the candidate's skill in self-presentation:

  • Why did you decide to change jobs?
  • How can you characterize yourself?
  • Why are you interested in employment with our company?
  • How do you see your career in a year?

Economist interview

Without additional economic education, it is quite difficult to interview a candidate for the position of economist. Therefore, when preparing for this event, it is necessary to clarify the employer's requirements regarding:

  1. Applicant education(for example, higher economic and additional legal courses);
  2. Seniority and work experience(for example, from five years in large organizations);
  3. Last place of work(what are the reasons for dismissal and what were the responsibilities).

If you have any doubts about the list of questions to ask in the interview, check with the experts). Also regarding interviewing an economist you can.

5480

0

What interview questions to ask in order to accurately find yours. What to look for and what you need to be prepared for.

Remember, a good marketer is a “creative” person, which means that he will not come into a tight-knit framework and an oppressive atmosphere. And you have to choose the best of the worst.

I want

Well, now let's move on to the interview itself. Rather, to its preparation. One of your most important tasks is to decide who you want to see on your team:

  1. The performer of your ideas (read - your hands);
  2. A creative person who will only come up with crazy ideas and implement them;
  3. A universal soldier, otherwise a jack of all trades;
  4. A marketer who will come up with ideas and others will implement.

I can tell right away that if you want to find a specialist who will be engaged in marketing around the clock, at the same time study independently and do everything yourself, and even for a salary, of course, not the most luxurious, then you can safely forget about it.

If a person can do all this and does it, then it is easier for him to work for himself than for someone else. Therefore, do not think that a marketer should know and be able to do everything. For example.

  • He should know what CRM marketing is, what technical task give it to the programmer, but he shouldn't do it himself;
  • He should know all the ways to promote on Instagram, but the contractors he found should do this. Which, by the way, he will control and provide you with reports on their work;
  • He must find out what new product your customers need, but a logistician must deal with his search and order;
  • Etc.

It seems to be logical and understandable, but ... "I have no money to support such a state." Then do not be surprised that the specialist, who was not assigned to his duties, works slowly and ineffectively. Because it's impossible to know everything in marketing. The sphere is too large and at the same time very dynamically developing. For example, we have 12 people in a team and we all learn from each other.

Important! If you think that this is advice for just beginning businessmen, then you are greatly mistaken. This applies to all companies, including large ones, because many managers are still looking for “jack of all trades”.

"Vladimir Davydov wrote a column for the" Cases "section on how to organize a search for Internet marketers and digital leaders in practice: where to look, what questions to ask, what to look for and what wages pay.

Finding an internet marketer and head of digital (digital marketing) is a headache for many companies. Where to look for such professionals? How can their skills be assessed? It is difficult to answer these questions even when hiring more narrow employees - PPC specialists, SEO-optimizers, email marketers or web developers.

Let's say you need to find an SEO specialist. Search options: contact the recruiting service, in recruiting agency or search for yourself. The search method is posting a vacancy, and its description, most likely, will be taken from the text of another vacancy or a new one will be created by compilation.

However, neither you, nor the HR manager, nor the agency will select a qualified person, because no one knows how to evaluate such a specialist. At the interview, HR will ask: “Do you know the algorithms? search engines? " What can an honest applicant say to this? If he knew, he would be vacationing in the Bahamas, not going to job interviews. While HR listens to 10 of these candidates and schedules an interview with the customer, the best of them will go to another employer. As a result, a company that does not know the criteria for evaluating a specialist will choose someone who has sold himself well, even at exorbitant prices, but not the one who has the necessary knowledge and can really help.

But you have a "guarantee" of the result. If a person leaves in a month or turns out to be professionally unsuitable, then HR will find a similar "specialist" and fill an empty table with a monitor in your office. After that, what can we say about generalists.

The problem of the personnel market: there are a lot of Internet marketing specialists, but general practitioners are rare

An Internet marketer and digital leader must understand the technical side of projects, own several marketing tools (manually work with and configure them) and be able to manage a team. But in the labor market, there are two types of applicants for these vacancies most often:

  • One tool specialists who are trying to become internet marketers (SEOs, context specialists, web developers, designers, and others).
  • Managers from areas related to internet marketing (sales, classic marketing, brand management) who are trying to become digital directors.

