Hiring a marketing intern can be a budget-friendly way to improve your marketing campaign.
Before agreeing to hire an intern, however, it's important to consider all of the pros and cons.
Interns Require Your Time
Although hiring an intern may seem like a great way to get cheap labor, interns require a lot of time.
You'll need to assign an employee to train the intern and monitor the intern's activities. Make sure that the value of what you gain from the intern doesn't outweigh the amount of time you'll need to devote to the internship.
Legal Issues around Internships
Internships aren't as simple as hiring someone for free.
There are labor laws to consider and legal definitions of internships. Before you can hire someone for an internship, you'll need to make sure that the position meets the legal definition of an internship.
Consider paying an intern at least a small salary.
Money often motivates people to provide higher quality work. Paying an intern may mean you'll see better results.
Interns Need Clear Duties
The last thing you want to do is waste a well-qualified intern's time.
Don't expect an intern to do menial tasks, like photocopying or filing. Avoid treating an intern like a personal assistant as well.
Instead, assign clear duties that will showcase an intern's marketing skills.
Whether you need help with SEO tasks, content marketing, or outbound marketing, make sure that you capitalize on the intern's education and qualifications.
Interns Should Have Goals
An intern should have clear goals that can be measured. Internships should provide people with opportunities that will look good on a resume.
At the end of the experience, an intern should be able to say something such as, "I increased website traffic by 25 percent," rather than just saying, "I helped with their marketing efforts." Give your intern an opportunity to reach obtainable goals.
Interns Bring New Skills
A current college student or recent graduate will have training that many of your other employees likely lack.
Digital marketing changes so fast that today's college students are learning about things that didn't exist just a few years ago.
An intern can often bring a new perspective and fresh ideas to your marketing plan. Allow an intern to offer proposals and ideas about how to improve upon your current marketing techniques.
Interns Have Limitations
Keep in mind that although interns may have education, they lack experience.
Don't allow an intern to take over all of your marketing or manage major accounts unsupervised.
Online reputation management shouldn't be a duty assigned solely to an intern. Interns may make mistakes that hurt your reputation with customers, other businesses or even search engines, if you're not providing careful supervision.
Increase the responsibilities gradually, ensuring that the intern has the abilities and skills to handle each step along the way.
Most importantly, don't allow an intern to make major decisions about the marketing budget or change in strategy without assistance.
An Intern May be Your Next Hire
One of the biggest advantages of hiring interns is that they could be your next hire.
Providing a positive experience and high quality training can turn an intern into an excellent employee.
Although there are many benefits to hiring an employee, make sure you're aware of the potential risks as well.
If you're well-prepared, an intern can be a valuable asset to your company.