If you’ve come from a large corporation, or overseas, you probably know a lot about managing budgets and teams, but you might not have had to build the knowledge in specific areas yet, such as marketing, or ‘do the doing’. You’ll be used to bigger budgets and how things have succeeded internationally, but you might not feel you’ve landed on the best way to promote your offering here yet.

I’ve seen this before.

In larger overseas markets, more focus is often put on advertising campaigns, where the market size — and margin of era — is wider. But that approach doesn’t always translate well when you’re entering a new market and still figuring out what messaging resonates, what barriers to change exist, and what people genuinely care about.

This becomes even more important when your offering is introducing a completely new concept or asking people to think or behave differently. In those cases, advertising alone is unlikely to get you there, because what you’re really asking people to do is change behaviour. I discussed this in a previous issue of The Forward — behaviour change doesn’t come from SEO or paid ads, it comes from engagement — but another important factor is our culture and values.

In Aotearoa, business is highly relational. A hard-sell approach is often met with resistance. People want to know who you are, build trust with you, and feel confident in your intentions before entering into any kind of engagement.

You’ve probably heard this referred to as the “Know, Like, Trust” principle. People need to know you, like your brand, and trust your expertise or offering before they buy.

So what does this mean for your marketing?

It means that personal connection, in-person engagement, and relationship-building aren’t just nice-to-haves — they’re essential. And that may require a shift in your marketing approach.

If you’re used to doing a lot of digital advertising, that doesn’t mean it’s redundant, but it may mean you need to add something else into the mix to make it more effective.

In marketing, we often talk about the relationship between brand and performance. They work better hand in hand. Brand marketing builds awareness and trust; performance marketing helps drive conversions. But for many service-based businesses, even the conversion itself still happens through a person-to-person interaction.

So, is it time to consider events, partnerships, workshops, or more relationship-led engagement in your marketing mix?

Does your approach need to shift?

Could that shift be the key to getting your world-changing offering off the ground?

Let’s find out.

Get in touch for an initial consultation.

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📌 This was Issue 38 of The Forward — our regular communication for conscious-minded business leaders.

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