Separately, I would like to note a case that is much less common and often clinical: a specialist marks one tool immediately at the digital director (jumping steps). It is not recommended to waste time on such a candidate. If suddenly a person is ready to learn, then the plan can be proposed as follows: after 2-3 years of persistent practice, he will be able to grow to an Internet marketer and after the same period to a digital director, subject to the practice of team management.

Career path of an Internet marketing specialist to digital director

To become a qualified internet marketer and digital director, you need to get practical experience work that cannot be replaced by specialized training in courses.

To grow to an Internet marketer, a specialist must be proficient in one or two tools and be able to manage two to four specialists, freelancers, or contractors. The head of a department or digital direction grows out of an internet marketer who manages a department of seven to ten people or a range of contractors. Note that a single tool specialist is not an internet marketer. He can be a talented and thoughtful professional who knows all about PPC advertising or SEO or layout or website building or design. But without knowledge of all the tools (at least superficial), an employee cannot perform the functions of an Internet marketer.

Only an internet marketer with at least two to three years of experience can become a head of a department or a digital direction. A brand manager or marketer who has completed several courses in internet marketing will not be able to cope with the duties of a digital leader. Unfortunately, even courses designed to train such leaders will not provide the necessary experience. It can only be purchased while working on projects.

In my opinion, only a general who was a soldier himself can lead a team. I know what is going on in the head of a specialist: when he needs success, and when he can point out weak points. I can explain in a minute how to do the right thing.

Artemy Lebedev

Harvard Business Review

Real life example: dilettante vs professional

How to understand how a professional leader or marketer differs from a non-professional? Notice how they strategize and assign objectives to the team.

Here's what you can hear from the layman: “It's important for us to get more organic traffic. I looked at the competitors - it turned out that traffic can grow sixfold. SEO-schnicks, ay! Come here. We need to do the same, it will increase sales. Work, show me the results. "

Compare this to the comment of a competent digital executive or internet marketer:

The difference in approach is obvious. If a business owner sets a task in the format “Give us a million sales”, then the team expects a step-by-step strategy from the manager: what needs to be done in order to get million-dollar sales, and how to measure them. Therefore, in the field of online advertising and marketing, the manager must understand the processes at the technical and operational level.

The end-to-end marketing line comes from the owner. If the first person does not understand the demand, the company skiffs and there is no point in working further.

Timur Gariaev,

"Brandyat, or the Product is the Head of the Whole"

Of course, the head of digital department or internet marketer may not know exactly how to perform absolutely all of the steps listed above. But they must navigate the processes at a high enough level so that:

  • create step by step plan actions;
  • discuss it with the team;
  • help colleagues with technical questions;
  • control the implementation of the project;
  • get a controllable and measurable result.

If the digital director attracts one or more agencies or contractors, he gives them common tasks and communicates in the format of monthly reports and conversations like “good or bad SEO positions,” “good or bad engagement,” “high or low ROI,” such a manager can be replaced with a Telegram bot or a regular parrot.

How to look for an internet marketer

The internet marketer you need:

The salary:

  • from 70 to 100 thousand rubles per month (according to our experience and on average in Moscow). Less than 70 thousand are the salaries of specialists. More than 100 thousand is growth for an Internet marketer in terms of KPIs or a transition to the position of the head of the digital Internet department.

Basic requirements:

  • Experience in website development. Theory, project management for the development of a site in a team, experience in creating a site from scratch.
  • Knowledge of the principles of search engine optimization and the ability to work with contextual advertising. This is the foundation on which most internet marketing strategies are built.
  • Ability to work with video ads, email marketing, display ads and retargeting.
  • Deep knowledge of web analytics. Proficiency in Google Analytics: planning analytics and performance metrics, uploading and processing data, making business decisions based on web analytics.
  • Knowledge of classic marketing, marketing analysis, the basics of building business and economics.
  • The ability to analyze competitors: from the point of view of both business aspects and Internet marketing.
  • Basic web programming (knowledge of HTML, JS, CSS, PHP).
  • Knowledge of design and usability at least at the level of "Manning". The candidate must follow the latest developments in the development of sites, landing pages and interfaces.
  • Broad horizons in the professional field: tracking new products in the field of advertising services, analytics and related tools.
  • Ability to communicate with people, make presentations and defend all your ideas together with account managers.

