With everyone on their phone basically all the time, the job of a sales person/marketer has merged into a digital marketer these days. And it is quite an extensive duty list: creating and managing online advertising campaigns, search engine optimization, marketing budgets, customer databases, keyword planning, social media presence, monitoring ad performance, assessing returns on investment (ROI), etc. to ensure a positive return on investment.
Skills of a digital marketer include SEO, video, content, analytics, social media, and more, while jobs could range from SMM manager, PPC manager, to content creator and/or graphic designer. Anyone can become a digital marketer, although when you seriously aim for a real job, you should come prepared. Here are some insights into potential entry-level job interview questions.
- What are the core elements of digital marketing?
There are 4 crucial elements of digital marketing: market research, website development, online advertising, and social media marketing. They are closely tied together. Without market research you won't be able to define the target audience and make appropriate content/campaigns. Without a brand/business website customers won't be able to find information on products or services, or have a positive impression about a brand. Without online ads you won't be able to build brand awareness, and without social media marketing you won't connect with customers and won't build a community around your brand.
- Can you describe the 7 C's of digital marketing?
These are the main paradigms every digital marketer should be focused on in daily work, gathered in the list of seven terms all conveniently starting with the C letter for remembering: customer, content, context, community, convenience, cohesion, conversion. Let's go over each one of those briefly:
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Customer: customer needs always first no matter the marketing strategy/tactics.
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Content: unique, quality and engaging content in all forms that are trending currently.
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Context: taking into account all the possible details about the target audience, e.g. social group, buyer intent, social/political events around, virality.
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Community: making customers merge into a loyal brand group united by buyer intent is of great value.
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Convenience: smooth brand interaction with customers, serving the needs, removing obstacles, reducing stress.
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Cohesion: same quality services and marketing campaigns across all channels.
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Conversion: conversion rate of a marketing campaign as an ultimate key performance indicator (KPI).
- What is the 4-1-1 rule in digital marketing?
According to this classic marketing rule (still holds up today), for every six social media posts one should also post four entertaining/educational messages, one soft-sell post and one hard-sell post. Entertaining posts are obvious and easy to find, just take your customer context into account. Soft sells are basically hints for your audience about what they should buy albeit without pressure (discounts, events, etc.). Hard sell posts push a certain product/service with urgency (last 2 copies in stock, etc.), and typically include detailed product information.
- What digital marketing tools would you recommend/use?
Google Analytics is an absolute must, providing a free analytics platform to track the performance of websites, videos or mobile apps. Ahrefs for SEO analysis and keyword planning (backed up by Google Keyword Planner). Mailchimp for email campaigns and direct communication with customers. Kissmetrics for analytics about customer engagement. Semrush as a toolkit for SEO, pay-per-click campaigns, socials, research, content marketing insights.
Buffer App which enables social media management for multiple channels from a single place. More niche tools are available according to business goals.
- What are 'dofollow' and 'nofollow' links?
Dofollow links set a rule to allow search engine crawler bots to include that link search engine result pages. Example: <ahref=”http://www.SITE.com/”>NAME</a>. Nofollow links do the opposite - not allowing crawler bots to explore the link further. Example: <ahref=”http://www.SITE.com/” rel=”nofollow”>NAME</a>.
- What are the ways to bring visitors to a website?
Among effective ways to increase website traffic are the following: content/keyword optimization, targeted landing pages, engaging and quality content, online ads for promotion, local search optimization, off-page promotion. Also technical (web development) elements are important, i.e. website navigation/architecture, responsive design (mobile-friendly), sitemap and robot.txt - for search engine bots, etc.
- What is Google AdWords and PPC?
Google AdWords is an online advertising platform aimed at reaching target audiences by running specifically tailored ads. It is PPC-based, or pay-per-click approach, and has two channels for ads to go to: Google search network and display network. Ads are customized via sitelinks, location, language, call outs, snippets, keywords, price, images, etc. PPC is an advertising principle, when advertisers pay when users click on their ads as opposed to just ad impressions.
- What ad types/formats are available on Google Ads?
Google Ads platform enables several types of ads: 1 - text ads (only text), 2 - responsive display ads (adjustable size and format, could be text and images), 3 - image ads (static or interactive, i.e. .gif, .jpeg, flash), 4 - app promotion ads, 5 - video ads (standalone or as inserts within other videos), 6 - product shopping ads (description, details), 7 - showcase shopping ads (image and description), 8 - call-only ads (phone number).
- What bidding types does Google Ads provide?
There are 3 types of bidding on ads: 1 - CPC (cost-per-click) with a maximum price setting on the cost of ad clicking, 2- CPV (cost-per-view) with a default price set for ad views, 3 - CPM (cost-per-impression) where you pay for ad displays no matter how many clicks or impressions.
- How to improve the CTR of email campaigns?
Some of the options are: engaging email subject line, making sure emails are mobile-friendly, content as a #1 priority, personalization, audience segmentation, visual appeal, A/B testing various formats, clear call-to-actions (CTA), contact information, unsubscribe option.
- How would you respond to negative comments on social media pages?
Being able to acknowledge it is key. Start a constructive dialogue and find out about the reasons for dissatisfaction, try to turn it into a positive/neutral attitude. Put yourself in the customer's shoes and try to understand their position and then come up with the ways to improve it. Take it elsewhere, i.e. get it from the public arena to private conversation - email, phone, DMs. Stay connected afterwards.
- What types of Facebook ads do you know?
Image ads with a single image and a text on top of it, with a link to a website. Multi-product ads in carousel form, which are good for showcasing a line of products in one ad. Video ads ranging from a couple of seconds to minutes, which typically get the best engagement. Slideshow ads are interactive by means of images, zoom ins, tilting, and videos. Collection ads combining video, slideshow, or images.
- What KPIs are important in social media campaigns?
Such indicators are in wide use today as conversions, active followers, reach, leads, likes, shares, brand mentions, virality, EPC (earnings per 100 clicks).
- What are the stages online buyers go through that have to be considered?
This journey is made of four stages: awareness (discovering a product/service/brand), cConsideration (their inner monologue and evaluation), preference (establishing a preference for a certain brand/company among products of their interest), and purchase.
- What is more important: engagement or likes/followers?
The number of engagement or conversion over the number of likes, for sure. It is simple: unless your followers convert into sales, what's the point?