Education Marketing Specialist Interview Preparation Guide

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Marketing is changing constantly at a rapid pace -- so anyone in a marketing role needs to know how to stay on top of and adapt to these changes. Do they know where to look for industry news? Are they familiar with and subscribed to top marketing blogs? What do they do when they see a change has taken place, like when Google updates their algorithm?

This'll show you how well a candidate understands all the different tactics of inbound marketing and how to tie them together into a holistic plan. It'll also give you insight into how creative they are and whether they can come up with new and interesting ways to do marketing.

I was charged with introducing a new brand at a tech conference in Las Vegas. We created a strategy that involved physical signage and giveaways at the conference center, along with a Twitter account that posted about the next locations where customers could find our product. We integrated the campaign with general conference tweets through the use of hashtags. It was a lot of fun.

Similar to a public relations specialist, a communications specialist is responsible for building and maintaining relationships between the company or brand they represent and the outside world. Depending on their role, communications specialists may also be responsible for managing communications within the organization itself including crafting company-wide newsletters, creating brand awareness programs and getting feedback from employees about the company’s communications strategy.

The two most important metrics for social media are engagements and leads. Whether they’re using Twitter, Facebook, Pinterest, LinkedIn, or YouTube, a good social media specialist should be able to show quantifiable evidence that they’re reaching people who could become customers.

Explain what attracted you to this field, perhaps using an anecdote from your personal or professional life. Then tailor your answer using a thorough understanding of what the company is currently focusing on and where it wants to go. Deep interest in the mission only goes so far. From there, it’s on you to demonstrate how you can take the company’s work to the next level.

Perhaps it’s clear from the job posting or the interview that the team or company has a need for a specific skill, like grant writing or bookkeeping, that you are especially prepared to take on right away. Remind them you can solve that problem for them. And then, why not go for it? Say, “I have the skills and experience you’re looking for, and I’m a strong candidate for the position.”

This question will help you assess a candidate's ability to explain a concept they know intimately to someone who isn't as familiar with it. If their hobby is training for a marathon, ask them what advice they'd give you if you woke up one day deciding you wanted to train for a marathon. Are they able to communicate it clearly?

One candidate taught me how to make tagliatelle, which is hand-cut Italian pasta. She gave me the full run-down on how you make the noodles, how you form them and cut them, and which ingredients go into the sauce. She relayed the step-by-step process to me in a way that was very clear and understandable. I felt like I could've gone home and made tagliatelle myself. Not only did this tell me she knows how to convey information clearly, but it also gave me insight into her personality and interests.

There's no "right" answer to this question -- a digital marketing strategy thrives on more than three things -- but certain answers show the candidate is up to date on how businesses attract and delight their customers today.

"A Facebook page," for instance, isn't a wrong answer, but it doesn't give you context around how a business would use this page in their marketing strategy. Here are a few sample answers to this interview question that are on the right track:

☛ A blog with calls to action (CTAs), landing pages for website visitors to download more content, and a defined social media strategy.
☛ An SEO strategy, website chat, and an analytics tool to track campaign performance.
☛ Buyer personas, a Marketing and Sales Service Level Agreement, and a customer success strategy.

Our team tracked mentions of our product throughout the conference to see how many conference attendees were engaging with the product. We also tracked hits to our website, as well as attendance at the giveaways. Other metrics we computed were sales after the conference, mentions on social media and engagement through other channels like email.