Whether you have moved up in the world and applying for a marketing director position, or you’re switching fields to another company with a different marketing stack, you are probably quite nervous.
We got you covered and we will get you ready for your interview.
Here’s what this guide focuses on:
- What extra questions should you expect on your interview for Marketing Director
- What skills do you need to be a Marketing Director
- What would the HR managers expect of you
- How to close the Marketing Director Interview
- Some important tips to boost your confidence in the interview
We’ve analyzed hundreds of career counseling interviews we conducted over the past months, and found out the most frequently asked questions that come up in marketing director interviews.
If you still lack some confidence, you should definitely check out our Interview Prep Service.
So, let’s dive in and get you prepared to nail your Marketing Director interview.
What questions should I expect if I am interviewing for a “Director of Marketing” job?
Before reading the specialised Marketing Director interview questions we have for you, you might want to check out our 5 Tricky as Hell Job Interview Questions.
So let’s get started with a few questions that you can get from the HR when you’re interviewing for a Marketing Director position.
These are not the ordinary questions you get on a standard interview, just like your position is not ordinary.
Question 1: Tell me about one of your most successful marketing campaigns
As a Marketing Director, you will be the person for creating and executing correctly marketing strategies that would develop the company you’re applying for.
The HR would want to bring on candidates who have in-depth working knowledge of marketing, so that the company would grow and succeed.
You should be prepared to come in with some ideas about how to leverage your past marketing experiences in order to improve your company’s existing marketing strategy or create a new marketing campaign from the ground up.
When asked this question, you should show the HR that you have executed successfully a great marketing campaign and have industry-specific marketing experience, as well as creativity and flexibility.
A good example of that would be:
“Last year I led a Facebook advertising campaign for a local chain of technology stores that increased their annual sales revenue by 200 percent.”
Question 2: We have 15 locations in our network. How would you market to each location’s customer base to sell one of our core products?
When interviewing for a Marketing Director position, you will most probably get a scenario-type question at some point.
This kind of questions is quite popular in such situations because the position requires you to be able to work through a marketing campaign and assess results.
During the interview, the HR may ask you how you would handle a marketing assignment for a segment of your customer base. You need to use your own experience to guide you when answering this question.
Of course, we will give you an example to clear any misunderstandings and get you going:
“I would work with our analytics team to understand the customer base that visits each brand.
I would want to know demographics, such as age, gender, occupation and household income.
As each location could have a slightly different group of customers, this will allow me to segment them accordingly.
Then I would determine the products that are easy to find in every branch, and using the knowledge we have gained for our audience, decide on the product offering they would likely be most interested in.
From there I would develop in-branch advertisements and pull email lists for each branch’s customers so we could target them specifically with appealing messages.”
Question 3: How would you market a new product if the economy is in a recession?
No company is going to stop providing services and goods because of a recession.
In fact, these economic downturns are critical times for a company. Times, when a marketing director should have a clear strategy to maintain sales levels and stay in business.
What the HR is going to look for with this question is whether or not you are a top marketing director who would know how to leverage counter cyclical trends to actually increase sales while the economy is in a recession.
Question 4: Someone just posted a negative review on the company’s Facebook page and you have to respond. What would you do?
Beware of this question and be prepared to answer accordingly. You never want to delete or ignore such reviews.
What the HR wants to know here is whether you can handle difficult situations with grace. What you would want to do here is to assess the situation to decide that would be the best stance to take.
You need to acknowledge the problem by adopting a sincere, conciliatory and sympathetic approach. And you would want to show the HR that you would do exactly that.
Your reaction to such a review should be something like:
“Hello, I’m sorry to hear that you had a negative experience with the service in our tech store in Manhattan. We train our staff to offer the best service possible and be of great help to the customer, but mistakes do happen occasionally. We hope to be of more use to you in the future and offer you a 10% discount for your next shopping in our stores.
Question 5: Tell me about a campaign that didn’t work out as you had planned
As a Marketing Director, you will be the responsible one for both successful and unsuccessful campaigns and you need to learn from your mistakes.
This question shows the HR whether you recognize why a plan went wrong and your ability to learn from the experience.
Both problem solving and analytical skills are considered in that matter and your answer is very important for the HR’s decision.
Often campaigns fail as a result of poor research, non-solidified objectives or ineffective communication.
