In the first session of this series, AI and tech marketing expert, Justin Flitter, will discuss the broad basics of what AI is, outline common use cases, and introduce you to tools you can use to start scaling your marketing superpowers with AI.

Next PageProof CEO, Gemma Hurst shares how they used this approach, and the impact it’s had on their business and customer marketing results.

Whether you’re a founder needing to reconnect with your purpose, or a marketing leader looking to redefine your go-to-market proposition, this discussion is one you’ll get a lot of value from.

As B2B tech marketers, content has been king.... so has this changed?

How do you create a kick-ass content strategy, know that the content you're creating is resonating, and how do you wrangle the creation of content outside of the marketing team (think rogue sales and product people)?

Join us and our learned panel of content strategists as we explore answers to these questions and more. You'll hear from:

• Monica Shepherd, copywriter and messaging strategist from Mark My Words

• Max Johns, Head of Digital Marketing at SiteHost 

• Caitlin Sisley, Senior Content Writer at DroneDeploy

New Zealand’s tech sector is growing at a rapid rate of knots, said Justin Flitter, Chair of the NZ Tech Marketers Group. With that, a growing demand for highly skilled and globally experienced marketers to drive growth.

Flitter said, “Today’s marketers need to support strategy and business transformation in a highly complex environment. They leverage brand, people, partnerships and technology to create demand and engage customers to grow sustainable revenue. It’s our role to nurture the growth of NZs tech marketers, to build their capability and confidence.

Judged by an independent panel of industry experts, the NZ Tech Marketing Awards showcase and celebrate the incredible talent and capability we have driving growth for our tech companies on the global stage.”

Nick Whitehead, the Chief Marketing Officer for Serko, was awarded NZ’s Tech Marketer of the Year. Bob Pinchin, one of 6 independent judges, said “Nick's drive, passion, enthusiasm, and commitment to tech marketing were very evident in his entry. When you combine these attributes with the incredible results that Nick achieved in developing, launching, and executing Serko's GTM with Booking.com for Business and at a time when the travel industry had been so badly disrupted with Covid, it makes for impressive reading. Add on his philanthropic efforts to support and mentor others, they all combine to make Nick a worthy winner of the inaugural Tech Marketer of the Year.”

Kat Waters, the Marketing Manager at ElementX, an AI development agency, was awarded the NZ Young Tech Marketer of the Year award. Recognising her leadership skills taking the company through a rebrand and refreshed go-to-market strategy program. 

LawVu was awarded the NZ B2B Tech Marketing Strategy of the Year prize. Their Growth & Brand Marketing team, led by Bindy Griffin, showcased the company’s outstanding go-to-market strategy to create a new category and build a substantial revenue pipeline across the USA.

The NZ Tech Marketers Group has more than 250 individual members working in tech companies or in technical marketing roles and is a member of the NZ Tech Alliance. Marketers can join for free if their company is also a Member of NZTech.

Join our webinar on building an award-winning strategy to hear from the experts on how to prepare award entries that win.

We will cover:

• Why entering Awards should be a part of your marketing strategy

• How to prepare a winning application

• How to leverage the kudos

Watch this webinar with David Downs, Phil Thompson, Caroline Francis and Justin Flitter.

At the core of marketing is the ability to understand both your market and your customers. How your product or service elevates them, their team, their business and their customers.

As marketers we must understand the emotional drivers, the pain points our customers need us to solve. And translate those into product vision, purpose, and proposition.

“Our prime directive is not to do digital media or AI. Our prime directive is to bring the voice of the customer into the organisation. No one else does that except marketers.” -Mark Ritson

Curiosity

Buyer behaviour, channels to market, digital platforms, social trends are all changing in front of us every day. Marketers need an insatiable desire to experiment, think, discuss, ask, listen, learn, react, and evaluate, at pace.

Before tactics, comes strategy. Before Strategy comes understanding. That’s where curiosity plays.

With curiosity, comes resourcefulness. A hunch plays on your mind. Data provides direction. Yet only the intuitive insight of humans with unique perspectives comes truly remarkable solutions. Sometimes, almost always, asking people outside your community provides the game-changing revelation you seek.

Storytellers

Make it a category, a movement, a purpose. You need a story to be successful. That’s what your prospect will share with their team, the decision makers, the buyers.

But this is not purpose-led-marketing. It’s about a purpose-led-business, with stories that marketing tells and shares with the world. It has to come from the heart and soul of the business.

At the heart of the business marketers build culture. Experiences shared by employees and customers that build community, partnerships, and revenue.

Growth Merchants

The growth engine of almost every business lies in the heart of a Venn diagram between Marketing (attraction), Sales (conversion), and Product (enablement).

Success relies on these three functions working seamlessly together. Being lead by one IE Product Lead, demotes the value and importance of the other two in achieving growth potential. One cannot succeed without the other.

Great marketers strategically seek out partnerships, develop channels to new customers and revenue. These are not new hashtags, influencers or events, but carefully thought out campaigns that may take months to nurture. Patience is a virtue when the board is focused on 90–180 days of pipeline potential.

Long term vision

Most companies plan 12 months ahead, at best. The short term gratification of sales revenue often precedes the long term vision to build a brand that will deliver ever increasing value over time.

Marketers who focus on short-term ROI do well for a year, but often fail in years two, three and four.

Marketers need to influence the wider senior leadership team. To clearly understand the long term business strategy, 1, 2, 3 year company goals. And the milestones and outcomes marketing needs to deliver to help the company achieve those goals.

Everyone needs to see how they contribute to company success. Today, tomorrow, in 3 years time.

