10 tools that literally triple the productivity of a marketing intern
Marketing Intern: A starry-eyed, smart-ass individual starting out new in marketing and willing to work his/her way up the ladder come what may, night or day !
Landing cushy jobs with fat paychecks is everybody’s dream. But if you’re totally new in the game, chances are high you wont be welcomed with open arms in every office. To work your way to the top of the food chain, you start with learning the ropes as an intern.
I’ve just recently graduated with a Bachelors in business and currently interning with the marketing team of Alore CRM. 😎 😎
I love the pace, the learning curve, the exposure and honestly, even the stipend that comes. 😜 😉
But what I value most currently is the exponential increase in my knowledge of tools thats coming in. Many of which I didn't even know existed. I’ve begun to find myself advising my friend circle on what software and tools to use for what which is why I decided to pen down this article for those who are just freshly starting out as interns and want to understand what tools one must know as a marketing intern.
While you’re starting out as an intern, most times there’s a manager around who is doing the planning and strategizing. As an intern you are more into executing.
The faster you can execute stuff, more productive you are and thats what makes you stand out from the crowd of interns.
The knowledge of tools is the real deal that one works on at office everyday. You walk into the office with ideas, passion and theoretical knowledge most times, but the knowledge of softwares and tools are what make theory turn into practice. eg if Jim knows Photoshop and Jane know Photoshop and Hootsuite well enough , if both apply for the same marketing job who do you think will have a better chance ?
I think I’ve made my point. 😉
In this context, here are some really helpful marketing tools that every intern must make sure they know.
Pro Tip: Most tools have free versions available to play with. If you can learn of these and familiarise yourself with them even before you apply for the internship, chances are high you will be in the top of the recruiter’s pile.
Hootsuite helps the interns in understanding the social media monster better and managing social media in one place i.e. they do not have to switch tabs to open their social media accounts.
You can schedule your Linkedin, Facebook, Twitter posts for multiple accounts from a single tool. No jumping between accounts and schedule posts for weeks at a strectch. The analytics will guide you on what works what doesnt and you need to be quick to adapt strategy to that.
It is great for branding, communication and even finding prospects. An equally great alternative to Hootsuite is Buffer.
2. Piktochart:
Piktochart is a web-based infographics app in nature that helps interns who are non-designers to easily create visual creatives and infographics. Interns do not need an intensive graphic designing knowledge to use Piktochart. The most popular feature of Piktochart is its HTML publishing capability.
3.Canva:
Canva is a massively popular tool at the moment. It provides you an editor which allows you to edit your images using various editing tools and drag and drop functionality. You can easily drag your image, resize it and start editing the image using various filters, effects and cropping tools. The design is super intuitive which is a huge plus. Best is Canva does not require any kind of plugins.
As a marketing intern you will end up writing copy and content. If you come across as someone with bad grammar or prone to spelling errors, its unforgivable in the marketing universe.
Grammarly might just save your rear here with its free chrome plugin.
With the moto “Better writing , Better Grades” grammarly is the best software on web to type accurate, mistake free text and clear text to make your writing effective. Every intern who types the text related to his work requires this software to check mistakes and plagiarism in text.
In the course of your day an intern needs to share n number of things with colleagues and managers.Here, the Google Suite is the best tool which can be helpful to interns. Google Suite provides Gmail, Docs, Drive and Calendar for business in one package. It’s a nightmare most times if you dont know the G suite like the back of your hand. From scheduling a meeting or appointment to sharing an excel on Google drive its something we all cant avoid using.
6. Trello:
Trello is a project management tool which helps teams better organise, plan and visualise their workflow and responsibilities. As an intern you need to work more collaboratively to achieve your goals. Trello is super handy here with its boards, lists, and cards which enables you to organize your projects in a flexible way. Thus it helps you work under proper collaboration.
7. Evernote:
Evernote is a popular mobile and desktop based application that is super useful in brainstorming, taking quick notes and organising tasks. Popularly known as the “ Second Brain” Evernote helps marketing interns to drop their ideas in the notebooks provided by its module and sort them out later. It also helps in sharing, capturing and organize notes from anywhere.
8. BuzzSumo:
If your internship requires you to be involved with content marketing then this is a great tool to know and master. It serves the best way to find proven content that works for a particular competitor or topic. You simply type the keyword and the app will list the most shared content matching this keyword.
9. Pocket:
Internships are a time when the more you know the more you grow and the noticeable advantage you can offer. The software which was previously known as ‘Read It later” helps the interns to view the content they found later on again when they need to see it. Sometimes when an intern finds something he can put into the pocket and can again view it whenever he wants to open it.
10. Otter.ai
As an intern I often find myself transcribing videos and realised this is fairly a common activity , hence this mention. Otter allows you to transcribe your voice notes and meetings in real time. It’s a huge plus to have and definitely saves hours of mundane work. It’s AI is quite good and picks up various accents accurately which I found a blessing.
So you just record, transcribe and email the transcription to edit the way you like. Easy-Peasy !
Do let me know what are the tools you found super useful during your internship days and I’ll ensure adding them to the list. I’d love to be of help to my fellow marketing interns.
ETA: I’m adding some internal resources that I found useful in understanding social media tools and their relevance in B2B businesses. If thats something that youre doing at work, you may find these articles super useful. I did.
Do add your favourite intern resource articles in the comments. I’d love to learn as much as I can at this stage and be super grateful for your contribution in my learning and growth 😃
