Marketing & Content Topics
Marketing strategy, content marketing, campaign management, and digital marketing. Covers content strategy, campaign execution, and marketing analytics.
Competitive Analysis and Benchmarking
Covers frameworks and hands on techniques for researching, measuring, and benchmarking competitors using quantitative data and tools. Topics include identifying direct and indirect competitors, mapping channels and acquisition strategies, comparing product positioning and value propositions, and inferring growth and monetization metrics such as user counts, growth rates, ranking trends, retention signals, and revenue models. Practical skills include using SEO and market intelligence platforms and data sources such as SEMrush, Ahrefs, Moz, Screaming Frog, Google Search Console, Google Analytics, SimilarWeb, Sensor Tower, and app store research; extracting competitor keyword and backlink strategies; analyzing content performance and search ranking features; triangulating multiple data sources; recognizing tool limitations and data quality issues; and translating analytical insights into prioritized strategic recommendations, experiments, and tracking metrics for growth and product decisions.
Email Automation and Lifecycle Sequences
Develop understanding of email automation platforms and how to build automated email sequences that trigger based on user actions or timeline. Common sequences: onboarding (triggered by sign-up, delivered over days), re-engagement (triggered after period of inactivity), win-back (for lapsed customers), post-purchase (upsell, cross-sell), feature announcement (to relevant users). At junior level, be able to design an email sequence: map out email flow and triggers, define content for each email, discuss frequency and timing, explain how you'd measure sequence effectiveness. Show familiarity with email automation platforms (Marketo, HubSpot, etc.). Discuss segmentation within sequences—do different user types get different content?
Marketing Automation Platforms and Workflows
Comprehensive domain knowledge and hands on skills for selecting, configuring, operating, and troubleshooting marketing automation platforms and the automated programs they run. Encompasses platform selection and configuration, workspace and user role management, integration with customer relationship management systems, validating data mappings, and operational best practices. Covers workflow and campaign design using triggers, conditions, actions, and workflow components to build trigger based, drip, lifecycle, and lead nurturing campaigns, as well as lead scoring models, segmentation strategies, dynamic content, progressive profiling, and personalization at scale. Includes email marketing strategy and campaign design such as deliverability and list hygiene practices, subject line and content testing, A B testing methodologies, send time optimization, template management, landing pages and form integration, and compliance with regulations such as CAN SPAM and General Data Protection Regulation. Addresses metrics, analytics, and attribution including open rate, click through rate, conversion rate, bounce rate, unsubscribe rate, and campaign level reporting. Details platform operations and troubleshooting such as diagnosing synchronization errors, duplicate records and data conflicts, testing workflows in staging environments, escalation to vendor support, and resolving integration issues, plus scaling and complexity management and orchestration across channels including email, mobile messaging, web, push notifications, and paid advertising. Familiarity with major systems such as Marketo, HubSpot, Salesforce Marketing Cloud, Klaviyo, and ActiveCampaign is relevant, but emphasis is on reliable workflow design, operational excellence, and performance optimization.
Audience Segmentation and Persona Development
Covers methods for dividing an audience into meaningful segments using demographics, firmographics, psychographics, behavior, purchase intent, engagement level, lifecycle stage, and channel or device use. Includes research techniques and data sources such as first party data, surveys, analytics, CRM and third party insights, and approaches to maintaining list hygiene and data quality. Explains how to develop buyer personas and map personas to journey stages, messaging, offers, content formats, and channel strategies. Addresses targeting tactics across platforms including paid media targeting capabilities, email and marketing automation personalization, dynamic content, behavioral targeting, and account based approaches. Covers how to prioritize segments based on value and reach, balance acquisition versus retention and expansion, design targeted messaging for different stakeholder roles or departments, and measure performance and iterate segmentation and personalization strategies. Also discusses trade offs between complexity and operational simplicity, privacy and ethical considerations, and how segmentation informs campaign planning and measurement.
App Store Search and Apple Search Ads
Practical knowledge of Apple Search Ads mechanics and App Store optimization. Topics include keyword targeting and match types, bid and budget strategies for search ads, creative sets and store listing experiments, integration between paid search and organic app store optimization such as metadata, screenshots and reviews, measuring install quality and retention from search campaigns, and platform specific tactics for improving discoverability and conversion in the App Store versus other app stores.
Channel Specific Analytics and Optimization
Develop channel level measurement and optimization plans that capture the primary levers and key performance indicators for each marketing or acquisition channel. For search marketing examine quality score factors, bid and budget strategy, and return on ad spend. For paid social examine engagement rates, click through rates, targeting and creative tests, and cost per acquisition. For organic search examine keyword rankings, organic traffic trends, and conversion from search. For email examine open rates, click rates, deliverability, and revenue per message. For organic social examine reach, impressions, and audience engagement. For partnerships and affiliate channels examine partner margin, incentives, and conversion contribution. Candidates should describe channel specific experiments, attribution considerations, budget allocation frameworks, signal instrumentation, and how to integrate channel analytics into overall funnel and lifecycle optimization.
Campaign Strategy and Planning
End to end development and execution of marketing or growth campaigns, covering both high level strategy and detailed operational planning. Core areas include defining clear campaign objectives and target outcomes, conducting market and audience research, developing segmentation and persona based targeting, and creating positioning and messaging strategies. Candidates should demonstrate channel selection and sequencing rationale, creative strategy and brief development, content planning, budget allocation and resource planning, and detailed timelines with task ownership. Execution and coordination expectations include aligning cross functional stakeholders such as creative, product, analytics, legal, and operations, managing dependencies and risks, and handling resource constraints. Measurement and optimization skills include designing measurement frameworks with defined key performance indicators and attribution modeling, implementing tracking and reporting, designing experiments such as split testing and multivariate testing, evaluating results for statistical significance, and iterating on optimizations and learnings to inform future campaigns. Interviewers commonly expect concrete examples of campaign lifecycles from conception through launch and post launch analysis, trade offs made during planning, and how learnings influenced subsequent strategy.
Performance Marketing and Paid Acquisition
Knowledge and practice of paid acquisition across channels such as Facebook, Google, Apple Search Ads, TikTok and programmatic networks. Topics include campaign structure, audience targeting, bidding and budget strategies, creative formats and landing page optimization. Measurement and metrics covered include customer acquisition cost, return on ad spend, lifetime value and payback period, as well as channel level forecasting and budget allocation. Candidates should be able to design and interpret experiments and holdout tests for incrementality, troubleshoot attribution issues, optimize creative and audiences iteratively, scale winning campaigns while preserving retention and quality, and coordinate with analytics and mobile measurement partners for reliable reporting.
Social Media and Community Management
Focuses on planning, executing, and measuring social media presence and community interactions across platforms. Includes platform specific content strategy, editorial calendars, organic versus paid approaches, paid social advertising fundamentals, influencer and partnership tactics, community moderation and activation, social listening, crisis response, and metrics for social ROI such as engagement rate, reach, conversions, and cost per acquisition. Candidates should demonstrate understanding of channel best practices, content formats, audience segmentation on social, community moderation policies, and tools for scheduling, analytics, and listening.