No doubt, the past two years have seen a tumultuous job market. First, there were layoffs, followed by resignations in the millions. The good news is the US Bureau of Labor Statistics is predicting a 10% increase in advertising, promotions and marketing jobs between 2020 and 2030, which is 2% higher than the average growth rate for all jobs. And the growth marketing job market is among the fastest-growing amongst marketing jobs.
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Growth marketing can be a competitive field to get into and it's even more difficult to find success in. Following are details on the skills you need to excel in growth marketing and tips to help you prepare for your growth marketing interview.
The Growth Marketing Skills You Need To Succeed
To succeed in a growth marketing job, you need to have a “growth” mindset and be willing to take risks to test assumptions and challenge established thinking continuously. You need to excel at both strategic thinking AND have strong analytical capabilities. You must demonstrate a hunger to learn and prove that you can meet the challenges you will face as a growth marketing professional. You need a broad skill set that includes strong technical knowledge, creativity, data analysis abilities and design acumen. It would be best to display that you have the determination and fortitude to stay on course despite setbacks. If you’ve already figured out that you have the necessary skills, curiosity, and grit, here are tips on conveying those strengths in your growth marketing interview.
Do Your Research
You want to make sure the employer you are interviewing with supports and fosters creativity, innovation, and growth. Research what stage of growth the company is currently in and how they expect a growth marketer to increase results. Perform your SWOT analysis of the company. Do your skills align with their needs?
The position you are interviewing for should have a job description that clearly outlines the “what” and the “why” they are trying to achieve and how your role is expected to contribute to these goals. Ensure the job description includes specific metrics they plan to track and measure against to validate that “growth marketing” isn’t just a buzzword they added.
The more research you do on the employer, the more you can tailor your interview responses to their unique needs and situation.
Prepare for Common Growth Marketing Interview Questions
Make sure you communicate why you are excited about this specific role, and have examples prepared that demonstrate that you have a growth mindset. “How have you driven results for a similar type of business?” is a common growth marketing interview question. “What growth marketing campaign are you most proud of?” and “What was your biggest growth marketing mistake?” are others. Review the organization’s website (and any marketing materials you can get your hands on) and come to the table with at least three ideas to grow their business.
While you can’t anticipate every potential question you could be asked, here are ten areas you should be ready to discuss during your interview:
- Your technical skills and the growth tools you have experience using.
- What growth tactics did you implement, why did you choose those specific tactics, and what worked and why.
- Your growth marketing accomplishments. What process did you follow? What were the results?
- Examples that express how data- and process-minded you are. Discuss how you identify your target personas, evaluate user behavior, select and prioritize the experiments you conduct, and how you measure results.
- How you assess the performance of a particular marketing channel and determine when a shift is needed.
- Research methods are utilized to understand your target audience and user behavior.
- Depending on the position level, demonstrate your leadership potential as someone who can help build and manage a growth marketing team.
- Your curiosity. What new skills have you recently learned? How did you go about learning it?
- Highlight something you pursued with determination to demonstrate you have the grit to succeed in growth marketing. Is there something you struggled with but refused to give up? What fueled you to keep going?
- How you handle failure and what you learned from it. Talk about a mistake you made in the past and how you effectively dealt with it.
Ask Smart Questions
Remember that a marketing interview is a two-way street. So be prepared to ask informed questions of your interviewers. For example, you might make these inquiries:
- How will you measure the success of this role?
- What metrics do you believe will best optimize the business?
- How do you expect a growth marketer to help improve these metrics?
- What is your One Metric That Matters (OMTM)?
- What areas are you looking for this growth role to address first?
- Does the company have an independent or a functional growth team model? (If you ask this question, it’s critical to know which type of environment you thrive in.)
- Independent. Team members work independently and prioritize their contributions/work toward the goal. Independent teams are typically organized based on metrics or workflows.
- Functional. Members of the growth team report directly to a functional lead. These teams are typically more structured than the independent model.
By the end of the interview, you want to ensure that the interviewer has a deeper understanding of your skills and experience and how you align with the company's goals and values.
Use the advice above to nail your growth marketing interview and land a job offer! See my related blog post to learn about Today’s Hottest Growth Marketing Jobs.
Want to learn more about how to land your next job? Contact one of our recruiters today!
