Content marketing intern job description templates for small teams: 6 variants covering SEO, email, video, paid and unpaid, with FLSA rules. Free DOCX.
6 free templates for teams hiring their first content intern: general, SEO and blog, email, video, unpaid for-credit, and small business or agency. Download as DOCX.
The first content marketing intern I ever hired spent her first two weeks reading our old blog posts. Not because I wanted her to, but because I had posted the job before I had decided what she would actually write. The posting said assist with content creation, which sounded reasonable when I wrote it and meant nothing at all when she arrived.
That is the failure mode for this hire at a small company. It is almost never a bad candidate. It is a job description written from a template that assumes a marketing department, a content strategy, and a manager with time to onboard someone. If you have none of those, a generic posting sets you up for a slow, expensive first month.
At FirstHR we write hiring templates for teams without a dedicated HR person. The six below cover a general paid intern, an SEO and blog intern, an email and newsletter intern, a video and multimedia intern, an unpaid for-credit version built around the federal seven-factor test, and a small business or agency version. Each states the classification and the pay expectation instead of leaving them for later.
TL;DR
A content marketing intern researches, drafts, edits, and publishes content under supervision. At a for-profit company the intern is almost always a paid non-exempt employee, owed minimum wage and overtime. Unpaid is lawful only when the intern is the primary beneficiary under the federal seven-factor test. Six templates below, downloadable as DOCX.
What a Content Marketing Intern Does
A content marketing intern produces and publishes content under supervision: topic research, drafting from a brief, editing to a style guide, publishing in a CMS, repurposing, and basic performance reporting. The channel you hire for decides the mix, and the mix belongs in the posting.
The distinction that matters most to a small team is between an intern who executes briefs and one who is expected to decide what gets written. The second is a strategist role and needs a different posting. Our content strategist templates cover that side.
Focus
What the week actually looks like
Screen for
General content
Drafting, editing, publishing, light reporting across channels
Short-form copy, subject line tests, builds, pre-flight checks
Concision and proofreading
Video and multimedia
Editing, scripts, captions, thumbnails, media library hygiene
A reel and file discipline
Agency or client work
Writing in several brand voices to several approval chains
Voice switching, not one strong voice
Repurposing only
Turning existing pieces into clips, posts, and newsletter blurbs
Speed and format literacy
Interns are often given the repurposing lane because it feels low risk. It is also the lane where the learning curve is shortest, so consider handing over one original piece per month as well. Candidates take the job for published work, and losing them at week six costs more than the risk of a draft that needs a heavy edit.
Four Shapes the Internship Takes
Before the duties, decide the shape: paid hourly, unpaid for academic credit, agency and client-facing, or seasonal cohort versus year-round part-time. Each carries a different legal footing and a different hiring calendar, and the posting reads differently for each.
Paid, hourly, part-time
The default, and the safe one
The intern is a non-exempt employee on the payroll at an hourly rate, working a set number of hours a week. No primary beneficiary analysis is needed because you are paying. This is the version most small teams should post.
Unpaid, for academic credit
Only with real structure
Lawful at a for-profit company only when the intern is the primary beneficiary under the Department of Labor seven-factor test. That takes a faculty agreement, learning objectives, and coaching time you actually deliver.
Agency or client-facing
Voice switching is the skill
An agency intern writes for several brands at once, each with its own style guide and approval chain. Screen for range and for taking edits well, not for a single strong personal voice.
Seasonal cohort or year-round
Two different hiring problems
A summer cohort competes on a fixed calendar against every other employer. A year-round part-time seat competes on flexibility and can be filled when you actually need it, which suits a small team better.
For a Small Team, Year-Round Part-Time Usually Beats a Summer Cohort
Summer internships run on a fixed national calendar that large employers set, with offers going out months ahead. A small company competing on that calendar loses on pay, brand, and process speed at the same time. A year-round part-time seat of ten to fifteen hours a week avoids the whole contest: you hire when you have work, the ramp cost spreads over more months, and the candidates who missed a summer seat are still available in the autumn and midwinter with nobody bidding against you.
What Belongs in the Posting
A content marketing intern job description does four jobs at once: it describes the work, it filters applicants, it protects you legally, and it closes the candidate. Most intern postings do only the first, and vaguely. Here is the full inventory.
