Economic pressure is mounting for commercial and heavy-duty vehicle dealerships. As sales plateau and decline, dealers are left with limited options to increase revenue and decrease expenses. In times like these, marketing budgets are often the first to be cut back. Some businesses, rather than trimming their marketing fund, are instead bringing this work in-house. According to the 2016 SoDA Global Digital Outlook Survey, 30% of surveyed North American businesses said they perform all of their marketing internally, with no outside partners. This trend has caught dealers’ attention.
The movement toward exclusively in-house agencies has gained traction in the commercial vehicle industry due to a number of factors besides cost. One significant influencer is the dealers’ view that an agency can’t understand their industry pain points as deeply as they themselves do. Additionally, speed-to-market is critical in local marketing, and businesses believe they can get their materials in their audience’s hands faster if the work is done in-house.
While these are all worthy points of consideration, there is still more to the picture.
Is the In-House Model Actually Feasible?
Before pulling the plug and bringing more (or all) of your marketing in-house, it’s important to consider whether this model is feasible and effective. There are certainly some benefits to building up your in-house agency, but what are the potential drawbacks?
This can be answered by closely examining your own capabilities as a dealership. Whether or not you can efficiently perform the majority of your marketing depends on if you have time to oversee campaigns, in addition to running the day-to-day operations of the dealership. It’s also worthwhile to consider whether your staff is equipped with enough marketing experience to manage all aspects of each campaign. This is a hefty undertaking – especially considering the number of channels you need to use to reach your target.
Experts at Media Dynamics say the average American sees almost 400 advertisements a day (nevermind those other reckless exaggerators that have been reporting into the thousands), but only about a third of those are actually noticed. This shows that, in order to make any sort of impact, your marketing needs to be everywhere, and it needs to stand out. Planning and implementing campaigns that will be both effective and seen in numerous channels is an enormous task for a small group of people to perform.
These central concerns aside, there are a few other points that need to be reviewed before reaching a conclusion.
Bringing all of your marketing in-house may not be as cost-effective as it seems.
Your dealership no doubt has a small marketing team already, but performing the majority of your digital and traditional marketing in-house requires more hands on deck.
Consider the cost of hiring a digital marketing expert, or an SEO professional. According to one expert cited in Forbes, even bringing only one entry- to mid-level person on board means spending around $50k per year on salary and benefits – and most experts say that a successful lean digital marketing group requires 3-4 people minimum. And the more expertise and experience you want to see from your hires, the higher their salary requirements will be.
You can see how hiring a dedicated marketing team can be costly, and not just in dollars. You’ll also invest time and training into each hire, bringing them up to speed on your particular goals and pain points so they can strategize accordingly. In the end, you may spend more in acquiring the talent you need than you would in hiring an outside agency for those projects that require more manpower or expertise.
Outside agencies have a wide breadth of experience.
Sometimes, there’s a fine line between a marketing team that specializes in your challenges and an echo chamber. Without some degree of outside experience and fresh perspective, there’s always the chance of your marketing becoming stale or repetitive.
This is precisely the advantage that an outside agency can bring to the table. They should have experience in your industry – and not just in your industry, but in a host of other verticals as well. This wide span of knowledge means they can take proven strategies and apply them to your individual situation so you benefit both from their broad industry expertise and their comprehensive understanding of complex marketing techniques.
Even using an outside agency only for digital strategizing or on specific campaigns can draw in new ideas and solutions that can both amp up your marketing and increase your in-house agency’s expertise for future campaign planning.
Outside agencies may be able to better foster creative collaboration.
When you have a lean, in-house agency, you necessarily have a narrower creative field within which to work. Even the most creative individuals need outside inspiration at times, and the smaller the team, the less access you have to such external ideas.
Conversely, trained creative professionals who have a broad range of experience may have more solutions to offer. The sheer number of creative experts generates a collaborative atmosphere in which new ideas may be fostered.
Yet, in the marketing world, creativity always needs to be tempered with practicality. An amazing creative idea is only a good one if it is able to be implemented effectively. Agencies with skilled marketing professionals and a myriad of creative thinkers are the ideal setup for creative marketing, as they spark unique ideas while remaining tethered to solid marketing principles.
In-house teams don’t have the resources that a dedicated agency does.
If you’ve decided to go the in-house route and have funneled significant costs into hiring a team, chances are you may not have as much funding to devote to media placement, TV production, or direct mail quantities. This could place some serious restrictions on the type of campaigns you can implement, as well as the impact those campaigns will have.
Outside agencies have access to data, research, prospect lists, and other analytics tools that help expand your market and reach qualified targets. By partnering with an agency, you, in turn, benefit from all of these assets along with the expertise of the agency as a whole. This means more accurate targeting, less budget waste, and wider reach than you can achieve on your own.
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