How Having an Intern Can Affect Your Marketing
" Whether large or small, all companies can benefit in a number of different ways by starting up an internship program.
I recall an early internship that I did for a company in their publicity department. My job was to design simple color postcards to send out. These usually dealt with various announcements and weren’t part of their overall marketing pushes. As with many companies, they had their marketing split up into two categories: the larger marketing campaigns and the simple, everyday kind of marketing.
I was dealing with the everyday marketing that didn’t require quite as much attention, and was perfect for someone just starting out in the industry. I was able to get a feel for what went into designing and running postcard printing jobs, along with the kind of writing they needed and how regularly you needed to send them out.
The company was able to get help for very cheap because of the fact that I was an intern, and I was able to get some great experience to help me later on down the line. I was also able to observe how the larger marketing campaigns worked, giving me a good insight into that side of marketing as well.
The smaller your company is the more likely it will be that you don’t have as much money to devote to your marketing. This is when you can get the most benefit from using an internship program. I’m sure there’s some form of local school you could go to in order to start something like this up with, or you could just set up the program yourself.
Marketing involves many tasks that a person can learn a lot by doing, and that don’t require an experienced hand to manage. While you take care of the large pushes you can set your intern on handing the day to day things that aren’t quite as important, but still need to be accomplished. Like the place I worked for, you might have some color postcards you need to send out a lot, or maybe you made some posters and need someone to go around to the different locations and put them up.
I believe that many small companies don’t bother with this because they feel that interns are only meant for large corporations. Small businesses have a much different dynamic to them than large ones, and provide a unique learning experience for someone. Don’t shut off your ability to teach, or your ability to benefit from an internship, but assuming it isn’t right for your type of company.
Any company of any size can find some kind of benefit from internship programs, and you can potentially help improve your image in your community as well. People know that you’re helping others to learn the field you’re in, along with how to best market.
The things I learned in my internship were invaluable to me and ensure I do a much better job now. You can provide this same opportunity to people in your area if you’re just willing to open your doors and let them in."
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