55 Marketing Manager Interview Questions to Hire Top Talent

When you’re hiring a Marketing Manager, how do you know you’ve got the right person for the job? For starters, you need to ask insightful and fair interview questions to help you make a hiring decision you can feel confident in.

From hard skills to behavioral questions, we’ve got you covered with these Marketing Manager interview questions. When you’re conducting a job interview, use these questions to help you suss out if your candidate has the right skills, experience and attitude to help lead your small and mighty marketing team to success.

Jump ahead to explore the questions: 

• <a href="#general">General interview questions</a>
• <a href="#hardskills">Marketing hard skills interview questions</a>
• <a href="#social">Social Media Marketing interview questions</a>
• <a href="#pr">PR and communications interview questions</a>
• <a href="#content">Content marketing interview questions</a>
• <a href="#product">Product marketing interview questions</a>
• <a href="#demandgen">Demand generation interview questions</a>
• <a href="#softskills">Soft skills interview questions</a>
• <a href="#behavioral">Behavioral interview questions and prompts</a>

<div class="inpage-callout-container"><p class="inpage-banner-text">💡 Remember: A job interview is a two-way street—as much as you need to get to know the candidate to make a hiring decision, your candidate is also interviewing you about your company. They need to feel certain that joining your team is the best decision they can make. Be ready to answer candidate questions and share information that’d get them excited about working at your company.</p></div>

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<div id="general">General marketing manager interview questions</div>

If it’s a Marketing Manager you’re after, chances are you’re looking for someone with the leadership skills and initiative to steer your team in the right direction. Check out these general Marketing Manager interview questions that will help you get to know your candidate better in your next interview:

<h3 class="h3-small">1. What kind of work environment do you do your best work in?</h3>

Ask this question to get a better idea of what type of environment your Marketing Manager candidate might succeed in and consider if this is something your company can offer.

<h3 class="h3-small">2. How do you deal with pressure or stressful situations at work?</h3>

This question helps you understand how your candidate would handle the responsibility of being a manager and it shows you how they manage their own stress levels when it comes to work.

<h3 class="h3-small">3. How do you stay organized when managing multiple marketing projects at a time?</h3>

Marketing Managers need to be able to stay organized and on-track when they have multiple projects on the go. The answer to this question will show you how your candidates stay organized amidst the chaos.

<h3 class="h3-small">4. How do you maintain balance in your work and personal life?</h3>

Ask this question to uncover how your candidate maintains their focus and balance with their personal life and work. Being able to take time off to recharge is the sign of a marketing candidate who values rest and recovery so they can bring their best selves to work.

📣 Hiring remotely? Check out these interview questions for hiring remote employees.

<h3 class="h3-small">5. How do you switch off at the end of the day?</h3>

Similar to the previous question, it’s important that your future team member has the ability and self-awareness to switch off at the end of a busy work day. A leadership position may come with various stressors, which is why you want to be sure the candidate knows how to compartmentalize work and engage in other activities that are good for their well-being.

<h3 class="h3-small">6. Outside of work, what are you passionate about?</h3>

Why not take a moment to get to know your candidate better, on a more personal level? People typically enjoy talking about their passions, so 1. they’ll relax a bit and 2. you’ll likely learn something meaningful about them you wouldn’t have otherwise learned throughout the hiring and interview process.

<h3 class="h3-small">7. Which one of our company values do you identify with the most and why?</h3>

While you want your candidate to be the right fit for your team, you also need to make sure your company is the right fit for them. This is a solid question to ask to get the candidate thinking about your values and how they might connect with them.

<h3 class="h3-small">8. What do you think sets our brand apart from the competitors?</h3>

Ask this question to see if your candidate has done their research on your brand and also your competitors. It’ll give you a good idea of their familiarity with the industry and how much preparation they did in advance of your interview.

<div class="inpage-callout-container"><p class="inpage-banner-text">🔥 Tip: In your candidates’ answers, look out for the key hard and soft skills required of a Marketing Manager: communication, leadership, critical thinking and problem solving, creativity, organization, planning and teamwork. A candidate with the right skills and an even better mindset is sure to help grow your business (and contribute to your outstanding company culture!). 😃</p></div>

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<div id="hardskills">Hard skills interview questions</div>

If you’re searching for a T-shaped Marketer, use these strategy and tactic-based questions to get to the heart of their marketing skillset.

