3 Costly Marketing Myths NZ Owners Still Believe

Fran Bellingham, Founder of Virtual Marketers, is an expert in taking new ideas, products and campaigns to market. With a 25-year background across advertising, media and marketing including TradeMe in New Zealand and the UK, she breaks down the myths costing owners time and money and shows the metrics that actually move revenue.

💬 What's one marketing lesson you wish you'd known before launching your product or service? Comment and let me know.

Episode partner: AcademyEx

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We cover:

• How to market a service business without burning cash

• How to launch into a new market (NZ or AU) with evidence, not guesswork

• How to use digital products to attract clients and build recurring revenue

• The core SaaS metrics that matter (beyond vanity numbers)
  

00:00 – stop wasting money on marketing

01:45 – meet fran bellingham (virtual marketers)

02:52 – marketing strategy that actually works

05:56 – hard truths about honest marketing

09:08 – what is saas (simple)

09:50 – how to validate a saas product

11:36 – enterprise vs self-serve validation

12:48 – pricing and cac basics for saas

15:29 – steps to product-market fit

18:01 – market sizing with search + ai

20:44 – onboarding, activation, retention tactics

21:24 – how much budget to test a channel

23:36 – channel testing that actually works

24:30 – nz vs australia go-to-market

26:47 – seo + ai optimisation before ads

27:44 – behaviour-based onboarding emails

29:29 – top marketing myths to avoid

32:18 – metrics that matter

39:42 – kpis that move revenue (saas, services, ecommerce) 43:15 – if you lost everything: restart plan

46:13 – awards, momentum, wellington scene

47:21 – best advice for owners (don’t take it personally)

48:50 – how to contact virtual marketers

Follow Fran

Virtual Marketers: https://www.virtualmarketers.co.nz

Follow Me

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