The parts candidates read first
What your company publishes and for whom
The specific formats they will write
How many pieces per week or month
Who reviews the work and how often
The parts that filter applicants
Writing samples required with the application
Tools they will use, named
Hours per week and the term length
On-site, hybrid, or remote, stated plainly
The parts that protect you
Paid or unpaid, with no ambiguity
Non-exempt classification for paid roles
Ownership of the work created
Equal opportunity statement
The parts that win the hire
The hourly rate, or a good-faith range
Whether the work gets published under their name
What they will be able to show in a portfolio
A named person and a real application deadline
The single most common omission is volume. Candidates want to know how many pieces a week, of what length, reviewed by whom. Leaving it out reads as a company that has not decided, and the strongest applicants read that correctly. Our guide to writing a job description covers the general structure in more depth.
6 Content Marketing Intern Job Description Templates to Download
Download all six as one file or copy them individually. Each follows the same structure: company overview, position summary, key responsibilities, required qualifications, nice to have, a classification and compliance note, an equal opportunity statement, and how to apply. The bracketed fields are the only parts you change. Postings for adjacent roles sit in the rest of our hiring templates library.
Download All 6 Content Marketing Intern Job Description Templates
General paid, SEO and blog, email and newsletter, video and multimedia, unpaid for-credit, and small business or agency. All in one download.
Content Marketing Intern
Paid, hourly, general
The standard version: drafting, editing, publishing, and light reporting across your owned channels, with the non-exempt classification stated up front.
SEO and Blog Content
Research and long-form
For a blog with a search strategy: keyword briefs, article drafts, refreshes of older posts, and internal linking maintenance.
Email and Newsletter
Short-form and shipping
For a newsletter operation: copy drafting, subject line testing, build and pre-flight checks, and reporting after each send.
Video and Multimedia
Editing, scripts, captions
For repurposing into clips and graphics, with the licensing and appearance release requirements written into the posting.
Unpaid / For-Credit
Compliance-aware
Built around learning objectives and the seven-factor primary beneficiary test, with an explicit list of what the internship is not.
Small Business / Agency
Real ownership, part-time
For a team with no marketing department, offering end-to-end ownership of a few pieces instead of a seat in a rotation program.
The standard version: drafting, editing, publishing, and light reporting across your owned channels, with the non-exempt classification and the hour cap stated up front.
•Pull performance numbers from [analytics tool] into the monthly content report
•Maintain the content calendar and flag anything slipping
•Take feedback on drafts and turn revisions around within [timeframe]
REQUIRED QUALIFICATIONS
•Currently enrolled in or recently completed a program in [marketing,
communications, journalism, English, or a related field], or an equivalent
portfolio
•Writing samples required with the application: [number] pieces, any format
•Clear written English and a willingness to be edited
•Comfortable with [Google Docs / Sheets / a CMS / basic analytics]
•Available [number] hours per week for the full [number] weeks
NICE TO HAVE
•Familiarity with SEO basics: search intent, headings, internal linking
•Experience with [Canva / a video editor / an email platform]
•Any published work: student paper, personal blog, newsletter, club account
CLASSIFICATION AND COMPLIANCE NOTE (read before posting)
This is a paid internship, which means the intern is an employee: non-exempt,
paid at least the highest applicable federal, state, or local minimum wage for
every hour worked, and paid overtime past 40 hours in a workweek. Complete the
same new hire paperwork you would for any employee, including Form I-9 and
Form W-4, and report the hire to your state new hire registry. Track hours
honestly, including time spent drafting outside scheduled shifts. This is
general information, not legal advice.
EEO STATEMENT
[Company Name] is an equal opportunity employer and provides reasonable
accommodations for the essential functions of this role.
COMPENSATION AND HOW TO APPLY
Compensation: $_ per hour, [number] hours per week, [stipend / perks]
To apply, email __ with your resume and [number] writing
samples. Applications close [date].
Template 2: SEO and Blog Content Intern
For a blog with a search strategy behind it: keyword briefs, long-form drafts, refreshes of older posts, and internal linking maintenance. If the role is closer to full-time writing than to an internship, use the content writer templates instead.
SEO and Blog Content Intern Job Description
SEO AND BLOG CONTENT INTERN JOB DESCRIPTION
Company: __ ([City, State])
Reports to: [SEO Manager / Content Lead / Marketing Manager]
For a newsletter operation: copy drafting, subject line testing, building and pre-flight checks, and reporting after each send, with the commercial email rules noted.