Short term results

“Any idiot can do short term and any idiot can do long term. The trick is to do both.” — Hugh Johnston, PepsiCo vice chair and CFO

Unicorns are hard to find.

It could be useful to compliment a marketing leader with vision and strategic strengths with a performance marketer focused on delivering the day-to-day numbers.

Most marketers are either strategy + operations OR tactical activators. If you can pull the strings, or manage resources effetely to deliver both, you’re doing well.

After all, if you can’t deliver the short-term revenue, the whole company won’t achieve any long term goals.

Simplicity seekers

“This strategy seems simple” is the ultimate response. Of course you know how damn complicated it was to get there.

A marketers job is to make the complicated simple.

To bring the team, the company along on the journey. To captivate, and engage customers, win new partnerships, and gain market dominance.

Creating simple stories everyone can lean on, will influence, convince and convert.

| By Justin Flitter - Chair Tech Marketers Group & Freelance Chief Marketing Officer

It was great to host our Christchurch community for some nerdy-marketing chat!

“If your content doesn't relate to your unique market proposition, you're just offering free consulting.”

Alex Sorensen - Marketing Manager - Banqer

Learn as much as you can about what influences your customers outside of digital marketing. A customer’s path to purchase is complex, and you will be a better digital marketer if you have a bigger picture of everything influencing your customer. 

In this podcast, Ben Van Opzeeland talks to Brittany Jackson about his experience in digital marketing, advice, tools and how to get the best return on investment for your digital spend.

In Christchurch the event on the 14th is discussing how B2B buyer behaviour has changed. It’s worth watching The Techie Side of B2B Marketing webinar below.

In Auckland we’re hosting Breakfast in Newmarket and after-work drinks in Takapuna. Both events will be discussing Channel Partner Programs. The opportunities to build and leverage channel partners to scale your go-to-market strategy across boarders.

Click on the event you’d like to attend to RSVP and feel free to share these with your marketing friends and colleagues.

Here’s a selection of comments from attendees.

Sophie Groos

🍩 SO FULL of food-for-thought + food from NZ Tech Marketers Conference in Auckland today!

🥡 So many takeaways from the brilliant brains speaking today but I’ll just share a handful..

Ben Reid enlightened us on how emerging technology is shaping our lives - inspiring futuristic visions of how marketing will change and adapt.

Kate Bradley Chernis reminded us that people want to reach out to people and not companies. And also, humans have 5 senses but marketers mostly focus on sight. What about those other 4?

Siân Simpson had wicked insights on building communities and how powerful they can be to combat loneliness.

Oliver Allen got real about making sure we are ‘in the room’ before trying to sell by establishing a connection with your brand and why they need it first.

Shout out to Justin Flitter, TMG, Fisher & Paykel Healthcare, amazing speakers, and the fun people I met for making it an awesome event.

Linda Tso

I attended the NZ Tech Marketers Conference 2022 ENGAGE last week! Still buzzing from all the cool insights we learned, and the people at my table were so nice 😭❤️ (hi!!)

Apologies for the tag-spammage ahead... here's my 2-min TL;DR of TMG22. Massive thanks to Justin Flitter and the whole TMG team for putting together such an amazing event! 🙌

⚫ Explore ‘dark funnel’ touchpoints; aim for the bottom of the funnel KPI’s, eg. number of meetings booked. Amanda Armstrong

🤖 Hyper targeting is out due to changing privacy rules; use 1st party data where possible. Watch generative AI for content creation, AR, VR, Metaverse uses. Ben Reid

🤗 Build a community based on your members’ *intrinsic motivation* - which can lead to revenue later, but revenue should not be your initial goal! Siân Simpson

🔊 B2B marketers disproportionally use SIGHT only – consider the other human senses. Sound drives deeper engagement – in both writing and audio media eg podcasts. Kate Bradley Chernis

💗 B2B is still marketing to Humans; don’t over-rely on rational/logical product information-based marketing. Couple messaging with emotion to build sustained brand growth over time. Oliver Allen

🤼 The ‘status quo’ is often the biggest hurdle so set realistic expectations and don’t try to force a sale or change in mindset too fast. Learn to love the (boring) products you market by considering the real-life effect for the person using it! Product Marketing Panel: Darren Hopper, Ryan Joe, Sharon Middleton, Matthew O'Sullivan, Tim Howell (sorry didn't note down which of you shared the above!)

CMO CEO Director Panel:
🥳 CMO: define the metrics that provide actionable insights. Wendy Thompson
👩‍💼 CEO: marketing as a function needs to be forward-thinking, look for trends and build a compelling story of what’s next, to help the business plan ahead. Karen Rolleston
🤑 Director: industry stats - martech spend is now 40% of IT spend, investing on martech tools is necessary. Frazer Scott

Can't wait to put these learnings to practice together with Jo Graham 💪😁

Adrian Yap

Why do I get lumped with the most exciting topic in Marketing? Privacy... Hmmm… I’m so glad that I had an amazing panellist in Natasha Mazey, PhDand Helen Shorthouse on the right side of the panel!

What I loved about NZ Tech Marketers #TMG22 conference was the ability to just meet and connect in real life.

Sharon Middleton

Special mention to my fellow panellists - it's a rare and very worthwhile opportunity to reflect on our product marketing practice with peers: Ryan Joe, Tim Howell, Darren Hopper, and Matthew O'Sullivan. I find it's through taking these opportunities where you can take yourself out of your day to day, ask yourself (or be asked in this case) and others in your field the hairy questions and compare notes where you can really take in some new learnings and stimulate fresh thinking.

