Sander Mortier

Name: Sander Mortier
Function:Online Marketeer
Department :Online Marketing
Working since: September 2017

Would you like to introduce yourself: who you are and what you do within Smartwares Group?

My name is Sander. I started here as Trainee E-commerce. In the beginning, I was (co-)responsible for setting up our new brand websites, setting up the B2B webshop, and I was involved in the content distribution. After that I went to online marketing. Among other things, I am now setting up customer promotions, setting up our online marketing channels and developing and rolling out our new B2B plaftorm with our sales teams.

So you started as a trainee and eventually got the chance to make the step to work as an online marketer. What makes your job fun?

It’s very diverse. You are working with a lot of people to connect processes. And you learn a lot from that. For example, during the website project where I switched with marketing to think about how we can spread our brand philosophy on the website with the customer service team to set up our aftercare, and with IT to get the processes in the background in order and to automate them where possible. In addition, there are a lot of other things to consider, such as arranging your customer journey as well as possible and connecting your online marketing activities. So I get a lot from many aspects of the organization. It is good to be able to learn a lot at the beginning of your career, and to be able to put your knowledge from school into practice.

If you had to explain your week, what would it look like?

That’s changed a bit since I got my new job. I do have a number of weekly meetings to discuss the progress of the B2B portals. And also with my sales colleagues to evaluate how things are going with, for example, the B2B shop. In addition, I am working on a number of studies, such as building a CRM system and the purpose of website visitors on our B2C websites. I am also busy setting up the online marketing and setting up the first online campaigns. Together with my manager Monique, I am looking at which things we are going to change on the website and which campaigns are coming up. Often I don’t really have a fixed schedule. It’s really from week to week to see what we have to pick up first, because we are very busy at the moment.

Even though it’s all so diverse and changing, what do you find the most interesting thing to do?

Since I studied marketing management myself, I really enjoy making sure that as many customers as possible visit our website and then see how we can design our website in such a way that we can also serve those people well. How can we enthuse people? Who are our customers now and where are they? Can we also connect to sales and marketing from the website by coming up with fun promotions and how successful are these promotions? There are a lot of aspects of my studies involved. And that makes it distinctive and practical.

Do you do that a lot or is that different?

It’s getting more and more. Of course, that’s because I’m just starting my new job. I guess this is just gonna be an everyday job. Daily monitoring of our online efforts and what we still have to work on in the coming period. To work this out or to discuss this with other departments.

What makes you proud of your work?

I think mainly because the work is very dynamic and we work with really many different product categories. When you see how many different types of products and people have come together, Smartwares Group can really be proud of that. Of course, I’m in a new department myself, which means that you have a lot of space to carry out the tasks and projects we get on our plate. I have a lot of freedom in working out certain projects and I can come up with new ideas. In addition, we have a lot of testing to do because we haven’t gotten that far with our online marketing, but that also makes it fun because you experience everything from the start. From the old websites that were not up to date to a completely new website platform where I look at how we can connect to our marketing and sales activities. That makes my job a lot of fun.

That’s a very nice answer. What opportunities did you get as a trainee?

As a trainee, you get some kind of wild card. You get a lot of freedom to decide for yourself what you like. This way, you get to see much more of the organization than when you start in a “normal” starter position. I had a lot to do with marketing because of the new websites, but also with Customer Services, for example. I myself was in the Business Systems department where, of course, I also deal with IT and, in my role, also with Sales. Because you switch between many people, you also get to know a lot of people, and you get to know the organization well. In this way you also learn faster what you like and dislike within a company. That’s why I chose a traineeship so that I could really discover which job profile I found most interesting.

What makes Smartwares stand out for you as an employer? What makes it so much fun to work at Smartwares?

I think Smartwares is an organization where you get a lot of responsibility and freedom to come up with new ideas. Everyone here is quite open to work on this together. In large companies, you often have much less freedom to do certain tasks, and here, because we are still very much in development, a lot is possible. That makes it a lot of fun. Furthermore, I think there is a lot to do within Smartwares. Every month there is an activity and every month there is a Friday afternoon drink. On the one hand there is a very social aspect which is very well developed within Smartwares. And on the other hand, the organization is also quite new because a lot of things have merged in recent years, creating a mentality that allows you to come up with new ideas. I think that as a company, you can also move forward because you let people come up with input themselves instead of being told how it should be done from higher up.

If you had to describe Smartwares in one sentence?

Smartwares is an entrepreneurial company where they work with beautiful products, and new ideas are always welcome. It’s also described here on the wall: “made smart, to keep things simple”. I think it’s a nice slogan. We often don’t make it harder than it is. It’s straight forward. Work hard, play hard in a pleasant environment, that’s Smartwares Group in my opinion.