Many businesses are opting to use college interns to do their entire marketing - justifying it by assuming they are saving money by going the intern-only route over hiring a marketer or marketing firm. However, just because an intern comes with a smaller salary doesn't automatically mean you're saving money in the long term. In this presentation, we discuss what you're really paying for by "saving" with an intern doing your whole marketing...

1. You Get What You Pay For
Is Your Marketing Intern Really Worth the
“Savings”?
Presented by

2. Here’s the challenge many businesses are facing:
Over the years, marketing has switched
from being very advertising-heavy…
Direct
Mail
Phone
Book
News
Ads
TV/
Radio
SEO
Website
Web
Video
Email
Social
Media
…to a multi-faceted mix of online and offline,
inbound and outbound marketing techniques.

3. This mix includes technologies like:
To be successful with these technologies, you need a good
bit of TIME, EFFORT, and INTIMATE FAMILIARITY,
….which a lot of business owners don’t.

4. There are marketing firms that create and execute the full suite of online and offline
strategies required for today’s digital marketing…
But many business owners (especially small business owners) see the costs of this
kind of marketing and panic.
$$$$
They compare that cost
with the cost of hiring a
college student as an
intern.
$$

5. “Kids these days know
so much more about all
these technologies and
websites anyway,”
“Surely they can do
everything that I need
for my marketing.”
they say.
And they compare the cost of the intern with the cost of the marketing firm,
and congratulate themselves on their “savings”.

7. Yes, an intern will cost you less per hour, but there are plenty of hidden costs in that
smaller paycheck…
$$$$$$
Here’s what you’re really paying for:

8. Why are interns so inexpensive?
Oh yeah, because they don’t have the marketing and
work experience that a full-time employee would bring to
the table.
1. Their learning
curve and
inexperience.
Interns still have a lot to learn about:
?

9. To Learn About Marketing
Even if your intern is pursuing a marketing degree, they are
still learning about marketing – hence why they haven’t been
awarded the degree yet.
In addition, most programs are still teaching and training
students in traditional marketing. If you want to do a
modern, digital marketing strategy, your intern is most likely
going to learn about it while working for you, not at school.

10. At the very least, they’ll need to take time to research the kind of marketing you
want to do, as well as find the tools they can use to get their job done.
That’s going to be time on
the clock, too.
(What, you expect them to do
research for you on their time off?
You’re not paying them that much.)

11. To Learn About Work
Many of the lessons that interns will learn during their first
internship are about how to be an employee.
These are college students who have primarily done school
for the majority of their lives. As their first boss, you are
more than likely going to have to take time just to train them
on how to work.
Interns may still have to
learn things like:
• How to dress appropriately
for work
• How to interact properly
with customers/clients
• Basic business etiquette
(such as calling in sick, not
sending an email)
• How to answer the
business phone
• How to fax
• and more

12. To Learn About Life in General
Oftentimes, internships are a good opportunity for students
to try something new – to “try on” a career, so to speak. It
may be that they’re interested in your industry but aren’t
sure if it’s a good fit for them, so they’ll do an internship to
find out.
This means you could train an intern for months and even
years, only for them to leave for a different career, industry,
or company. They may even leave just because they
graduate and want to start somewhere new.
Oh, well. You weren’t paying them that much, after all.
?

13. One of the common justifications for entrusting your
entire marketing to an intern is because they are more
familiar with the technologies and techniques used in
digital marketing.
2. Their mistakes.
It’s true: Many of today’s college students are very familiar
with things like social media, email, and video.
This does not make them naturally gifted
at using these techniques for marketing.

14. See, most interns are used to using these technologies for
personal reasons. That’s their Facebook or Twitter profile,
their Gmail account, their videos they made when they were
goofing around with their friends.
But what’s okay on a personal account is not always
acceptable on a business account – and interns may not put
enough safeguards in to make sure the business and
personal stay separate.
Oops…
(Heck, there are adults who
don’t put in enough
safeguards!)

15. For many potential customers, your marketing is how they will first interact
with your business.
Do you want this first interaction to be a mistake? An intern’s mistake?
• An inappropriate status update
• A typo-filled email sent out to your top prospects
• A poorly shot and poorly edited video that was shot on someone’s phone
When you work with a marketer, you entrust your business’s reputations to them. Are you
sure that an intern is up to the task?

