How to crack your first job interview as a digital marketing professional

All hail the internet. It has radically transformed the social and economic landscape of the 21st century. The way we communicate has changed. How we do business is different. Transactions have gone cashless. Everything is now at the click of your fingers. Today, there are heavily coveted jobs that did not exist two decades ago.

This has led to the rise of digital marketing. It is a field that is gaining traction by growing at a rate of 33 percent every year. As one of the hottest careers in 2022, companies are actively looking for digital marketing professionals, and candidates are eagerly responding.

If you are one of them, here are some pointers to keep in mind.

When you head for your first job interview, you will have limited time to show the recruiter you are worthy. You want to make a quick good impression. You want to come across as someone viable and capable in a matter of minutes. If the employer doesn’t see your potential in that first meeting, you might as well start looking elsewhere.

So how do you go about nailing your first job interview? We have a few tips that ensure you are ready for whatever the recruiter throws your way. Whether you want to learn digital marketing, get potential interview questions or the latest industry trends, we have your back.

Commonly asked digital marketing interview questions

(And the correct answers too!)

1 “What is digital marketing?”

You need to explain your understanding of digital marketing in simple terms, not recited from a textbook.

Simply say, any promotion done on the internet which would increase brand awareness, generate brand recall or get sales is known as digital marketing. Today, digital marketing is one of the most cost-efficient mediums of marketing given the growth of mobile internet penetration all over the world.

2 “Is direct marketing different from branding?”

Yes. It is. Give a clear reason why.

Branding makes a mental or emotional connection between the online customer and the brand. Digital marketing is focused on increasing the profits of the company through sales.

3 “How is online marketing more effective than offline marketing?”

Online marketing offers many advantages.

• You get a more accurate audience reach through hyper-local targeting. This means that you could just target a certain radius of a city. Eg. if you run an apparel store in South Bombay, you could just run Facebook or Google Search Ads targeting people within 15 KM from your store.
• There are better tracking methods. You can measure how many people have been shown your ads, how many times, how many of them clicked your ads, at what stage they are and from which city/state/country they are.
• It is an excellent tool for maintaining good relationships with existing customers. You could maintain an Instagram or Facebook page and regularly ask for feedback on your product/service. You could host giveaways to generate a buzz about your brand and much more. You could also send regular emails and inform your valuable customers about recent product updates.
• Can use many methods to find new customers, such as PPC, SEO, Social Media and banner ads
• You get more bang for your buck, compared to traditional marketing. Where Newspaper or TV ad campaigns would cost you thousands or even lakhs of rupees, you could easily start a Google or Facebook campaign with 1000 Rupees and optimize the campaign further.

4 “How much do you know about digital trends and industry news?”

Digital marketing is one of the fields where you would always find that something which was a trend yesterday evening, is no longer worth remembering today morning. Here are some of the important trends and industry news you must know about –

• Brands entering Metaverse – Adidas, Gucci, Nike, and Puma have all marked their presence in the Metaverse and more brands are following. Brands are creating their own NFTs and are auctioning them at soaring prices. This is becoming a new revenue stream for companies with a high brand recall and positive brand image.
• Google Analytics 4 – One of the biggest reasons digital marketing is able to give a quick positive ROI is its power of analytics which helps in data-driven marketing. And Google Analytics is by far the most holistic source of analysis. Google has launched a newer version of Analytics known as Google Analytics 4 or GA 4. As you know, the current GA version is session-based, GA 4 is based on event triggers and would be able to deduplicate the users coming on your website. You could read more about GA 4 here.
• Content would be an evergreen King – We would say this again and again, no matter which platform you are working with, whether it is a paid ad, organic social media post, guest post, press release, website blog or a simple product page on your website, what you say and how you say it to your audience would be the deciding factor whether or not they would buy from you or at least recommend you to their peers. Creating effective content will be one of the most crucial issues every brand would be facing. And distributing the content on different platforms will become an even bigger headache because of the variety of platforms and their inventories. You must be able to generate a lot of quality content and repurpose it for different audiences and platforms. Always remember, you have to give equal weightage to content creation as well as content distribution. Content is the King, but distribution is the Queen.
• People love videos, and more importantly, stories – Relax, you don’t always need to bring out real-life stories of your customers. What we mean by stories is that there has to be a strategic flow of your content that would give some meaning to the video and make your audience feel that they have watched something of value. This value proposition can either be entertaining or informative, just keep in mind that your audience should not feel that they have wasted their time by watching your videos. You have to learn the basics of storytelling to effectively create video content. In case you are interested in learning more about storytelling, click here.
• War on Data Privacy – Remember Cambridge Analytica? If not, then please read about it on Google. People are becoming more and more aware of their digital privacy and how brands are leveraging their data to target them with ads wherever and whenever they want. Consumers today are moving towards brands that are sensitive to data privacy. Google has announced that it will move phase-out third-party cookies from the Chome browser starting 2023 and Apple has already done so in its latest iOS version. This makes a digital marketer’s job much more complicated as it reduces the scope of remarketing campaigns. As a digital marketer, you would have to be more creative in gaining and maintaining your customer’s attention towards your brand.

