By Ansley Tolbert and Harrison Michaels
1. Be a Coke float, Not a Canned Soda
Vending machines give you exactly what you ask for, but during our internship we learned to take it to the next level, or, as Dan Michaels would say… “become a coke float”. While you should always have a mindset of following through on the details you committed to, taking it a step further is almost never looked down on. The most successful people throughout the office were the ones who followed through on their commitments AND more! An extra sprinkle on top, or a coke float is almost never looked down upon.
2. Like Peanut Butter and Jelly, Lunch and Learning Go Well Together
Food is the best attention grabber. It was hard to decide whether people joined our lunch and learn for the informative content or the free Chick-fil-a, but it allowed us to learn how to successfully manage and run a large meeting. To avoid losing our audience to the hypnotic draw of fried chicken and French fries, we had to prepare engaging content that, like a coke float, was the perfect addition to an effective Lunch and Learn. While identifying your target audience is something that always needs to be done in marketing, it’s also important for presentations. Our challenge was to present the value of TikTok to an audience made up of many people who did not have the app and didn’t quite understand it’s opportunity for our agency. We needed to be prepared to confidently answer any questions, concerns, or doubts.
3. Create Social Media Strategies that Attract & Engage
Taking a “spray and pray” approach to social media leaves your content unengaged and forgettable. Using tools to target specific audiences and create posts with high relevance are rewarded with in high engagement. From learning how to identify thoughtful campaign goals to planning a social media calendar with completed posts, we did it all. This was an amazing opportunity to work with both our creative and analytical teams to develop the skills needed to get through the marketing funnel. One of our biggest takeaways, each platform has a unique best-fit audience and should be communicated to differently.
4. Data Drives Results
How do you attract and engage your audience? How do you complete a competitive analysis? These were the main questions we sought out to answer utilizing the toolsets Brown Bag Marketing provided for us. We learned how to decipher data to help make strategic marketing decisions for our clients. Using SEMRUSH, Google Analytics, and Resonate, we uncovered insights such as website traffic, user location, keyword analysis, paid traffic activities, etc. that we then used to inform client strategy.
5. The Sales Cycle from start to finish and Writing an SOW
Being a part of the sales team provided us some of the most valuable lessons. We participated in introductory meetings with potential new clients and became an integral part of providing pre-engagement research, proposals, and even writing an SOW (to include the price, project deliverables, and project timeline). The most challenging part of the sales process was learning to develop clear and concise tasks for a project and communicating them in a language that makes sense to a non-marketing professional. Being a part of the sales cycle taught us not only how to envision and create a project, but also how to maintain and keep a professional relationship with clients (our favorite part!).
6. Every Website Starts with a Vision
While we don’t claim to be masters in website or creative design, we were able to use our competitive research and insights from client meetings to create a vision for client websites through sitemaps and wireframes that matched their values. These were created with a goal to assist our graphic designers to create something amazing that hits the mark.
7. Experience Working with Different Industries
In working with Brown Bag Marketing, we gained exposure to a wide variety of industries from restaurants, to law offices, to healthcare… We did it all! Each company had unique business challenges that needed a custom solution. This gave us the opportunity to learn new skills and adapt creative strategies. Eager to learn, we enjoyed jumping on any call with a new client!
8. Everyone needs a Brain Break
There are approximately 8 swimming pools in sight from the office. Everyone needs a brain break and the intern team took advantage of them to look out of our beautiful office windows. On the first day we were assigned a “work buddy”. Hunter was ours. One day he caught us looking out the windows talking about the swimming pools and he shared this was also one of his favorite brain break activities. He even showed us the more hidden ones. While we took a lot of marketing knowledge away from this summer, we truly valued the opportunity we had to experience an in-office work environment in such a fun and positive way. Thank you BBM!
