Don’t have time to tutor college students? Your team works at too high of a level to use interns? They’d be a drain on productivity, just do busy work, wouldn’t really learn anything beneficial? Standard objections — but, in our experience, wholly unfounded. With a little basic planning, almost any organization can profitably harness “intern power” while offering students valuable real-world business lessons.
Kolbrener engages interns every semester, and we are currently helping two fast- growth clients establish marketing internship programs. Below you’ll find some basic pointers on setting up such a program, including advice on internship objectives and responsibilities, structure and supervision, and where and when to post positions.
Objectives and Responsibilities
First, as you would with any position, establish clear objectives and responsibilities for each intern slot. For example, Kolbrener intern duties include conducting research to identify and profile prospects, updating the agency database and assisting with its maintenance, writing marketing letters, organizing agency portfolio samples, etc. Also, it is important to assign one substantial semester-long project they must complete and present to senior leadership. Below are a few sample projects:
• Initial market research for a new product or service
• Creation of a client orientation kit
• Research on a yearly client summit or conference
• Development of a customer satisfaction survey
• Preparation of a company media kit
• Generation of competitor profile reports
• Groundwork on assembling a company advisory council
Requirements
While sketching out intern responsibilities, you should also define internship requirements such as length of internship, expected weekly hours, desired skills and completed coursework necessary for the position. Typically, the internship should be 10 to 12 weeks long to fit a semester schedule. We suggest a minimum 10 hours of office time a week — anything less makes it difficult for either your company or the intern to derive much benefit. For students to receive credit hours, most universities and colleges require 15 hours a week. More than 20 hours a week is probably too much.
As to qualifications, that obviously depends on what responsibilities your intern will have, but in general Kolbrener recommends that fast-growth companies seeking marketing interns focus on seniors majoring in communications or marketing. Such individuals will usually have at least one significant employment experience already and enough coursework to be genuinely valuable to your organization — as well as the background and maturity to get the most out of their internship.
Structure and Supervision
It is highly recommended that you have each intern commit to a consistent weekly schedule like Monday, Wednesday, and Friday from 12 to 5, or Tuesday and Thursday 9 to 5. Simply put, students need structure — and a schedule also helps you prepare for their time in the office. “Flex time” rarely works well for internships.
Structure the internship as a progressive experience over the 10 to 12 weeks. For example, at Kolbrener the first week of the internship is spent completing a mini-orientation and filing project and proposal folders. While this is mundane work, interns are encouraged to review file contents to familiarize themselves with our projects and proposals, and to gain an understanding of Kolbrener’s business proposition. The next six to seven weeks are spent updating our database, writing marketing letters, completing tasks associated with our drip marketing program, and working on their semester-long project. During the last two to three weeks, they shadow our team to external client and prospect meetings, attend internal client strategy and creative meetings, and prepare and present their final semester project.
It’s also good to schedule a weekly 15- to 20-minute status update and review meeting with each intern. In this meeting, you should assign activities, check prior work, and ensure they are making progress on their final semester project. If they are receiving credit, you might also have to sign and date a weekly internship log that students must complete for their advisors. Also, be sure to ask for feedback during these meetings — you’ll be pleasantly surprised by some of your interns’ insights and recommendations, and they may even make a positive impact on your organization.
Posting and Recruitment
We recommend posting your internships with career centers and communications and marketing departments at universities and colleges within a 25-mile radius of your offices. This proximity is particularly important during fall and spring semesters when interns are likely to have a full slate of classes. Post internships in mid-August for fall, mid-December for spring, and late March for summer.
In your posting announcement, include the following:
• Company information
• Contact information
• Description of responsibilities
• Requirements for consideration
• Location
• Duration
• Number of internships available
• Hours expected
• Compensation
• Application procedure
• Deadline
For Kolbrener’s application procedure, we require a cover letter, resume, and a brief writing sample. In the cover letter, we ask the candidate to tell us about his or her personal USP or Unique Selling Proposition — in other words, what distinguishes you from other candidates applying for this internship? We also ask them to outline availability (days and hours), describe their research skills, and summarize their professional interest in marketing.
Paid Versus Unpaid
Kolbrener does not pay interns, and we do not recommend that our clients pay their marketing interns. In our opinion, paid internships do not increase the caliber of applicants and may do just the opposite. With an unpaid position, the student is clearly there for the value of the internship experience itself. To be fair, during summer semester many genuinely motivated students must generate income for tuition and expenses and simply can’t afford to take a non-paying position, but you should still be able to attract quality unpaid summer interns.
A successful marketing internship program can add extra labor power — not to mention a fresh perspective — to your marketing, sales and communications efforts. The guidelines above should get you on your way to establishing and managing such a program.
One last tip — at the end of every internship period, hold a luncheon honoring the interns, and recognize their hard work with a gift or two. This is a great way to send them off, and enhances the sense of it being a positive experience for all involved. And you can be sure that your interns will share their experience with friends on campus — which will make intern recruitment for future semesters that much easier.
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