Marketing to Government – Know Who You're Talking To

The first rule of marketing to government is still the same: know exactly who you are talking to. 'Government' is not a single audience. It spans Commonwealth, state and territory, and local government organisations – 537 councils alone – each with different responsibilities, structures, budgets and purchasing processes.

The scale is substantial. The ABS counted almost 2.6 million public sector employee jobs in June 2025, and in 2024–25 Commonwealth entities published 86,926 contracts on AusTender with a combined reported value of $104.9 billion (maximum values over the life of the contracts, not annual spend).

Start with the organisation, not the job title

A job title only makes sense in context. A Chief Information Officer in a large department has a very different remit from an ICT manager in a council or statutory authority. Before building a contact list, identify the jurisdictions, portfolios and agencies with a genuine need for your product or service – then work down to the functions involved in the purchase: operational owner, technical adviser, procurement, finance, executive sponsor and end users.

Multiple decision makers

Most government purchases are shaped by several people, even where one official holds the approval delegation. Gartner research has found the typical buying group for a complex B2B purchase involves six to ten decision-makers. Get them talking about your company – that is the conversation they have before asking you to quote.

Government structures change

Departments are renamed, functions transferred and agencies created. Machinery-of-government changes on 13 May 2025 renamed two Commonwealth departments and moved a dozen entities between portfolios; the Australian Centre for Disease Control was established on 1 January 2026.

Take Queensland's Department of Justice. Until late 2024 it was the Department of Justice and Attorney-General. Changes effective 1 November 2024 renamed it, moved Victim Assist Queensland and women's safety functions elsewhere, and brought Queensland State Archives in. A list built before then is already pointing some contacts at the wrong department. That is why a spreadsheet assembled from trade shows and websites ages so quickly.

Target related agencies

Most agencies are a parent, sibling or child of another. When you do business with one, doors can open to another – if you know how they are connected. The Linkages view in Discovery Online shows how parent and child departments and related agencies connect, with a senior decision maker nominated for each organisation, so you can build relationships up and down the organisational tree.

Use current data, then keep learning

A-ZGovBIZ captures and maintains government information all year round, researched by people and delivered through Discovery Online, where you can search, filter and export contacts for your CRM. Our government lists cover 3,854 local government, 5,871 state and territory and 1,526 federal decision makers, plus 823 government IT managers – part of a database of 60,000 public sector contacts that can be searched across 40 job functions, by industry, division, job level, state and metro or country location.

The database is the starting point, not the end of the research. Before an important approach, review the agency's website, corporate plan and recent announcements so your message reflects what that organisation is trying to achieve now. Know the organisation, know the role, understand the buying environment – then start the conversation.