Profits should never be a goal but should be a result of good business like offering good customer service and clear communication

A multi-million company in seven years

Do you know about the guys behind SoundImports? The guys that in seven years created a multi-million company which offers DIY-kits to create speakers and individual parts to fix them. Think about woofers, tweeters, etc. They sell their products through the entirety of Europe. Are you interested in how they reached this niche market? Then continue to read on.

SoundsImports started in 2015, started by owner Martijn. Martijn finished his degree with a company in America. And through that stumbled into the profession of creating speakers (components) by accident. When he got back to the Netherlands Martijn realized that there wasn’t a lot of expertise in the area of audio equipment and immediately started working on this: from buying woofers and tweeters to building a workshop. It’s a small niche market in which SoundImports operates. Koen, co-owner of SoundImports: ‘A product that is available in Europe, but we think there’s a better way of doing it then the way it currently goes.’ Now, seven years later, SoundImports is a big success. But that didn’t happen automatically.

Distinctive in service.

SoundImports is a big boy among the DIY hobbyists in speakers. They work in a niche market, so distinguishing yourself is necessary to be successful (and continue to be successful), Koen: ‘Our competition slept on the market the last couple of years, whereas we grew with it.’ It used to be more popular to build your own speaker when we compare it to today. You need to have a good background to market your products these days. SoundImports therefore distinguishes itself from its competitors through marketing and service. “Think of our stock that is always there, a clear website and products that are easy to find.”

Martijn started the company, whereas Koen joined two years later. Together they grew and at this point they have a new building of 1200 square meters. Everything is always in stock at SoundImports. And what about drop shipping? “No’, Koen tells us. ‘That totally doesn’t fit our business’.

With expansion comes change

When you grow bigger, it makes sense that changes are part of it. For example, SoundImports started with MailChimp for email marketing. Four times every year they send out a newsletter, which mentions the new brands that were added, other fun news facts, blogs, etcetera. And in three languages: Dutch, German and English. Email marketing is an important part of SoundImports. It’s a contact moment that you get to have with the customer. Eventually we started taking a look at what we wanted exactly from email marketing and we saw a lot of changes on the subject of email automation. Besides that it’s important that the new software works well with Lightspeed, on which the webshop is being run. MailChimp was fine to use for a couple of years, but eventually as a webshop you want to set up advanced marketing to better respond to the customer needs.

And then you automatically end up with Reloadify. ‘We had some good conversations with Lukas and we arrived at the conclusion that we are a fit for one another.’, Koen declares. Koen has a lot of responsibility as an owner of SoundImports. A partner in email marketing was the right choice to make. ‘ON. Digital is responsible for our account in Reloadify, but I check in regularly to see how our triggers are doing.’ Koen tells us. Even if about ten triggers are on, Koen wants more. ‘I believe a lot in triggers. We only have to set it up once and it’s time to go, while a newsletter is quickly forgotten.’ Each trigger scores very well in itself: a good abandoned cart flow has been built, just like a winback flow. And it pays back for itself! Koen: ‘The possibility to build triggers and to define what we want and don’t want is great. I love to be in complete control and that’s possible with Reloadify.’

Email marketing? Know your audience!

And what about the newsletters? That’s been picked up recently by ON. Digital as well. When it comes to email marketing, Koen’s very critical. His webshop is focused on hobbyists and enthusiasts. ‘It’s something to keep in mind. We prefer not to spam our customers with commercial emails, but we prefer to email them clear and concrete information.’

‘Profits should never be a goal but should be a result of good business like offering good customer service and clear communication’, so Koen declares.

And this statement also applies to SoundImports. Because they are so good at offering good services, their customers stay content. And thus their customers keep coming back. This is why email marketing is so important for SoundImports as a part of the ultimate customer experience. For this reason Koen wants to go even further with email marketing, but with the right approach: what benefits the customer? Are we sending out the right emails? Koen prefers to think a little longer about a good email, then sending out a 100 emails with little content.
If you ask Koen what he really thinks is a plus about using Reloadify it’s the scalability. ‘Everything is replicable, saved and merged. It’s easy to use’. He also adds that: ‘honestly, I really appreciate the fact that you continue to develop your product. As a customer I keep being informed and that’s a good way of doing things.’

Koen looks positive towards the future. ‘There’s a lot of chances available to us’. For example, they aren’t making video marketing yet. At the moment they’re busy scaling up and adding new brands. They’re also working on more fun things. They’re thinking about building a community and making how-to videos. It appears that SoundImports always keeps moving. What about Koen en Martijn? They aren’t stopping either, they want to continue to grow, with both SoundImports and ON. Digital and Reloadify