Javier Yebenes

It was great to hear the story behind the TMG rebrand by David Bowles from @seven-akl , hear about privacy in marketing with Adrian Yap and Natasha Mazey, PhD, and discuss #ProductMarketing with Sharon Middleton, Ryan Joe, Darren Hopper, Tim Howell, and Matthew O'Sullivan.

The cherry on top, was the final panel with Karen Rolleston, Frazer Scott, and Wendy Thompson, talking about #metrics that matter to C-suite execs and boards. 🍒

Michael Friedberg

My first face to face event in a year! Great to be hanging out at the NZ Tech Marketers conference.

Lots of insights and robust discussion but Oliver Allen's presentation really resonated with what I am seeing in the market and among my clients.

It’s natural for marketing to target and convert the customers who are problem aware and ready to be sold to…but when that’s only 5% of your target buyers', revenue growth will soon plateaux.

So what about the 95% who are not problem aware and don't know who you are AND are certainly not ready to be sold to? This is where brand comes in. How? By building community, influence and trust in the 95% of the market that represents future revenue. But note, this is not about your product and what it offers.

If you are not thinking about these potential buyers and how you build brand affinity, then you're not thinking about future growth.

For [tech] marketers, the trick in brand building is creating an emotional connection with the people who interact with your brand BEFORE you present product messages and start selling.

Building brand affinity to those buyers who are out of market is hard to measure and therefore often put in the too-hard basket. Why? Because leadership teams are asking marketers to focus solely on sales activation (aka growth marketing) and not brand building.

So to all the CEOs of B2B companies - while you want marketing to be focused on revenue, they also need to be building your brand to support future growth. Just as you and your leadership team are focused on future cash flow (as well as current cash flow), this is how marketing supports that part of your business strategy.

Sian Simpson

Today I got to take the stage at the NZ Tech Marketers conference for 2022! It was so fun to be back in a room with my peers, sharing best practice on what I’ve been learning about community building in recent years.

We went on a journey together to explore what community building is, how you do it for your business, touch on some of the magic that I think is at the very core of building communities in my experience, share a bit of how to actually do it, and all importantly - how to measure it.

Key topics I covered on the holistic side - human nature, loneliness, intrinsic motivation and belonging. To the practical side - frameworks, canvases, community types and examples of who’s doing it well.

After a lot of research, its occurred to me that part of the reason why community is pushing into the business world is as a result of global feelings of loneliness, and people searching for authentic connection around their interests.

I think as businesses, marketers and community builders we should figure out how to go forth and build communities of influence that can serve business goals, and also make the world a less lonely place by taping into what is at the heart of us all - a desire to belong.

Thanks for having me TMG!

With the help of David and the team at Seven we’ve taken some bold steps forward. We’re excited to share them with you today.

We are a community that supports marketers (working in SaaS or B2B tech companies or in technical marketing roles like automation, CRM & operations) with access to people and expertise.

We’re a profitless, volunteer run organisation with one clear mission. To nurture the growth of New Zealand’s tech marketers.

Being a part of this community gives you access to the collective knowledge and expertise of all our members. That also needs you to share, to pay it forward, to help others learn from your mistakes and successes.

Today we’re excited to release our new brand identity, a re-energised promise and commitment to each and every member.

• Data privacy should be at the forefront of every digital marketer’s mind now more than ever. Consumers are now more privacy conscious, privacy regulations are being introduced and enforced, and the market is responding to these changes.

• There are specific privacy laws that apply to using customer data for digital marketing. But these laws don’t prescribe how digital marketing should be conducted. They simply set out the outcomes that need to be achieved, so each digital marketing strategy will give rise to unique challenges.

• “Personal information” may include a broad range of data, depending on how data is collected, used and combined by the business. Data that may not be personal information on its own may become one in the context of digital marketing.

• To identify potential privacy risks in digital marketing, digital marketers should work with other stakeholders to conduct a data mapping exercise, privacy analysis or a privacy impact assessment.

• Various measures will need to be taken where risks are identified, including review of third party supplier arrangements and updating external and internal policies

Why do digital marketers need to care more about privacy now more than ever?

Digital marketing practices are allowing companies to reach new heights much faster than ever before. There is now an abundance of tools and technologies that allow companies to leverage consumer data in a way that helps them scale rapidly. Customer data can be generated, collected and used by businesses to maximise interaction between consumers and brands, with the help of the sophisticated Ad-Tech and MarTech ecosystem. 

On the other hand, consumers are becoming increasingly privacy-conscious. Users are more careful about how their data is collected and used. They demand more transparency and control over the ways their personal information is used, and the ways in which companies handle personal information are facing more public scrutiny. According to a study from KMPG, nearly all U.S. consumers (97%) reported that data privacy is a concern and the majority of consumers (87%) view data privacy as a human right. Unsurprisingly, consumers also worry about what companies are doing with their data (54%). Privacy laws are also playing a significant role in shaping the ways digital marketing is conducted around the world. It is also an evolving area – New Zealand’s privacy legislation was recently updated with the introduction of the Privacy Act 2020 (NZ Privacy Act). 

The market is responding to this changing consumer and regulatory landscape. Browsers are stamping out the use of third-party cookies, which will lead to a shift in the current Ad-Tech or MarTech ecosystem. Companies are revising their data strategies and prioritising data privacy as a key area of risk. Regulators are given more power to deal with dishonest and damaging practices and expose breaches to the public.

There is a clear incentive for digital marketers to adopt a privacy-centric approach to marketing activities. Falling foul of privacy laws and user expectations have a direct impact on the reputation of the business. Even being associated with a partner or supplier who is found to have loose practices could have the same effect. And in some jurisdictions, the fine for breaching privacy regulations can be substantial. 

