About Trek

In the United States, Trek Bicycle Corporation is the largest bicycle manufacturer. Trek was founded in 1976 in Waterloo. The Netherlands's Benelux office is in Harderwijk, while its European distribution center is in Wijchen.

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Approach

Trek Benelux has been active on the Apostle platform since early 2021. They started with a small group of twenty dealers in the Benelux. To onboard these dealers, Apostle’s Customer Success Team helped implement the platform through personalized kick-offs. This ensured the dealers were up and running immediately, leading to a successful start. Representatives from Trek Benelux regularly speak with dealers about Apostle, leading to more sign-ups.
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"Not all dealers are equally tech-savvy, but once they are connected to the platform, everything runs smoothly, and they are reassured that it is a user-friendly platform," says Sjors Leek, Digital Marketing Specialist at Trek Benelux. "The collaboration is also very pleasant, and if dealers need help, the support team is always quick to respond." Marijke van Dijk, Content Specialist at Trek Benelux, agrees: "The software is very user-friendly and intuitive. The chat function with the support team is also great, and we get quick replies."

In July 2022, Trek also activated employees on the platform, believing that brand ambassadors are the key to organic reach. Bike dealers still receive product-related content, tips and tricks, and campaign posts, always striving to balance informing and inspiring the audience. Trek employees, on the other hand, primarily boost the employer brand. This results in increased buzz around Trek’s products and enhances Trek's reputation as an employer. Combining personal and dealer channels in one platform works perfectly for Trek.

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What are the benefits for Trek Benelux and it's dealers?

Previously, content was mainly posted on internal channels, where dealers could retrieve it to post on their social media. "That's all you can do if you can't log into their business pages. Then you just have to wait and see if any dealers bother to copy the text, download the images, and post them," says Marijke. Only a few dealers did this, provided they knew how to post. Marijke adds, "It takes us as much time to put that content in a file as it does to schedule it in Apostle, and the result is much greater. More dealers post the content this way because it takes very little time for them."

For Sjors and Marijke, Apostle is an easy and intuitive platform to suggest many posts to employees and dealers. "Within an hour, I have all the posts for dealers scheduled with AI and in 3 languages with the automatic translator. If dealers had to schedule all that separately, it would be much more work," says Sjors.  

"Especially for the dealers, it works very conveniently. Trek delivers product updates entirely, so they no longer have to do anything for that themselves. The bond with dealers has always been excellent, but this extra moment of contact and our extra service improved this even further," Sjors points out.  

This is also reflected in the annual satisfaction survey. Dealers really benefit from Trek as a brand in terms of marketing support. Besides supplying bikes, they also help sell them.
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"The bike dealers who share our posts have become much more visible organically in the region. Especially in the e-bike sector, we have a much larger reach through our dealer channel. With their accounts, we mainly reach an audience that knows Trek for our sporty bikes, but through dealer channels, we can also reach a broader audience," says Sjors.
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For the employees of Trek Benelux, Apostle is a tool to put Trek on the map through posts about events, trade shows, or bike launches designed at their office. Trek Benelux is the only office in Europe with its design department, so that’s really inspiring content to share and something colleagues are very proud of!

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Results

Apostle is essential in the cross-media approach to product launches and campaigns, increasing social media reach. You see campaigns and product launches not only on the store floor but also on Trek's business pages and local dealer business pages. Repetition is key here. "Ultimately, dealers are our customers, and their customers ensure that dealers buy more from us. We see dealers appreciate our marketing support, which positively impacts our results," says Marijke.
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Since July 2022, Trek Benelux has seen an increase in shared posts. Since onboarding employees, dealers and employees have shared 3,546 posts, resulting in an estimated 2,659,500 organic reach. Additionally, the software works efficiently, and there is more engagement between Trek, its dealers, and employees.
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"This way, we reach a much broader audience in a very short time. Not only through our channels but also through our dealers’. We suggest Trek-specific content that they wouldn't usually post on their own. This way, we have more influence on what is posted and can bring our brand to the attention of a larger audience," Marijke concludes.
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Other Trek offices, such as Spain, Portugal, France, and the Nordics, have also started using Apostle. This natural expansion is a result of Trek Benelux’s success.

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