Are you interested in a marketing career? Do you see yourself building projects, creating campaigns, organizing events and managing marketing operations in the future? If so, then you’ll have to start off with a marketing internship.
This can give you all of the tools, information and experience to jumpstart your career in marketing and advertising.
Marketing is a field that is constantly evolving and in flux. It’s an exciting business that is always growing, changing and you need to be willing to do the same, with fresh ideas and a positive mindset in order to develop and grow as a marketer.
So, what is a marketing internship, what should you know as an intern and what responsibilities will you have? Read on to find out.
Table of Contents
What Is A Marketing Intern?
A marketing intern will work closely with a company’s marketing department in order to support the planning and execution of marketing campaigns and promotion services.
Marketing can involve advertising, raising awareness, selling and delivering products to a consumer or other businesses, along with engaging with clients and consumers to provide them with a service or a product.
As a marketing intern, you may support these processes by identifying consumer needs, marketing needs, engaging with consumers, conducting market research, creating social media content and by implementing and organizing email marketing campaigns.
When working as a marketing intern, you can try your hand at marketing, whilst simultaneously learning from the best in the business. You can work on projects with guidance, and have goals to achieve such as gaining new skills, and understanding the marketing industry better as a whole.
In short, a marketing intern will be an aspiring marketing professional, hoping to learn and grow. A marketing intern can do this by assisting the management team or head of marketing operations within a certain company.
What Should A Marketing Intern Know?
Marketing covers a broad range of services, from SEO to market research, to advertising, content creation, copywriting to creating graphs and running reports and numbers.
As a result, a marketing intern will need a wide range of skills in order to keep up with this field of work.
To be successful as a marketing intern, the first thing you should do is make yourself aware of marketing concepts, terms and language.
You will come across things such as SEO (search engine optimization), B2B (business to business), B2C (business to consumer), digital marketing and many other terms that you will need to be familiar with and have a good understanding of.
You will also need to be able to use your language and writing skills to write engaging copy, have good mathematical skills to examine statistics and have communication skills to speak publicly or present slideshows and your research.
You may also need some graphic design skills, and be able to work on programs such as Photoshop, InDesign, Illustrator and Final Cut in order to create content for the business you are working for.
Finally, you need to be up on new trends, ideas, movements, ideologies and what is in fashion at the time. This can help you come up with fresh, on topic ideas for marketing campaigns, slogans and social media content so that you can engage with and interact with consumers.
What Are The Requirements To Get A Marketing Internship?
The requirements for entry into a marketing internship will vary depending on the particular job post, and the company in which the internship is for, as some can be very competitive.
However, for most marketing internships, a degree in marketing, advertising or communications can be highly attractive and beneficial, or current enrollment in such a course would also be helpful.
A marketing intern will also need to be highly familiar with marketing software, technology and have good knowledge of social media platforms, trends and content.
Common desired skills are excellent written and verbal communication skills, along with a flair for creativity and a great understanding of marketing techniques and strategies.
Finally, a marketing intern will need to be highly organized, self disciplined and confident in preparing proposals, delivering presentations and working to deadlines.
What Responsibilities Does A Marketing Intern Have?
This will depend on the particular marketing internship that you have, as some companies may give more responsibilities than others.
That being said, for the most part, a marketing intern will prepare proposals, conduct market research, examine marketing trends and organize or host events for the company.
A marketing internship may involve creating content for a social media platform, along with market analysis, monitoring social media and the company’s online presence, whilst also preparing promotional materials and presentations.
Just like any other internship, there may also be a need for assistance with daily administrative duties, along with helping to plan marketing events.
An intern may also research and evaluate competitor marketing materials and strategies, and may need to create digital content for the company.
A marketing intern may need to contribute to mock ups, email marketing campaigns, online social media campaigns, and may need to monitor social media platforms, engaging and responding to customers, whilst also following up on trends, new ideas, and try to connect with people online to build brand awareness and engage with customers.
Do Marketing Interns Get Paid?
This would depend on the internship that you take part in. The average marketing internship pays about $31,897 per year in the United States, with the average hourly rate for a marketing internship being about $15.
For an entry level marketing internship, you can expect to make about $24,000 per year.
Summary
To summarize, a marketing internship will be one of the most challenging things you do, but if you are serious about starting your career in marketing, then an internship will be perfect for you.
You will need to utilize many of your skills from graphic design, mathematics, communication, research, creative writing all the way to public speaking and organization skills.
As such a broad field of work, prepare yourself to get stuck into preparing proposals, working on campaigns and monitoring trends and social media interactions to further market and advertise the company that you work for.
