Since I began publishing this website, I was never a big fan of outsourcing marketing. I preferred the model of recruiting a social media ambassador from within your company (hiring someone to assist if needed), and then building a social media team that involved every department.

Yet a reader recently told me, “If I don’t outsource this, I’ll never begin the marketing I need to be doing. My staff doesn’t have the time or expertise to do it themselves.”

Not every organization has the resources, time, knowledge, or willingness to do everything internally. There are some tasks that might be profitable to outsource. If you decide to delegate some work outside, what role should the agency or consultant play?

Setting things up

Agencies tend to do the same projects over and over again, and this can speed the setup process for you. Yes, there should be customization for each client, but they don’t have to completely reinvent the wheel each time around.

Building systems

Marketing systems can be a valuable asset for your business. Step-by-step procedures make you less dependent on your current intern and help provide consistency for your audience. The right systems can also save time for everyone, which is why many outsourcing decisions are made in the first place.

Make the creation of repeatable systems a key part of any job you outsource.

Training staff

The end goal of bringing in outside help should ultimately be your self sufficiency. Especially for social media. Having people within your organization manage social communications is usually best, because being close to the operations typically enables better customer service.

If your team does not have enough expertise for an important digital initiative, bringing someone in to show them how new media marketing works can be a good investment.

Another perspective

It’s so easy to get caught up in the day-to-day operations of running a business that having an outside perspective can be valuable. This is where consultants can make significant contributions: by advising executives on strategic business decisions.

So tell me…what role do you think outsourcing should play in hotel marketing?

This question has also been brought up by a number of other people recently, so I wanted to address it now – and give you some of my thoughts (along with Katie’s) for recruiting someone in this role.

• Try hiring a college student to write a few hours each week about things to do in your city or area. Content is one of the most time-consuming, but important tasks in social media participation. It serves as a foundation for everything else.
• Writing ability is the #1 skill I hire for in social media. The other skills I can train them to do, but it’s very difficult to train someone to be a writer.
• Ask them to show you their own social networking skills: a blog or Twitter account. It’s helpful if they use these technologies on their own for fun.
• You may even want to check their Klout score – recruiting an existing influencer can give you a distinct advantage. (Some even predict influence scoring will replace resumes/CVs in the future)
• This isn’t a role that can be heavily micro-managed, but that can be a good thing. You just need to identify someone who meets the qualifications for social media brand ambassadors in general.
• Your social media assistant should be social off-line, too. The best writers are actively engaged in their communities and passionate about more than just work. (A good example is Rishad Daroowala at Pan Pacific Vancouver) Their varied interests bring fresh perspective to your business and make it easier for your assistant to relate to – and engage with – your customers.

In our Introduction to Social CRM for Travel, we defined the concept as:

“A way in which to conduct your business through new communication channels while keeping the customer needs, wants and expectations as your focal point.”

I encourage you to create a document on how this will look in your hotels. To get you started, here are some suggestions to expand on the idea:

We will have guest feedback guide everything we do

Everything from big-picture strategy to day-to-day tactical decisions will be made with guest feedback in mind.

The social web will act as a giant focus group to do research in and gather feedback from.

We will obsess over experience design

We know that that our guest experience is directly correlated to the feedback we receive, and the story others will tell about us. We will use all the resources we have to design and deliver a remarkable experience to every single person, every single time.

We will spend time on personal connections, not data collection

The value to participation is in relationship building, not data mining. We’ll use technology to make the best use of our time in this area.

We will create very specific social reporting to cut through noise

There is a lot of chatter on the social web, and not all of it is feedback we can use.

We will avoid this pitfall by creating position-specific reporting that executives, managers, and frontline staff can use immediately in their day-to-day jobs. Insights need to be simple and there must be no confusion on what action should be taken. It should not require a “guru” to interpret. 2011 will become the year of the practitioner, not the guru. If we are going to make social media analysis something everyone takes part in, then we need to simplify it so non-specialists can understand the action steps.

Additionally, we will decide how to leverage additional analytics such as influence scoring into our reporting systems for highly-targeted communication and service.

We will actively use social intelligence in every area of our organization

Insights from the social web are useful for more than just our marketing and PR people.

