This paper provides a comparative study on the effectiveness of export promotion programs between manufacturing and service firms, based on a survey analysis for Korean companies. Specifically, we explore the relationships among the characteristics of individual firms, the key barriers to trade for these firms and the effectiveness of EPPs. First of all, our estimation results show that the net impact of export promotion programs on individual firms’ export performance, after controlling for firm-level heterogeneity, tends to be more significant for manufacturing firms than for service firms. Second, regardless of an individual firm’s status or characteristics, bottlenecks in overseas marketing, such as the lack of marketing experts and the difficulty in securing foreign distribution networks, are the most binding constraints to exporting activities. Third, while firms have different needs for public export support depending on their own characteristics, this mechanism is more complex for service firms relative to manufacturers.