Two years ago, dear friend of mine Maik van Breda (23 y/o) and his (now) ex-girlfriend started Wants&Needs: a webshop for furniture, accessories and everything interior. Now, the website has grown to be a company with a €20.000 monthly turnover, more than five thousand Instagram followers and a physical store that was opened very recently. That’s a success story if you ask me, but according to Maik, there’s still a long way to go. I decided to call him and see what I could find out about their online success.
Wants&Needs
But first, a little more context as to what the company is all about. So, Wants&Needs is a webshop where you can buy everything from chairs to carpets to candles. They focus on interior trends and translate those to products that suit their style, which is – in their own words – rough, atmospheric, unique and affordable. They pay a lot of attention to usability and the user experience while shopping for interior musthaves.
Maik van Breda
Maik is co-founder of the company, so he was part of the build-up from the beginning. Together with his ex-girlfriend Tessa, he determined the strategy, and next to that he designed the website. After a while, when things were on track, he became – in his own words – “the E-commerce Man” of the company, meaning he is mostly focussing on the functioning of the site and the digital marketing aspect. He is responsible for managing all of the online output, like newsletters and social media content, and handles all of the search engine marketing.
What kind of goals and objectives are you working towards?
“When we first started, out digital marketing objectives were mainly focussed on traffic. We wanted 6000 visitors on the website every month. Now, are goal is increase our monthly revenue from €20.000 to €60.000 in the coming year.”
How big is the role of digital marketing in the road to achieving that?
Currently, our monthly budget for digital marketing is €2500. Most of that is used for Google AdWords, although that’s not the only or most important thing. It’s a big, competitive branch with some big leaders who are not easy to level with. So it’s important to match their search words, but more so to get creative and find your way up that ranking in other ways.”
What would your advice be to other starting companies?
“Know your audience and know your branch. Where are your customers? What channels do they use to find you? Also, research your search words as often as possible and adjust them when necessary. Most importantly: determine milestones and celebrate them. There’s so much more than conversion and money.”
Some final words?
“Another word of advice: don’t ever start a company with your ex.”
In conclusion, Wants&Needs has been growing fast in the past few years. And what I thought was interesting, is that they completely shifted their marketing goals, from traffic to increasing revenue. Their marketing budget is mostly spent on AdWords, which, according to Maik, should be tested and adjusted as often as possible. I loved how he, as “The E-commerce Man” put things in perspective in the end, saying that eventually, the most important thing is to celebrate the goals you achieve. I couldn’t agree with him more.
DIGITAL MARKETING 