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To Hire In-House or Outsource Marketing. What is best for your dealership?

To Hire In-House or Outsource Marketing. What is best for your dealership?

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One of the greatest benefits of outsourcing is its flexibility. You can farm out an entire department – marketing, for instance – or just a few specific elements. You can partner with an outside marketing team for the long haul, essentially expanding your staff, or just temporarily for a specific project. Outsourcing marketing can save you money, but it offers numerous other benefits, too.

 

So. Should you? Or shouldn’t you?

marketing-strategy-iconThere’s a lot more to marketing than there used to be. Digital opportunities are numerous, but using them successfully requires understanding how they work together and keeping up with this rapidly changing environment. Even if you have an entire team of talented marketing folks at your dealership, it’s not realistic to expect they have the expertise or time to brilliantly handle every aspect of your marketing program.

That’s no reflection on them – no one can specialize in everything. And when you think about it, marketing has always involved a certain amount of outsourcing. Think production of radio and TV commercials. Or composing jingles.

Time, in particular, is more of an issue than ever. Everyone at your dealership already has plenty to do. And digital marketing can be very time-intensive because it’s highly participatory. You don’t set it and forget it, you have to actually interact with people on a regular basis.

So where could you use the most help?

Outsourcing marketing requires a solid plan.

goals&objectives-iconAnd you need realistic expectations to measure your success. You’re getting help, not abdicating responsibility, so be prepared to assign a liaison to manage the process. Otherwise you run the risk of veering sideways. Your focus should be on results, not micro-managing the details, so you’ll want to jointly establish clear communication guidelines as well as performance guidelines.

Outsourcing requires a partner that knows marketing, no doubt about it. But choosing a partner that’s also intimately familiar with dealerships like yours and the type of equipment or heavy trucks you sell will be far more beneficial. You can skip the learning curve and get straight to the good stuff.

And, by the way, pick people that are personally compatible with your dealership. It won’t matter how marketing-smart they are if you don’t like them.

What can outsourcing do for you?

      • Get things done faster.
      • Capture specialized skills, insight or valuable contacts your people don’t possess.
      • Get a fresh perspective – a professional, unbiased evaluation of your strategy and implementation techniques, content, etc., or just an entirely different approach to your marketing.
      • Put you in touch with great advice as well as people who can execute the day-to-day tasks necessary to implement your plans.

What you choose to outsource should make strategic sense based on your goals, internal strengths or interests and time constraints. Only you know what those are and which gaps represent the most pressing priorities.

The thing about outsourcing is that you can’t just keep flopping back and forth. Every time you change direction you run the risk of throwing your marketing into disarray. It’s no different than frequent staff turnover, a notoriously deadly business defect.

Besides, just like your marketing itself, you have to give outsourcing a chance to succeed. You’re building a relationship with that team, just as you are with your prospects and customers.

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