The following is an article written by Jackie, one of our 2016 summer interns, about her experience at Lumina.
After an online application, a Skype interview, and a couple email exchanges, I joined Lumina as a Digital
Marketing & Content intern for the summer of 2016. I came in uncertain of what would happen, but the experience both exceeded and noticeably differed from my expectations. Instead of working exclusively with marketing, I actually ended up learning about a lot of different aspects of running a business – business management, client relations, even a little bit about programming.
My first task was drafting client proposals, which gave me an overview of the whole process of completing a project. The first step would be sending the proposal, or quote, which is your chance to show the client that you understand their specific needs, and that you’re both on the same page about their vision for the project. Once the client signs the proposal, you can begin work. An apparently common misperception is that the undertaking of projects is quick and simple, but there are many steps in between (i.e. pricing negotiations, demo and design approvals, multiple rounds of review, etc.) that I hadn’t considered before. Suffice it to say, it was a nice lesson on how much more goes into seemingly straightforward tasks than one would think.
Another of my responsibilities was relationship building with Lumina’s online community through social media platforms such as Twitter and Google+. I had to upkeep the accounts, interacting with other users, to help Lumina’s social networks grow. About a month in, I set up an autoresponder system using Google sheets and Zapier to send automated welcome direct messages to new Twitter followers, a task that was more challenging and complicated than predicted but extremely satisfying when finally completed.
An unexpected task I was assigned was using Unbounce to make a landing page for La Musa Stars, a new high class apartment complex in Argentina. A landing page is a separate web page from a company’s main site that has a single goal: conversion (converting a website visitor into a customer). I was really nervous about this because I had never done anything like it before and wasn’t sure how good of a job I would do. Luckily, the client ended up liking it which felt great.
The majority of my internship focused on creating content for marketing purposes. I wrote about completed projects for Lumina’s online portfolio on the website, then created a release schedule to post recent projects on social media. I also posted occasionally on the blog, and made some new pages on the site for new services such as web hosting and maintenance. This required me to manage the backend for WordPress, with which I had no previous experience. I learned how to use the system and add internal links for SEO purposes.
In addition to working on marketable content for the site, I also set up an onboarding drip email campaign using MailChimp. Similar to a newsletter, a drip email campaign is used to educate subscribers, let them become more familiar with you, and hopefully talk them up to warm leads. This task was somewhat like a ‘final project’ as I had to write about topics I learned about throughout the course of my internship, such as A/B Testing, how to market your site, and even how to make a drip campaign (very meta).
Several friends have told me before that most of one’s knowledge needed in the workplace comes from outside of school, but I never understood what they meant until I had the chance to work at an office. Yaniv and Janet took the time to teach me about a variety of things that I’d never even thought of before, largely broadening my skillset. Overall, it was an excellent summer and I’m very lucky to have had the opportunity to work with such friendly and knowledgeable people who genuinely wanted me to have a great learning experience.