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<h3 class="h3-small">9. How do you measure the success of a marketing campaign?</h3>

This question might just be the most important question you can ask a Marketing Manager candidate in an interview. It’s tough for any marketing professional to grow their marketing efforts if they can’t measure what’s working and what isn’t. They should be able to articulate how they measure the effectiveness of their work by each specific channel.

<h3 class="h3-small">10. If you were to give a presentation to leadership and the rest of the company on your latest marketing campaign, what information might you share?</h3>

Marketing Managers, especially the more senior and experienced candidates, need to be able to digest and present complex information to other team members. Make sure your candidate can communicate high-level marketing insights in an engaging and clear way.

<h3 class="h3-small">11. How did you tackle your last marketing campaign?</h3>

Use this question to dig into your candidate’s direct marketing experience. What was the campaign? How long did it run for? What channels and tools did they use to make sure they were successful?

<h3 class="h3-small">12. Can you walk me through how you would get started on a new marketing campaign?</h3>

This question will help you understand how your potential Marketing Manager would approach creating a completely new marketing campaign. You’ll get a better idea of how organized, thoughtful and creative they are in their work.

<h3 class="h3-small">13. What would you do in your first week at our company as a Marketing Manager? What would you do in your first 30 days?</h3>

Pay attention to how specific and realistic your candidate is when first starting out in a new role. You should also keep in mind that your candidate is lacking a lot of the context you already have being a team member at your company. So, be cautious not to write them off immediately based on their answer.

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Marketing function-specific questions

Marketing Manager candidates are commonly marketing generalists, but many also have specific areas of focus that you can dig into during the interview process. They might be an expert content creator, or have ample experience in social media, demand generation, product marketing or communications.

Here are a few hard skills questions you can ask Marketing Manager candidates based on each marketing function:

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<div id="social">Social Media Marketing interview questions</div>

<h3 class="h3-small">14. What’s the ultimate goal of social media marketing?</h3>

<h3 class="h3-small">15. How have you built online social communities?</h3>

<h3 class="h3-small">16. What social media channels have you managed in the past?</h3>

<h3 class="h3-small">17. What social media channel do you enjoy working with the most?</h3>

<h3 class="h3-small">18. What social media channels have you seen the most success with?</h3>

<h3 class="h3-small">19. How do you measure the success of social media marketing efforts?</h3>

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📣 Use this content creative job description to help you hire creative talent

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<div id="pr">PR and communications interview questions</div>

<h3 class="h3-small">20. What’s the goal of PR and comms?</h3>

<h3 class="h3-small">21. What’s your experience with pitching and media outreach?</h3>

<h3 class="h3-small">22. How do you build strong relationships with journalists and media professionals?</h3>

<h3 class="h3-small">23. How do you measure the success of your outreach efforts?</h3>

<h3 class="h3-small">24. What tools or strategies have you used to communicate a message?</h3>

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<div id="content">Content marketing interview questions</div>

<h3 class="h3-small">25. What’s the goal of good content marketing?

<h3 class="h3-small">26. What experience do you have creating and managing a content editorial calendar?

<h3 class="h3-small">27. What’s your experience with creating a content strategy?

<h3 class="h3-small">28. What type of content do you love creating? And what content do you dislike creating?

<h3 class="h3-small">29. Tell me about the most successful piece of content you've built.

<h3 class="h3-small">30 What’s your knowledge of SEO?

<h3 class="h3-small">31. What do you do if you've been assigned a content project that's outside your field of expertise?

📣 Get started hiring a Content Marketing Manager with this job description template

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<div id="product">Product marketing interview questions</div>

<h3 class="h3-small">32. In your own words, what’s the goal of product marketing?

<h3 class="h3-small">33. What products have you marketed in the past and how did you go about it?

<h3 class="h3-small">34. What’s your experience working cross-functionally on a product or feature launch (i.e. with the product team or sales team)?

<h3 class="h3-small">35. Describe a go-to-market you were a part of. What were you responsible for and what was the outcome of the launch?

<h3 class="h3-small">36. How do you measure the success of product marketing efforts?

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<div id="demandgen">Demand generation interview questions</div>

<h3 class="h3-small">37. How do you measure the success of your demand generation campaigns?

<h3 class="h3-small">38. Which channels do you have experience with?

<h3 class="h3-small">39. Tell me about a successful campaign you’ve been a part of. What went well and what could have gone better?

<h3 class="h3-small">40. Do you do any testing or optimization?