Email and Newsletter Content Intern Job Description
EMAIL AND NEWSLETTER CONTENT INTERN JOB DESCRIPTION
Company: __ ([City, State])
Reports to: [Marketing Manager / Lifecycle Marketing Lead / Founder]
•Build sends in [email platform] and check rendering across clients
•Proofread every send against a pre-flight checklist before scheduling
•Manage segments and suppression lists as directed
•Report open rate, click rate, and unsubscribe rate after each send
•Keep an archive of past sends and their results
•Help repurpose newsletter sections into [blog posts / social content]
REQUIRED QUALIFICATIONS
•Currently enrolled in or recently completed a program in [marketing,
communications, journalism, or a related field], or an equivalent portfolio
•Strong short-form writing: you can make a point in two sentences
•Detail orientation; a typo in an email cannot be recalled
•Comfortable learning [email platform] quickly
•Available [number] hours per week
NICE TO HAVE
•Any experience with an email service provider or a student newsletter
•Basic HTML familiarity
•Interest in [our industry] and its audience
CLASSIFICATION AND COMPLIANCE NOTE
Paid interns are non-exempt employees: minimum wage for all hours worked and
overtime past 40 hours in a workweek. Commercial email is also regulated.
Anyone sending on your behalf must follow the CAN-SPAM rules on accurate
headers and subject lines, a valid physical postal address, a clear
unsubscribe mechanism, and honoring opt-outs promptly. Review every send
before it goes out and keep final approval with an employee who is
accountable for it. This is general information, not legal advice.
EEO STATEMENT
[Company Name] is an equal opportunity employer and provides reasonable
accommodations for the essential functions of this role.
COMPENSATION AND HOW TO APPLY
Compensation: $_ per hour, [number] hours per week
To apply, email __ with your resume and one short
writing sample.
Template 4: Video and Multimedia Content Intern
For repurposing into clips, audio, and graphics, with licensing and appearance releases written into the posting. For a social-first version of this work, see the social media intern templates.
Video and Multimedia Content Intern Job Description
VIDEO AND MULTIMEDIA CONTENT INTERN JOB DESCRIPTION
Company: __ ([City, State])
Reports to: [Content Lead / Brand Manager / Marketing Manager]
Built around learning objectives, a faculty agreement, and the seven-factor primary beneficiary test, with an explicit list of what the internship is not. Read the compliance section below before you use it.
•Guided practice drafts with written feedback on each one
•A capstone content plan presented to the marketing team
•Reading and discussion from an assigned list
WHAT THIS INTERNSHIP IS NOT
•It does not displace a paid employee or cover a vacancy
•It carries no promise of a paid job at the end
•It is not production work under deadline for the company's benefit
•Work produced is coursework first; publication is optional and discussed
with the intern and the faculty advisor
REQUIRED QUALIFICATIONS
•Currently enrolled at [School name] and eligible to receive credit
•Faculty advisor approval and a signed learning agreement before the start
•Available [number] hours per week during the academic term
COMPLIANCE NOTE
The seven factors weigh the shared understanding that there is no
expectation of pay, training similar to an educational environment, tie to a
formal education program and credit, accommodation of the academic calendar,
a duration limited to the beneficial learning period, work that complements
rather than displaces paid employees, and no entitlement to a paid job at the
end. Different rules apply to public sector and nonprofit volunteers.
Several states apply their own tests that are stricter than the federal one,
so confirm your state rule as well. This is general information, not legal
advice.
EEO STATEMENT
[Company Name] is an equal opportunity employer and provides reasonable
accommodations for the essential functions of this internship.
HOW TO APPLY
To apply, email __ with your resume, a writing sample,
and your faculty advisor's contact information.
Template 6: Small Business / Agency Content Marketing Intern
For a team with no marketing department, offering end-to-end ownership of a few pieces instead of a seat in a rotation program. Pair it with the broader marketing intern templates if you are hiring across more than content.