It will be a plus for the candidate:

  • No stupor when mentioning the concepts of "CRM", "telephone analytics", "personified multichannel web analytics".
  • Experience in developing an Internet marketing strategy and detailed control of its implementation in a team of marketers, telephonists, CRM integrators, SEO specialists, copywriters, layout designers, programmers, designers.
  • Advanced knowledge of Excel.
  • Knowledge of mathematics at the level of a humanitarian university.
  • Knowledge of economics, statistics.
  • Experience on the side of both the client and the agency.

We have collected the minimum number of topics on which it is worth asking questions to a future Internet marketer:

  • ability to work with Excel, Google Docs;
  • ability to work with databases at the level of the query language;
  • ability to program (in any language);
  • website development from scratch;
  • development of a landing page from scratch;
  • setting up web analytics based on Google Analytics;
  • development of an intranet system;
  • participation in projects where there was a bunch of web analytics by user_id with systems;
  • search marketing (organic search);
  • commodity aggregators such as Yandex.Market;
  • partnership programs;
  • Google Display Network;
  • Yandex context-media network;
  • classic media purchases;
  • programmatic (via RTB);
  • content marketing;
  • content and advertising on social media;
  • email marketing;
  • CPA networks;
  • retargeting and remarketing;
  • video advertising;
  • promotion of mobile applications;
  • certificates, courses and seminars related to the vacancy;
  • titles and authors of the last five books read related to the vacancy;
  • the number of projects or clients that the candidate led in parallel;
  • the average size of the budget with which the candidate worked;
  • experience of personal meetings with clients, conducting presentations;
  • links to presentations or reports prepared by the candidate;
  • recommendations from management or clients;
  • best project, its results and problems.

Sample questions

Ask the candidate to solve the case. Abstract questions like: “Tell us, have you worked with this tool? What results have you achieved? " is a path to nowhere.

We have selected several questions on the topics listed above, with the help of which you can assess the qualifications of applicants.

1. Questions about one tool (with a technological bias).

A factory in Moscow produces chairs, but does not sell them. Dealers throughout Russia are engaged in sales. The plant has a business card website. How to attract the maximum amount of search traffic from all regions to sell this manufacturer's chairs?

2. A trick question - a test of intelligence.

There are two ads in Yandex.Direct. One has a conversion of 0.5%, while the other has a 0.9%. What questions do you have after hearing the problem?

3. Question for general knowledge of marketing.

How to improve ad performance in contextual advertising regardless of systems? Describe your plan point by point. What factors influence this?

4. Complex questions on the knowledge of several tools.

We are planning internet marketing for a company with a long sales cycle. The attraction goes through the Internet. After some time, we segmented the hits by industry and decided to show customers thematic ads - products from their industry. How to do it? List all available methods.

There is a site with Yandex.Direct and Google Analytics. How do I set up a report to ROI only in the Google Analytics interface?

5. General strategic questions about marketing and knowledge of tool bundles

You have been tasked with selling a product online and have set a sales plan. You have a presentiment that there will be problems with demand (it is not enough). Answer the following questions:

  • How to check if there will be demand problems?
  • How do you know that the amount of demand that you see is enough to fulfill your online sales plan?
  • What would you recommend to a client in such a situation? Sketch a quick strategy.

This is only a rough list of interview tasks; each company develops cases for its own needs. For example, we created about 25 questions that we always ask applicants for the position of Internet marketer.

Important points

  • Certificates - necessary condition but not a skill score. If a person has received the minimum required package of certificates (Yandex.Direct, Google.AdWords, Google Analytics IQ) - this is a plus. But answering test questions and solving real cases are two different things. We interview certified professionals on a regular basis, and often they are unable to answer practical questions.
  • Find out which tools an internet marketer is best at. Ask questions about them, make tasks for knowing all the nuances.
  • Your own online store is a serious plus for an internet marketer. It is worth communicating with such specialists as a priority.
  • A telephone interview saves time in face-to-face meetings. Choose candidates that suit you on your resume and ask a few of the questions listed above. Usually 60% of applicants are eliminated on the second or third question. Based on the results of all questions from the remaining 40%, 3-5 people can be invited for an interview (sample: 200 responses to a vacancy posted on the website hh.ru).
  • The resume is a great misconception. It is good to use a resume for the primary filter: weed out non-core specialists, candidates with insufficient experience. The remaining applicants for the vacancy should be interviewed on the above issues, without attaching importance to the resume.

