Mark Miller — August 28, 2017 — August 28, 2017
In a cutthroat world where businesses are competing so heavily against one another, it’s important your brand knows how to effectively cut through the noise and market your brand to be the best of the best. And one of the best investments you can make to improve your brand’s bottom-line is investing in skillful and proficient digital marketers.
However, finding the right digital marketing talent isn’t an easy process. Digital marketing recruiters often find that employers seem to have a lot of loose ends when it comes to finding the right talent to add to their team.
How do you find the candidate that’s going to provide the most value to your company? How do you make the interview process thorough enough to weed out any weak candidates but not too intense where you scare the good ones away?
According to Glassdoor, a 10% more difficult interview process is linked to a 2.6% higher employee satisfaction later on. They also discovered that based on a five-point scale (with 5 being the most difficult), the optimal interview difficulty that leads to the highest employee satisfaction is a 4.
While there’s a lot of extensive planning you should do before you conduct any interviews, the questions you ask are going to be the most important part. There’s a number of specialized questions you should make sure you ask potential candidates to ensure that you’re making the right decision.
Here is a list of 4 essential questions you need to ask your candidates to improve your odds of hiring the right digital marketers for your brand:
How do you stay ahead of all the changes that occur in digital marketing?
The landscape of digital marketing is constantly changing, forcing marketers to recoup and adapt. If they can’t successfully do so, they aren’t going to survive the digital world of tomorrow and aren’t a good fit for any company seeking to grow their brand through innovation.
Candidates should thoroughly explain how they monitor and analyze the endless flow of emerging marketing channels and trends, and how they develop a strategy to integrate the most effective options. Expect a promising candidate to mention how they learn from books or from doing research through online publications. A good digital marketer will also state that they follow industry thought leaders and how they update their skillset through relevant training and courses.
Pay special attention to the candidates that also mention any recent digital trends that they’re interested in and how they stay on top of innovative ideas to demonstrate a return on investment.
What do you think about our website and social media presence?
This question is a good way to determine how much research and preparation the candidate has done on your company. We live in a digital world where the resources to find out anything is just at the tips of our fingertips – if your candidate hasn’t done thorough research of your brand ahead of the interview, you know how serious they are about the position.
Your site and social media networks should be some of the first places a prospective candidate resorts to to learn about your company. This is an opportunity for them to not only expand their digital knowledge but demonstrate their eagerness to go the extra mile. You want a digital marketer who is willing to put in the extra effort to show how serious they are.
How does this position fit into your long-term personal and career goals?
Seasoned digital marketers don’t impulsively take new jobs solely off good pay or the prestigious stature of a company. Smart marketing professionals will carefully evaluate a a new job and gauge how it fits in with their long-term career goals.
Taking on a new job should be a calculated career move that brings them closer to their end goals. While some may be motivated by personal growth, others may have a peculiar career destination in mind. Whatever it is, you want to make sure you’re not getting the short end of the stick by hiring a short-sighted person without long-term ambition. That could be a big indicator that your candidate isn’t a strategist or planner, which are big red flags for any marketing professional.
What kind of work environment do you thrive in?
While it’s important to pay attention to a marketer’s skillset and expertise, you also need to consider how they will fit in with the culture of your organization. No matter how knowledgeable they are about the industry, if they don’t fit in with your company’s culture, it could be a recipe for disaster.
According to Virgin Pulse, 80% of businesses planned to improve their corporate culture this year. Culture fit is particularly more important for digital marketers than most other professionals. You want to find a candidate that completely understands your brand’s mission, vision, and values, and one that can work effectively with others on your team. Thus, getting a good idea of the kind of workplace your candidate operates best in is beneficial for both parties in the interview.
Conclusion
Remember, your employees are the burning fuel and core foundation of your company so it’s crucial to recruit only the best talent that fits in with your organization. By having the finest digital marketers on your team, you will undoubtedly see a boost in your brand’s performance and results like never before.
These are only 4 of the essential questions we think you need to ask your candidates before hiring them. Want to get the full comprehensive list of specialized interview questions? Check out and download 10 Interview Questions You Must Ask Your Next Digital Marketer for free!
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