4 Things I Learned as a Marketing Intern

Our team had a rockstar intern this summer! Tori Martin, a junior studying UX at Purdue, worked with us on client projects including designing email and social graphics, building social media kits for client partners, laying out project logistics and details, research, and so much more. As Tori heads back to Purdue, we're saying goodbye (for now!) and thanking her for an awesome summer. Below Tori shares some of her favorite takeaways and marketing intern lessons! 

This Summer, I had the opportunity to take on a marketing internship role and even though it wasn’t quite my major, I was still ecstatic. As I enter my third year of studying User Experience Design (UX), I keep finding myself reaching for more work within the marketing and content strategy side of UX (hint, why I was so excited for this opportunity). 

I had run social media accounts and helped with marketing tactics in the past, but little did I know that within these three short months, I’d be picking up digital marketing lessons and knowledge related directly to my major (most I didn’t even know existed). While I’ve learned countless facts and tips, here are the top four takeaways I'll keep with me.

1.) The Difference Between Reach vs Impressions

While sifting through social analytics, the two terms “reach” and “impressions” kept popping up, but I could not tell you the difference between the two. Turns out, reach is the total number of people who can see your post or story. This is a number that the social platform gives your post, and can vary between posts, depending on the amount of engagements it gets.

Impressions are the number of times your post was actually shown to someone. For example, if people see your post more than one time, you could have more impressions than you do reach. A big question I had was if viewers had to engage with the post for it to count as an impression, but the answer is no! An impression can just happen from a view.

2.) A Typical Organic Reach is Small

Did you ever think that the amount of people who see your post totaled the amount of followers? Makes sense, right? Well, little did I know that this thinking was wrong! The truth is, social platforms only show a small handful of people your post, aka reach. Not every single one of your followers will get the chance to see your post. Depending on how many times people interact with your post, your reach can increase. 

3.) It’s More Than Just Likes and Comments

I used to simply go back and look at how many likes or comments each post got on my social accounts and let that dictate which post was better versus others. However, if you’re going to find which posts work well, what are the good/bad trends, etc., you need to be looking deeper into analytics like impressions, profile visits, clicks, and link clicks to gain a better understanding. Believe it or not, likes and comments aren’t always the most valuable measures of success. After a time frame of frequent posting, it’s important to go back and measure your social metrics to find room for improvement and grow your influence.

4.) Content Marketing is a Lot Like UX

I’ve gotten a chance to see and learn the differences in basic marketing tactics vs content marketing. Content marketing is showing that you know what you’re talking about. And how do you do this? It’s through the control of storytelling to get a message or experience out to your audience. This usually entails much empathy to understand your audience and make your content applicable to them.

So how does UX come into play here? UX involves designing meaningful and relevant experiences for your audience by thinking about their needs, wants, emotions, etc. When you are creating digital content to market, you are designing an experience for your audience. If you can’t walk them through a well-designed storyline or offer them an experience applicable to them, well that’s just poor UX and poor content marketing. 

Some lessons within content marketing can seem a little nitpicky, but all together they mean so much more than just numbers. Understanding those smaller tips like reach, impressions, and analytics can help you build the content marketing strategy and gain that huge influence you always dreamed. And to the more broad notions I’ve learned, it’s crucial to keep referring back to those to drive your marketing efforts. I plan to continue with these understandings even in my major, as I head back to school.