6 min read
Roughly 4 million college graduates entered the job market in April and May of 2020. A couple of unexpected factors came into play at once for Builder Funnel. We saw that as those who relied solely on word of mouth marketing began struggling to bring in new leads during the initial coronavirus surge, our clients who had months or years of content marketing working to their favor continued to grow in market share. Not only did construction remain essential in nearly every state, but the value of inbound marketing had been laid bare for all to see.
At that point in time, we were already overhauling our recruiting and hiring process. As our Leadership Team saw the construction industry growing and the extremely challenging job market for recent college graduates, we pivoted to see if we could help connect the dots.
At this point, we weren't sure that we could hire junior teammates and train them into a full-time position. But we were sure that we wanted to help as much as we could since we were so fortunate to be hiring and to have a senior team who could help train new hires into successful teammates. We set the initial goal for ourselves to be able to train an intern into our Specialist position in 90 days.
Initial Goals for A Remote Digital Marketing Internship
We set about creating a list of goals and then reverse engineering a plan of how we could get there. We knew there were a few key needs we were looking for in our remote digital marketing internship:
- growth mindset and open to feedback
- basic understanding of digital marketing
- strong social media marketing skills
- high capacity for output
- looking to land the job and then expand their career
Based on our goals, we were able to create a job posting and write up a "role and expectations" document to provide for interested candidates. We also knew that, because even our in-office team was working from home, a Colorado marketing internship was too narrow. The entire country was our oyster!
Finding and Hiring for Remote Marketing Internships
We quickly discovered that recruiting for a paid marketing internship was very easy. In fact, in most cases, we were the only paid option our candidates had encountered throughout their entire job search thus far.
Since we were just testing the waters to begin, we reached out to those who had recently applied for an open Strategist position but were under-qualified. We let candidates know that we require agency experience for certain roles and letting them know that their resume caught my eye for another position we had available. Builder Funnel matches experience and unique skills with the best possible role. This simple outreach process gained us a list of talented individuals who can reach out to us to learn more about employment opportunities with Builder Funnel and that we regularly pull from for new open positions with us!
After six successful "intern to Specialist" transitions over the past 9 months, we are able to more recruit interns in a timely manner. We've seen that if there is an open position for a Strategist on LinkedIn and Indeed, we will attract a regular stream of interns (under-qualified for the Strategist role) through that job posting.
We recognized a couple of trends over the past year of recruiting interns:
- remote work inspired many to leave their current positions to try something new
- recent graduates of bachelors and masters degrees alike were struggling to find full-time work
Interns Win - Clients Win - Builder Funnel Wins
By bringing on two competitive interns every 60-90 days, Builder Funnel was able to scale to meet not only our largest year of growth but also to help grow our clients. We were able to do this by investing in training and developing interns into successful full-time Specialists very quickly. A few key reasons the internship is so successful include:
- learning through Builder Funnel's effective digital training platform
- access to HubSpot courses and certifications through our partnership agency benefits
- jumping right into "a day in the job" by learning how we market from day one
- highlighting strengths & growth opportunities using our robust 30-60-90 day review process
- scaling from marketing Builder Funnel to reporting to client-facing teams within 60-90 days
We knew in order to hit our goal of preparing interns to be Specialists in 90 days, it would take us pouring into them. And our team was excited to have the opportunity to train hungry and humble interns into future leaders on our team.
Inspired by our first couple of wildly successful transitions from intern to Specialist, our whole team has poured even more into the internship development program. When interns win, they help our clients rise to the top and win. When our clients win, Builder Funnel is able to continue hiring and developing diverse, top talent. And in the off-chance that Builder Funnel isn't able to train an intern into a successful Specialist, that person will still have had 3 months of agency experience to set them up for success in their next position.
It's a simple win-win-win!
My Take On Paid Internships in the Marketing Industry
I recently read an article about the value of retaining a senior team rather than hiring interns. It hit home, because I've been extremely proud of our internship program and I felt directly attacked by this concept. I saw the validity to the sentiment that clients deserve high quality work - but the argument in the article was all about the opportunity to charge your clients more. From a business perspective, charging more for more experienced teammates makes sense! But doesn't it also make sense to help contribute to positive change in any way possible during a global pandemic?
After a lot of reflection, I've come to the conclusion that this certainly shouldn't be an "either or" situation. In fact, I believe that there should be a sense of responsibility to all senior teams who are able to help our young, ambitious graduates to lift them up. If you can hire and train interns into more senior roles, why not strive to attain this win-win-win situation that benefits the grad, your team, and your clients? And I believe firmly in my team's ability to train any intern in their first 90 days with us into a high performing Specialist - as long as the individual is ready to learn and grow.
Marketing Internship Job Description
Our Digital Marketing Internship is an ever-evolving 90-day position with the team. The goal is to learn more about inbound marketing strategy and implementation while fully integrating with our internal marketing team and our client delivery team. You will also have a campaign or focus assigned to you so that you will be able to see a closed loop digital marketing campaign from start to finish.
Ultimately, the goal of our Digital Marketing Internship is tri-fold:
- Supporting a generation of college grads or professionals looking to shift industries during a difficult economy
- Teaching our interns the basics of how to be successful Specialists at Builder Funnel
- Assigning a project for our interns to see from planning to fruition so that you have work experience to point to if this internship does not lead to a full-time position so that you can establish a successful career
While the internship is 90 days, if you have proven yourself to be a capable asset to the team in a shorter period of time, the internship role could lead to a Specialist position before the 90 days are concluded.
Marketing Internship Qualifications and Requirements
We are looking for interns with diverse backgrounds looking to dip their toes into the marketing world! Those most likely to succeed likely have studied, worked in, or are extremely passionate about marketing, communications, and/or sales. If you are excited to learn more about digital marketing, I highly encourage you to apply now!
Here are a few of our top takeaways from recent success stories of interns who have been promoted to Digital Marketing Specialists:
- positive attitude and presence
- demonstrates initiative and desire to learn and develop
- attention to detail and organization
- communication skills
- participation in team meetings and training
In the first 30 days of the internship, individuals will be focusing on learning the HubSpot tool and inbound marketing methodology. This includes supporting our team with social media marketing efforts and email marketing to start.
The next 30 days of the digital marketing internship will dive deeper into specific inbound strategies. This will include learning some search engine optimization basics such as keyword research and developing internal linking strategies. At this point, our interns will also be further honing skills such as social media and email marketing.
The final 30 days of the internship will focus around progress of development and efficiency. By increasing the number of similar tasks that interns have been working on, we're able to make sure that the work is enjoyable and a good fit for both Builder Funnel and the intern!
We're Hiring! Apply for Builder Funnel's Remote Digital Marketing Internship!
Are you ready or know someone ready to join a dynamic digital marketing agency? We'd love to have you or them on the team! To take the next step towards your remote digital marketing internship, click on the link or button below to apply!
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- Click here to apply or apply below :)
Builder Funnel is committed to creating an inclusive work environment with a diverse workforce. All qualified applicants will receive consideration for employment without regard to race, religion, gender, identity, orientation, disability, age, or veteran status.
