Success Stories
Afvalgids (Waste Disposal Guide)
With Moshi-Toshi, e-mails are always delivered; ideal is you have paying subscribers!
Many successful initiatives are barely known to the greater public. For example, have you ever heard of the internet portal www.afvalgids.nl? Probably not, yet this website was easily found by its target group; businesses which have a large amount of waste to deal with and are not sure of the correct disposal procedures. Director Robert Verwaal explains his web portal’s unique qualities: ‘Businesses often produce waste that you can’t simply set out on the street to be collected by the council. You have to deal with many different types of waste – we recognise more than 2,000 separate types – divided into about 20 main categories, varying from metal and demolition waste to hazardous materials and medical waste.”
“On our website, businesses can specify exactly what sort of waste they must dispose of, as well as where their business is established. The system then displays an up-to-date overview of the companies which process such waste, and offers the possibility to request a quote. That this is possible throughout the country is unique in the Netherlands. We have put all waste-processing plants on the map and have asked them to take part in this initiative, in return for a small fee for every person who requests information about their particular service.”
More Than 4,000 News Sources
“When we first began in 2001, the interest was minimal. The internet bubble had just burst and waste-processing businesses were rather unwilling to open themselves up to internet innovation. However, business is now booming for us. In 2006, we processed over 5,000 requests for information, and this year that number is set to increase.” The brand awareness has grown rapidly, thanks to, amongst other factors, intelligent marketing and enticing the attention of the various related organisations in this field. However, the enterprise has made full use of the possibilities that the internet has to offer. Robert says: “We scour the internet every day and consult more than 4,000 news sources. All waste-related news is then collected. We bundle all of this information together into a daily newsletter which we send to our numerous subscribers.”
Considerable Growth Since Choosing Moshi-Toshi
“From councils to advice bureaus and waste processors; since we began working with Moshi-Toshi, our customer numbers have increased considerably. This, amongst other factors, is due to the web forms which you can place on your website via Moshi-Toshi, allowing interested parties to register easily. It works wonders!” Before afvalgids.nl came into contact with Moshi-Toshi, the newsletters were sent using a different method. “Initially, we made them ourselves in HTML. The newsletters were then sent in batches via Outlook. That was very primitive and time-consuming. We found the systems which could do this automatically to be of poor quality. We tried them, but the main problem was that many providers blocked our messages. Not because we were doing anything wrong, just because lots of spam was being sent by other people via their servers. That resulted in the non-arrival of our newsletters, and that simply will not do. Especially if, like us, you have paying subscribers!”
More Opportunities
“Thankfully, I eventually spoke with Moshi-Toshi. I explained the difficulties I was having and it very quickly became evident that they had put a huge amount of effort into their system. Since we began working with Moshi-Toshi, our e-mails not only get to their destination, but we can see every day who has opened them and who has followed the posted links. Because we can gauge the performance so well, we will soon start using the platform for marketing purposes. Moshi-Toshi is perfect for these ends. We are also investigating the possibilities of informing other businesses. At the moment there are a lot of opportunities in the field of, for example, plastic packaging, and we can inform organisations about this material via Moshi-Toshi. In short, our success is proof that our field of business is nothing like as internet-shy as it was in 2001!”
Clients' Opinions