Overall, navigating this ever-changing landscape will require an effort at an organisational level, with marketing, IT, legal and privacy (sometimes PR and insurance) having to be involved in dealing with data-related issues. However, there are certain things digital marketers should be aware of so you can identify potential data issues, think about steps that need to be taken, and start conversations about them with other teams. 

What are the privacy laws that apply when using customer data in digital marketing?

The NZ Privacy Act 2020 is the primary legislation that governs the handling of personal information in New Zealand. It is principles-based legislation which means that it does not contain specific rules and processes that can be applied to different online marketing methods. It only sets out the outcomes that businesses need to achieve when dealing with personal information.  There are 13 information privacy principles set out in the Privacy Act, which cover:

• when, from whom and how personal information can be collected

• storage and security of personal information

• access and correction rights of individuals

• how personal information can be used and retained

• When personal information can be disclosed to third parties or outside New Zealand, and

• when and how you can assign a unique identifier to individuals.

An overview of these principles is available on the Privacy Commissioner’s website. There are also additional rules around reporting privacy breaches as well as criminal offences for certain acts such as destroying documents when a request has been made for it. 

Overseas legislation could also apply to New Zealand businesses, especially if they operate a business or target customers in those jurisdictions. The key regulation which acts as the benchmark for privacy legislation across the globe is the General Data Protection Regulation (GDPR). The GDPR is more prescriptive than the NZ Privacy Act 2020 in a number of areas, such as the consent requirement and rules that apply to data processors. The potential fines are much greater (i.e. maximum of the higher of either 20 million euros or 4% of annual global turnover), and looking at the recent fines imposed over the last few years, it will be prudent to check with your legal teams whether your business will need to comply with it. 

Each digital marketing strategy and the functions of MarTech tools will require specific privacy considerations to comply with the principles in the NZ Privacy Act and, if applicable, the GDPR. Each situation will likely raise unique challenges, so it is important that all relevant stakeholders are involved in the conversations to successfully navigate the inherent ambiguity associated with privacy-related issues. 

What is “personal information” in digital marketing? 

Only certain data are subject to privacy laws. A key question for any digital marketer looking to leverage data is whether you are dealing with “personal information”. The NZ Privacy Act defines personal information broadly as information about identifiable individuals, and the GDPR has a very similar concept which they refer to as “personal data”. This information isn’t limited to the types of data that is usually associated with identifying people, such as phone number or email address. It also covers information, which on its own may not be able to identify individuals (such as IP address or device details) but once combined with other information may reasonably be capable of doing so. 

In marketing terms, any combination of data touchpoints that can be used to identify or be used as identifiers to track the activities of a single person will be treated as personal information. This means that any de-identified, anonymised, or pseudonymised data will still be reviewed carefully to ensure that they are not capable of identifying a single person even when combined with other information that the organization has. Also, if you obtain non-identifiable information from data sources (e.g. a data management platform) to feed into another platform (e.g. a customer data platform) to create a more persistent customer profile, then such information could also be considered personal information under the Privacy Act. In other words, any piece of data should not be looked at in isolation in the state that they are collected or stored. It should be viewed in the context of the processes and platforms used by the business as a whole. If it can be used by the business in any way to identify an individual (i.e. for “jigsaw identification”), then it should be considered personal information.  

The type of personal information collected and how information is combined internally also matters. The more sensitive information is, the more steps you have to take to ensure you adhere to the principles of the NZ Privacy Act. For example, the threshold for proving you had a lawful basis for collecting sensitive information (e.g. health status, financial status, etc), would be higher than for the more standard identifiers such as email addresses.

Overall, identifying which data is personal information or can be used or combined to identify individuals is important. It will inform the assessments required and risks associated related to marketing activity.

How do I identify areas of risk in marketing practices? 

The starting point in assessing the risk associated with digital marketing activity is mapping out what data you collect and how it is used, combined, disclosed or transferred within the business. A detailed record that takes into account all internal and third-party tools and systems used to manage data in digital marketing will be needed to assess compliance with the privacy laws.

From a marketing perspective, it would be useful to segment each relevant marketing strategy and the technology systems and tools used, and identify data flows in relation to each specific technology solution. The map can then be expanded to include how they are connected and flow until the point the relevant data is deleted (or left static). You may also be reliant on third-party tools to provide you with either the data or executions required to maximise the effectiveness of your digital marketing strategy. In such a case, you would also need to understand the supplier’s data handling practices and the agreements you have in place with them that may have a direct impact on your own practices and compliance with the NZ Privacy Act. 

The mapping exercise can be done on its own as a general review or as part of a privacy analysis when your business is about to embark on a new project that changes or expands the way your business handles data. The Privacy Commissioner has published a useful toolkit for conducting a privacy analysis or a privacy impact assessment which is available here. (Note this tool has not been updated to reflect the changes introduced in the 2020 NZ Privacy Act, but it still provides a useful outline of the types of questions that organisations should be asking as part of any data-related project or proposal.)  

A privacy analysis of any new tool, system or process can help reveal if the change would have a real impact on the business’s data handling practices. Depending on the nature of digital marketing (whether it is a simple retargeting, web analytics, ad measurement, conversion tracking or a combination of these things), you will need to explore for example:

• the purpose and objective of data collection and use

• whether there are any configurations that can be implemented to track and design a privacy-conscious solution as different configurations can result in in different evaluations and privacy requirements

• the terms that apply to the relationship with the supplier or partners

• the types of personal information being used and processed in the strategy implemented, and

• the storage duration of the data.

Of course, this exercise is not something that has to be done by marketing teams alone. You should involve your privacy, legal and IT teams to assess all associated risks.  

