Don’t worry; finding the right candidate is easy. You only need the right tools to find the best writers who can market your business, write copy that people will want to read, and use the best SEO techniques.
First, you can use an SEO Copywriting skills test to see how much a candidate knows about SEO. This will help you narrow down your choices to the most knowledgeable ones. Then, you need to ask the right copywriter interview questions to learn more about the applicants’ writing skills, marketing experience, and other important skills.
Struggling to create a list of questions to ask during interviews? You’ve come to the right place. You can find our list of 50 copywriter interview questions below, along with some sample answers to help you judge how well candidates answered.
Finding the perfect candidate is easy if you use skills tests and the right selection of interview questions.
Ask these 20 general copywriter interview questions to learn more about the applicants and get a sense of their career goals, core values, and main writing skills.
Hiring a skilled copywriter is crucial for any business looking to engage customers and drive conversions. However, finding the right candidate can be challenging. You need someone who not only writes compelling copy but also understands your brand voice, optimizes content for SEO, and can manage client relationships.
Asking the right interview questions allows you to properly evaluate candidates and determine if they have the necessary hard and soft skills. Here are 15 of the most essential copywriting interview questions to include:
How Do You Compose Search Engine Optimized Content?
This question reveals how familiar candidates are with SEO best practices. The ideal response demonstrates an understanding of keyword research, incorporating keywords naturally, crafting meta titles and descriptions, using headings and subheadings, optimizing images, and including internal and external links.
What Credentials Do You Have That Make You a Good Copywriter?
Look for relevant education such as degrees in marketing, communications or journalism. Professional certifications like HubSpot’s Content Marketing Certification also indicate investment in the craft. Most importantly, ask for examples of previous successful campaigns and testimonials from clients. Portfolios with varied writing samples are a must.
What is Your Process for Researching and Developing a Campaign?
This shows how strategic and thorough copywriters are before writing. You want candidates who gather ample information through surveys, interviews, persona development, keyword research, and competitor analysis. They should also be able to articulate how they translate findings into campaigns.
How Do You Ensure Your Copy Aligns with Our Brand Voice?
Alignment is crucial, so see if candidates proactively study your website content, ads, and social media to immerse themselves in your voice and style. They should ask for brand guidelines and creative briefs. Best answers demonstrate an ability to adapt writing style while maintaining brand voice.
How Do You Handle Receiving a Lot of Feedback or Edits on a Draft?
Copywriters must be open to constructive criticism Ideal candidates view intensive feedback as an opportunity to create better work. You want someone who works collaboratively with stakeholders while pushing back respectfully when necessary
What Was the Most Challenging Copywriting Project You’ve Worked On?
This reveals problem-solving skills. Complex projects with tight deadlines, unclear instructions, or difficult clients require resourcefulness and perseverance. Listen for detailed examples of overcoming obstacles to successfully complete the project.
How Do You Prioritize Working with Multiple Clients at Once?
Juggling competing priorities is key. Look for proven time management abilities like creating editorial calendars having structured writing routines setting deadlines for each stage of a project, and being transparent with clients about capacity.
How Do You Ensure Your Writing is Original and Not Plagiarized?
Ethical copywriters should describe their plagiarism-prevention process which likely includes tools like Copyscape, quotation marks for borrowed phrases, and citing all sources. Beware candidates who downplay the importance of originality.
How Do You Respond to Negative Feedback From a Client?
Even seasoned copywriters sometimes miss the mark, so expect examples of politely acknowledging dissatisfaction, apologizing, asking clarifying questions, and agreeing to remedies like rewrites or discounts for future work. Difficult feedback shouldn’t be taken personally.
What SEO and Marketing Tools Are You Familiar With?
At minimum, copywriters should be adept with keyword tools like Google Keyword Planner and SEMrush along with social media management and email marketing platforms. Bonus points for web analytics expertise and Ad campaign experience.
How Do You Stay On Top of Copywriting Trends and Best Practices?
Passionate copywriters continuously build skills by reading blogs, books, taking courses, and listening to podcasts. Conferences, workshops, and certifications indicate a commitment to excellence. Sharing knowledge with colleagues is also a great sign.
What Do You Enjoy Most About Copywriting?
Listen for genuine enthusiasm about the craft like delighting in distilling complex ideas into engaging narratives or using psychology to motivate action. Avoid candidates chasing a paycheck over passion.
What Is Your Greatest Weakness as a Copywriter?
No one is perfect at every writing style. The best copywriters know their limitations whether it’s SEO ebooks, long-form sales pages, or tweet-length social posts. Knowing weaknesses allows improvement.
Why Do You Want This Particular Copywriting Role?
Finally, listen for interest in your company’s mission, products, and culture. Passion for your brand inspires better work. Candidates should have researched your website and be able to explain why the role appeals specifically to them.
Carefully crafted interview questions allow you to assess the abilities of copywriter candidates beyond just their portfolio samples. Utilizing a mix of skills-based, behavioral, situational, and personality questions provides a 360-degree view of not only writing competence but work ethic, mindset, and company fit.
Taking the time upfront to hire the right copywriter ensures you gain a dedicated contributor to achieving your business goals through the power of strategic words. With compelling and conversion-focused copy, you can effectively engage your audience across channels and drive results.
When to use these copywriter interview questions
For the best results, we advise you to always use skills assessments before you interview candidates.
You can move on to the interview stage once you’ve found the best applicants using our Role Specific Skill tests and made sure they can handle multiple writing projects with tests like our Time Management test. You can use our list of 50 copywriter interview questions to get a better idea of their skills and experience.
Test candidates not only on their ability to write good copy, but also on how well they understand SEO, how to handle clients, how to handle multiple tasks, and how well they follow procedures.
You can learn a lot about each candidate’s skills and abilities by using our interview questions along with our recruitment tests. This will help you find the best person for the copywriting job.
Hire the most talented copywriters with our skills tests and copywriter interview questions
Finding the right person for your copywriting job will depend on the questions you ask during the interview. That’s why you should be careful about which questions you ask.
When you ask candidates a mix of personality and culture-based questions as well as specific questions about their experience and background, you can really get to know their skills, values, and personality traits. This enables you to make the best decision about whom to hire.
Use the 50 copywriter interview questions in this article to get a good idea of the person you want to hire.
You can use a variety of cognitive, role-specific, personality, and culture tests on TestGorilla to see if a candidate is right for jobs like copywriting.
Sign up for a free demo to learn more about how skills testing can help your hiring process and see for yourself why 9000 companies have already chosen TestGorilla.
Copywriting 101: How to CRUSH Your Next Interview and Land High Ticket Clients
FAQ
What is the copywriting test for interview?
How to nail a copywriting interview?
What makes you the best candidate for copywriting?