Applications can be made for everything from pricing and revenue management to strategic investment decisions. We must start seeing social media as more than just a peripheral activity and spend more time integrating it with the rest of our business operations.

We will use social feedback scores for performance accountability

To measure the quality of our guest experience and level of service, we’ll use guest reviews and ratings as a barometer of success.

We’ll even look at making customer feedback scoring a factor in our bonus incentive packages for management.

We will see customer service as the new marketing

Service is not a cost center but a way to generate additional profits through taking great care of our customers in a way that builds loyalty and creates brand evangelists.

Word of mouth is playing an increasingly important role in travel decisions, and investing in delivering an extraordinary experience is the single most effective way we can promote our hotels today.

We will use social technologies internally

Social technologies can make our organization stronger from the inside. Rather than just viewing social tech as an outside activity, we’ll use it within the business as well.

We’ll implement communications tools to make our team more  productive and internal workflow more efficient.

Here’s the five themes that will be infused into my work in 2011:

Theme: Marketing within constraints

Very few of us have hours to spend surfing Facebook or Twitter, so I’ll be constantly looking at ways to get around time and resource constraints and still use the social web effectively.

Theme: Spending time on human connections, not data collection

I’m becoming an increasingly vocal advocate of social media reputation software that collects online mentions and data, freeing you up to spend time on the things that matter – personal relationships.

Theme: Customer service as the new marketing

Word of mouth is playing an increasingly important role in travel decisions, and investing in delivering an extraordinary experience is the single most effective way to promote today.

Theme: A broader use of social intelligence

Applications can be made for everything from pricing & revenue management to strategic investment decisions. We need to start seeing social media as more than just a peripheral activity and spend more time integrating it with the rest of our business operations.

Theme: Enterprise 2.0 and Social CRM

I hate buzzwords, but this is simply all about integrating new and emerging technologies with your organization. It’s a really big topic, but I’m doing some work with Jacob Morgan and others to explore how this can work within the context of hospitality.

Some big topics in this area are looking at how to gather insights from the social web to provide more personalized experiences to your guests….and also how to use social media as not just an external communications channel, but as a way to better communicate within your organization.

Stories and case studies are the best way to learn

I’ll share lessons on the points above through stories as often as I can. Like you, I get overwhelmed by the sheer volume of marketing articles out there. Jason Falls shared something I think will become increasingly true as social technologies mature:

The ‘gurus’ will fade away while the practitioners excel.

It’s all about getting stuff done. I learn the most from stories of people putting theories in action and to the test. And these case studies are what I’m planning to share with you.

As you know, this blog is a collaboration with you – our “Shakers” – so let Katie & I know of any story ideas you have for any of the above topics.

Thanks!

Looking through low-value activities and behaviors I’ve seen, this may include:

• Failing to block out periods of time for uninterrupted work (And constantly operating in reactive mode)
• Jumping between tasks (lowering your productivity and effectiveness)
• Aimlessly browsing social networks with no clear goal or purpose
• Involving too many people in the decision process, slowing progress down
• Too many meetings (and not enough doing)
• Sending 25 back-and-forth emails when the issue could be resolved with a 5-minute phone call
• Checking email first thing in the morning (preserve an hour of uninterrupted time if possible to complete your top objective for the day)
• Browsing through online reviews manually instead of having a tool or system to aggregate guest opinions
• Not having a digital communications workflow in place (so staff is unsure of what followup actions take place at each interaction)
• Spending too much time on unprofitable customers (or ones that are not a good fit for your company)
• Doing tasks that could be automated successfully
• Making decisions without asking some customers first
• etc, etc

I have a feeling this is highly personal and subjective to your situation. A low-value activity for one might be high-value for someone else, depending on their role.

What’s on your stop-doing list?

If success leaves clues, you should spend a lot of time analyzing thriving companies. That’s my mission here: trying to identify common elements of success that you can apply in your situation. There seem to be a number of recurring themes, and I’d like to try to put these into a simple framework for us to consider.

Part 1: Remarkable design

Your product is the marketing.

Take a big chunk of your marketing, advertising, and PR budget, then use it to hire a world-class designer.

Create a purple cow.

Consider “design” in the broadest sense of the word: from your building design (inside and out) to engineering your guest experience to planning unusual amenities.

