I retired from personal blogging in July 2008 but you can find me over at blog.xero.com
Follow @roddrury
… when US companies start marketing against you …
Excellent. You should definitely check out Netsuite before looking at us.
http://www.netsuite.co.nz. Tell them I sent you.
Ask them about pricing. For some reason it’s not on their site. Here’s ours.
Interesting to benchmark how they are doing.
blog
You can restrict competitors from using your trademark term in search marketing campaigns (tell Google and they’ll automate the keyword exclusion process). Branded keywords such as this are apparently good converters, so it would make sense to do so, even if you aren’t particularly concerned about the current competition. And then there’s the ol’ ‘protect your trademark or lose it’ angle.
You should have used the sponsored link, so that they at least paid for the additional traffic you send their way :-)
Their AdWords are likely to be managed by an SEO company. May not be even authorised by the advertiser.
As a geek, I like another type of recognition - when someone posts a project on a freelance website for a clone :-)
Have you heard of Buxfer? You might find some good ideas there.
Check out the URL (www.netsuite.co.nz) its way slow still waiting for the first page (gone 3minutes), shows you how seriously they consider the NZ market .
Xero could not ask for better advertising…. Netsuite if you are listening, well done for such a terrible introduction.
Strange that the http://www.netsuite.com URL comes back so quickly.
MYOB used to appear as an ad when you used Xero as a search term on the google UK site - but they seem to have stopped that now.
Probably trying to hold off an exodus before Business Basics Online is released (apparently $25/month) Bet is sucks Saas.
I agree - use the sponsored link
They should PAY each time someone is referred to their site by you Rod :-)
Wait until MYOB ads start showing up on Xero searches - you’ll be breaking out the champers for that one!
[...] Rod Drury has an “bring it on” post about a competitor buying Google adwords for his Xero [...]
Oh you want to see the MYOB product.
Here it is …
https://bbo.myob.co.nz
Love to hear your thoughts.
Oh dear, just tried the MYOB link and look what happened:
Unsupported Browser type
BusinessBasics Online only supports Internet Explorer version 6.0 and higher.
I guess they don’t want Firefox users to use their product.
Funny stuff …
Ha ha - nice one, Rod. No Firefox support in BBO is just terrible. At least if you’re using an unsupported browser in Xero, you get a nice web page explaining what’s going on.
Based upon that bbo link it should be painfully clear to MYOB that Xero has built a vastly superior product. I’d probably be a little worried if I were them.
Thoughts:
*Comprehensive accounting features - but Xero’s features are growing every few weeks.
*An online replica of their desktop software. I guess the theory being that the existing user base can more easily convert. Problem being that the usability was the reason I stopped using it in the first place. I still have nightmares about trying to generate a useful report. Lame but true.
*Bank rec just doesn’t compare. This is the No 1 timesaver in Xero and the main feature that sets it apart from everything else I’ve used.
*No google docs integration. This is obviously minor but it gives me faith in the general direction of Xero development. I dig google docs and its great to see services I dig coming together.
Xero’s best defence against incursion by MYOB into the SaaS market was bringing SB on board
Its back. Go to google.co.uk, search for Xero and an MYOB UK ad comes up.
Rod,
You’ve got a few contacts at the Herald no doubt. Who would I make an official complaint to so they stop leaving Xero off the share chart? Any budding share investor would currently think the market stops at Works Infrastructure.
Cheers,
Paul.
The ultimate unhappy customer….
http://www.netsuiteconsumerfraud.com/
He he!! I did check out netsuite, and while it is a far more complete and comprehensive package, it’s extremely expensive and difficult to use and way beyond overkill for home and small businesses like mine.
Well done Rod, congratulations!
Hi Rod - well if ever you needed confirmation you’re headed in the right direction… interesting how tentative they are in the NZ market using a sole solution provider there given they’ve been in this space for 8 years? seems the UK is the same strategy - I suspect a product gap behind the scenes as well if the model is still to give the US product to the local provider, have them localise it, package into a patch set and bingo! global porduct - er not quite.
Glad to see all is going so well for Xero
Laura
i am trying to migrate out of NetSuite UK to Xero as NetSuite has been nothing but a very expensive headache for our small business. Xero seems very customer focused and while NetSuite has a powerful product, anyone with less than £15,000 to spend of the first days setup and training will never get any of that power out of it.
Does anyone have experience migrating from NetSuite to Xero? if so i could use the help!
Hi Kyle - I’m the Business Development Director at Xero here in the UK!
We can help you migrate over, please email me at mark.hallett@xero.com and I will give you my contact numbers so that we can get you on board with Xero….
Regards,
Mark
Rod have you see the competition across the Tasman… http://www.xero.com.au/index.html
Rod have you seen the competition across the Tasman http://www.xero.com.au/index.html