How to look for a digital leader

The digital executive you need:

The salary:

  • From 120 thousand rubles per month (according to our experience and on average in Moscow). Everything that is more than 100 thousand rubles (at least 30% of this part) must be accrued according to the KPI.

Basic requirements:

  • Possession of at least one internet marketing tool for five plus. It can be anything: web analytics, development, contextual advertising, RTB, and so on.
  • Experience in leading a team of seven to ten specialists (the minimum required set): internet marketer, SEO specialist, layout designer, programmer, web analyst, web designer, IP telephony specialist, 1C specialist.
  • An experience. The path covered in 5-6 years from a specialist to an Internet marketer, and then to a manager.
  • Ability to manage projects and teams with full understanding technological process(how everything works) and the ability to practice project management by terms and risks (assessment by hours, deadlines, results, risks of non-fulfillment).
  • Desire to test new tools and mechanics. A professional digital leader is ready to spend at least 4-6 hours a week on this.

What to talk about in an interview

When interviewing a digital executive applied tasks on tools should be combined with questions about project and people management. Thus, each question has three parts: tools, management, results. Also, don't forget to ask for recommendations.

Sample questions

We are in general outline formulated questions that can be asked to a future digital director. But each company can (and should) adapt them to a specific candidate.

1. The resume says that you built end-to-end analytics before sales.

  • Tell us about your team. What kind of specialists worked in it? What tasks did you perform at the application level?
  • How long have you been creating the system?
  • Which CRM did you choose and why?
  • Which telephony system did you choose and why?
  • Which web analytics system did you choose and why?
  • How was the docking with the warehouse done?
  • Name at least 5 technical problems that you solved during the integration process.
  • How did you manage to motivate the sales department to work with such a system?
  • Is the system working? How can I check this?

2. You write that you have tripled your online sales.

  • How were sales measured? How did you track them?
  • What tools and channels did you use?
  • What kind of specialists worked to increase sales?
  • How did you figure out that sales increased exactly 3 times? Have you already configured analytics before you?
  • What are your functions on the project? What tools did you use?
  • Who can I call and check it out?
  • How did you cluster the queries, how many were there, what services did you use?
  • How did they automate contextual advertising- services, scripts, something else?
  • How was performance measured before sales? What systems have you integrated?
  • What strategies were used in the context at the top level?
  • How did you deal with competitive requests?
  • Have you used context for content marketing?
  • What have you accomplished for your business with context?

4. Search engine marketing and SEO.

  • What was the SEO strategy: regions, queries, snippets, texts, internal optimization? How was it mined external links?
  • What results did you get on organic traffic and sales from it, growth of query clusters?
  • What mechanics have you come up with for SEO?

5. Development.

  • You created personal accounts, closed areas of the site, Internet services? Why, for whom?
  • Have you developed websites or landing pages from scratch? How much development did you pass through yourself - in hours and specific projects?
  • How did you manage the development? What methods and programs did you use? What kind of reporting did the specialists have? How did the work plan change if deadlines were missed or risks triggered?
  • How did you detail the tasks, what methods did you use? Did you hit the forecast for the timing?
  • How did you organize your work with freelancers and outsourcers?

Important points

  • Study your work experience carefully. If there is nothing about internet tools, web analytics, internet strategy, team management of internet specialists, don't waste time on this candidate. The profile experience of managing an Internet team should be at least 4 years, and better - 6 years.
  • You don't need a classic marketer. It can be calculated from phrases and words in the resume (when there is nothing else besides these skills): guide marketing activities, BTL, booklets, packaging, strategies, form style, sales funnel analysis, reporting verification, analysis of the structure and level of fluctuations in demand (ABC, XYZ and combined analyzes), portfolio analysis, strategic and operational product analysis, SWOT analysis, competitive analysis, segmentation and positioning, consumer potential analysis, surveys. Such a candidate can be a great manager and a classic marketer, but not a digital director.
  • When evaluating managerial experience, do not consider working with contractors (agencies). It is important. Working with agencies does not count towards the experience of a digital director: such interaction, in fact, only reduces qualifications. And it is raised by its own team, which needs to be managed (yes, agencies can work in parallel - this is not a problem). Therefore, always clarify whether the candidate did everything indicated in the resume himself with the team, or, as they like to say, “managed the agencies”.
  • Work with those who like to test new tools and mechanics. You should not continue the interview if the applicant answers questions about tools, channels and mechanics: "So I am a leader, and these are the tasks of specialists, I will manage and give tasks, and they give me the result." A good digital director always wants to master new tools and mechanics, even if there is not enough time for it. This distinguishes the professional from another “general manager”.

