From Digital Technology to AI Marketing: The Business Journey Behind DigitalxMarketing

Mathew Collins, Founder and Digital Director of DigitalxMarketing, has spent more than 30 years building businesses, developing international markets and working at the intersection of technology, sales and marketing. Today, that experience is helping New Zealand businesses navigate another major period of technological change: artificial intelligence.

When people hear the term “AI marketing agency”, it can sound like something that appeared almost overnight.

For DigitalxMarketing founder Mathew Collins, the journey to AI, marketing automation and platforms such as HighLevel started decades before ChatGPT existed.

His career has included technology commercialisation, international business development, sales and marketing, immigration and relocation, international education, recruitment, aviation training, commercial property and digital marketing.

Across those businesses and ventures, Collins has generally served either as a Managing Director or in roles with direct responsibility for marketing, sales and business development.

The common thread has been understanding markets, finding customers, developing commercial opportunities and using technology to help businesses grow.

An international business career spanning more than 30 years

Collins' international business career began with the commercialisation of New Zealand-developed digital technology.

Around 1990, this included the sale of digital technology to British Aerospace and subsequently taking responsibility for developing its marketing and distribution in the United Kingdom.

It was the beginning of an international business career that would eventually involve markets across the UK, Europe, Australia, Asia, the Middle East, the United States and New Zealand.

Rather than following a conventional corporate career, much of Collins' experience has involved creating, owning, managing and developing businesses, partnerships and joint ventures.

Technology was part of that journey from an early stage.

By the mid-1990s, Collins was already involved in using the emerging internet commercially.

Through international immigration and relocation consultancy Ambler Collins, he was involved with JobNet, an internet-based international employment service designed to connect people considering migration with employment opportunities.

British newspaper The Independent reported on the service in 1996.

At a time when the commercial internet was still in its infancy, Collins was already exploring how digital technology could connect businesses, people and opportunities internationally.

International migration, relocation and market development

Collins was a founder and Managing Partner of Ambler Collins, an international immigration and relocation consultancy headquartered in London.

The business worked across international migration, relocation and employment, assisting individuals, professionals, businesses and internationally mobile clients.

His experience also led to published work about living and working internationally, including books covering the United Kingdom, Australia and New Zealand.

International migration, recruitment and market development would become recurring themes throughout his career.

That experience remains relevant today.

DigitalxMarketing has subsequently developed and managed international recruitment and relocation initiatives, including GlobalFreedom, and maintains an active relationship with Australia-based Prop-HR.

The Prop-HR relationship now includes international market-development and market-entry work involving Australia, New Zealand and international education markets.

It demonstrates an important point about Collins' background: international business development isn't simply part of his history. It remains part of his work today.

International education

Collins was also a founding director of Fulham & Chelsea College Limited in London.

Established in 2002, the college operated for nearly a decade serving international students studying in the United Kingdom.

The business added another dimension to his experience in international education, student recruitment, migration, marketing and business development.

It is experience that remains particularly relevant as DigitalxMarketing becomes involved in contemporary international market-development projects across education, recruitment and global mobility.

Experience beyond the marketing industry

Collins' commercial experience has never been restricted to marketing agencies or consultancy.

His business interests have included commercial property, aviation, technology and other business ventures.

In the United Kingdom, he was a director of Greenford Strategic Property Limited, a commercial property business established with a long-term business partner.

He was also a director of Global ATS, the specialist UK air traffic control training organisation.

Global ATS developed a substantial international customer base and subsequently became part of the Quadrant Group. Today, the business is part of international technology and air-traffic-management group Indra.

Experiences such as these have helped shape Collins' approach to advising business owners today.

There is a significant difference between looking at a business purely through a marketing lens and looking at marketing from the owner's side of the table.

Marketing ultimately isn't about producing more marketing activity.

It has to contribute to the commercial objectives of the business.

Sales, marketing and business development

Although the industries and countries have changed throughout Collins' career, responsibility for generating business has remained remarkably consistent.

Sales, marketing, partnerships, market entry and business development have been central to most of his senior roles.

