Questions for a Content Marketing Interview

No two content marketing roles are the same. Outside of writing copy, defining specs for or designing creative, planning the editorial calendar, and collaborating with designers, demand generation, and digital marketing, each role will be entirely different.

The reasons vary: Markets are always changing. Content types and content consumption habits evolve. New technology arises. Different industries require different tactics.

So, how do you know whether one content-marketing role is a better fit than another? How do you recognize whether the role will create the healthy discomfort that constructively forces you to develop new skills? And how can you sense which may prioritize quantity of quality?

During the roughly four hours you spend interviewing, you won’t gain certainty about the fit. But asking the right questions can generate the signals you need to make a more-informed decision about the role.

The following questions, divided across five topics below, may help.

• Content marketing goals and performance

• Teammates and collaboration

• Content marketing workflow

• Marketing tech stack

• Marketplace and audience

Note: There’s no wrong answers to these questions (for the most part). If you’re looking to learn how to adapt your skills to meet intense demand-generation goals and scale a content program, hearing your prospective employer say they need to generate 500 net new leads a month may be the response you actually want to hear. Similarly, if you’re looking to build a content program, discovering that no content-development workflow and infrastructure-like tools exist may sound like the opportunity you’ve been waiting for. All depends on your goals.

Content goals and performance

1. How many leads, MQLs, and demos/conversions do you need to generate each month? (Or how close are you to meeting your current goals?) How will those goals change over the next 3, 6, and 12 months?

2. What is your lead-to-customer conversion rate? Lead-to-MQL conversion rate? MQL-to-customer conversion rate?

3. How long is the average sales cycle?

4. How do you define an MQL, and what are the scoring criteria?

5. How long does it take for an MQL to make a purchase?

6. Which channels generate the most leads? Demos/conversions? Sales?

7. How has your organic traffic changed over the past year? Over the past 3 months?

8. What percentage of leads come from organic channels?

9. What was the last channel that you purposefully chose to ignore? Who made that decision?

10. What types of content do you use to generate leads?

11. What’s been the best performing content in the last three months? How and why was it created?

12. Which content-marketing KPIs matter most to the business?

13. Which team reports on content marketing performance?

Teammates and collaboration

1. Who is on the content team? How many writers? How many managers? How long have they been there?

2. How many designers are on the team, and which content do they specialize in?

3. How large is the demand generation team? How do they collaborate with the content team?

4. How many teams in the organization does Content serve?

5. How frequently does Content collaborate with Sales?

6. Is Sales involved in content planning?

7. Is there a feedback loop between Content and Customer Success?

8. Does the organization have a business intelligence or analytics team? Which tools do they use, and what percentage of requests do they complete within ten business days?

Content marketing workflow

1. Who manages the editorial calendar, and how far in advance is it scheduled?

2. Can. you diagram the editorial or content-creation process?

3. How do you measure whether the editorial process is working?

4. Which tools are available to manage the workflow?

5. In general, which role and/or team is responsible for generating the content ideas? Who decides which content should be created, and what inputs are considered?

6. Which stakeholders require approval, and for which projects?

7. How many rounds of revisions do you permit per project?

8. How long does it take to complete a lead-generation campaign from start to finish?

9. Which percentage of projects ship on time?

10. What are your biggest barriers to meet deadlines? What are the root causes of those barriers?

Marketing tech stack

1. Which content management system is in place?

2. Which email automation platform do you use?

3. Which online visibility (or SEO) platform do you subscribe to?

4. Do you have any analytics or BI solutions in place (besides Google Analytics)?

5. How long does it take the team to add a new tool to its stack? What’s the approval process for it?

6. What was the most recent tool you adopted that failed?

Marketplace and audience

1. Do you have personas available? Who manages them? How often are they updated?

2. How do you segment your audience? Demographics? Psychographics? Customer profile?

3. What tools or programs do you use to learn about them?

4. How large is the market?

5. How many competitors do you have? What are their backgrounds, strengths, and weaknesses?

6. Why do your customers choose you over competitors?

7. How much market share do you have right now? How much do you want in six months?

Brand, Sales, and Products

1. Which brands serve as a blueprint for you? Which brands do you admire?

2. How long is your buying cycle, and how long are contracts?

3. Can you map the product portfolio? Are products modular?

4. Can customers customize the products?

It’s unlikely your hiring manager will have the time to answer each of these. But a promising sign is if they know the answers to the questions you do ask without having to consult any files or get back to you later with an answer.