1. Do Your Homework
Review the company’s online presence. This includes all social media and recent press. Don’t forget to check out sites like Glassdoor that provide information on possible interview questions and salary estimates. Know who you’re meeting with and find out a little background information on them. Where did they attend college, are there any recent articles about them you can reference? Try to find common ground to make that first connection with them during the interview, but make sure you don’t bring up anything too personal or sensitive.
Know the specific functions of the position you’re interviewing for. Obviously, you should have a clear understanding of what the company does but it’s important to reach farther and research past marketing campaigns and tactics. Once you review these come up with new approaches and innovative ways you would have tackled the same issue. Moses Lee, CEO of Seelio encourages interviewees to make statements like, “I enjoyed that campaign and if I had the opportunity to work on it, I might frame it so it resonated with millennials, too.” Statements like this show that you did your research while also highlighting your ability to take initiative. If there is anything you’re confused about ask specific questions to gain a better understanding of what will be expected of you.
2. Know Your Personal Brand
Your personal brand is a combination of your current skills, past work, professional experience, and online presence. Having a complete understanding of your personal brand will be a great tool to help you find the company and position where you can thrive.
In order to get to know your personal brand Shama Hyder, founder and CEO of Marketing Zen suggests that you first start to think of yourself as a brand. Next, audit your online presence to align with this brand. Create a personal website to display your portfolio and link up your social media accounts so you can share your ideas across all platforms.
3. Focus on Numbers
Sure, companies want to know what skills you bring to the table but they care more about how you have used those skills to deliver measurable change in your past positions. According to a FournaiseTrack Media Release 77% of CEOs think that marketers focus too heavily on brand values and brand equity but forget to connect these results to revenue, sales, market valuation and, EBIT. Show that you can focus on all of these aspects of marketing by providing examples of how your marketing strategies affected things like revenue and sales in your past positions.
4. Use Past Work to Highlight Your Level of Experience
Send an email the morning of your interview with a link to your online portfolio and bring a hard copy of your portfolio with you to the interview. Interactive online portfolios are a great place to show off your skills but don’t assume a hiring manager had the time to review yours. Don’t have an online portfolio? Check out some of these examples from The Creative Group and get started on yours now.
The Creative Group suggests that you display 10-12 work samples that display the breadth and depth of your past work. In order to stand out from the pack tailor your portfolio to the company’s needs and organize your work from most to least relevant to the position you’re interviewing for. Leave a lasting impression by allowing your interviewer to keep the hard copy of your portfolio as a gift so they can further review your work after you leave.
5. Bring New Ideas to the Table
While completing step one, you should jot down any issues you see with the company’s current marketing tactics and explain constructive ways you would solve these issues. Find a way to connect your past experience to a problem you noticed and break down how you would tackle it in the role you’re interviewing for. new ideas
Jane Creaner-Glen, Head of Recruitment and HR at the Digital Marketing Institute believes, “The person who gets the job is the one who wants it the most so be passionate about your area but show a real practical application of that passion.” The key to this step is to think out of the box. This is where you can really wow your interviewer and show them what you can bring to this company. Remember they want their marketing team to be progressive while also driving up sales and revenue.
6. Ask Questions
There are many aspects of a job interview that can be unpredictable but one thing you can be sure of is that you will be expected to have questions prepared for your interviewer. This is your opportunity to learn more about the position and Lindsay Kolowich, content marketer at HubSpot, outlined 14 of the questions hiring managers wish you would ask during your interviews in a blog post for HubSpot. Here are some of our favorites.
- What behaviors does the most successful member of the team exhibit? Please give me an example.
- You’ve been at this company for while; what keeps you motivated?
- What are some of the challenges or roadblocks one might come up against in this role?
- What metrics would you use to measure success in this role?
- Do you have any questions or concerns about my qualifications?
7. Follow Up
When done correctly, a good follow up email can seal the deal with many hiring managers. Kipp Bodnar, CMO at HubSpot, evaluates these follow-ups based on their depth. Bodnar’s favorites candidates are ones who follow up on specific details that were discussed during the interview or those who deeply research a specific question they didn’t nail during their interview.