Published on the 13/10/2015 | Written by Newsdesk
NZ exporters are ‘bringing knives to a gunfight’ when it comes to marketing themselves in offshore markets…
According to the latest Market Measures survey, New Zealand technology exporters are well behind their USA counterparts when it comes to using the latest digital marketing techniques.
Conducted by marketing advisory firms Concentrate and Swaytech, and sponsored by Deloitte Private and Hudson Gavin Martin, the annual Market Measures survey drew data from over 300 New Zealand-based technology companies on their approach to marketing and selling their products.
“Digital marketing is both the biggest opportunity and biggest challenge according to our growing community of tech firms,” said Owen Scott, Concentrate MD. “We have great products and people, but have traditionally struggled to fund the kind of sales and marketing programmes required to scale.”
Firms continue to grow strongly, and invest in sales and marketing, but are missing opportunities to use online marketing tactics to better scale and grow more quickly, according to Scott.
“Using digital marketing techniques means we can reach out to export markets more efficiently and at a lower cost, but this study shows we are still lagging well behind our US counterparts. We can punch well above our weight in these international markets but we need to be smart in how we do it,” said Swaytech director Bob Pinchin.
Scott said the primary source of leads for 80 percent of US companies is typically indirect marketing activities such as email, advertising and social media. Only 35 percent of Kiwi companies properly utilise this more scalable, cost-effective source of new business leads.
“While our tech companies are embracing digital marketing as a ‘weapon’, they are not aiming it in the right place and with the right level of intensity,” Scott concluded.