What needs to be done once a risk is identified? 

Having a map of the data flows from collection to deletion and analysis of the risks will inform the various measures that will need to be taken to address potential issues and minimise risk. Configurations may need to be modified, data collection or sharing may need to be changed, and certain activities may need to rolled back. From a legal and risk mitigation perspective, you will also need to look at the following. 

Third-party supplier arrangements

You may need to revise your relationship or agreement with third party suppliers who are identified in the mapping exercise. If you are relying on suppliers to collect or manage data on your behalf, your IT and legal teams should review their data handling and security practices and ensure there are sufficient protections in the agreements. For example, if you are using a supplier’s tool to process or store your data on your behalf, you will need appropriate terms that include obligations to notify you of any incidents, give you full assistance to deal with privacy issues and requests, as well as appropriate warranties and indemnities. If you are transferring data overseas, you may also need a data transfer agreement in place. 

Privacy statement

When you collect personal information, you must make specific disclosures to ensure the person is made aware: 

• what information you are collecting

• why you are collecting the information

• what the information is going to be used for, and

• who will receive it.

A review of the data flow may reveal certain areas that need to be updated, particularly if you are implementing a new MarTech solution that relies on customer data. It is also important that the any statement or policy is presented in a way that is readable and user-friendly. Any unexpected statements, such as the collection of sensitive health information, should be made more prominent via a separate tick box.  

Internal policies

Digital marketers play an important role in helping their businesses reach new customers in the digital world. In doing so, you will need to work with various stakeholders to place the business in a good position to use customer data in a privacy-conscious way. The stakes for privacy breaches – and in turn the trust of customers – are now higher than ever. 

Your business should have internal policies for both dealing with privacy related enquiries and data breach incidents. These policies may need to be updated to account for any risks identified in the process mapping exercise mentioned above. If you are implementing a specific online tracking solution, you may need to develop processes to handle customer data enquiries relating to such a solution and ensure you can work with the solution providers to fulfil enquiries. The incident response may also need to be updated to account for potential issues that may arise due to the new solution, in particular the criteria developed for assessing the severity of the breach for notification and response purposes. 

Bio

Samuel is an Associate Director at JW Legal where he leads its commercial advisory practice. He has broad experience in commercial matters with a focus on technology (including data privacy), intangible assets and new innovations. If you have any questions or comments regarding this article, please get in touch with Samuel (e: samuel.choi@jwlegal.co.nz | p:+640212848699). 

That person who can not only build a solid strategy and comprehensive execution plan but deliver all the analytics and the insights to support it, business case the new platforms to drive that funnel of customers, design a newly branded website, a few content pieces for all of the social media platforms, write the media release for that new product launch, design a few things for a new landing page and maybe even work on the sales team event needs.

Phew!  And that was just in the first week.

But wait, we are a DIY nation at heart

We have the much-celebrated can-do attitude in New Zealand, born out of the limitation of our size. A little bit of expertise and a willingness to give things a try has made us champion those with broad-ranging capabilities, and that’s not a bad thing. We can become a ‘Jack of all trades’ as they say.

However, when building a house you can’t expect a Gib-stopper to also build the timber framing and I am pretty sure the builder will not be great at the plumbing. DIY people beware as that house you did yourself, may eventually leak and have to be pulled down and rebuilt. At your own cost. Ouch.

It is a common problem in many start-ups trying to grow their business:  “We are now growing the business and need to get our name out there and get more customers. We need a marketing person ASAP!”. 

This is where a unicorn marketing job ad is created and will look like the list below:

• Hands on and willing to roll up sleeves

• Previous experience managing 20+ person team

• Strategic thinker but can also execute details of a campaign

• Expert with Marketo, lead nurturing, and content marketing

• Great public speaker and can manage all PR

• Intimate knowledge of SEO and A/B testing

• Comfortable executing all internal communications

• Able to manage multi-million dollar marketing budget

• B2C and B2B experience

• Previous work experience at Salesforce, Google, Hotjar, Hubspot and Workday (name any other hot tech of your choice)

• Adobe Illustrator and Indesign skills a plus

Stop and think carefully

I think at that point you have to decide what you need and where the most important resources are best utilised.  Go slow to go fast as they say.  Stop and think. Do the research and work out what you need to achieve in the short to medium term. Be very realistic and look at the outcomes you want. Don’t just write a list of all the non-prioritised ‘marketing’ things you want to be done and then see that as a position description.  

In saying this, in today’s complex digital marketing landscape, it does take a broad set of skills in multiple areas to successfully execute a campaign and arguably some level of unicorn-ness is needed amongst most people who sit within stand-alone Marketing roles.

The reality is that many marketers today (probably at the more senior end of the scale) are some form of marketing unicorn, especially those who have been thrown into a fast-growth tech start-up.  And that is OK.  We like to juggle many things all at once.  To a point. As the startup business grows so will the needs of that individual, so you must plan ahead and grow the team (or external resources) for future success vs adding more to a marketer’s already very full job description. Think about the future and be very realistic about what a person can do in one role.

Digital is a multiple horned beast

Another problem lies in today’s multiple digital channel world with a huge dilution of marketing activity across so many different platforms and media – that scope alone needs a specialist.  So that is why any digital marketing specialist is in high demand. It is seen as a one-hit wonder to fix all problems ‘digital’.

Digital however is a very broad term you can drive a bus around. What specific digital activity do you focus on? In most companies now you are seeing specialisation – UX specialists are not going to design web pages, Search specialists are not going to design and post content on Facebook for you. If either are asked to build an overall communications strategy – you might get blank stares.  So be very certain on what you need to achieve vs a focus on all you want and wrap it up in the world of ‘Digital Marketing’ things you might need looking at.