Remarkable design gets people talking. And people saying nice things about you is a recipe for success online.

Browse some great hotel design photos for inspiration. How could you stay at The Daddy Long Legs or Propeller City Lodge or Hotel Fox and not tell your friends? Who doesn’t wish they could stay in the Treehotel or Ice Hotel….or visits Dubai without snapping a photo of the Burj Al Arab?

Part 2: Service obsession

Your service is your marketing.

Great service is uncommon, so getting fanatical about your customer interactions generates a lot of positive word of mouth and goodwill.

That’s why we’re developing ServiceIsMarketing.com and I’m working on a book of the same name. But that was supposed to be a secret, so don’t tell anyone.

This illustration from Penn Olsen is sad:

What if you took more marketing dollars and put them toward recruiting, training, and keeping excellent service professionals?

Part 3: Love what they do

Everything your staff does is marketing. (Whether they know that or not)

As I’ve said before, the secret to success in social media can really be summarized in one line:

The inside story from a real person who loves what they do

Obviously, a prerequisite for this is hiring people that love what they do. Enthusiasm for the product (see part 1) is infectious, and naturally leads into them providing better service for your guests and customers.

Like Antonio’s famous martinis at Egerton House Hotel:

Part 4: Everyone involved

Marketing is everyone’s job.

We even made you an infographic to illustrate how to build a social media team:

Part 5: Always publishing

Content is marketing.

Adopt the mantra we have here at Hotel Marketing Strategies:

Think like a publisher. Create remarkable content. Distribute it as far as possible.

Warning: This is a never ending pursuit.

The benefits you’ll receive make it worth the effort. Higher web visibility, top-of-mind awareness, and ultimately more profits.

Part 6: Pursuing cool

Cool companies don’t need traditional marketing. Their reputation precedes them.

“Cool” is really the sum of the five elements above. It’s the experience, the feeling people have interacting with you.

The harsh reality is that 98% of real people will only connect with brands they think are cool. I’m no different: I ‘like’ Virgin America’s Facebook page, not American Airlines. Maybe it’s a status thing, maybe we want to be seen as having good taste. It’s why pages for brands like Gucci and Louis Vuitton do so well.

What do you think?

I’d like to create some more specific material on this concept, but wanted to float the general idea first and get your feedback. Do my observations align with what you’ve seen in successful brands?

(We’re also working on an infographic to illustrate this, and would appreciate any suggestions you have as we put this together….)

Josiah: Why do the people in the hotel and travel industry need to be embracing change?

Geraldine: I think the first point about change is that it’s constantly happening around us, so if we don’t embrace it, we’re just going to get lost in the crowd. It’s in the interest of any individual hotel or hotel group out there to embrace change as fast as we can so that we can maintain competitive advantage, so that we can survive, and so that the product and services can evolve with client demands, which are ever-changing.

Josiah: If some hoteliers out there are afraid of some of this change, what would you say to them?

Geraldine: I would say it’s very important to listen to the right people, because there’s an awful lot of messaging coming at us at the moment, and there’s a lot of disagreement between experts in certain areas on change, technology, potential growth markets, etc. I think it’s very important to select the right mentors.

One of the most important articles – I believe – to read is the Amadeus Gold Travel Rush document. It’s a really good document that’s been put together about the travel industry in general, and it talks about the changes that are coming at us. It tells us things like that the travel industry is making an uneven recovery, that Asia will represent 30% of the travel business and spend by 2020, so we need to be focusing some attention towards Asia and how we’re going to develop that business.

These are things that we’re being told we now need to change, so if we’re not listening to what we’re being recommended to do and actually implementing change, we’re just not going to survive… because other people will do it.

Becoming Better Informed

Josiah: What is your criteria for selecting information, selecting mentors?

Geraldine: I think it really is time to look to people who have done the right things up until now, because it’s people who have been doing the wrong things up until now who are telling us what to do in the future. I have a great hesitation about listening to these people. So, look at the people who are making the predictions up until now and getting it right.

I’m a great believer in looking to Cornell School of Hotel Administration; I think they’re constantly evolving their model there and looking at different ways to enhance management in a global way. I think we need to look at general trends in consumers; I think that’s very important, because I think we need to look inside and outside of our industry, and I also think it’s very important to keep an eye on what the airlines are doing because – let’s face it – the airlines are the leaders in the hospitality sector, as far as I’m concerned.