Internet marketers and digital leaders need to be not only found, but also retained

Getting a good talent on the staff is difficult, especially on the client side. If marketing agency clearly understands by what criteria to evaluate candidates and how to raise a professional, this may be problematic for the client. For example, in order for an employee to perform the functions of a digital director, at least seven to ten people must work in the marketing department.

The head gradually builds up a mini-agency within the company and manages it. In Russia, there are few such cases, usually the marketing department here consists of two or three specialists and the growth opportunities in it are limited.

The Internet marketer and digital director are broad-based professionals who have gained serious work experience, are well versed in all processes and want to constantly grow and learn. Consider these facts to find and attract truly qualified people to your project.

If you plan to build work with agencies (which is often much better than many years of hard building a department inside), check the candidates on the checklist. That way, you instantly recognize a quality agency by filtering out streaming, massive options.

An interview with a marketer is usually quite simple for the majority and the key question for making a decision is the answer to the question “What experience as a marketer?”, And if the answer is rather long and meaningful, then the person is accepted.

If there was no experience, then you most likely refuse, or take a person purely according to feelings, since there are not so many candidates from whom you have to choose.

But in fact, it is better to do everything differently from the beginning. How to find a marketer and what interview questions to ask is the topic of today's article.

There are many in my head ...

When looking for a marketer for a company, a manager has a lot of questions in his head, but if you take them all and combine them, then they will all sound like this:

  1. How do you find a good marketer?
  2. How to understand that he is sensible?
  3. What questions should you ask?
  4. What are the correct answers to the questions?

You can find more detailed answers to the first two questions in our video, I highly recommend watching:

In general, this article is primarily aimed at managers (HR), so that they understand how to choose and what he should actually do, which ones.

Yes, this is a stone in the garden of the management team, or rather those who imagine not a marketer, but a business partner with a salary of 20 thousand rubles.

Well, somehow ...

But of course, this information will be no less useful for marketers themselves, so that they understand what is expected of them and better prepare for interviews (a stone flies into the garden not for far-fetched reasons, but for very real facts that we encounter weekly).

Instructions for managers

Let's do it this way. I'll start with basic foundations hiring that has been and continues to be ignored by most executives.

And all because without them there is simply no sense in the right questions at the interview, since, one might say, there will be no one to interview ...

Advertisement

We are adults and we understand that an interview is a sale. And the search for a good specialist (you don't need another one?) - even more so.

Gone are the days when it was possible to simply post information on the Internet like: “You want a marketer, call here”. This does not work.

Moreover, I remember the desire of every manager to find a good specialist for little money (of course, you are willing to pay him good money. But then ... when he shows himself. Well, in general, never).

You need to attract a specialist, just as you attract new customers through advertising.

Therefore, the first thing you need to do is create a good selling job posting that includes your job requirements. Thereby:

  1. You will remove unnecessary people and save your time;
  2. Increase the likelihood of seeing a more professional person in the interview.

I understand that while I am writing not exactly about the interview, but take your time, everything will be fine. Let's go further.

WE ARE ALREADY MORE THAN 29,000 people.
TURN ON

Sell ​​your company

You need to sell your company in a job interview. That is, tell who you are, where you are going, what are your plans in general.

To be honest, I'm not very sure that my article will be read by the CEO of some major international company(but I will believe it), so most likely your business is small or medium.

This is why you need to sell the idea that working in your company is not only profitable and stable (keywords in the interview ;-)), but also pretty darn great.

Because a cool young team, because a specialist will be able to develop, because you pay for trainings (for example, with us), and in the end, because you have cookies.

Remember, a good marketer is a “creative” person, which means that he will not come into a driven framework and an oppressive atmosphere. And you have to choose the best of the worst.