Small Business / Agency Content Marketing Intern Job Description
SMALL BUSINESS / AGENCY CONTENT MARKETING INTERN JOB DESCRIPTION
•Suggest topics based on what [customers / clients] actually ask about
•For agency use: draft to each client's brand voice and style guide
REQUIRED QUALIFICATIONS
•Currently enrolled in or recently completed a program in [marketing,
communications, journalism, English, or a related field], or an equivalent
portfolio
•Two writing samples submitted with the application
•Self-directed: comfortable asking questions and then running with the answer
•Reliable availability of [number] hours per week on a set schedule
•Reliable internet and a workspace if the role is remote
NICE TO HAVE
•Interest in [our industry]
•Any experience publishing your own work
•Comfort with a shared drive, a task board, and written updates
CLASSIFICATION AND COMPLIANCE NOTE
Paid interns are non-exempt employees: minimum wage for all hours worked and
overtime past 40 hours in a workweek. Small size does not change that. Do not
classify an intern as an independent contractor while setting the schedule,
the tools, the process, and the deadlines. If the intern works remotely from
another state, that state's wage, tax, and registration rules can follow the
work, so confirm before you hire across a state line. This is general
information, not legal advice.
EEO STATEMENT
[Company Name] is an equal opportunity employer and provides reasonable
accommodations for the essential functions of this role.
COMPENSATION AND HOW TO APPLY
Compensation: $_ per hour, [number] hours per week, [remote stipend]
To apply, email __ with your resume and two writing
samples.
Paid or Unpaid and the Seven Factors
Pay the intern. At a for-profit company an unpaid internship is lawful only when the intern, not the business, is the primary beneficiary of the relationship, and content work fails that test more easily than almost any other internship because the output is publishable material you would otherwise pay someone to produce.
The Department of Labor sets out the analysis in Fact Sheet #71 on internship programs under the FLSA, which applies a flexible seven-factor primary beneficiary test where no single factor is decisive. If the balance tips toward the company, the intern was an employee all along and is owed minimum wage and overtime retroactively.
Paid interns are employees, full stop
A paid content marketing intern is a non-exempt employee, and every ordinary wage and hour rule applies. That means at least the highest applicable federal, state, or local minimum wage for every hour worked, overtime at one and a half times the regular rate past forty hours in a workweek, and the same new hire paperwork as any other employee: Form I-9, Form W-4 and the state equivalent, and state new hire reporting. The federal minimum wage is $7.25 per hour, and many states and cities sit well above it, so check all three levels before you set a rate. The exempt classifications are out of reach here anyway: an intern does not meet the duties tests for the professional or administrative exemptions, and paying a stipend rather than an hourly rate does not change that. This is general information, not legal advice.
Unpaid means the intern is the primary beneficiary
At a for-profit company an unpaid internship is lawful only when the intern, not the business, is the primary beneficiary of the relationship. The Department of Labor uses a seven-factor test covering the shared understanding that there is no expectation of pay, training similar to an educational environment, a tie to a formal education program and credit, accommodation of the academic calendar, a duration limited to the period of beneficial learning, work that complements rather than displaces paid employees, and no entitlement to a paid job at the end. No single factor decides it and the test is flexible, which cuts both ways: it also means you cannot buy your way to compliance with a credit letter alone. If an unpaid intern is producing the content you would otherwise hire someone to write, the balance has already tipped. Several states apply stricter tests than the federal one. This is general information, not legal advice.
Drafting time at home is hours worked
Content work is portable, which is exactly why intern hours get undercounted. Under the Fair Labor Standards Act an employer must count time it suffers or permits an employee to work, whether or not the work was requested, so an intern who finishes a draft at eleven at night has worked those hours and is owed pay for them. The practical risk for a small team is not deliberate wage theft, it is a manager saying take your time on this over the weekend and never seeing the hours. Fix it with process rather than trust: set the weekly hour cap in writing, require the intern to log time in the same system everyone else uses, and tell them plainly that unrecorded work is not wanted. Someone under twenty may be paid a youth minimum wage of $4.25 per hour for their first ninety consecutive calendar days, but that rate is rarely competitive for content work. This is general information, not legal advice.
Decide who owns the work before it is published
Content interns produce copyrightable material from day one, and the ownership question is easier to settle in the offer letter than in a dispute. Work created by an employee within the scope of employment is generally a work made for hire owned by the employer, which is one more reason the paid employee route is cleaner than an ambiguous unpaid or contractor arrangement. Put a written assignment clause in the offer letter anyway, and address the parts that are genuinely negotiable: whether pieces run under the intern's byline, whether they may show the work in a portfolio after the internship ends, and what happens to drafts that never publish. Interns care about portfolio rights more than almost anything else you can offer, so granting them explicitly is cheap goodwill. Also confirm licensing for any stock images, music, or fonts an intern brings in. This is general information, not legal advice.