Even when you define all the skills you need in a role, the scope will change over time so allow for that, but be very specific to the outcomes you are looking for today.  You should have a defined business strategy and key results or targets you are looking to achieve.  Start there and build out all the functional things you need.   Avoid leaping for the “we need a marketing automation system”.  Do you? Why? You need to attract more customers online.  Start there.  Don’t define the problem with a solution.

Get some ideas, talk to others

This is where you need to take advice.  Talk to a mentor.  Have discussions with similar companies who have been through the same process. Take advice on what’s possibly available in your market. What can you outsource vs. do in-house? What are the skills you need now and more important for the near future?

Do use your own network as the person you are looking for may already be known within your own groups. Again reach out and ask.

NZ Tech Marketers Group have a mentoring programme that links you to some extremely talented advisors across a range of sectors and disciplines.

We have an incredible mix of experienced senior marketers in the group – they’ve been through almost everything from major expansions, acquisitions, brand overhauls, recessions, system implementations and more.

This service is free to our Tech Marketers Group Members. Sign up here to connect with us

We sat down with Justin (albeit virtually) to talk to him about why he’s excited about the upcoming Just One Conference, what he thinks tech marketers need to be thinking about in 2021, and what excites him about becoming a Tech Marketers mentor.

About Justin…

B2B tech marketer Justin Flitter is the founder of NewZealand.AI and a freelance CMO working with high-growth SaaS and tech companies.

An innovative, results-focused marketer, Justin has 20 years’ experience helping software as a service and professional services brands across New Zealand, Australia, Asia, India and the United States to connect with customers and build communities.

Over the last 10 years, Justin has produced TEDxAuckland events, founded and produced AI-Day, New Zealand’s premier AI conference, and hosted dozens of events helping business leaders understand artificial intelligence and emerging technology.

In the theme of this year’s Just One Conference, what’s the one thing you’re looking forward to most about the conference? And what’s the one reason tech marketers should come along?

Just One Conference is all about bringing together the best minds for the best time. As a community of tech marketers, we need days like this to grow, to get inspired and energised. The success of our businesses depends on it.

The day can create a brainwave that fills an entire notebook. That a-ha moment is why we host and curate these events – to help us all leap forward with confidence.

Thinking specifically of NZ tech marketers, what advice or recommendations would you give for the year ahead? What things should be top of mind?

1. Get your tech stack right.

Get your tools of the trade in, wired up and working well, especially when it comes to understanding the data points from your marketing ecosystem so that you can optimise your paid media campaigns and start building the right attribution models. This is all about building a customer data platform that gives you a holistic view of customer and user behaviour throughout your ecosystem, and doing this as early as you possibly can.

That’s easier said than done for a lot of companies. Wiring that up and having somebody on your team who knows how to wire up all of those data layers so that you can create real-time, data-driven insights for your team and your customers will save you a lot of money down the track, saving you from throwing shit at a wall and hoping that it works, to actually being able to building that science and data-led platform, from the ground up, so that you can be optimising your media spend. It’s too easy for companies to blow a truckload of money trying to do customer acquisition. You need to be targeting the right people, through the right channels in the right way.

I’ve always run tech-heavy people-light programmes. It’s not just a case of adding bums on seats to be able to get things happening faster – you’ve got to create processes and systems to automate and deliver those insights so that you can make the right decisions quickly, understand your customer, and then be able to bring in partners and enablers to scale that up.

2. Test carefully.

People AB test and experiment all the time, but the thing with experimenting is you don’t want to change too many things. If you’re going to experiment, you want to look at incremental, granular improvements rather than changing four or five things in one experiment.

It’s about thinking how you’re using your tools to optimise and customise your web or digital experiences without changing too many things at once. For example, if you’re changing your proposition, don’t change your pricing. If you’re changing pricing, don’t change the proposition until you’ve figured it out.

You’ve got to look at those different things so that you can actually say: What is the lesson that we want to learn out of this experiment? What’s our hypothesis? Then you can look at what happened, document it and keep experimenting.

3. Go agile.

People have always got resourcing challenges, but the challenge for us all as tech marketers is to look at how we build agile and responsive marketing teams.

Product teams usually work in agile two-week sprints. I think it would be useful for Product and Marketing teams to be in the same two-week sprint, working at that cadence together, running the same cycles, getting a cadence of activity and building layers very quickly.

If you think about a quarterly strategic plan or project, you can get a lot done and move much more quickly if you’re working on two-week sprints rather than on month-by-month plans.

4. Rethink your planning process.

Something I’ve always struggled with is the conventional approach to building a plan. People say you’ve got to have a plan for everything, that it’s got to be well-documented and map out everything that’s going to happen.

But, just like a customer journey, plans aren’t always linear. You’ve got to go by the seat of your pants, with just enough documentation to get you through. That’s where sharing, having your stand-ups in the morning and constantly keeping people updated is key.

If you’re working at a really fast cadence you probably don’t have time to maintain a documented strategy or plan (unless you’ve got a big team with someone responsible for keeping things updated). You’ve got to be able to build game plans. It is all about establishing the right cadence – and having the ability to be reflective and responsive and to work in the moment but with foresight and hindsight as well.

For me, the important thing for strategic planning is to have your quarterly strategic goals and know how you’re going to get there generally, but to know that it’s going to be a squiggly line.

Generally speaking, I see a lot of what comes across as laziness in New Zealand marketers. The main reasons for this are that they either don’t have the resource, time or budget, or that they are just spread too thin. But there’s a science and an attention to detail that has a significant effect on customer experience, and I think people need to be focusing a lot more on these things.