I want

Well, now let's move on to the interview itself. Rather, to its preparation. One of your most important tasks is to decide who you still want to see on your team:

  1. The performer of your ideas (read - your hands);
  2. A creative person who will only come up with crazy ideas and implement them;
  3. A universal soldier, otherwise - a jack of all trades;
  4. A marketer who will come up with ideas and others will implement.

I can tell you right away - if you want to find a specialist who will be engaged in marketing around the clock, at the same time study independently and do everything yourself, for example:

  • not just know what, but also develop, typeset it yourself,
  • not just know the essence, but also set up targeted advertising for you, design all images for posts;
  • not just know that the script should be in the company and what it affects, but also write to you,

and even for a salary (of course, not the most luxurious), then you can safely forget about it. If a person can do all this and does it, then it is easier for him to work for himself than for someone else. Therefore, do not think that a marketer should know and be able to do everything. For example.

  1. He should know what it is, what technical task to give to the programmer, but he should not do it himself;
  2. He should know everything, but the contractors he found should do it. Which, by the way, he will control and provide you with reports on their work;
  3. He should find out what new product your customers need, but a logistician, but not a marketer, should deal with his search and order;
  4. Etc.

It seems to be logical and understandable, but ... "I have no money to support such a state." Well then, do not be surprised that the specialist, who was not assigned to his duties, works slowly and ineffectively.

Because it is IMPOSSIBLE to know everything in marketing. The sphere is too big and at the same time very dynamically developing. For example, we have 12 people in a team and we all learn from each other.

Important. If you think that this is advice for just beginning businessmen, then you are greatly mistaken. This applies to all companies, including large ones. And even now, many managers are looking for a “jack of all trades”.

Limits of responsibility

Think over the boundaries of his responsibility. Clearly and distinctly. “Will be engaged in marketing” is not a line of responsibility.

  1. Will he be responsible for monitoring competitors and their prices?
  2. What about internet marketing?
  3. And what about the elaboration and creation of a new product?
  4. How about bringing it to the market?
  5. What about pricing?

Based on this, it will become clearer for you what tasks to set and what to prescribe for him to assess the effectiveness of his work.

All this will help you not only to create a more complete vacancy profile, but also to understand who you are looking for, both yourself and the specialist who will come to the vacant position.

Interview questions

So we come to the most interesting, what tricky questions you need to ask in order to see the whole truth. And we will divide all questions into two blocks: theoretical and practical.

Theoretical block

In any case, questions are formed based on your needs, which we have discussed above. Without them, nowhere.

And also, based on whether a beginner or an old man. Therefore, adapt everything that is written below for yourself and the situation. And I also draw your attention to the fact that the questions are written in a chaotic manner.

General issues :

  1. Have you already familiarized yourself with our company? (We check whether the person was preparing for a meeting at all or just goes to everyone in a row)
  2. What is marketing for you? What do you think a marketer should do? (We draw your attention to how much its presentation coincides with your tasks)
  3. How do you imagine your typical working day in this position, of course, after you adapt? (Alternative to the previous question, if you suddenly left the answer)
  4. What marketing trainings or books did you study?
    (Usually no one reads or passes anything, so the following question will help you)
  5. Perhaps you read some specialized sites or groups in social networks? If so, which ones?

    (Here it will be immediately clear whether it is developing at all or not. And if it is developing, then in what direction. Usually we hear that these are groups about)

  6. Tell us about your past activities as a marketer? (Ask in more detail to understand how deeply he really did it, and does not speak for the sake of volume)
  7. What were the results of your past work? (Moreover, ask not only about money, but also about conversion, ctr and other indicators)
  8. Do you know what ROI / CTR / LTV is? ( Alternative question the previous one, in case you have a candidate with no experience in front of you).
  9. Who do you see yourself in a year / two / three? (Often, marketers are people who plan to open their own business in the future, whether to take such or not, make the decision for yourself)

Specialized questions:

  1. What ?
  2. What is it needed for ?
  3. What are ten marketing tools?
  4. ? (Pay attention here, the marketer thinks in terms of only attracting customers or categories and pricing, increasing the average check, returning customers, increasing loyalty)
  5. What is better offline or online promotion?
    (A normal marketer will not say which is better, there are pros and cons everywhere)
  6. What channels for attracting customers do you consider to be the most relevant now?
  7. What is VKontakte or Facebook better?
    (Also like the previous question, there is no better one)
  8. Why do you need to define target audience? What are the top 5 questions you ask to define it?
  9. What advertising models do you know?
  10. How to increase the average bill, tell us a few different options?

