Growing service industry behind local surge in networking

Colin Kennedy

Colin is the Marketing Director of BNI New Zealand, a director of Iron Road Ltd and a professional speaker and copywriter. While this is an outsourced function, Colin manages - at an executive level - all marketing and communication functions for BNI New Zealand. Colin is also the official spokesman for BNI New Zealand, and is responsible for building relationships with media and partners, including Hospice NZ, as well as representing BNI at all public speaking engagements (when BNI receives requests to talk at those functions). The core focus of his business is writing compelling copy for clients. Colin believes that in this era of low trust, social media and word of mouth dominance, a different approach to marketing is needed - one about conversation, relationships, engaging stories, delivering value... "We have to engage the market with compelling 'stories'; we have to influence the people who influence the customer's buying behaviour, we have to join the conversation. "People don't like to be sold to anymore. They like to shop." His business is to develop strategies for clients using compelling messages and stories for websites, email blasts, newsletters, brochures, press releases, articles etc. to increase leads, improve conversion rates and raise profile.