Where will you be focusing your marketing efforts this year?

With Playbooks, we will be focusing on scaling the product through New Zealand and Australia and building a community of business advisors who we believe are the unsung heroes of a growing economy. We want to build a community of business advisors passionate about helping their clients 10x their business and create resilience, so that no matter what we have to face over the coming years, our small business market will be much more resilient to manage through those situations.

Ultimately, 2021 is all about rebuilding communities. The events of 2020 created a very strong national community, with a lot of businesses forced to work remotely. But we still want human connection. We still want to get together, to meet and to share – especially as more companies are now allowing their workforce to work remotely part or all of the time. Having industry groups that allow us to come together to share that knowhow, to take you out of your work team and peer group bubbles is really important.

What attracted you to signing on the dotted line as a TMG mentor? What are you most looking forward to?

As tech marketers we need to foster our relationships and share our knowledge and experiences. I’m looking forward to getting stuck in and helping people tackle some of their big marketing challenges.

It’s a participation economy, so the more I can share, the more I’ll learn as well. Whoever puts up their hand to be mentored is going to help the mentor learn just as much. I’m really excited – it’s going to be cool.

My strength is in B2B and, in general, I think B2B marketing has been a weakness in New Zealand. This is starting to change now with groups like Tech Marketers and the Marketing Association, and we’re starting to recognise that B2B marketing in particular is incredibly important as the New Zealand software and tech industry grows.

New Zealand marketers have a habit of looking internationally for examples of best practice and people to talk to, and it’s great to now see us starting to get to a point where we’re standing up and looking to people in New Zealand. We have a really strong community of incredibly capable B2B marketers here.

I think there are a lot of marketers who are asking questions and looking for clarity. They want an independent eye over their work, to challenge or validate that they’re on the right track. The TMG mentoring cohort is all about building a community of experienced marketers who have been there and done that and can see the bigger picture and what that waterfall effect might be for a certain decision or approach.

In the hopes of creating a snappy highlights reel off the back of the popular event, we asked some of our TMG exec to share their highlights – the things that stood out the most to them from the conversation, and the things that they might just do differently from now on.

Emma, Beverley, Meng and Katy share their top takeaways…

Emma Ellwood, Marketing Executive, Swaytech

Decision makers have become increasingly involved with marketers in their demand to know and be involved with the data. Data-driven explanations are more important than ever, and it’s our job as marketers to tell that data story in the best way possible.

Involving decision makers in the process of data discovery means that the what next? question becomes a highly informed decision, ultimately improving the outcome for the business. 

Beverley Caldwell, Director, Quarter Turn Marketing

There are a number of tactics you can use to influence and persuade with your data stories. Here are five different ways to get you started and that will help people remember your story:

• Tell a basic data story

This could be for something like a product launch, helping you to get the information and facts across.

• Tell an explanation story

Share a story that explains the data, what happened in the data and why you collected or needed it.

• Create a discovery story

Tell the backstory of how your discovery was made and then how it determined your story or solved a problem.

• Find a data story example

When you have a big story to tell (e.g. an engagement survey) you can zoom in and focus on one person’s story, which helps bring your data to life.

• Trigger a new story

This is not so much telling a story about the data but triggering a new story from some of the data you have gathered. Create something new and exciting that people can focus on.

Meng Purcell, Marketing Operations Director, Xero

The best stories are not what you find in the Hollywood blockbusters with big plot structure, complex narrative and centred around a hero. We need to avoid these Hollywood style stories if we want to authentically connect with our audience. The best stories may be from tiny anecdotes and personal experiences. They are unassuming, but genuine and authentic. They have data integrated into the storytelling to make them compelling and insightful. 

Katy Sweetman, Director, Storycore

Shawn shared the following quote from Gary Klein, organisational psychologist and founder of naturalistic decision making:

“Insight is an unexpected shift to a better story.”

Storytelling is all about finding the insight, and storytelling doesn’t happen unless you 1. have an insight and 2. create a shift in the status quo that “challenges the story we all have in our heads about how the world works,” Shawn says.

As storytellers, we play an important role in shifting the story.

“If we can convey an insight, we can shift that story. And that’s our job: to shift the story. But the problem is, most people working with data are still at the reporting end, more or less saying, Here’s what happened… We have to do more work to get to the insight.”

Citing Klein, Shawn shared three key sources of insight:

Connections, coincidences, curiosities: When you find something curious in the data you didn’t expect, you investigate it and unearth an insight.

Connection comes when you can find correlations by bringing together different data sets. It’s all about learning something new, to tell a new story.

Contradictions: For example, look for exceptions to the rule; amplify something you know to tell a new story,

Correcting flawed assumptions: We all make assumptions about how the world works. We need to ask different questions, bring it up a layer and break the rules, to help us challenge these assumptions.

About Shawn Callahan

Shawn is the author of award-winning Putting Stories to Work and Founder at Anecdote International, the world’s largest business storytelling enterprise. If you’re interested in the topic of business storytelling and haven’t checked out Shawn’s book, you should!

The TMG Executive Council is on the hunt for a new Chair to lead us to the next level of greatness. We’re looking for fresh ideas to invigorate the team, lead new programs of work for our tech marketers, and drive accountability across the Council.

Does this sound like you?

• Do you care about making a difference in the tech marketing world?

• Have you earned your stripes as a tech marketer and want to pay it forward in this voluntary role?

• Are you a wrangler of the highest order – with the ability to corral a group of highly motivated executive members?

