Contribute to our content

We work with experts in the public and private sectors to get best practice advice for small businesses.

If you or your organisation would like to submit an article, event or other content for business.govt.nz, here's how.

Content guidelines for business.govt.nz

We’re looking for website content that:

  • fits our content themes and helps solve common problems for small businesses
  • comes from a credible expert
  • doesn’t contain advertising or product placements
  • has a national focus.

Once we've published your content, remember to tell us if any links to your own — or other websites — change.

Once you’ve read the guidelines below, get in touch — we’d love to hear your content ideas.

Who can submit content

We’re interested in hearing from any public or private sector organisation interested in contributing to business.govt.nz. However, we reserve the right to decline any content that does not meet our criteria.

Content can include articles and/or videos for our website.

As a guide, content from the following types of organisations most often fit our criteria:

  • government agencies and government-funded bodies
  • non-profit organisations, for example business associations or groups that support small businesses
  • private sector organisations that want to support small businesses to make a positive impact, without themselves getting a direct benefit or profit.

Our partnering guidelines

We’re open to partnering with organisations that support New Zealand businesses. 

You may be able to partner with us if the content we publish in partnership with you on our website is informational and not promotional.

We can link from our website to your website. However, any links to more information on your website must be free to access and should not require people to sign up to access any website or service you provide, or contain advertising for products or services.

We work with various organisations. We do not have exclusive partnerships.

Our audience

Business.govt.nz is a government website for small businesses with 19 or fewer employees. We aim to reach business owners, operators and advisors through our website, our newsletter and social media. Typically, our audience is short on time and needs quick answers to business problems. 

Our audience includes:

  • small business owners and operators
  • employees
  • people thinking of starting a business
  • support organisations and advisors.

Writing guidelines

All content on business.govt.nz uses plain English. Our audience is time-poor, so we translate government and business jargon into the words and phrases they use.

Think beyond straight text. Our website uses content blocks to better showcase different types of content, for example breakout tips, quizzes, visual guides, case studies or videos. 

Have a browse of our website to get a feel for how we talk to small businesses and present advice and information. 

Clear and consistent — avoid jargon, slang and legalese.

Trustworthy — your advice must be seen as being definitive and not contradicting government sources.

Helpful — content must offer practical ways to improve a business. How can you help someone make a decision and implement it?

Action focused — explain what a business should do to improve their processes, or solve a problem, and show how to do it. Step-by-step guides and common mistakes are often helpful.

Relatable — case studies are a great way to bring a topic to life, especially if focused on a learning moment. These can be fictional businesses, or real business owners who are happy to be quoted.

Not too long, not too short — there’s no set word limit, although 300-600 words is a good guide for newsletter articles. If your content is longer, consider splitting it up into separate topics. 

How to submit content

To provide content for business.govt.nz, use the submission form below. Make sure you include:

  • your name, and the name of your organisation
  • what your content is about and details of where you think it fits on business.govt.nz
  • the URL link to the content on your website, if applicable
  • a short summary of your proposed content, for example a paragraph to add to a suggested page, or an article for our monthly newsletter
  • the type/form of the content, for example an article, or PDF download
  • your permission to use the content.

If your proposed content is not in an online format, for example MS Word/PDF documents, videos, templates, tools, email us with the above information for review.  

info@business.govt.nz

We may need to talk to you, for example, if we want to edit it to fit our style. If we want to publish it, we will get in touch with you. 

Tell us about your ideas

Submission form