The job posting read:
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Learn by DOING.
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Get paid and work full time.
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Become inbound certified.
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Learn inbound marketing through the LocalTrifecta Inbound Academy.
What wasn’t to like? I did some research on the company and tailored my resume. The following week I had an interview… and I got the job!
Day 1 - Get In Here And Join The Huddle!
Day 1 started with handshakes and high-fives. After meeting everyone in the office, I went over LocalTrifecta as a company and all the necessary information I needed to know about working here. Then Ramesh, our Inbound Marketing Specialist, took me through an overview of our client base.
After reviewing each clients’ business, we joined the rest of the team for the weekly Monday huddle. In the Monday huddle each team member presents their “Wins of the week.”
“Hey Zac, what were you able to get done last week? And what’s coming up for you this week?”
“Well, last week I read LocalTrifecta blogs to prepare for my first day. This week I’ll be learning best inbound practices from Ramesh and training myself with marketing software so I can start adding inbound content to campaigns.”
This didn’t actually happen, but it’s an example of what might have happened if I spoke in the Monday Huddle (I was in ‘listen-only’ mode). After everyone shared their news, it was time to get back to work.
To get my feet wet with the basics, I was tasked with building online citations for a client. What are online citations? I didn’t know the term before I joined, but the concept is and easy to learn.
"Citations are defined as 'mentions' of your business name and address on other webpages, even if there is no link to your website.” - Getlisted.org
A common example of an online citation would be having your business being listed on a yellow page directory, or say your local chamber of commerce.
What’s the importance of citations?
Think of each citation as a highway billboard directing customers to your store. The more you have the more aware your customers, and the search engines, are of your company.
One thing everyone should know… DON’T choose quantity over quality when it comes to citations.
You wouldn’t construct a billboard on a dirt road - the same can be said about citations. Be specific, and target the sites your customers actually visit.
Day 2 - By The End Of This Internship You Will Be An Inbound Marketing Expert
LocalTrifecta wants their interns to become Inbound Marketing experts. Right now I’m doing a lot of learning.
I start every day with 30 minutes of reading on the latest Internet Marketing news. The blogs from Moz, MarketingLand, and Hubspot are where you can find the latest news in internet marketing. Ramesh mentioned these blogs in his previous post on Guest Blogging, and I highly recommend them for anyone interested in internet marketing.
After blog reading, Ramesh introduced me to HubSpot. HubSpot is a software tool that allows you to attract, convert, close, and delight your online customers. It simplifies your Inbound Marketing efforts, but there’s a lot to learn with the platform. For the rest of the day I worked on more online citations and chipped away at the many HubSpot learning tutorials.
Day 3 - Let The Numbers Do The Talking
The best part about day 3 was listening in on a LocalTrifecta client call. Clients want to see exactly how their hard earned dollars are being spent and what return they are getting on their investment. Digital marketers can do this with a combination of HubSpot reports and Google Adwords.
This week the client’s website saw steady growth in lead generation, so naturally they were in a good mood. There was, however, one concern of the client that I found very interesting. The leads from paid Search Engine Results Page (SERP) ads were being outperformed by the leads from organic search.
Organic search leads come as a result of Inbound Marketing. This is when customers naturally find your company on search engines because they are seeking your product/service, or the web content you produce.
On the other hand there is paid search ads. Acquiring leads from paid search ads is generally more expensive, but they can get you results faster. Paid search ads automatically place a link on the first page of a search engines for certain key words.
In our client’s case, organic search was outperforming paid search ads even with the latter using more of the budget. Why is this interesting? Well for me, it really showed the power, and long term results, that Inbound Marketing and specifically, content can deliver for an organization.
Day 4 - It’s Official…. I’m Inbound Certified!
The first step of my Inbound Marketing training is complete! For the last two days I have been working on my Inbound Certification. The Inbound certification provides me with the fundamentals of attracting, converting, closing, and delighting customers using Inbound Marketing.
After the test, Ramesh and I reviewed the material. We went in depth about landing pages, thank you pages, forms, emails, and good copy vs. bad copy. Now that I had the general knowledge it was time to hammer down the specifics.
The HubSpot Certification was the next step for me. This certification is designed for professionals wanting to become proficient in HubSpot software and be able to present inbound results. There are 13 classes, each with their own worksheets, videos, and live demos. Safe to say, this will keep me occupied.
Day 5 - Everybody’s Working For The Weekend
Fridays are the best for a lot of reasons. At LocalTrifecta it’s because of the Lunch and Learns. Every Friday, the company buys lunch and one member of the team shows a webinar/video, usually on an Internet Marketing topic. The point of this is so that everyone learns something. This week, our Social Media Specialist Jenn, shared the importance of being real for customers on Social Media.
After learning some new best practices, I went back to working on my HubSpot certification training. One video at a time I’m getting closer… I eventually looked away from my tutorials to check the clock. The weekend was here! And with that, my first week as an intern was over.
To sum up what I learned in my first week I have four key takeaways.
4 Key Takeaways from my 1st Week:
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You need to have exciting and relevant content, a good website user experience, search engine optimization, and a defined social media strategy to produce effective Inbound Marketing.
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Inbound marketing isn’t just useful for branding - analytics prove that it is a cost effective way to drive leads and close sales.
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You need to stay on top of internet marketing news because big changes happen all the time.
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Blogging is harder than it looks.
What’s next on the agenda?
For next week there are two big goals on my agenda. Firstly, I will finish the HubSpot Certification by weeks end so that I can start contributing to client campaigns. Secondly, I want to educate myself more on analytics so I can measure my results.
Who knows… maybe another blog post too.
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