A university and health services city — and a market with its own rules. Here's how we'd approach website design for a Dunedin business, and what we'd do differently from everyone else.
Dunedin's economy is anchored by the University of Otago and the health sector, giving it a large, stable services base and a big student population that turns over every year. It also has a strong heritage-tourism draw and a small but real tech and creative sector.
The student market is enormous relative to the city, and it is almost entirely new customers every single year — no brand loyalty, pure search behaviour.
A moderate, winnable auction. The distinctive feature is the academic calendar: whole categories — rentals, furniture, moving services, hospitality, healthcare — spike sharply as students arrive and depart.
Dunedin businesses should build the academic calendar into their marketing plan. We would concentrate spend into the arrival and departure windows for the categories that depend on them, and use SEO to hold visibility through the flat months.
First month: tracking, and mapping your revenue against the student calendar. Month two: build the pages and campaigns that capture the arrival and departure surges. Month three: organic foundations so you are not renting every click during peak weeks, when they cost the most.
Before any of that, we work out what a lead needs to cost for you to be profitable. That number decides which Dunedin searches are worth chasing, which are a trap, and whether website design is even the right first move. Sometimes it isn't — and we'd rather say so than take your money.
For some categories it *is* the business. Rentals, moving, furniture and hospitality see their year made or lost in a few weeks. Running a flat, year-round budget in those categories is the single most common mistake we see here.
It is arguably worth more. A brand-new cohort arrives each year with no supplier, no loyalty and no local knowledge — they search for everything. Owning those searches means you win the whole cohort, every year, without paying for each click.
Yes. We're an Auckland-based agency working with clients across New Zealand, including Dunedin and the wider Otago region. The work happens remotely, with calls and reporting on your schedule.
A moderate, winnable auction. The distinctive feature is the academic calendar: whole categories — rentals, furniture, moving services, hospitality, healthcare — spike sharply as students arrive and depart.
The sectors that drive Otago — and the ones we know how to sell for.
We build search and campaign strategies around how education and student services buyers in Dunedin actually search.
We build search and campaign strategies around how healthcare buyers in Dunedin actually search.
We build search and campaign strategies around how hospitality buyers in Dunedin actually search.
We build search and campaign strategies around how property and rentals buyers in Dunedin actually search.
We build search and campaign strategies around how trades and services buyers in Dunedin actually search.
We build search and campaign strategies around how heritage tourism buyers in Dunedin actually search.
Book a free discovery session. We'll audit what you're running, tell you what's leaking budget, and show you what we'd do differently — no obligation.