3 months into my digital marketing internship, it’s easy to underestimate how much I’ve learned—new software, new knowledge, new perspectives, and, surprisingly, a new love for Spindrift.
To be honest, this month has entirely changed how I see digital marketing. But let’s back up. If my perspective on digital marketing changed, what was it before? I have spent the past four years of college studying business and marketing. And while I have learned a lot, I realized that my definition of marketing was fairly vague. These past 90 days, I have been able to learn about what the real world of marketing actually looks and feels like. And I have been able to narrow down my broad idea of what marketing is.
What I knew about digital marketing vs. what I learned:
Everything you hear about marketing is that there is a “make it pretty” goal for ads and content. In reality, there is so much data and analysis that goes into creating those “pretty” ads. College courses insinuate that there is data, but don’t allow time to practice how to use it. I realized my definition of marketing wasn’t wrong— just unfinished.
As an intern, I have been able to become familiar with software such as Google Analytics, Looker Studio, and Meta Business Suite. Learning how to use these tools has not only allowed me to dip my toes in the vast world of digital marketing, but it has also allowed me to learn the intention behind everything. The reason for using a certain template, or allocating the marketing budget one way for a client and another for the next. Because there is so much more to marketing than making a “pretty post”. In reality, those “pretty” ads are backed by layers of data, testing, and strategy.
I learned that there are a million tiny ways you can succeed in marketing. It is not necessarily a simple one-click answer. It’s not “here’s our problem, let’s produce a bunch of Meta ads and call it good.” Not even close. Even for one singular Meta Campaign, it’s doing research, creating a strategy, building a campaign outline, choosing who you are targeting, producing creative, and writing copy.
A few things I learned that contribute to success in marketing:
First, Google Ads. Prior to these 90 days, I probably could have told you two things about Google Ads: one, it’s Google, and two, it’s advertisements. Yikes—not exactly a strong starting point. While I might be exaggerating a bit, it’s safe to say my knowledge was minimal. The good news? I’m learning. As an intern, I have started to break the ice on Google Ads, learn how they operate, and what makes them important to marketers. Understanding how Google Ads works has shown me how much intention goes into every decision marketers make—and how measurable success really is. I learned about SEO (search engine optimization), a tool that helps your ad or website show up when people search for similar things.
What about the text you see on social posts or ads? Turns out, there’s a term for that. It’s called copy. It also turns out that there are a few rules to follow when writing copy. Previously, I didn’t know the process of writing “words you see on ads”.
Now, I am starting to learn tiny rules that are essential to a great line of copy. For example, there is a certain character count you must follow. You must treat a “…” as its own word, including a space before and after it in a sentence. All of these seemingly unimportant rules are things that I have begun to add to my toolkit. These rules not only improve professionalism, but they also turn intention into action. It gets someone to click, sign up, buy, reply, or keep reading. I am excited to see how my copy improves with these rules in mind.
Here are my final thoughts:
As I begin to wrap up, I want to be clear. This article does not begin to include every single thing I’ve learned in these first three months at the Pintler Group. But it does explain how these months have changed my perspective on digital marketing and how excited I am to continue learning and growing as a marketer. I no longer see digital marketing as simply creating content that looks good. I see it as a thoughtful, strategic process—one built on data, testing, creativity, and constant problem-solving. I’ve learned that success in marketing isn’t about one big idea, but about a hundred small, intentional decisions working together.