5. “Can you develop a strategy to improve traffic on our website?”

In case your website is not ranking on search engines, bringing traffic to your website is going to be a major challenge. You have to look at some of the below-mentioned sources temporarily to generate traffic

• Running paid ads on Search engines and social media
• Lookout for influencers and affiliates
• Email Marketing

Parallelly, you will have to optimize your website to rank on various search engines, primarily Google. You will need a proper SEO strategy to improve month-on-month traffic and keep a tab on metrics like page visits, bounce rate, conversion rate, etc.

6. “Which digital marketing tools are most effective for SEO?”

Name the popular ones such as:

• SEO Quake
• Screaming Frog
• Google Page Speed Insights
• Google AMP Test
• Solar Pingdom Tools
• GT Metrix
• Ahrefs
• Moz
• SEMRush
• Google Search Console
• Google Analytics

7. “How does Google Search Campaign work?”

All google search campaigns work on a pay-per-click model. This means that you as an advertiser only pay when someone clicks on your ad. Depending on your campaign objective, you could choose from a variety of bidding strategies ranging from CPC to Maximise conversions. Here’s how the google campaign practically works –

• You choose keywords, locations, demographics etc. and create ads
• Depending on your ad quality and bidding limits, your ad rank is calculated. Here you need to remember that you need to take care of your keyword relevancy and landing page experience too if you want to lower your cost of acquisition.
• Depending on your ad rank, Google gives you a position on its search page. Remember that, the higher the search rankings, higher will be the CPC and higher will be your landing page conversions.

8. “What should you do to create a successful PPC campaign?”

PPC campaigns are a great way to achieve instant results. The first step would be to ensure that the website or landing page is primed and ready for the online consumer. Very often, the website content doesn’t match the tone and direction of the PPC ad. Ensure that the correct data is immediately visible once the user lands on the website.

Also, choose the right keywords to attract the target audience. You can use Google keyword search or other systems to generate the appropriate words.

Another pointer is to ensure the ads are clear and direct. You should also use a strong call to action. These are just some ways to get a PPC campaign to gain traction.

9. “How does SEO work?”

Search engine optimisation is one of the most exceptional tools of digital marketing.

Search engines use bots (crawlers) that travel across websites and collect data. This information is stored in an index and then scanned by algorithms. They can pinpoint which pages carry the ‘keywords’ typed by users. So when a person enters specific words, websites that most likely have similar topics will pop up.

If your website is optimised with the right keywords, you will attract your target audience.

10. “How would you efficiently use keywords on a website?”

You can ensure that the main keywords are used in the following places:

• The URL
• Website heading
• Paragraph headlines
• Page content
• Meta description

11. “How to avoid a Google penalty?”

