A major acquisition in the field of online marketing in Groningen. ON.Digital takes over city and branch competitor Conversions.nl. Both companies will continue to exist and operate separately from each other. “We’re a perfect match.”
For ON.Digital, the acquisition is a new step in the already rapid development. Johan Siefkes and Jeroen Schiphuis started the company in 2017. The company currently employs almost fifty people.
Same vision
According to Johan Siefkes Conversions.nl suits his company. “Of course we have known Conversions.nl for a long time and have always seen it as a great company. A year ago we got into a conversation with Bouke Majoor, the owner of Conversions.nl. We discovered that our vision is the same.”
The same vision mainly relates to dealing with staff. “We invest a lot in employee happiness. This is essential if you want to keep the knowledge in your organization up to date and above all retain it. As a director, you don’t have the knowledge, it resides with the employees. So you don’t want your people walking out the door in bushes.”
In Siefkes’ philosophy, people should be prepared to absorb knowledge, but at the same time also be given the space to share that knowledge and implement innovations. “That in turn offers quality to the customers. ”
Bouke Majoor will remain involved with Conversions.nl
Bouke Majoor started Conversions.nl in the autumn of 2014. He says he does not want to become the biggest, but he does want to become the best. His company now employs eight people. Major remains involved with the company. ,,ON takes over the helm, but we can continue to sail the same course. We now have a stable basis for further growth in the future.”
Be visible on the internet
Those customers are mainly companies that want to be as visible as possible on the internet, via search engines such as Google or social media such as Facebook. The online world is changing fast.
“For example, you can check which keywords people enter when they search for something via Google. You want to be at the top of Google for keywords that are relevant to your company. There are all kinds of ways to ensure that you are at the top of the results. Those who know how Google’s algorithms work can be at the top faster. But the algorithms are constantly changing as Google wants to continue serving up the most relevant results for its users. Those are things that you have to constantly respond to.”
Terms of acquisition
ON.Digital now has customers at home and abroad. It is a requirement to keep up. “Because we want to be a leader in the Netherlands. When it comes to quality.”
Siefkes and Schiphuis also saw this attitude at Conversions.nl. The takeover is therefore subject to two conditions, says Siefkes. ,,Bouke Majoor wanted his people to improve. We wanted us to remain two separate companies. Because Conversions.nl is too good a company to swallow up and let it disappear. But at the back we can undoubtedly provide them with knowledge that they can use to continue, and vice versa we will also be able to learn from them along the way.”
The merger of the two companies creates a marketing agency with almost sixty people. This makes the people of Groningen one of the major players in this field in the Netherlands.