• Are you available for 5-10 hours a month to attend TMG meetings, advocate for our cause across various networks – like NZ Tech and NZTE, and lead our team?

As Chair of TMG, you’ll be responsible for:

• The overall sustainability and growth of TMG

• The financial health of the organisation

• Being the public face of TMG when needed/required

• Managing key stakeholder relationships

• Having oversight on governance and compliance

• Managing the Executive Council in holding regular strategy and WIP meetings

If you’re passionate about promoting marketing within the tech sector, and think you’ve got what it takes to lead the Tech Marketers Group, we’d love to hear from you.

Send your details to info@techmarketers.co.nz with a short summary of why you’re the right person for our exciting Chair role by Friday 26th February, and we’ll be in touch to chat further. 

All the best

The TMG Executive

The thing they plan to focus on in the year ahead, the one thing that’s going to make Just One Conference totally unmissable, and the one thing they’re personally looking forward most about the day.

Here’s what they had to say…

Jane Smallfield, TMG Co-Chair

The one thing I’m focusing on in 2021…

 I’ve decided to put more focus on my own personal development this year – more reading, listening, learning and certification (if I can). It’s a lot harder to prioritise this when you’re the one leading the training and/or you’re working alone.

The one thing that’s going to make this year’s conference totally unmissable…

I was lucky enough to do an ABM Workshop with Lisa Dennis in Boston a couple of years ago (check her out on LinkedIn); you do not want to miss this session if you’re even remotely interested in Account Based Marketing.

The one thing I’m personally most looking forward to about the day…

I get an enormous buzz out of our community coming together. Yes, the learning stuff is really important but understanding that there are others out there who think, struggle and work the same way we do – is priceless.

Beverley Caldwell

The one thing I’m focusing on for 2021…

Adding value – I’m working for a number of tech clients so I’m going to focus on ‘what else can we do with this/how can we make this better?’ to get clients more bang for their buck in each marketing project that we work on.

The one thing that’s going to make this year’s conference totally unmissable…

From all the great speakers, Account Based Marketing definitely ticks my boxes as one not to miss – I’m a big fan and when done well, it works – so I’m keen to know more and learn from an expert.

The one thing I’m personally most looking forward to about the day…

Being in a room with like-minded tech marketers and sharing – information, knowledge, tips – gives me a real buzz!

Meng Purcell

The one thing I’m focusing on for 2021…

Prioritisation will drive impact on the things that matter most – work and personal life.

The one thing that’s going to make this year’s conference totally unmissable…
After 2020 being a year of ‘virtual and online’, it will be great connecting with people face-to-face again!
 
The one thing I’m personally most looking forward to about the day…

Learning and hanging out with like-minded people! Oops that was two. 🙂

Katy Sweetman

The one thing I’m focusing on in 2021…

I’m focusing on how and where I focus my energy to create the greatest value in the things I do. It’s definitely about less is more.

The one thing that’s going to make this year’s conference totally unmissable…

For me, the sessions are hugely useful and relevant, but the best thing is the chance to chat and compare notes and experiences with people who are faced with the same challenges.

The one thing I’m personally most looking forward to about the day…

The three-dimensionality of it. If I’m honest, it’s the chance to catch up with some old buddies I haven’t seen in a while In Real Life, and spend a whole day in the presence of the TMG cohort after a long time online!

The team challenged me to count on one hand why this year’s TMG Conference was the one to go to. Here’s what I came up with:

1. If there was ever a time we needed to get together in person (if we possibly can) this is it. After a year of doing everything remotely – including a couple of marketing conferences – we should embrace this chance to connect with others who wear the same hard-to-fill shoes we do. Besides – Nigel Latta has done the research on his TVNZ show How We Work and the evidence stacks up that room is better than Zoom – as he puts it:

“There’s all this neuroscience around how the best ideas can happen when you’re out of your usual work environment and having chats around the lunch table.”

• I really want to hear Lisa Dennis speak. I was incredibly fortunate to attend an Account Based Marketing workshop with her at an ITSMA conference in Boston MA some years ago. She is a powerhouse of knowledge. ITSMA is accredited with starting the ABM movement and Lisa runs their North American Training. Put simply, ABM is “accelerating growth in strategic accounts”. It is an incredibly effective way for New Zealand companies with comparatively low budgets to go after those large accounts sales have their sites on. Lisa uniquely sits across both the sales and marketing spectrum. You won’t want to miss her keynote.

• My own professional development. If there is something more than (ahem) thirty years in marketing has taught me, it’s that you never stop learning. The team have worked hard this year to bring in different and unique speakers who aren’t on the usual New Zealand conference circuit. You are going to get some different ideas and great practical tips you can actually use (because that’s what we’ve asked them for). I am anticipating at least one useful insight from each session – but expect I will dramatically exceed that.

• The panel session. Product, sales and marketing together on one stage – what can possibly go wrong? Moderated (and challenged) by the lovely Caroline Francis, our three panelists will need to be on their toes. I’m looking forward to this session a lot. Mainly because I truly believe we need to get this three-way dynamic consistently working a whole lot better – but also because I’m guessing there will be more than a few laughs to be had.

• Coffee break. Lunch. After Conference drinks. While the sessions will be great – the networking to be had will be very special. There are so many people I haven’t seen for well over a year I would normally regularly connect with one way or another. (You know who you are – so please, register now). I am also anticipating meeting a whole raft of new marketers – hopefully some that have arrived back in New Zealand or are new to the tech marketing space. Can’t wait to hear what everyone is up to.

If you’ve read all of this, ticked it all off on one hand and you’re still debating whether to come or not…come. If just one thing is for sure – you won’t regret it.