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?

Sarah asked, “How do you recommend best using LinkedIn to generate sales leads?”

Great question. Sarah is General Manager of a hotel focused on reaching business travelers, so I’d like to share a few general thoughts – and then some ideas for landing the corporate contracts that would be valuable to her.

Be easy to connect with

LinkedIn is a little more closed than other social networks. You often need the email address of the person you’re connecting with to verify that you know them.

I get around this by including my email address and phone number in the tagline of my profile – so anyone can reach out and connect with me:

Use descriptive website links

Instead of using the generic “My Website” text, customize your site links with descriptive titles:

Perhaps you might even consider creating a special landing page with a special offer for LinkedIn referrals.

Share a clear benefit statement

After quickly glancing at your profile, a person should be able to tell what you can offer to help them.

How clear is your unique selling proposition?

Make giving (and getting) recommendations a priority

These testimonials could help you close the deal. To get recommendations, start by giving them to other professionals you endorse. (Chris Brogan has some good tips on this.)

This is one of the top things you can do to enhance your LinkedIn profile.

Include your blog posts

If you see the value of selling through education – and are doing this through your blog – then this is the logical next step. I use a WordPress plugin to include recent entries:

Find, connect with, serve decision makers

This is the top benefit of LinkedIn. You can search by industry, job title, etc.

It might be worthwhile to upgrade your account so you can search through more people. (LinkedIn places limits on the free accounts.)

LinkedIn provides some good education on advanced search query features.

Create a company profile (if needed)

Mashable has a good basic overview of the process, so rather than repeating that here, just read this.

Create a LinkedIn group

This can be a great way to have high-end decision makers reach out to you. Some tips from Social Media Examiner:

Add keywords in the description of your group to increase your search rankings on LinkedIn’s search section.

Add keywords in the title of the group to be found on Google.

Add your company website or blog to the group to drive traffic to your site.

Add your blog RSS feed to the group so every new article is automatically posted to the home page of every group member.

Send a weekly message that adds value for group members and drives traffic back to your site.

Connect people in the group by making introductions to those who could potentially do business with one another.

Host (and promote) events

Depending on your business, events could be a good way to bring all the decision makers in one place and present your offer.

LinkedIn offers some good event promotion tools to publicize the event.

Answer questions

Providing LinkedIn Answers to questions people raise is a good way to sell through education.

I’d recommend setting aside a little time each week to go through questions relevant to your business, and answering a few in a way that positions yourself as an expert.

You can also follow new questions through your RSS newsreader, and this is a good way to be aware of issues as they are raised.

Experiment with LinkedIn ads

LinkedIn DirectAds offer the premise of delivering targeted advertising to the demographics you want to reach.You can pay per click or by impression.

I’ve heard mixed results from this – it’s very effective for some companies, not so good for others. So test it for yourself to see the results.

Let us know in the comments: How are you using LinkedIn to generate sales leads?

(P.S. Have we connected on LinkedIn yet?)

I received the question above from @janalynfr on Twitter yesterday, and wanted to ask you here:

What are the best CRM systems for managing hotel marketing?

Just enter your answer in the comments below – there are many others interested in this topic as well…

Fabrice Burtin asked this question in a comment here on the blog:

The Internet in the hotel industry has been a revolution. No doubt about that. It has completely changed the way we find, discover and book hotels within 10 years.

However, how much the Internet has actually improved the bottom line in the industry? Have we seen an increase of occupancies? Average room rates? REV PAR? Gross Operating Profits? While the Internet and social media have revolutionized the way we promote hotels and sell rooms, are we spending less on sales road shows? Have we seen a decrease in sales departments payroll? Or have the savings simply been re-allocated to the newly created large e-commerce departments?
In other word, if technology has increased the efficiency and rationalize expenses, has it been only balanced by a dramatic increase of all sorts of new expenses?

Or have the buyers (guests) been the only big winners in a revolution that was initiated by the sellers (hotels)? Have the hotels lost out at their own game?

Guillaume and I discussed this in the most recent episode of This Week in Hotels:

For those of you that don’t have time to watch the video excerpt, our big points were:

The internet doesn’t improve overall occupancy

More people probably are not traveling now because the internet exists.

The web is just a platform for communications

Savvy hotels have more opportunities to listen to their guests, and provide better service.

The web probably does improve efficiency

You can share information easier than ever. You have instant access to nearly anything. Of course, you have to avoid distraction from this.

If you’re not in, you’re left behind

Other hotels will use new tech to gain market share and attract the guests you want to host.

As with any quickly changing field, if you’re not taking any action, you’re moving backwards.

It gives smaller, independent hotels an advantage

As a web publisher, you are on an equal playing field with the big guys. If you’re using all 3 components in the one-line social media success formula, you have a distinct advantage.

…

Fabrice is working on a white paper on this topic, and you can share your feedback with him on his blog.

I found one comment on his site especially interesting:

[The internet] has turned us into paranoid computer slaves! Both as hoteliers and as potential hotel guests. As hoteliers, we are constantly fussing about our reviews and worrying about overbookings by overlapping online booking systems… As potential hotel guests we are never sure if the website pictures are real and which review to trust… In short the opportunities are fantastic, but the psychological cost unbearable!

What are your thoughts? Does it even matter what we think – must we adapt or die? Or is there a better route?