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and reviewing candidates to build a new troupe of interns for the fall semester. And for
good reason! Intern programs -- when built right -- are a great way to get additional
support for your marketing team, and teach your interns the ins and outs of
contributing to a business.
I started building HubSpot's intern training program two years ago, and since, we've
hired approximately 33% of our interns as full-time employees ! I'm very passionate
about mentoring talent and setting young marketers up for success, so to help you
build a top-notch marketing internship program, check out the following guidelines
HubSpot uses for our own intern program.
What does a good marketing internship program look
like?
Good intern managers see each semester as a lifecycle with a solid beginning,
middle, and end. With that, the following steps will detail how you can set your intern
up for success in the beginning, grow and develop new skills in the middle, and feel
satisfied and accomplished at the end. Let's begin!
So what should you cover in training? In the very least, your company's basics:
company goals, departmental goals, organizational structure, how your intern fits into
the organization, tools used, how to best ask questions (and get help), and where to
get lunch. The latter is more important than you think. ;-)
Create a buddy system. In HubSpot land, each intern is asked to find a "marketing
buddy" who will be that intern's mentor and go-to for "stupid questions" and social
support. It's nice for an intern to have a person to lean on who's not his or her boss.
This has been a tradition for years now, and it has worked well! Marketing buddies
will grab lunch, talk marketing, and ask and give advice. Also, if the buddy is from a
different department -- your intern could learn from an additional perspective into the
marketing team! That's valuable, too.
Assign Starter Projects to Get Your Interns' Feet Wet
Training is over. Now it's time to start setting some smaller goals and develop initial
projects. This is key; giving your interns small projects in the beginning gives them
the opportunity to claim some small wins early. At the same time, you're testing how
independent your intern can be with less risk. So what are some good marketing
starter projects appropriate for the first two weeks?
Conduct a Research Project: These are great first projects. Not only can you have
your intern dive into a subject you want your team to know more about, but your
intern will also learn loads along the way. Perhaps an intern could research data for
a new blog post, look for trends within your customer base, or dig into some raw data
to present to your team. These independent projects also generally require minimal
assistance and also strengthen analytical skills, which are important skills to have
when looking to get hired in a professional inbound marketing setting .
Create a Small Content Piece: Writing a blog article is something an intern can easily
create and "ship" in the first week. Anticipate going through one or two rounds of
revisions with your intern, and make sure you offer the time to review in person.
When you review (get ready, we're going old-school!), consider printing out the
article and walking thorough what changes you made and why. That way your intern
can learn why you changed what you did and develop his or her own writing
judgment. To take it a step further, ask your intern to check back to learn how much
traffic her blog post drove! That's a great early win.
Proof Someone Else's Work: If you're grooming your intern to be a content creator,
this is another great project to help them read and learn while completing a task. You
can give your intern a variety of things to proof, too: email copy , blog articles, landing
page writing, CTA copy. Subconsciously , your intern will be learning about the
different content items that complete inbound marketing while reviewing the
information.
Shadow a Bigger Project and Help With a Small Piece: This is a great opportunity to
teach your intern to think like you and see how you make decisions. Walk your intern
through something you're working on, and ask for assistance on a specific piece.
Better, see if he or she can suggest how to help! Set a deadline, and go from there.
Note, this might make the overall completion of your project take a bit longer, but the
intern's learning experience should be worth it.
Help Your Intern Develop Ownership With Bigger Projects
After your intern has had some early wins and understands at a high level how your
marketing team jives (generally at week 2 or 3), it's time to give your intern
something to own and manage on their own. Truly managing an entire project helps
interns develop a sense of pride and accountability.