You finally made it to the interview. Now, in order to get hired, you have to pitch a solid marketing plan. Remember, your marketing strategy should focus on specific things that you’ll do if hired and state proof as to why these strategies will likely work. This is what we are looking for in applicants and these are the people we hire as this shows you know what you’re talking about.
So, here’s an outline example of what your entry-level marketing strategy should sound like.
This is how you ace your marketing strategy pitch
Here’s the scenario: You’re interviewing for a PPC Marketing entry-level position. Important: don’t use this pitch for a social media role interview as the below focuses on ads and should not be confused with managing a company’s social media as the content/strategies are very different. Also, be much more specific than this generalized plan in why your strategy will work by providing proof (stats) as to the plan’s effectiveness.
Step 1: You need to properly research the company (and a couple competitors) and see what their current PPC marketing campaign looks like
Proper research is super important because you want to make sure your pitch is aligned with what they’re doing.
How do you do this?
- Go to their website and click on things that make them think you’re an interested customer and that way, they’ll send you PPC ads to try to convert you.
- You can do this by going to their checkout page and then abandon your cart or act as a client and click on a page that says you’re interested in doing business with them.
- You’ll now likely start receiving their ads when you’re scrolling on social media or on Google
Step 2: Identify their strategy and pitch how you can increase the effectiveness
Social Media
- Are their retargeting ads showing up in your feed or in your stories? If their target demographic is below 30, you might want to pitch that they could possibly get a better ROI by having their ads show up in stories as these have better conversion rates than ads in the feed (mention the difference in cost per click). If the target demographic is over 50, stay away from stories completely as these don’t convert well. Note: this is different from engagement. Don’t confuse the 2.
- Are the ads static or is there movement? Generally, ads with movement perform much better. Mention exactly how you’ll test this in Facebook Ads Manager and how you’ll determine the audience you’ll test this on.
- What’s the CTA (Call To Action) they’re using? Sign up. Learn More. Get it Now. Provide a few alternatives and give some stats on their effectiveness and mention how you’ll test this to keep costs low.
- What Lead Magnet are they giving away? Is it 10% off? Is it an e-book? A free guide? If you aren’t giving the right lead magnet away, then you won’t convert. Offer good lead magnet alternatives here that are proven to convert well. For example, guides work much better than the term e-book even though they are the same thing.
- Is their Landing Page optimized to convert? When you click on the ad, you’ll be taken to a landing page. The sole purpose of this page is to get you to convert into a customer or to give them your email address. You’ll want to talk about the heading, the copy, the imagery, the lead magnet etc. Mention a software or 2 that will help optimize your landing page and how you’ll use it.
- What are their competitors doing? Does it seem to work better? Use competitors to get ideas.
- What ads come up when you search certain keywords pertaining to the service this company provides? Does their ad show up or is it only their competitors? Is the wording of the ad attractive enough to make you click? What keywords offer the best ROI? Don’t make the mistake and sound inexperienced by just talking about the most commonly searched keywords as these will likely be expensive and not provide a good ROI.
- Now that the ad converted you and you gave them your email, how does the next stage of their marketing (email) perform? You want to make sure you show them that you understand how the marketing funnel as a whole works.
- What email do you get after giving them your contact info?
- Is the subject line appealing? You need to offer good alternatives here using email marketing best practices and prove why your subject line likely will get a better Open Rate and CTR.
- Does the email feel personalized? How can you segment your email list to make it feel more personalized? No, don’t just add a name. There’s more to it than that and you need to highlight this in your plan.
- What’s the goal of this email and did it get the job done? What copy can you provide to make you more likely to convert? What CTA will you recommend they try to get more people to act now? Remember, with all of your pitches, you need to add proof as to why this is worth trying based on results and what actually works in the business word.
THIS is how your marketing strategies need to sound like in order for you to get hired.
THIS is where you show you actually know what you’re talking about and that you’re ready to be hired.