But as long as you can show that you learn from your experience, both good and bad, you got the right answer.
If you still feel unsure of yourself and need some extra help with interview questions you should consider Booking a Free Intro Call
At the end of the interview, you’ll likely get a chance to ask them some questions yourself. If you are wondering what Questions to Ask Your Future Manager before Joining the Team, we can definitely help you.
What skills do you need to be a Marketing Director?
The skills for a Marketing Director position could be separated into two sections: Soft Skills and Technical Skills.
When it comes to soft skills, you will need 5 main ones to get the job done and get it done right:
- Management
You need to work well with people, be capable of leading and inspiring teams;
- Communication
Whether it’s communicating with employees below you or explaining your latest strategy to the executive team, you need to be able to communicate complex ideas simply and effectively.
- Adaptability
You need to know how to handle a crisis so when your site gets hit by an algorithm update, you’re acting instead of panicking.
- Creative Problem Solving
This is what “growth hacking” really is, you need to be able to come up with novel marketing solutions to solve your organization’s problems.
- Delivery/Execution
Most marketers can talk a big game, but you need to show that you’ve actually executed strategies and gotten concrete results
If you think you might need some help creating your Marketing Director Resume, we might have just the article for you.
Director of Marketing interview preparation tips
What are HR managers expecting of Marketing Directors?
- Present yourself well to the executive marketing team
People say it’s hard to be liked by everybody but in an interview, you have to present yourself in the best possible light. If the executive team likes you, most probably you will get the job.
In order to make a good impression, you can use some of our tactics about using body language in an interview. It will help you look more confident and reliable.
Present yourself as a perfect candidate, master the art of body language.
What is more, talk like they talk. It is easier to make an impression when you are talking in the same marketing language as the executive marketing team.
- Come prepared with real-life examples of previous marketing campaigns
The Hiring Manager would most probably ask you about your previous marketing campaigns.
So always come prepared. Remember examples about the campaigns with good and bad outcomes. You may need to know a couple, but it will be worth it.
And most important of all, you should be able not only to tell real-life examples of your work, but also prove the results. You could bring statistics, analysis and everything which can come in handy.
You want that job, right?
Bring your portfolio
Like we said, it is important to be able to show your work and prove your results, if you want to be a Marketing Director. So if most of your work is online, you should include a link to your digital portfolio on your resume and mention it to the interviewer.
The Hiring Manager would be able to see your campaigns and their outcomes.
In your portfolio you can include enough information to show them.
Your portfolio is a great way to show examples of your work to potential employers and it could help you not to remember numbers and real-life examples
If you think you have too many projects or, for some reason, you’re feeling nervous about your portfolio, print only the parts you’re most proud of. Be careful to make it enough to show your experience.
Research the company
It doesn’t matter how much experience you have, you always have to research what the company does.
And when it comes to a Director level interview, you should make a more in-depth research of their products and services. There is a high possibility that you would be asked to provide solutions for some of their projects, and you should be able to answer. Not with absolute details, but at least not to be like “um…, um…”
Even if they don’t ask you to make an imaginary campaign for them, you could use their mission and vision and find past experiences of yours that support theirs. Surface those experiences during the interview to higher your chances of getting hired.
How do I close the Marketing Director interview?
The meeting should come to a somewhat natural ending, the questions should be not furious but instinctive.
Ask questions you can’t answer ‘Yes’ or ‘No’ to, also called Open Questions. Use words such as How, What, Where, Why, When, Who to get the interviewer talking. A great question is “How do you feel our business meeting has gone today” – which takes the conversation to a new level, because it is no longer an interview, but a business meeting.
Others could be “How do you feel my personality will fit in with the existing team”, “What skills and experience do you feel I have that will make me succeed in the role”, etc.
If you want to master your interview openings and closures, answers and body language, see Enhancv Executive and take the full experience which will help you nail the job of your dreams
Takeaways: Marketing Director Interview Questions
You are applying for the position of a Marketing Director, so you know what you are doing.
When preparing, focus on questions connected to your professional experience. Provide real-life examples of marketing campaigns and back them up with results.
Don’t forget to look out for your body language during the interview and how you are closing the whole meeting.
And if you want the full experience, contact us, we can help you.
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What are your thoughts? Do you think there are other important things to think about? Give us a shout out in the comments below. We’d love to hear from you!
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