Thanks to this type of questions, you will understand whether the applicant understands or is just pretending.

Moreover, I draw your attention to the fact that many understand noddingly and to find out, ask piercing questions like "What else?" ...

Practical block

Theory is good. But practice is better. One of our favorite and, I would say, universal questions will help you make a final decision, either yes or no. And it looks like this:

“There is our company, our products / services and an unlimited advertising budget. Objective: to attract customers and make sure that, at a minimum, advertising will pay off at zero. What do you suggest? "

From the answers, you will understand whether a person is smart in practical marketing, or is it just a naked theoretician who has seen enough.

Important... Almost 8 out of 10 marketers immediately talk about discounts and this should alert you, because they will often reduce prices. A more thoughtful option instead of discounts is, for example, bonuses.

Instructions for marketers

Dear executives, you should read this too to know how the ideal marketer should prepare for your meeting and by what criteria you can immediately understand that he is “yours”.

And now, dear marketer, I think you have already read the instructions for leaders and are shocked. They expect the impossible from you, and even for such a small salary!

That's right, so that the salary is higher and you are valued more, and read the instructions for you.

I will not say that you need a selling resume with your achievements, courses and certificates. All this is necessary and very. You can just read about it in any other article about the resume.

Also, I will not tell you that the resume should be written without errors. You should know this anyway.

But what you need to prepare for every job interview is yes. Now I will explain what I mean. You need to research a potential employer. What kind of company it is, what it does, how long it has been on the market, what it is famous for, who the competitors are.

You have no idea how important this information is for the head of the company who plans to hire you.

And what a huge plus you will earn if you devote 20-30 minutes of your time to this question before the interview. It is important (even vital!) For 2 reasons:

  1. You will understand whether it is worth working for such a company. A high salary in an ad does not always turn out to be so in practice, and bad reviews on the Internet will dispel or confirm your doubts;
  2. You will immediately establish yourself as a professional, thereby significantly raising your expertise.

Just imagine the situation. You come for an interview and in the process get out the printed advertising materials of the company, according to which you begin to offer your edits to the manager, justifying them with your knowledge.


And I am already your employee

Speaking now as a manager, I would consider hiring such a specialist in the first place, even if his experience is insufficient.

Again clothes and appearance important (I remembered the recent interview of a guy dressed in an outfit like from the catwalk in Italy, and I'm not exaggerating), but still they will not guide you by your clothes.

Which will increase your chances of getting the coveted position next. Explore the ways your potential employer is currently using to attract customers.

Write down what he does not use and ... at the right time, pull this trump card out of your sleeve. Everyone is looking for new ways to attract customers, and even more so.

And if you still guide the manager about the costs of this or that method, he will definitely remember your candidacy.

Well, and a list of questions, thanks to which you will understand a lot about the company and this will help you make the right choice:

  1. Who does the marketer or marketing department report to?
  2. How does a manager feel about marketing? Is it from the series “to do something to attract customers” or is there a clear understanding and a specific strategy?
  3. What tools have you already used, what worked, what didn't?
  4. Does the company have a monthly marketing budget? And how much?
  5. And the most important thing! What are your responsibilities. And God forbid, show you that you can take over everything! Everything and even more hang on you.

Briefly about the main thing

Now watch this video and cheer yourself up! Questions are questions, and stressful interviews have not been canceled 😉

And now a small summary of the article: finding a good marketer, I'll tell you, is a whole quest. We'll have to revise more than a dozen, because, honestly, all and sundry are now going into marketing, before such an offer was for an advertiser.

And the most interesting thing is that no one wants to study this “deeper”, they pounce on chips and try to increase sales at the expense of them.

And we, as leaders, understand that without a good fundamental base, chips remain chips, and not instruments of stable growth.

Therefore, never settle for the first marketer. If you have already taken up the hiring, then approach according to the principle “can you see everyone?”.

 

It might be useful to read: