Marina Holmes, Communications Director, Xero Australia

1. Starting From Xero
How to Build a Successful B2B Content Strategy

3. This is Xero
This is Xero

4. This is Xero
Xero is a leading
platform helping small
businesses and their
advisors grow and
thrive

5. This is Xero
Accountants,
bookkeepers and small
business owners use our
products and services to
manage the most
important small business
needs

6. subscribers at 31 March
2019
invoices raised on Xero in FY19
connected apps
$2.8 trillion
value of incoming and outgoing
transactions across the platform in FY19
countries where Xero is used
users of Xero’s API developer tools
$4.4 billion
total lifetime value of Xero
subscribers at 31 March 2019
Xero staff worldwide
And the value it’s bringing to our customers is
reflected in the growing demand for our
services and the growth of our business.
* Figures are in NZD
connections with banks and
financial service providers
$659 billion200+
700+
1.8m+
180 2,500+
50,000+

7. 2006
Rod Drury
founds Xero &
Craig Walker
joins, working
out of a
Wellington
apartment
2007
XRO listed on
the NZ Stock
Exchange
(NZX)
2009
First official
regional office
opened in
Melbourne
2011
First US office
opened in San
Francisco
Mobile version
of Xero
released
2012
XRO dual listed
across the NZX
and the
Australian
Securities
Exchange
(ASX)
2015
First UK small
business cloud
accounting
solution to pass
100,000
subscribers
2017
1 million
subscribers
1,700+ staff
2018
Steve Vamos
appointed
CEO
US$300m
capital raise
Acquisition of
Hubdoc and
Instafile
1800
Subscribers(000’s)
From humble beginnings, the
company’s journey to a global
business has accelerated
2019
Xero achieved
positive free
cash flow for
the first time
2,500+ staff

9. Good afternoon Marina,
Just came across an old email and I
thought I would touch base to let you
know we are still loving Xero. I see in my
news feed that Xero keeps going from
strength to strength.
Hope all is well.
Thanks,
Chris.
Are there any pieces of technology or
software, apps or systems that have made it
easier to do what you do?
Xero accounting software! If software could
be married, I would totally marry Xero. I am
also a huge believer in cloud-based
everything and crowd-sourcing everything.
We’ve done everything from hiring donut
decorators on Airtasker, to delivering 300kg
of melted chocolate with a courier app.
Travis Dangel @travisdangel - Mar
3
Attention #smallbusiness owners
and #entrepreneurs - @Xero is
awesome. That is all.

10. This is Xero
Our growing community
of small businesses and
their advisors love the
simplicity, flexibility and
innovation that drives
our platform
“Now that my accountants have payroll set
up in Xero, it’s there and it gets done,
without me having to worry about how it’s
getting done. It’s awesome.”
- Shane Jones, Brumby’s Bendigo AU
“With Xero projects I can actually see
where my time and money goes. It blew
me away exactly how much time I wasn’t
charging people for, and how much the
‘free things’ I do actually cost me!”
- Fiona Woon, Bookkeeper, Financial
Systems Solutions
“I’d rather face root canal surgery with no
anaesthetic than do bank reconciliations.
But with Xero, there’s a game-like quality
that actually makes it fun. And I’m
disappointed when it’s done!”
- Devon Sabaratnam
“Xero calculates my tax and it’s filed in
seconds, without any chance of human
error – it’s accurate and easy to use. It’s
one less thing I need to remember to do.”
- Frank Hsu of Frank’s Coffee and Eats

11. “As we develop as a platform and
ecosystem, there will be
opportunities to develop solutions
for new segments and needs that
don’t even exist today.
Steve Vamos, Xero Chief Executive

12. This is Xero
This begins with drawing
on data from our
subscribers to create
Xero Small Business
Insights and using it to
understand the industry,
impact policy and inject
innovation
Help government assess
how policies affect small
business, such as tax cuts
Help small businesses
measure their financial
health against peers
Point accountants and
bookkeepers toward
proven tools to help
small businesses

13. “We want to be the
one thing that our
customers read”
“We are
committed to
being radically
different to
everyone else”
“We’ve built an
audience and now
we want to show
them the love”
Why are
we here?

14. Phase 1
Understand
the landscape
Identify current
metrics, measures
& sources of insight
in use
Identify all content
properties types
(sites, blogs, emails)
and content topics
being produced
Assess current
performance &
effectiveness

15. All channels say all things to all people.
And it’s very, very noisy for your customers.
Key insight #1

16. There’s opportunity to elevate the conversations
with your customers above the technical.
Key insight #2

17. There is a need to create, document and
extend your content strategy to cover all
content being created.
Key insight #3

18. Our vision
for content
Walk the talk as a
champion of small
business
Lead the industry
with content
Drive awareness,
acquisition, retention
and ambassadorship
Improve the
end-to-end journey for
Xero customers

19. Building Xero SBI content strategy
Understand
customer
needs
Tools, process
and people
Ideation
Define vision

20. Google’s Hub, Hero and
Hygiene modelContentActivity
Time
Hub
Hygiene
Hero

21. Data driven content framework
Measurement
Everything is rigorously
measured
Distribution
It is presented to our
customers at the right
moment
Insight
Customers drive what
we create
Creation
The content we create is
fantastically engaging
Powerful
content

23. “Here is a bold new dataset that excites,
that informs, and that will assist with
business decisions that need to be
made. Here is an advance in the way
data is collected and disseminated that I
think will reshape the way small
business and perhaps all business is
conducted in Australia. It is the business
statistician’s version of the ground-
breaking Hubble telescope.” Bernard Salt
Special Advisor to KPMG and Managing
Director of The Demographics Group

24. The launch,
September
2017

27. Highlights
153 pieces of coverage
including 131 in broadcast
and 22 print/online
Australia’s Coalition government
and opposition Labor issued media
releases citing the report, saying
more must be done to prompt late
payments
Page 5 coverage in the AFR
Small Business
Ombudsman Kate Carnell
voiced her support
Report received top billing in
Linkedin’s Daily Rundown
which has 43,000
subscribers

28. What’s next for
Xero SBI this year?

30. Marina Holmes
Communications Director, Xero
@xero | @Marina_K