Interning in content marketing gives you a unique glimpse of the digital world from a different perspective. You’ve seen countless content creators and brands dominating the social airwaves; now, it’s your turn to dish out content that sells, entertains, and quite possibly goes viral. 

You’re eager to make your mark and leave a lasting impression on your team, one that will hopefully give you a stepping stone in your post-college career. From mastering SEO to crafting compelling blog posts and social media campaigns, let’s take a peek at why content truly is king in today’s fast-paced online landscape. 

In this guide, we’ll cover essential information, definitions, questions, and tips for interns to start adding value immediately:

Overview: What Is Content Marketing?

You know that cool social media account you follow because they post interesting stuff? That’s content marketing at work.

Content marketing is the smart way businesses connect with you. Here’s how it works:

Hooking You In: When they share cool stuff, it catches your eye. You start following them, and maybe even share content with friends.

Looking Like Pros: They know their stuff. Content is great for helping experts show off their knowledge in their fields.

Playing the Long Game: They’re not looking for a quick sale. Instead, they’re building familiarity and relationships with you over time.

It’s a chill way they make friends with you, no sales pressure required. In doing so, they will (hopefully) become your go-to choice when you need something they offer.

How Great Content Helps Meet Marketing Objectives

Content marketing has become so common today that many people forget it has a real purpose—and it’s not content for the sake of having content.

  • Content attracts attention. Great content is like a magnet for your target audience. When content is interesting, valuable, or entertaining, people notice.
  • It builds trust. Trust is crucial in marketing, especially as fewer and fewer people trust ads. Content helps companies break through the noise without shoving ads in people’s faces.
  • It educates and informs. Great content brings a product or service to life. It puts it into context to help more people see its value, which can lead to higher sales and even referrals.
  • It helps customers make buying decisions. Imagine you’re in the market for a new laptop. You go to Google to read reviews, compare laptops, learn about various processors and graphics cards, and sniff out security flaws. In other words, you rely on multiple pieces of content to capture this information and make a purchasing decision.
  • It helps businesses get found via search. To appear in search results, algorithms need to be able to find you AND match your content to relevant search inputs. Content puts your website into context and helps you land on more results pages, a practice called Search Engine Optimization, or SEO.

Put simply, content supplements digital marketing by increasing visibility, trust, and education. Truly no digital strategy can thrive without it!

A marketing intern typing on a laptop and taking notes.

©StockRocket via Canva.com

Types of Content Marketing

When you think of content, things like blog articles and TikTok videos might spring to mind. Those are part of the content puzzle, but content marketing is much broader than this. 

Popular types of content marketing include:

  • Blogs and articles
  • White papers
  • Case studies
  • Infographics
  • Website landing pages
  • Social media content
  • Email marketing
  • Videos
  • Live streams
  • Audio content
  • Lead magnets
  • Slide shares
  • Quizzes
  • Online calculators and other interactive tools
  • User-generated content (such as reviews, testimonials, or influencer content)
  • Webinars
  • Online courses
  • Ebooks
  • Press releases
  • Memes

This is why content is king (something you’ll hear more than once in your marketing career). It’s a massive ecosystem that’s only getting bigger with every new format and social media network.

As an intern, you might or might not gain experience in all of these content types. But it’s important to be aware of your options so you can find the best ways to connect with your audience.

Content Marketing Channels to Know

Aside from the content itself, interns also need to know how to share all the content you create with the right people. Content marketing can take place on various channels, depending on where their target audience spends time. 

Some examples include:

  • Websites
  • Email
  • Social media networks (think Instagram, TikTok, Twitter, etc.)
  • Blogs
  • Guest blogs
  • Podcasts
  • Paid search
  • Retargeting ads
  • Influencers
  • Online forums and communities

Pro Tip: You don’t have to be everywhere all at once to run a successful content marketing campaign. Less is almost always more because you can create better, channel- and audience-specific content that forms deeper connections. That’s harder to do the more you pile onto your plate.

Examples of Content Marketing in Action

Now that you’re up to speed on content marketing, let’s look at some examples of companies who get content marketing right. 

First up, Spotify Wrapped. This annual recap offered a personalized look at the most streamed songs on Spotify. What made this unique is that no two Spotify Wrapped recaps are the same—it’s based completely on each user’s listening habits. Note the absence of a sales pitch.

Next, we have Canva’s Design School to turn anyone into a masterful Canva designer. With no experience required, Canva teaches its community of users how to create images and take advantage of all of Canva’s tools and functions. Again, totally free of charge.

Content Pros shares an example of interactive content marketing. This free topic generator provides a valuable resource for content creators to come up with engaging ideas to write about and save hours on creating a content calendar. Anyone can use the tool, even if they’re not a Content Pros client.

Pet company Chewy has a whole YouTube channel dedicated to advice, training tips, and health and wellness. They use this channel to highlight some of the products they sell, but it’s a soft delivery and the content offers value with or without a sale.

A woman writing in front of a computer

©RF._.studio via Canva.com

How to Work with Outsourced Content Marketing Partners

Content marketing works much like a vehicle—you can identify it and know the basics of how it works. But look under the hood and you’ll see dozens of smaller moving parts that you would have otherwise never known they existed. 

The more granular you go, the more complicated it becomes.

That’s why many marketing teams join forces with outsourced partners who specialize in content creation. For example, agencies like Content Pros have mastered the art of blogging to give clients turnkey results without the heavy lifting—results that make you look good by extension.

Working with agency partners can also help you learn and grow faster during your internship. You get the benefit of seeing professional content creators at work and seeing how projects come together to drive results.

If your marketing department works with third-party agencies, here are some tips to help you get the most out of the partnership:

  • Introduce yourself! You might only be interning for a while, but every networking opportunity counts. 
  • Ask questions. Use your agency partner as a learning resource to help you put content marketing into perspective. No question is too small. 
  • Read their blog. Take advantage of the agency’s blog articles that give you shortcuts to knowledge.
  • Leverage their experience. Work with the agency to help you drum up content ideas, meet deadlines, and create content that helps you contribute to business goals.

Remember, your agency partners are an extension of your internal team!

Get the Most Out of Your Content Marketing Internship

To jump-start your internship, you’ll want to learn all the ins and outs of your company’s brand. Here are the questions to ask on your first day to help you get up to speed and impress your team: 

  • How would you describe our brand?
  • What’s our unique value proposition?
  • Who are our biggest competitors?
  • Tell me about our content marketing objectives. Do we have key performance indicators for these objectives?
  • Who’s our target audience? Do we have buyer personas?
  • What types of content do we create?
  • What are our guidelines for the tone, style, and editing of our content?
  • Which channels do we use to distribute content and connect with our target audience?

Internships are exciting times to get on-the-job experience that will help you lay groundwork for a successful career. Take this time to learn as much as you can and build your professional network so you’ll be ready for what’s ahead.