That experience increasingly converged with digital technology.

Collins became involved in digital customer acquisition, lead generation, online marketing and technology businesses before establishing DigitalxMarketing in New Zealand in 2020.

The technology has changed considerably.

The commercial objective has not.

Businesses still need to identify the right markets, attract the right customers, communicate a compelling proposition, convert opportunities into sales and build sustainable revenue.

DigitalxMarketing

DigitalxMarketing was established in 2020 to combine commercial marketing experience with modern digital technology.

Today, DxM works with New Zealand businesses across sectors including financial services, accounting, technology, trades, professional services and other owner-managed businesses.

Its work extends well beyond conventional digital marketing.

The agency works across websites, CRM, lead generation, search optimisation, content, customer communication, review management, marketing automation and AI-powered sales and marketing systems.

DigitalxMarketing is also a Certified and Trusted HighLevel Partner, using HighLevel to develop integrated marketing, CRM, lead-management and business-growth systems.

Increasingly, that work includes the practical application of artificial intelligence.

From the early internet to artificial intelligence

Collins sees today's development of AI as another major technology transition rather than an isolated marketing trend.

The technology is new.

Many of the commercial questions are not.

How can a business use new technology productively?

Will it help generate revenue?

Will it improve the customer experience?

Can it reduce repetitive administration?

Can it help a business respond to opportunities more effectively?

Can it provide management with better information?

And, most importantly, does it solve a genuine business problem?

Those questions influence the way DigitalxMarketing approaches AI.

Rather than adding AI simply because it is fashionable, DxM focuses on practical applications across lead management, CRM, customer communication, content, search visibility, websites, workflow automation and sales and marketing processes.

Search itself is changing

Artificial intelligence is also changing the way customers discover and evaluate businesses.

Traditional Google search remains important, but consumers and business buyers are increasingly using AI-powered search and answer platforms when researching products, services, suppliers and professional advisers.

Businesses therefore need to think beyond conventional SEO.

DigitalxMarketing's work increasingly encompasses Search Engine Optimisation alongside Answer Engine Optimisation (AEO), Generative Engine Optimisation (GEO) and optimisation for AI-generated search experiences and Google AI Overviews.

For Collins, this represents another stage in a technological evolution he has watched—and participated in—for more than three decades.

From early digital technology and the commercial internet to websites, search engines, social media, CRM, automation and now generative AI, the platforms continually change.

The fundamentals of business remain remarkably consistent.

A founder-led approach

DigitalxMarketing remains deliberately founder-led.

For clients, that means direct access to senior commercial experience rather than a traditional agency structure where the senior people involved in winning an account can disappear once the work begins.

Collins remains directly involved in strategy, business development and key client relationships, working alongside DigitalxMarketing's delivery team and specialist partners.

That model particularly suits the small and medium-sized businesses DxM works with.

They often don't need more disconnected marketing services.

They need people who will understand how their business works, identify where marketing and technology can make a measurable commercial difference, and help put the right systems in place.

More Traffic. More Leads. More Sales.

After more than three decades in international business, Collins' view of marketing remains fundamentally commercial.

Traffic matters.

Search visibility matters.

Technology matters.

AI matters.

But none of them is the ultimate objective.

The objective is helping businesses create more opportunities, convert more of those opportunities into customers and build sustainable revenue.

That philosophy sits behind DigitalxMarketing's promise:

More Traffic. More Leads. More Sales.

The technology being used to achieve it continues to change.

The commercial principle behind it hasn't.

About Mathew Collins

Mathew Collins is the Founder and Digital Director of DigitalxMarketing Ltd, a New Zealand AI marketing agency and Certified and Trusted HighLevel Partner.

He has more than 30 years of international commercial experience across business development, sales, marketing and technology, having worked across New Zealand, the United Kingdom and international markets.

His career has included technology commercialisation, international migration and relocation, international education, recruitment, aviation, commercial property, digital marketing and the creation and development of businesses and joint ventures.

Today, he applies that commercial experience to helping New Zealand businesses use digital marketing, HighLevel, automation and artificial intelligence to create measurable business growth.