The underlying rule is broader than it looks. The statutory definition of employ under the Fair Labor Standards Act reaches any work an employer suffers or permits, which is why an intern who finishes a draft at home has worked those hours whether or not you asked for them.
If you are unsure which side a role falls on, our breakdown of exempt versus non-exempt classification works through the tests. Our guide to overtime pay covers what happens past forty hours in a workweek.
A Credit Letter Does Not Make an Internship Unpaid-Safe
The tie to a formal education program is one factor of seven, not a waiver. An internship with a signed credit form, no learning objectives, no coaching time, and a weekly quota of publishable articles fails the test on the factors that matter most: displacement of paid work and duration tied to production rather than learning. Several states also apply their own tests that are stricter than the federal one. If the honest answer is that you need the content shipped, pay the intern and use the paid template.
What to Pay a Content Marketing Intern
There is no Bureau of Labor Statistics occupation code for interns of any kind, so no national median exists for this title. Benchmark instead against the classifications whose duties overlap: marketing specialists and writers for the work itself, and general office clerks as a floor.
Benchmark Occupations, National Medians
According to the Bureau of Labor Statistics Occupational Employment and Wage Statistics survey (May 2025), market research analysts and marketing specialists earned a median of $37.87 per hour ($78,760 per year), with the lowest ten percent at $20.86 per hour. Writers and authors earned a median of $36.98 per hour, with the lowest ten percent at $21.31. General office clerks earned a median of $21.64 per hour, with the lowest ten percent at $14.57 (U.S. Bureau of Labor Statistics, OEWS national estimates).
Benchmark occupation (BLS OEWS, May 2025)
10th percentile
25th percentile
Median
How to use it for an intern rate
Market research analysts and marketing specialists
$20.86/hr
$28.05/hr
$37.87/hr
The destination role; the 10th percentile is a ceiling for an intern
Writers and authors
$21.31/hr
$28.00/hr
$36.98/hr
Closest match for drafting-heavy internships
Public relations specialists
$21.21/hr
$27.05/hr
$35.94/hr
Useful where the intern also drafts announcements
Office clerks, general
$14.57/hr
$17.48/hr
$21.64/hr
A realistic floor for an unskilled first internship
Marketing managers
$90,260/yr
$123,020/yr
$166,790/yr
The person supervising the intern, for context
A defensible rate sits between the office clerk median and the tenth percentile of the marketing specialist figures, adjusted for your local market. It must never fall below the highest applicable federal, state, or local minimum wage. The federal floor is $7.25 per hour, and the Department of Labor also allows a youth minimum wage of $4.25 per hour for employees under twenty during their first ninety consecutive calendar days, though that rate is rarely competitive for content work. Publish a good-faith range where pay transparency laws apply.
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Require two writing samples with the application and treat them as the primary screen. Content ability is directly observable in a way that most junior skills are not, and a first-year student with a good personal newsletter routinely outwrites a graduating senior with a marketing degree and nothing published.
Add one short answer question about a specific piece of your existing content and what did or did not work about it. It costs the candidate five minutes and filters hard, because anyone who never opened your site cannot answer it. Skip cover letters and GPA cutoffs, which test formatting patience and correlate with nothing you need.
Signal
What it actually tells you
How to test it
Two writing samples
Baseline craft, structure, and finish
Read the first and last paragraph of each before anything else
Response to edits
Whether they are coachable, the single best predictor
Send one sample back with three edits and ask for a revision
Short answer on your content
Whether they researched you at all
One question in the application form, 150 words maximum
A scoped writing exercise
Performance on your subject matter and brief
Pay for it, cap it at two hours, use a real brief
Tool familiarity
Ramp speed, not capability
Ask which tools they used and for what, not for years of experience
Availability for the full term
Whether the ramp investment pays back
Confirm hours per week and the end date in writing
Pay for the writing exercise if it takes more than a few minutes, cap it at two hours, and use a brief you would give a real employee. An unpaid multi-hour spec assignment for a for-profit company is the same primary beneficiary problem in miniature, and candidates increasingly refuse it. Our guide to hiring interns covers the full sequence from posting to offer.
