How to Hire a Digital Marketing Intern: A Comprehensive Guide

According to a report, 78% of mentors reported that interns helped increase staff productivity. Hiring a digital marketing intern is beneficial in various aspects. They possess the capability to add value to the company by offering fresh, innovative ideas for campaigns, content, insights, etc. Additionally, with their zeal to learn they help increase the productivity of the team.

However, finding the right intern can be challenging sometimes. In this blog, explore the steps on how to hire a digital marketing intern to create a strong hiring strategy and hire the right intern for your team.

How to Hire a Digital Marketing Intern: Hire the Desired Talent

Here is a step-by-step process to create a successful hiring strategy to hire the right digital marketing intern:

Step 1: Identify Your Requirements: Why Do You Need a Digital Marketing Intern

The first step in how to hire a digital marketing intern is to identify your requirements. Typically a digital marketing intern assists you in carrying out the day-to-day tasks. Here are some ways in which they can assist your team.

• Schedule and upload content across social media platforms.  
• Offer fresh ideas on social media strategies to stay ahead of the industry trends.
• Create content such as writing blogs, social media posts, captions, and other online content to increase brand awareness and outreach.
• Analyze various social media platforms’ performance and provide data-driven analysis. 
• Assist you in creating content, sending email campaigns, and analyzing performance. 
• Conduct market and competitor analysis to assess the effectiveness of the current marketing strategies and offer recommendations for future campaigns.

You can ask the following questions to analyze your requirements.

1. Why do you need an intern? 
2. What tasks will be assigned to the intern?
3. The duration for which you will require an intern? 
4. Do you require your intern to work from the office or they can work from home?
5. What is your budget and does it align with the market price?
6. Who will be mentoring the intern?
7. What benefits can you offer to the intern?

Step 2: Craft an Effective Job Description

After identifying your requirements, you can begin writing a job description. A job description plays a crucial role in attracting qualified candidates by providing detailed and concise information about the following sections:

• Company Overview: Share information on what your company does, its products and services, and its mission and work culture. 
• Job Overview: Give a brief description of what the internship position entails. 
• Key Responsibilities: Give a detailed list of the responsibilities that the intern will carry out daily.
• Qualifications & Skills Requirements: Talk about preferred skills and qualifications required to conduct daily tasks.
• Benefits: Provide information about what benefits will be offered to the intern such as an internship certificate, letter of recommendation, pre-placement offer (depending on the performance), etc.

You can also explore our blog on digital marketing job description to build a better understanding of how to write an effective digital marketing internship description. Additionally, you can check out digital marketing internship postings on the Internshala platform, to take reference from various well-written internship descriptions.

Step 3: Research Job Posting Sites

Once you are ready with your job description, it is time to post it on job portals. Job portals are a great way to reach a larger number of students in a few clicks. While you are researching the best job portals in India, try to look for portals that cater to interns especially. Among available job portals, Internshala is one of India’s leading internship and job platforms. It will offer you various benefits such as the following:

• It provides a built-in chat option that enables you to connect with applicants directly.
• You can post internship job descriptions free of cost.
• It has an application tracking system with advanced search filters, which allows you to view desired candidates’ profiles easily. 
• It offers a user-friendly interface, which will provide you with a seamless hiring experience.
• Additionally, it has over 21 million active students, enabling you to reach a huge talent pool.

Step 4: Assess Resumes and Shortlist Candidates

After receiving applications on your job posting, you can begin assessing the resumes of the candidates and shortlist the ones that impress you the most. Since interns do not have work experience, it can get tricky to asses their resumes. It is best to assess resumes on skills, qualifications, projects, and passion to learn. Here are some factors that you can assess in an intern’s resume.

1. Preferred Technical and Soft Skills

Here is a list of some hard and soft skills that you should consider when hiring a digital marketing intern.

• Familiarity with digital marketing tools such as Google Analytics, Canva, Mailchimp, etc.
• Knowledge of digital marketing principles and concepts such as search engine optimization (SEO), social media marketing, and content marketing. 
• Strong business communication skills, allowing them to communicate effectively. 
• Creative thinking ability to come up with innovative ideas for marketing purposes.  
• Analytical and problem-solving skills to identify areas for improvement and develop solutions to optimize marketing strategies.

2. Preferred Qualifications

A digital marketing intern should have the following qualifications.

• A Bachelor’s degree (pursuing or completed)  in a relevant field such as Marketing, Mass Communication, or Journalism.
• A certification in marketing like a digital marketing course (preferable).
• A project that shows their practical knowledge of digital marketing.

Step 5: Be Flexible: Don’t Hesitate to Hire Candidates with Less Experience

While hiring a digital marketing intern, you should have a flexible hiring mechanism as interns don’t have work experience. While you will be assessing an intern’s capabilities based on their skills, knowledge, and qualifications, it is important to remember to give equal attention and opportunity to candidates who do not have prior skills. If a proactive candidate with a passion to learn and grow applies for a position be sure to give them a chance to showcase relevant soft skills that will enable them to excel at the internship.

Step 6: Conduct Interviews and Hire the Ideal Intern

The last step in how to hire a digital marketing intern is to conduct interviews with the shortlisted candidates. Interviews allow you to have a one-on-one conversation with the candidate and have a closer look at their skills, qualifications, and zeal to discover more about the industry. You can achieve this by asking strategic interview questions to the candidates. 

For reference, here are some questions you can ask a digital marketing intern.

1. What are your thoughts on the latest trends in digital marketing, like Instagram marketing or influencer marketing? 
2. Have you ever worked with Google Analytics and Canva before?
3. Walk me through your process of writing a blog.
4. Are you familiar with SEO? Can you share some SEO practices? 
5. What is your approach to conducting marketing and competitor analysis?
6. What excites you most about the field of digital marketing?
7. What are your career goals and how does this internship fit into them? 

Once you are done with the interviews, shortlist the best candidates and make an offer. Hire the one that fits with your requirements and begin the onboarding process.

Conclusion

Though they lack work experience, interns can still add value to your company by bringing in fresh ideas and increasing productivity. To ensure you hire the right digital marketing intern, follow the above-mentioned steps in our guide on how to hire a digital marketing intern and identify the best talent for your company.

Now that you have built a robust hiring strategy, begin the process of hiring an intern by posting an internship on Internshala. Furthermore, it is essential to find a digital marketing intern who fits with your company’s culture. Check out our blog on culturally fit interview questions to assess the candidate’s suitability for your company.