16. Sorry, but it’s true.
When you hire a college intern,
their job is going to come
second to their education.
3. Being their 2nd
or 3rd priority in
life.
But I pay them!
Too bad. They’re in college,
and doing whatever it takes to
get that college degree is the
number one priority in their
lives.

17. Many students need money in order to cover college expenses, but that doesn’t
mean that the short-term reward of a paycheck means more than the long-term
benefits of that college degree.
Plus, colleges and universities may not
always have working-student friendly
policies, and they can flex their muscles to
ensure that students prioritize them over
their employment.
Besides, from the perspective of the
interns, the colleges, and the law, your
internship is a learning opportunity, which
means you’re there to educate them.
Which means that education, not
working, is their number one priority.

18. Even if your intern is
dedicated to your business
and wants to do everything
they possibly can for the
job, most students quickly
get overwhelmed by trying
to juggle the various
demands of school, the job,
and the basics they need to
live (such as food, sleep,
and friends).
And guess which ball will
most likely get dropped
early? Yeah, the internship.

19. 4. Less
availability.
Between class schedules
that are all over the place
and extracurricular
demands that will vary
widely from week to week
(such as major projects,
tests, or school events),
college students have
very inconvenient
schedules.
That’s often why you’ll
see interns only working
10-20 hours a week. It is
not that they are lazy –
it’s that they cannot work
much more time!

20. It also means you cannot demand extra hours if there is a lot of
marketing that needs to get done.
Need them to work late to put the finishing touches on a project? Too bad. They have
class (or homework, or a second job).
And remember how school is always going to be their number one priority?
Well, if their schoolwork suddenly spikes or they have a bunch of projects or tests coming
up, expect to be asked for time off. Again, education is – and rightfully should be – their
priority.

21. A major obstacle to using college interns to do all of your
marketing is that it is, at best, a stop-gap measure.
Most internships last for only a semester or a summer –
after that, you’ll probably have to bring them in for a
part-time job.
5. Limiting your
growth.
At most, you’ll have 2-3
years to work with them
when they’re still in college.
If you want to keep them
after that, you’ll have to
bring them on full-time,
which means paying a fulltime salary…

22. But the reason you’re using an intern in the first place is to save on that kind of
money!
So, at best, you’ve got 4 months to 3 years with any intern. Once that time’s up,
you’ve got to find another intern.
That means you have to start completely over with the training, the inexperience,
the mistakes, etc.

23. Then there’s the fact that for those 4 months to 3 years, you’re
getting at most half of the marketing you could be getting.
You’re probably getting even less: half of the time marketing and
half of the quality.
And then once that intern leaves, you have to start over again with
a new intern.
Worse, if you keep moving from intern to intern, you could end up
with fractured marketing, as each intern works to their different
strengths and experiences.

24. Good marketing finds new potential customers and drives
them to your door or website. In other words, marketing
helps your business grow.
How much do you think it can help if you’re getting subpar
marketing and having to start and stop every few months?
So yes, you’re saving in short-term costs. But how much are
you losing in long-term business growth?

25. Now let’s tally up these hidden costs of using an intern for your whole marketing.
Your time
Your time to train them in marketing and in business, to wait for
them, to adjust when they need to focus on school first. Then
there’s the time you take to do it all again for the next intern.
Lost opportunities
How many potential customers will you lose or miss out on
because your intern made a mistake or didn’t take full advantage
of a marketing channel?
Your growth
By using interns to do all of your marketing, you could end up with
limited or disjointed marketing, which will hurt your business’s
growth.

26. So here’s our question:
If you put your heart, sweat, and soul into your business,
If you are truly driven to provide customers the best products and services,
If you obsess over every little detail,
Then why would you take a shortcut on anything,
MUCH LESS YOUR MARKETING?

27. Marketing is supposed to be an
investment in your business.
Get the most bang for your buck by working with real,
professional marketers who can create the kind of marketing
you need.
Is this a good time to tell you that we have website?
www.splashomnimedia.com
(And don’t worry about
leaving students high and
dry. Marketers like us
have our own internships
to offer, after all!)