Keep the samples, the exercise, and the notes in one place rather than across three inboxes, because intern searches produce a lot of applicants per open seat and the good ones move fast. Applicant tracking is coming soon to FirstHR. Until then, a shared folder and a single scoring sheet beat a thread of forwarded attachments.
Hiring an Intern Without an HR Department
Small team intern hiring fails in three predictable places: the work is never scoped, the calendar is set by employers you cannot outbid, and the paperwork for a twelve-week hire costs more attention than the hire itself. Each has a fix.
The posting describes a job nobody has scoped, so the intern arrives with nothing to do
The most common failure at a small company is hiring a content intern before deciding what they will produce. The posting says assist with content, the intern shows up, and the first two weeks go to reading old blog posts while the founder finds time to explain the strategy. That is how a twelve-week internship turns into eight. Scope the work before you post: name the formats, the volume per week, the review cadence, and the tools. If you cannot fill in those four blanks, you are not ready to hire yet, and the honest fix is to write two content briefs yourself first. Everything the intern needs to be useful in week one is in those briefs.
You cannot outbid the companies running structured summer programs
Large employers post internships on a fixed calendar, pay above market, and run cohorts with formal training. You will not win on any of those. Compete on what a small team genuinely offers: published work with a byline, direct access to the founder instead of a third-line manager, ownership of whole pieces rather than a slice of one, portfolio rights stated in writing, and a decision in a week rather than a two-month process. Say all of that in the posting rather than saving it for the interview. Then hire off-cycle, in the autumn or midwinter, when the strong candidates who missed a summer seat are still looking and nobody is bidding against you.
The paperwork for one short-term hire costs more attention than the hire itself
An intern is a short-term hire with a full-length paperwork trail: offer letter, tax and eligibility forms, state new hire reporting, tool and account access, brand and style guide, confidentiality and IP assignment, a first-week plan, and an exit that removes access and captures what they learned. Doing that by hand for a twelve-week hire feels absurd, so most small teams do it badly. FirstHR was built for exactly this. The onboarding wizard runs the same sequence for every hire regardless of term length, built-in e-signature handles the offer letter and the IP assignment, document management stores the forms against the employee profile, training modules cover brand voice and tooling before day one, and the same checklist runs in reverse at the end. Applicant tracking is coming soon to FirstHR. Note that FirstHR is an onboarding and HR platform, not a payroll provider.
Run the same sequence in reverse at the end. Remove tool and account access on the last day, confirm the portfolio rights you promised, and use our intern exit interview questions to capture what the program actually taught you while the intern still remembers it.
Key Takeaways
A content marketing intern researches, drafts, edits, and publishes under supervision; scope the formats, the weekly volume, the review cadence, and the tools before you post anything.
At a for-profit company a paid intern is a non-exempt employee, owed at least the applicable minimum wage for every hour worked and overtime past forty hours in a workweek.
Unpaid is lawful only when the intern is the primary beneficiary under the Department of Labor seven-factor test, and content work fails that test easily because the output is publishable material.
There is no BLS occupation code for interns; benchmark against writers and authors, whose May 2025 national tenth percentile was $21.31 per hour, and general office clerks at $14.57.
Drafting done at home counts as hours worked, so cap weekly hours in writing and require time logging in the same system everyone else uses.
Screen on two writing samples and a response to edits rather than on resumes or GPA, and pay for any writing exercise that runs longer than a few minutes.
A twelve-week hire carries a full-length paperwork trail. FirstHR runs the same onboarding sequence for an intern as for anyone else, with e-signature for the offer letter and the IP assignment, document storage against the employee profile, and training modules for brand voice and tooling before day one. Applicant tracking is coming soon to FirstHR.
Frequently Asked Questions
What does a content marketing intern do?
A content marketing intern researches, drafts, edits, and publishes content across a company’s owned channels under the supervision of a marketing lead. The day-to-day usually covers topic and keyword research, drafting blog posts or email copy from an approved brief, editing to a style guide, publishing in a CMS with formatting and metadata, repurposing long pieces into shorter ones, and pulling basic performance numbers into a monthly report. The specific mix depends on the channel you hire for: an SEO and blog intern spends most of the week on long-form drafting and refreshes, an email intern on short-form copy and send hygiene, a video intern on editing, scripts, and captions. Scope that mix in the posting rather than writing assist with content, because a vague posting attracts volume and produces a slow first month.