These penalties serve as punishments for websites that have behaved in a manner that goes against Google’s regulations. They drastically lower your ranking, so your website traffic significantly decreases. To ensure your site is not on the chopping block, you need to ensure:

• Don’t overstuff your content with too many keywords
• Don’t instantly redirect your visitor to another page without any clicking
• Don’t have duplicated or plagiarized text
• Use in-depth, detailed content that is relevant to your website. Google can detect shallow content now
• Show you are a credible business by listing your address and contact details

Some interview tips to consider:

• Discuss the recruiter’s website or social media

Just be sure to be polite and respectful. Also, if you state any issues or problems, back them up with reasonable solutions.

• Don’t overdo the use of marketing jargon

Keep your language simple and comprehensive. Just because you know a lot of buzzwords, doesn’t mean you use them all. If every second word out of your mouth is “SEO, PPC, SEM”, your recruiter is NGTBI (not going to be interested).

• Speak clearly, slowly and eloquently

Understandably, you will be nervous when talking to the recruiter. You still need to present yourself with clarity and confidence. Think before you answer, so you don’t end up stuttering. It is okay to take a deep breath before you start talking and collect your thoughts first. It doesn’t hurt to prepare a few answers in advance to the most commonly asked questions (as listed above).

• Talk about your own social media presence

Your social platforms can serve as an advertisement for your digital skills and showcase your abilities. Also, try to have a semi-professional presence online instead of a highly personal one.

Top 5 skills you need in digital marketing (that will impress your recruiter)

1 SEO & SEM

Search engine optimisation and search engine marketing are the mantras of digital marketing. They help you analyse online content, increase visibility, widen audience reach and employ tools to direct customers towards your website . A skilled marketer will use both methods to reach their target audience.

2 Data analytics

What are the market trends? Can you spot the emerging patterns? Proper scrutiny of big data will help you draft a competent marketing strategy.

3 Strategic thinking

A well-trained marketing professional will be able to prepare a suitable plan of action to increase online traffic by using the right mix of research, tools and digital platforms.

4 Concise communication

You need to be effective, clever and precise in every piece of online communication. There is a lot of competition in cyberspace. You don’t want to use jargon or convoluted ideas. You might end up losing your audience.

5 Relevant content creation

Depending on your target group, you should choose your content appropriately. Using social media, the latest buzzwords, trending ideas and other tools, you can create a brand identity that resonates with the online scroller.

The latest digital marketing trends in 2022 

Dazzle your interviewer with your up-to-date knowledge about the industry trends, such as:

#1 Social commerce 

Everything online can now be monetised instantly. Brands can sell their products on social media directly, interact with their customers and open up a dialogue with them.

#2 Video marketing 

To break through the digital clutter, brands have set up video-centric content to reach out to the public. You can tell stories, showcase product utility, get an influencer’s stamp of approval and go viral… all in a day’s work.

#3 Empowered AI 

Digital marketing already uses artificial intelligence. However, its role is going to get more nuanced. AI will help companies create a smoother, more seamless experience for individual customers.

#4 The rise of the metaverse 

After social media, we have the metaverse. It is a network of virtual worlds where millions of people join and connect with each other. Traditionally, these are mostly gaming platforms, but now the scope is getting wider to monetize these networks.

Proschool’s PGCM in Digital Marketing course 

If you want to knock your interviewer’s socks off, you need a solid foundational background in digital marketing. Such as the AICTE-approved, post-graduate certificate in management. This is one of the best digital marketing courses in the country, backed by the All India Management Association (AIMA). It has experienced industry experts, intense training facilities and an active mode approach to learning. The syllabus offers a balanced study between theory-based concepts and practical, real-world applications. Some of the highlights of the course are:

• Learning essential skills such as SEO, SEM and SMM
• Using the latest platforms such as Facebook Ads, Google Ads and Similarweb
• Studying subjects such as marketing communication, web analytics and marketing management in a one-year duration
• Receiving two certifications — PGCM and NSDC
• You can choose between an online or live classroom with a personal mentor
• You will be fully prepared to ace your first interview with your digital marketing training

In conclusion 

Your future in digital marketing starts today.

Step one: apply to one of the best digital marketing training institutes.

Step two: prepare for your first interview (hopefully this post helps)

Step three: enter the industry as a confident, competent professional.

So what are you waiting for?

Get your AICTE-approved digital marketing certificate here