My Summer as an Intern with the Adobe Target Product Marketing Team

Image source: Adobe Stock / Tierney.

As an undergrad trying to find my place in the business world, I’ve always been fascinated with marketing and how much it has evolved over the years. After several internships in digital marketing, I was given the opportunity to work as a product marketing manager intern for the summer at Adobe Target. I was thrilled to get this internship because I believe digital marketing is the future of marketing, and that Adobe is at the forefront in the digital marketing space.

I started my internship with the product marketing team for Adobe Target in June. I quickly realized how fortunate I was to be working with such a smart and knowledgeable team. There was so much to learn from their more than 50 years of collective experience in the three short months I would be there.

Although I was new to the team, one of my favorite aspects of the internship was that my little knowledge and fresh eyes on Adobe Target was a huge asset that helped me on my project. I was tasked with creating an Adobe Target Welcome Kit for primarily new (and existing) customers to get them started on their testing and personalization journey with Adobe Target.

Getting hands-on experience

The first step to putting the Welcome Kit together was putting myself in the shoes of a new customer. Coming to this job, I had a small accessory website that I ran on the side. Whenever I learned something about Adobe Target or optimization, I would think about how that information could be applied and benefit my website and me as an Adobe Target user.

I was then given the opportunity to go through the new customer onboarding process, which started by implementing Adobe Target on my site. From there, I began learning as much as I could about Adobe Target, using resources available online to any new user. I went through the trainings that go in-depth on the different features and capabilities in Target. I read the wealth of information on the Adobe Target section of the Adobe blog to learn new tricks I could use on my website. I even participated in the Personalization Thursdays and Adobe Target Basics webinars the Adobe Target team offers.

After learning so much about Adobe Target, I encountered what I assume Adobe Target customers might encounter — I found myself struggling with what exactly I should be testing on my website when it came time to run my first test. My site has so much content and material to test, and Adobe Target has so many powerful features and capabilities. That left me feeling a bit lost. I wondered, “What test is the right first test for me? What if I run the wrong test? How do I even create my first test?”

I quickly found myself running to the Adobe Target YouTube channel and its videos that explain how to create a new test. By following the video step by step, I successfully created my first A/B test. I changed my call to action (CTA) button that reads “Shop now” to a different, more vibrant color than the rest of my website. I then chose my target audience, tested the QA links, and pushed the test live. Even though the test was very simple, I was overwhelmed with joy knowing that I was in the process of creating a better customer experience. After all, there always has to be a first step, and running a small test is the first step to building bigger, more impactful tests.

It turns out that running an initial, basic test is actually a best practice. One of the mistakes that new customers make during the onboarding process is trying to boil the ocean with a complex use case right out of the gate. That, or they wait until conditions are perfect — for example, for a customer management system ( CMS) to be completely implemented before launching into testing. As I discovered, basic tests can prove immediate value to a new user and get them familiar with the optimization tool and process right away.

Determining the project deliverables for my internship

From this experience, I knew that as a new customer I would have loved to have had a quick snapshot of the key features and capabilities of Adobe Target, ideas on tests I could run, and an outline of the things I needed to think about before creating and running a test. That led me to my next step, which was to speak to Adobe Target team members in different job functions, including some of the best consultants in digital marketing. I wanted them to share with me some of their best tips and tricks, resources, and different ideas to test using Target. Everyone at Adobe was very knowledgeable and willing to help make sure I not only had a good experience at the company, but that the best resources got in the hands of their customers.

After speaking with various Adobe Target team members, I identified and prioritized the most important things a new user should know and have for successfully and smoothly getting acquainted with the solution. I have condensed that knowledge into six deliverables that we are including in the Welcome Kit for new users. These deliverables include:

Wrapping up my internship

Being a part of the product marketing team for Adobe Target and working on this summer project has been one of my greatest learning opportunities. I’m so happy to have spent my summer at Adobe, and believe that this experience has done a lot to prepare me for working in a career in marketing. As my internship comes to an end and my project finalizes, I am excited to know that the Welcome Kit I worked on will get shared with Adobe Target customers in the near future.