Do you have to pay a content marketing intern?
At a for-profit company, usually yes. An unpaid internship is lawful only when the intern rather than the business is the primary beneficiary of the relationship, which the Department of Labor evaluates through a flexible seven-factor test in Fact Sheet #71. The factors weigh the shared understanding that there is no expectation of pay, training similar to an educational environment, a tie to a formal education program and academic credit, accommodation of the academic calendar, a duration limited to the period of beneficial learning, work that complements rather than displaces paid employees, and no promise of a paid job at the end. Content work fails that test easily, because an intern producing publishable articles on a deadline is doing work the company would otherwise pay for. If the balance tips toward the company, the intern is an employee owed minimum wage and overtime retroactively. Several states apply stricter tests. This is general information, not legal advice.
How much should I pay a content marketing intern?
There is no Bureau of Labor Statistics occupation code for interns, so no national median exists for this title and you have to benchmark against the classifications whose duties overlap. According to the Bureau of Labor Statistics Occupational Employment and Wage Statistics survey (May 2025), market research analysts and marketing specialists had a tenth percentile wage of $20.86 per hour and a median of $37.87, writers and authors a tenth percentile of $21.31 and a median of $36.98, and general office clerks a tenth percentile of $14.57 and a median of $21.64. A defensible intern rate sits between the office clerk median and the tenth percentile of the marketing specialist figures, adjusted for your local market. Never go below the highest applicable federal, state, or local minimum wage. The federal floor is $7.25 per hour, and most metro areas that hire content interns sit far above it.
Is a content marketing intern exempt or non-exempt?
Non-exempt, in essentially every case. A paid intern is an employee, and the white-collar exemptions require both a salary basis and a duties test that an intern will not meet: an intern works under close supervision, follows briefs rather than exercising independent judgment on matters of significance, and is not employed in a recognized professional field requiring advanced specialized instruction. Paying a flat stipend instead of an hourly rate does not create an exemption either. Treat the intern as hourly and non-exempt: track every hour worked, pay at least the applicable minimum wage, and pay overtime at one and a half times the regular rate past forty hours in a workweek. Time spent drafting at home counts as hours worked when you know about it and allow it, so cap weekly hours in writing and require time logging.
What should I ask for in a content marketing intern application?
Ask for writing samples and treat them as the primary screen. Two pieces of any length in any format tells you more than a resume, because content skill is directly observable and a first-year student with a good personal newsletter often outwrites a senior with a marketing degree and no published work. Beyond samples, ask for the tools they have used, their weekly availability for the full term, and one short answer question about why a specific piece of your existing content did or did not work. That last item filters hard: candidates who did not read your site will not answer it. Skip cover letters, which mostly test formatting patience, and skip GPA cutoffs, which correlate with nothing you need. Then run a short paid or clearly scoped writing exercise before the offer.
How long should a content marketing internship be?
Ten to sixteen weeks is the practical range for a working internship, and shorter than ten rarely pays back the ramp. Content work has a real learning curve: brand voice, style guide, subject matter, tools, and review cycle usually take two to three weeks before output is publishable without heavy editing. That means an eight-week internship gives you five useful weeks. If you are running an unpaid for-credit internship, the duration should track the academic term and the period of beneficial learning rather than your production needs, which is one of the seven factors. For a small team, a year-round part-time seat of ten to fifteen hours a week often beats a summer cohort: the ramp cost is amortized over more months and you can hire when you actually need the help.
Who owns the content an intern writes?
Work created by an employee within the scope of employment is generally a work made for hire owned by the employer, which is one more practical argument for the paid employee route over an ambiguous unpaid or contractor arrangement. Put a written assignment clause in the offer letter regardless, so nothing depends on interpretation later. Then settle the parts that are genuinely negotiable and matter to the candidate: whether pieces run under their byline, whether they may show the work in a portfolio after the internship ends, and what happens to drafts that never publish. Portfolio rights are among the cheapest things you can grant and among the most valuable to an intern, so state them in the posting. Separately, confirm the licensing on any stock images, music, or fonts an intern brings in, because a license that covered a class project may not cover commercial use.