Using Analytics for Forward Planning

Josiah: Can you tell us a little bit about your thoughts on benchmarking our present status and using a little bit of analytics for forward future planning?

Geraldine: I think we’re never going to get to a particular point in the future if we don’t understand our starting point. It’s really important to sit down and analyze where our business is currently at.

It’s extremely easy to do now, with all the information that comes at us from our front office systems. We have incredible reporting opportunities that are only being utilized – I would say, maybe – up to ten percent within the hotel sector.

There is a great opportunity there to properly research the statistical information that we have in hand, to review it on a weekly, monthly basis. It’ll help us with our forecasting, and it really is important to know the “Why?” and the “Where?” your clients are coming from, and “Why are they actually staying with you? How do they choose you instead of another hotel?”

Josiah: Are there any other sources of information or other analytics programs that you would recommend?

Geraldine: I find that Google Analytics – if used properly – is one of the best, and my recommendations to any of the hotels is to focus on specific things and to do those properly. What’s happening at the moment is there’s so much information out there. There’s statistical information coming from all kinds of reports from associations, hotel federations etc, etc. And at the end of the day, people are getting very confused.

So I would say, use Google Analytics and become really familiar with that. There are statistics that come in – for example, the Amadeus Travel Gold Rush document – that has quite a lot of information in there, and I also follow HVS; they do quite a lot of statistical reporting. A lot of the tourism organizations give specific information for specific countries, but if you look at certain information coming through – for example, USA statistics – RevPAR will only reach 2006 levels in 2014.

So we have these years to kill now, and we’re working with a lower RevPAR, and what are we going to do with all of this? It depends on the market you’re in. Different statistics are coming through from different organizations. You’ve got to make a judgement call and decide what is going to work for you.

Productivity is Crucial to Survival

Josiah: If I’m the owner of a smaller hotel, how can I use some of this information? Is this only applicable to larger hotel groups or travel organizations, or if I’m a single property, can I use some of these trends?

Geraldine: I believe that one can use trends, whether you’re an independent hotel, a bed and breakfast, or whether you’re part of a chain. Basically, global trends will have an effect on a drill-down basis. I’ve dealt with the Asian market for many years, and there is a trend where – when buying from China, for example – your operator prefers to deal with a tour operator who can then book 8-10 hotels within the same group, or at least of the same level, so there is a certain buying trend for group travel.

When it comes to smaller hotels, these may see some of the individual travel, but I believe that what happens is that some business gets displaced out of the chain hotels, and you have that drill-down effect where your independent hotel may get more of the experience-seeking clients.

Josiah: What are some of the practical things that we can do to embrace change?

Geraldine: I believe that – because of the way the industry is going to become extremely competitive, and while clients now or guests will actually travel on airlines and do budget airline travel – they still wanna stay in 4-5 star hotels a lot of the time. Location is important. But I think what’s really important is that your business works for you 24 hours, 7 days a week.

You’ve got to look at optimizing every aspect of your business. You’ve got to look at working at your OTAs, working with median Meeting-bookers, Restaurant Diary, anything that can make your business work 24/7. You’ve got to revisit the last “loss-leaders” and find alternative solutions. Gone are the days where you can decide, “Well, we lose money in the spa, but we have it just because 2 out of the 40 guests that stay with us like to know that it’s there.”

We have to remove ongoing time-wasters and issues in the actual operations and in our hotels, because very often it’s the same things that keep popping up and we’re just not solving them. I believe we have to work on the 80/20 principle. We’ve really got to look at where we’re getting most of our business and revenue from, and do as much of that as we can possibly do.

I think pre-planning for 12 months in advance is really important now. We know where we’re going; we have a plan and we can get everybody on board, working towards it. You’re always going to be tweaking and making changes, but really, you’ve got to have some direction and gotta be going forward instead of zigzagging every time somebody makes a statement.

We’ve really got to review the traditional hotel roles; I think most of these are out-of-date now and not very productive, and I think customers like one-stop shopping as offered by the airlines, where you can book multiple facilities, and I think that is going to be really important. But I think any space that we have, we need to be filling. If we’re not filling them, we need to be finding out why we’re not filling them. It’s all those kinds of things. I think you’ve got to revisit every aspect of your business and make sure that it’s a profit center.

