What role should outsourcing play in hotel marketing?
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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?
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Every hotel have it’s own unique, although outsourcing might sound better as they are the expertise but is it what you want for your unique and out stand others.
I have my own company and I provide sales and marketing services for hotels who cannot afford to have a full time DOSM in house. The properties I look after are 40-rooms 5-star boutique hotels and, from my point of view, I have to say that I have to re-invent the wheel every time. Hotels have different locations, different characteristics and appeal different segments of consumers so I have to design a unique strategy for each one of them. The things they share are market studies on consumer behaviors, on countries’ economy forecasts, on luxury market trends but it stops there, all the rest has to be tailor made for the single property.
On the other hand, geographically speaking, they might be interested in the same markets and in this case there can be cost shering effective sales trips that one single hotel wouldn’t be able to afford.
I think that outsourced marketing can be valuable if a hotel doesn’t have a budget for an experienced DOSM but provided the company that works as a consultant for the hotel digs into the property, it’s not a one size fits all, it doesn’t work that way.
Rachele, I like the “DOSM for hire” concept, and I know your work has to be customized for each client property.
However, do you find there are elements of each project that are similar? This is more what I was referring to…little processes you can use again and again because you know they work so well.
When it comes to outsourcing work, you always need to apply the 80/20 rule by realizing that 20% of work you do earns the most revenue while the other 80% though necessary for the day to day running of your business does not contribute as much to the bottom line profits.
So the ideal goal will be to free up core staff members and your time time to focus on core competencies and outsource the rest to Business Process Outsourcing providers with the skills and experience to get the job done.
Outsourcing is a lot easier when you already have systems in place for the work that needs to get done. Also if you have a clear idea of the work you need done, the results you need delivered and also a means by which the results will be verified for quality.
I hope this helps. If anyone has additional questions please leave your comments on the blog post or feel free to send me a tweet @HYVAssistant.
Red Roof launched it’s social media last year, and we decided to do it in house. This has been very effective, as we have our own voice to our multiple pages. Red Roof Loves Pets has been very popular as well as Red Roof loves Gay and Lesbian Travel. We have hired a Social Media Coordinator and have designed a Social Media Committee that involves upper management from each department. I would definately agree that doing it in house as opposed to outsourcing is the way to go! We do seek the help of an outside agency when needed to give us direction and ideas, but ultimately we own what we post, and have given a pages a personality of their own!