Adding a digital marketing professional to your team can have a big impact on driving new leads to your business and influencing the way people see your brand.

However, hiring the right digital marketing professional is not always easy because many skilled marketers have diverse backgrounds and work experience. If you want to increase your chances of hiring the right person, you need to ask a mix of personal, technical, and digital marketing related questions.

The questions below are open-ended and situational, designed to have candidates reveal their problem-solving, leadership and decision-making abilities as they give their answers.

What makes you a good candidate for the position?

Asking this question is a great way to have the candidate expand on their qualifications and past work experience. There is only so much they can describe in a resume and this question allows you to hear the full story and ask follow up questions as they are explaining.

Not only will it help you find out more about their experience, but it’s also a great way to find out more about the candidate on a personal level and learn more about their values and motivations. Once they respond, you can determine if their answer aligns with your company’s values and marketing goals.

How would you describe the tone of voice and identity of your current company’s brand?

A digital marketing professional has many responsibilities including, content strategy, social media, email marketing, and more. Since many of these digital channels are used to communicate a brand’s positioning and purpose, it’s important for a candidate to know how to keep messaging cohesive, but also be able to speak to the audience in each channel.

Ask followup questions around the strategies and tools they use to keep their brand consistent. A top digital marketing professional will be able to strengthen your brand’s identity through copy, voice, and images and know how to convey that message through different communication channels.

You should also ask the company if they carry out ethical sourcing audits to check whether the working conditions and labor practices are maintained within that certain company.

How do you stay informed about the marketing industry and current trends? What important changes are going on now and are they good or bad?

Marketing trends are changing constantly and knowing what’s coming around the corner and evolving your company alongside those trends will keep you competitive. Look for candidates who take advantage of industry research and trends reports, regularly follow marketing thought leadership, and can identify where the trends are heading.

What was your most successful digital marketing campaign? How did you measure success? How did you improve the campaign along the way?

Asking about the performance of a campaign will help you learn how the candidate defines success. For example, how a candidate measures ROI should be tied to revenue and profits but also include soft metrics like impressions, website visitors, and downloads, which help tell a more complete story. It will also help you learn how they were involved in the process and what they did during the campaign that contributed to its success.

What digital marketing tools, software, and platforms are you familiar with?

There are so many different tools a digital marketing professional can use on a daily basis and each one has its own specific function. For example, the tools they use for social media are going to be different than the ones they use for content management or maintaining their WordPress website. Make sure the candidate is specific about the tools they use and how they use them. Also, ask if they have any certifications in these tools like Hubspot or Google Ads.

If you want to hire a top digital marketing professional, use these questions as a starting point and then tailor them to your specific needs. Remember, the best candidates will be able to give specific examples of how they were able to provide value to their current company and how they will be able to make an impact at your company.