Develop a Culture that Reflects Your Brand in Line with Your Personal Philosophy

Josiah: How can we develop a culture within our organization that embraces change quickly, and where we have our entire team on-board with this mentality of embracing change and having a strong business focus on all of our activities?

Geraldine: I think firstly, it’s got to be leadership driven and not management driven. There was a survey done several years ago, and they took the 10 best hotels in the world and identified what these ten hotels had in common, and it was actually great leaders as general managers. They didn’t all come from a hotel background; some were accountants, some were marketing people, but it was leadership quality that made a great hotel.

You’ve got to practice what you preach, because neither staff nor guests are stupid. You’ve got to develop a brand and culture. We have to have a can-do attitude. We have to be the best that we can. We may not be a 5 star hotel, but if you’re a 3 star hotel, be the best that you can as a 3 star hotel.

We’ve got to remember that hotels are not stand-alone properties. It’s about community and adding value to the guest’s experience. We’ve got to develop a win-win culture, because we’re all in this together. We’ve got to develop it for ourselves, for our staff, for our guests and for our clients, whoever those clients are.

All of these things are very important, but I would just stress here that it comes from the top down: your culture, your brand, your brand’s statement. That all comes from the top down, and you’ve got to lead by example.

Josiah: Geraldine, thanks for sharing your thoughts with us today.

What’s the best way to budget for digital communications? That wording is important, because this topic covers more than just marketing. It includes technology that touches other areas of your operation: customer service, branding, public relations, and most importantly, management efficiency.

Why should you listen to my thoughts in this article? When it comes to finances, it’s natural for us to write off advice we see as biased – so I’ll clarify my position at the outset. (Especially if you’re a new reader here.) I work with a number of hotels in North America, South America and Europe in various advisory roles. Whether sitting on their board or as a more informal member of the executive team, my job is helping managers such as yourself understand new technology and how to make the best use of the resources they have.

If I was limited to just one piece of advice, it would be:

Invest in people, not technology

The rapid rate of new technology evolution necessitates you invest in people who can understand the changes and apply them to your situation. I’d rather have a team of all-stars to select and use free technology than the best tools in the world and just a mediocre team to operate them. It’s important to remember that good employees are always free: they earn your company more money than you pay them in salary.

I’d begin with hiring an impartial, outside advisor. Because this is the primary way I work, I don’t expect you to take my word for it. Instead, you should listen to this industry analyst talk about how agencies rip their clients off….and why it’s so important to have someone on your team who understands the technology, but has no financial interest in the outcome:

Listen to Patrick Bruce

(In other words, having someone like me on your team can help you get a better deal when it comes to negotiating contracts.)

Next, I’d be sure to have an internal champion that can work with this advisor on implementation. (My experience has taught me this external/internal relationship works better than having everything done by an agency or everything done in-house.) When selecting a marketing ambassador, I look for someone with integrity that I can trust with making decisions without constantly checking in. Someone with strong project management skills to work with various members of your team to turn ideas into actions.

Once you get the right people on the bus, it’s important to select the right mix of marketing technologies that fit your situation and will help you reach your goals. Just because a new tactic or social network is getting a lot of attention doesn’t mean it will be a good fit for you.

Below is a quick overview of some major digital communications channels, and what you can expect from each. To keep things very practical, I’ve included major benefits and also the estimated costs for a mid-sized hotel property (in the US dollars).

Website optimization. This is the art and science of turning more browsers into bookings. The vast majority of hotels have at least a halfway decent website up. The big challenge is making sure it sells well and is easy to find in search engines. It’s an ongoing process, but your biggest investment will be at the start — having a professional analyze and make the changes.
Best for: Nearly all hotels, because it helps you improve overall profitability – regardless of the other marketing channels you choose.
Investment: Varies widely, depending on testing sophistication. Typically $200-700+ per page.