<h3 class="h3-small">41. What tactics have you used to generate demand for a product in the past?

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<div id="softskills">Soft skills questions</div>

Ask these questions to find out more about what makes Marketing Manager candidates tick and gain insight into how well they work with people.

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<h3 class="h3-small">42. How do you explain unfamiliar topics to your team members?

The right person for your team is goal-oriented, but also patient and kind to teammates. The purpose of this question is to get a clearer picture of how they work with others.

<h3 class="h3-small">43. How do you prioritize tasks when you have multiple competing deadlines and responsibilities?

Marketing Managers are busy people: they manage various channels, budgets and projects—all the while trying to grow the company. They need to be able to prioritize what tasks need to be done now and what tasks can wait.

<h3 class="h3-small">44. What do you do when a team member disagrees with your opinion or approach to something?

Disagreements are bound to happen at work. What matters isn’t that your potential Marketing Manager avoids all conflict in the workplace, but rather how they handle it. They should be professional, respectful and solution-oriented.

<h3 class="h3-small">45. How do you feel about making tough decisions independently?

Your future team member might not always have leadership to rely on for decision-making support. They should be able to lean on their previous experience, knowledge and problem-solving skills to arrive at a quick decision.

<h3 class="h3-small">46. How do you handle constructive criticism and feedback at work?

Constructive criticism and feedback are part of the job—particularly when so much about marketing is subjective. That means your Marketing Manager should be able to accept feedback, respond in a professional way and make adjustments from there.

<h3 class="h3-small">47. Can you tell us about a time you’ve had to work with difficult or challenging personalities?

Put forward this Marketing Manager interview question to get a better picture of how the candidate works with people who might push buttons.

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<div id="behavioral">Behavioral questions and prompts</div>

The responses to these behavioral interview questions will help give you insight into how a potential Marketing Manager behaves in a variety of situations.

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<h3 class="h3-small">48. Has there ever been a time when you solved a problem at your job that wasn’t part of your job description?

Working at a small company sometimes means veering off from the job description. Use this question to see if your candidate has experience with unfamiliar marketing tasks and how they went about dealing with challenges.

<h3 class="h3-small">49. Can you share an example of when you had to act quickly at work but didn’t have a lot of data to inform your decision?

Marketers of today typically have the tools and the data to back up their work. But what if your team doesn’t have that luxury? Your new hire should have the reasoning skills and instincts to help them make sound marketing decisions. This interview question will give you more insight into how they think.

<h3 class="h3-small">50. Describe a time when you were asked to do something you’d never done before. How did you handle it?

Before you hire a Marketing Manager, you need to know how they handle unfamiliar tasks and how they see them through to success. They should be able to demonstrate their problem-solving skills in their response to this question.

<h3 class="h3-small">51. Tell us about a time when something you tried to do at work failed. What happened and how did you deal with it?

Failure is normal (and expected!) in every job, no matter the role or seniority. This question isn’t about docking your candidate a point for getting something wrong—it’s about seeing how they came back from experiencing failure and what lessons they took away from that. Cue a phoenix rising from the ashes!

<h3 class="h3-small">52. Describe a time when you had to work with someone who wasn’t responsive or communicative. How did you manage the situation?

This Marketing Manager interview question is all about understanding how your candidate communicates and how they get through to someone when communication breaks down.

<h3 class="h3-small">53. Tell us about an accomplishment in your job that you’re most proud of and why.

This gives your candidate a chance to show off and demonstrate their qualitative and quantitative achievements. Listen out for their excitement and pride in their accomplishments.

<h3 class="h3-small">54. Can you tell us about a project where you had to work on a team, cross-functionally?

Marketing Managers don’t work on an island; they need to be able to collaborate with multiple members of a team cross-functionally. Ask this question to get a sense of your potential hire’s experience collaborating with sales, operations, success and more.

<h3 class="h3-small">55. What’s one thing you wish you could have done differently in a previous role?

Again, this isn’t a “gotcha!” question. This question is about understanding how your Marketing Manager candidate reflects on their previous experiences and how they have grown their skills over time.

<div class="inpage-callout-container"><p class="inpage-banner-text">🔥 Tip: Be sure to leave ample time for your candidate to ask questions throughout the interview or at the very end. It’s easy to forget but an interview is a conversation, after all! The candidates’ own perspective should also be taken into account during your interview. That means giving them the time, space and information they need in the interview process to properly consider the position.</p></div>

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