Staying on Track: How Passion and Constant Contact Drive Marketing Success for Rapido Trains

Jason Shron loves trains. When he speaks about them, his eyes light up and his enthusiasm is nothing short of infectious. “I loved trains since I was two and have been building model trains since I was four.”  This love is the driving force behind Rapido Trains, an international model train company. 

Jason started Rapido Trains in 2004 while pursuing a PhD in art history in Birmingham, England.  After receiving his first big order, he made the bold decision to leave the PhD program and dedicate himself to Rapido Trains full-time, turning his childhood hobby into a thriving business. “I just wanted to make model trains all day.”

Jason’s dedication and genuine joy have not only fueled the success of his business but have also created a vibrant, engaged community of fellow train enthusiasts across Canada, the U.S., and the United Kingdom. Using Constant Contact’s tools, Jason has been able to communicate directly with his audience, foster a sense of community, and keep them up-to-date on new trains and behind-the-scenes insights. 

Understanding their audience

Jason and his team know precisely what resonates with train lovers because they are a part of the community they serve. “It’s a company built on passion,” said Jason. “We’re a team of mostly model train freaks who design stuff that we want, and so our customers do too because we’re thinking along the same lines.”

One of the most notable examples of this passion is when Jason built a 20-foot slice of a real train in his basement. This project helped create a buzz that went viral, drawing in both longtime enthusiasts and new fans. This authentic display of passion has further solidified Rapido Trains as a leader in the industry.

“I was on NBC, the Canadian Broadcasting Corporation, the Discovery Channel, Ripley’s Believe It or Not, all these different places that talked about the guy who built this train in his basement. That helped the marketing of the company a lot because there’s a ‘Holy crap, this guy is so serious about his love for trains that he built a full-size train in his basement’,” explained Jason. 

Growth and U.K. expansion

Growing and maintaining Rapido’s email subscriber list is a key part of their marketing success. Using Constant Contact, Rapido has built a strategy that attracts new subscribers and keeps their list highly engaged. 

They use different mailing lists to cater to different audiences, such as dealers and newsletter subscribers. To keep their list up-to-date, they use the data and analytics reporting to proactively monitor unengaged subscribers. “It’s a useful exercise. Having a big mailing list doesn’t mean anything; saying 81% of people I send emails to open them, does,” explained Jason. “I’d rather have 81% of 10,000 as opposed to 3% of 2 million people.”

To build on those engaged subscribers, Rapido also focuses on steady list growth. Forms on their website encourage visitors to sign up, while links to archived newsletters provide potential subscribers a preview of the type of content they’ll receive. Sharing their newsletters on social media has been another effective strategy, broadening their reach and adding new train enthusiasts to their community. These strategies have helped them see a 10.5% increase in subscribers over the past year. 

Newsletter signup opportunities on the Rapido Canada/U.S. website (top) and Rapido U.K. website (bottom). Image Sources: Rapido Trains (Canada/U.S.) and Rapido Trains U.K.

Following their success in Canada and the U.S., the business expanded into the U.K. market in 2020 with Rapido Trains UK. While they were able to lean on the knowledge and expertise they’d built since 2004, including a well-honed brand personality, they were presented with fresh challenges and differences in audience expectations.

Appealing to different audiences

Marketing to model train enthusiasts presents unique challenges, as the audience often spans multiple generations, each with its own way of communicating and consuming information. On top of this, after expanding to the U.K., Jason and his U.K. general manager, Andrew (Andy) Hardy, quickly learned that while their U.K. customers share the same passion for model railways, they have distinct preferences and interests that differ from their Canadian and U.S. counterparts.

“The ethos of the company is to try and make people happy and that should go into our marketing. So our newsletters are slightly on the silly side. The British market is not as silly as [Canada and the U.S.] but fairly silly by U.K. standards,” explained Andy.

Since they had no trouble knowing what to say, Rapido’s challenge was finding a way to communicate directly with their audience. They discovered quickly that email serves as the perfect medium to bridge these geographical and generational gaps. 

For example, their U.S. and Canadian audience really loves their loud and over-the-top sense of humor, while their U.K. audience prefers more subdued humor (think Monty Python). Both Andy and Jason were able to meet customer preferences with some minor adjustments to their marketing while still maintaining the company’s core personality. 

“We learned very quickly that buying habits are different [in the U.K.],” explained Andy. “We persuaded Jason to let us do our own thing to tailor to the U.K. market.”

By crafting messaging that speaks directly to their customers’ passions and focuses on authenticity, Jason and his team maintain a strong connection with their audience. This approach has led to impressive stats far above their industry average: 

“We have a few people who skim the newsletter and just click on the new announcements. And there are other people who read 3,000 words from top to bottom. That’s a connection,” said Jason. “Then when I meet these people at shows, they know us, they know me. They know Bobby because he writes the news. They know Bill because he designs the models, or Dan or whoever. They know our team. And that’s wonderful.”

In addition to helping foster a strong relationship with their customers, Rapido’s newsletter has also helped drive traffic to their website. This encourages people to browse their products and either pre-order through them or visit their local hobby shop to pre-order or make a purchase. 

“We want to tell people what’s going on and the newsletters are a great way to do that. It’s a direct way to communicate with the end customer,” said Jason.

To maximize email visibility, Jason and his team leverage Constant Contact’s “resend to non-openers” feature. This ensures customers who might have been out of the office or missed the initial email see it, putting it at the top of their inbox. “I love this feature, it’s great,” said Jason. “We actually have a huge percentage of opens on that second email. It was a game changer for us.”

Meeting customers where they are

Rapido doesn’t just rely on newsletters to connect with their diverse audience; they also work to meet people where they are already engaged. “When we’re doing our marketing and social planning, we’re looking at, ‘how do we do something here and something that hits these different demographics?’,” said Andy.

For instance, they use printed magazine ads to reach older individuals. “The guys who are in their seventies or eighties aren’t on social media. They go to the hobby shop with the ad, and they say, ‘Rapido is making this, can you get me one of these?’” 

Rapido leverages platforms like Instagram, Facebook, and YouTube to appeal to younger audiences. To do this efficiently, they repurpose and tailor their content to suit the different audiences and channels. “We take the same material and just present it in different ways,” Jason explained.

Even with these various methods, Jason still has a special place in his heart for their email newsletter. “We can share so much information, and it’s all in one place,” he said. The newsletter allows Rapido to introduce new models, delve into product details, share the history of the real model, and explain why their model is superior — details that are hard to convey with the short attention spans on social media and the limited space in printed ads.

Based on his experience, Jason observed that social platforms like Instagram can generate a lot of traffic, but this often doesn’t translate into sales. However, their newsletter often generates the highest sales among their efforts. 

On track to success

Rapido’s deep understanding of their audience, combined with the effective use of newsletters through Constant Contact, has enabled them to communicate authentically and build meaningful customer relationships. By addressing both geographical and generational differences within their marketing strategy, they are well-equipped to nurture these connections. As they continue to grow in Canada, the U.S., and the U.K., Constant Contact plays a crucial role in ensuring their messages are delivered quickly and effectively to reach and engage new audiences globally.  

“Constant Contact is our primary way to let people know about our products because they read it, then other people share it. It’s our biggest and most useful tool. We couldn’t do without it.”