SoundImports
- 2015
- Tech and Sound
- www.soundimports.eu
Do you know the men behind SoundImports by any chance? The guys who in seven years have built a multi-million dollar business offering do-it-yourself kits and loose parts for speakers. Think woofers, tweeters and you name it. They sell these particular products throughout Europe. Are you curious as to how they have managed to reach this niche market? Then read on quickly.
SoundImports starts in 2015, with owner Martijn. Martijn graduated with a company in America. And so he actually got into the business of building speaker(components) himself by accident. Once back in the Netherlands, Martijn discovered that there was still little expertise in the field of audio equipment here and immediately set to work: from buying woofers and tweeters to building the webshop. It's a small niche market that SoundImports operates in. Koen, co-owner of SoundImports: "A product that is available in Europe, but in a way that we think can be done better." Now, seven years later, SoundImports is a huge success. But, that didn't come naturally.
Distinguished in service
SoundImports is a huge player among self-building speaker hobbyists. They work in a niche market, so standing out is necessary to be (and remain) successful. Koen: "Our competitors have been asleep recently, where we've actually grown with the market. It used to be more popular to build your own speaker than nowadays. You have to be very competitive to sell your products these days. SoundImports distinguishes itself from its competitors through marketing and service. Think of our stock that is always there, a clear website and easy to find products."
Martijn started the company, where Koen joined after two years. Together they continued to grow and now they have a new building with 1200 square meters. Everything is always in stock at SoundImports. What about dropshipment? "No," says Koen. "That doesn't fit our business at all."
With expansions come changes
When you get bigger, it makes sense that changes come with it. For example, SoundImports started email marketing with MailChimp. Four times a year a newsletter was sent out with new brands that had joined, other fun news, blogs and you name it. And in three languages: Dutch, German and English. Email marketing is an important channel for SoundImports. "It is a contact moment you have with your customer. Eventually we took a good look at what exactly we want in terms of e-mail marketing and saw many opportunities in the field of e-mail automation. It is also important that the software works well with Lightspeed, on which the webshop runs. MailChimp was fine to use for a couple of years, but eventually you want to set up advanced marketing as a webshop to better respond to customer needs."
And then you automatically end up at Reloadify. "There were good conversations with Lukas and soon we drew the conclusion that we are a fit for each other," Koen states. As owner of SoundImports, Koen has many responsibilities. A partner in the email marketing field was therefore the right choice. "ON. Digital manages our account in Reloadify, but I regularly check myself to see exactly how our triggers are doing," says Koen. Even though there are about 10 triggers on, Koen wants more. "I'm a big believer in triggers. That's set once and go, whereas a newsletter is forgotten after a week." Each trigger scores incredibly well on its own: a good abandoned cart flow is built up, as is a winback flow. And that does pay off! Koen: "I really like the possibilities of building triggers and delineating what we do and don't want. I like to be completely in control and that is possible with Reloadify."
Email marketing? Know your target audience!
What about newsletters? That has recently been picked up by ON. Digital. When it comes to e-mail marketing, Koen is critical. His webshop revolves around hobbyists and enthusiasts. "And you have to take that into account. We prefer not to spam our customers with a commercial mail, but we like to mail them with correct and clear information."
"Turnover should never be a goal, but a consequence of doing good business such as good customer service and clear communication," Koen argues. And this statement also completely applies to SoundImports. Because they are so good at providing good service, their customers stay satisfied. And this is how customers eventually come back to them. This is why e-mail marketing is so important for SoundImports, as part of the ultimate customer journey. That's why Koen wants to go even further with e-mail marketing, but with the right approach: what does the customer need? Are we really sending out a good e-mail? Koen prefers to think longer about a good email than sending out 100 emails with little content.
If you ask Koen what he really thinks is a plus about Reloadify, it's the scalability. "Everything can be duplicated, saved and inserted. It works easily." He also adds, "Actually, I also really like the fact that you are constantly developing your product further. As a customer, I am kept fully informed about this and that too is really neat."
Koen sees the future positively. "There are plenty of opportunities for us." For example, they are not yet working on content or video marketing. Right now SoundImports is busy scaling up and adding new brands. And after that, there are plenty of other fun things to get involved with. These include building a community and creating how-to videos. So SoundImports never seems to stand still. And Koen and Martijn? Neither, they want to keep growing, both with SoundImports and with ON. Digital and Reloadify.