Search visibility improvement. Attaining top rankings in search engine results is important for bringing new visitors to your website. It needs to be an ongoing part of your Internet marketing campaign: both to improve position and to keep up with competitors that are doing the same thing.
Best for: Anyone who wants to increase website visitors for more direct sales.
Investment: Usually a one-time fee of $1,000-5,000 for planning, then content development (mentioned below)

Pay-per-click advertising. This is one of the only advertising methods I recommend, because it’s easy to track effectiveness. The flexibility and return on investment can be impressive. You’ll need to budget for campaign management, and the actual clicks that you purchase from search engines.
Best for: Encouraging direct bookings, especially in a non-competitive market
Investment: Usually between $1,000-3,000 monthly per property depending on your bidding aggressiveness; plus account management fees (usually 10-20% of ad spend, with $500 minimum)
[Note: If you can't afford this, you may want to look into the commission-only PPC program I run]

Online reputation management. I tend to talk a lot about this on this blog, and you are probably aware, this falls into two major categories: monitoring your Web presence, and proactively encouraging positive content.
Best for: Hotels where managers care about their reputation in the market
Investment: Mostly a staff function, but you can save them time with good reputation monitoring software

E-mail communications. E-mail software is usually a relatively small expense, so your investment in e-mail marketing will be in people. Specifically, two types of people: the content writers and the marketing specialists. E-mail is a writing-intensive medium, so you need to have someone spend the time to develop this content. The marketing expertise is important to make sure your communications are effective — reaching the right people and generating the right response.
Best for: Hotels willing and able to create sophisticated databases, and unique content for each segment of their guests and prospects
Investment: Most email software is priced on list size, expect to pay a few hundred dollars each month. Writing costs can be included in the category below.

Content development. This includes all of the information you publish on and off the web. It includes blogs, websites, articles, and more. Many hospitality companies hire outside freelance journalists to help them with this. The good news is that much of it can be re-purposed for other formats.
Best for: Lifestyle hotels and destination resorts
Investment: $500-1,500 part-time, $3,000-6,000+ monthly for more intensive projects

Media production. Producing high-quality photos and videos of your hotel is more or less a one-time expense, but very important for future marketing efforts. You can reuse great photography and videos in many ways, online and off.
Best for: Properties with unique design (but the reality is all guests want to look before booking)
Investment: $2,500-15,000 for the initial shoot, several thousand more for production

Press relations & media outreach. This category includes outbound communications such as press releases and media kits, the development of content that interests the media, and relationship building with journalists and media outlets. Along with customers service, this is one of the best applications for social media. Even for mid-sized properties this can be a full-time job — but the return can be excellent. When your hotel gets positive coverage in the media, you get credibility and increased awareness that you cannot buy.
Best for: Organizations that can generate unique stories
Investment: I spend about 25% of my marketing budget on media relations and outreach (even more if I’m new)

Analytics analysis. To keep track of the whole program, you need some type of measurement system in place. The good news is that this doesn’t have to cost you anything extra. Any good marketing advisor will be able to look beyond the superficial numbers and give you solid strategy insights.
Best for: Everyone who cares about measuring their digital efforts.
Investment: Free with Google Analytics

Let me help you with this

Deciding on the right marketing mix can be overwhelming, and I’d like to help you. If you give me some background information below, I’ll do a quick situation analysis, and then provide you with a complimentary 15-minute telephone consultation to identify opportunities and share a few ways you could implement them.

** Owners and General Managers only, please **

I’ve come to appreciate the insight of Fabrice Burtin in comments on this blog, on Twitter, and through articles written on his own website.

In this telephone interview, we discussed many topics around brand innovation in hospitality, including –

• Why it’s valuable to hire staff from outside the hospitality business, and why bringing in people from the luxury goods business can be especially good.
• How and why the Opposite House in Beijing recruits staff from clubs (I’ve never heard this before!).
• Important factors for designing an experience based on guest feedback.
• First impressions may be important, but many hotels focus on these. Instead, think through how to leave a great last impression, and guests will remember you positively. (Fabrice has some great suggestions here).
• Creating a good last impression is always about the gesture (and it doesn’t have to be expensive)
• Some outdated hotel traditions you may want to challenge.
• Is “hotel check-in 2.0” applicable for all hotel segments… or will it only work for luxury hotels?
• An action step for you after listening to this interview.

Listen to the call here:

[Insider's Circle members: login to download the MP3]

Thanks, Fabrice for joining us!