TheSeed Newsletter - December 07

	December 2007 Newsletter

Welcome! Welcome to the December issue of TheSeed newsletter. We hope that you have enjoyed your time off over the Christmas period and are now fighting fit for a great 2008! In this issue we will be looking at refreshing your marketing plan for the New Year, how this can really improve your business and make you focus more on where you want your business to be and how to get there. In this month’s Top Tips we are advising you to be ready for a hectic January 2008 with people returning to work with fresh ideas in mind and raring to go for new projects. TheSeed.com Team
	The Seed News
With 2007 now behind us and a fresh New Year stretching ahead, we would like to thank all of our clients for their continued business. 2007 was a very successful year for TheSeed.com, with great expansion and the number of clients and leads increasing on a daily basis; this has been highlighted by our move to new offices. We are looking forward to continuing in the same vein throughout 2008 and want to grow with you. We hope that the leads we have provided you with have proved to be successful for your business and we look forward to generating even more good quality leads throughout the next 12 months. If you have any ideas about how TheSeed.com could be made even more effective we would love to hear your thoughts.
	A fresh look at your marketing for 2008…
With the start of a New Year upon us, what better way to rejuvenate your business than with a refresh of your marketing plan. With a structured and focused strategy, your marketing will flourish and this will really make a difference to your bottom line. This will also make you think about the categories that you fit into for TheSeed.com and whether you could be utilising the service more. But, for those of you who either haven’t completed a marketing plan before or if it has been some time, we have a list of top tips for you which will guide you in the right direction: 1. Identify To know where you want your company to be and how to achieve this means that you have to identify what your strengths and weaknesses are, this will enable you to set out clear objectives for your company and how you can move forward. 2. Planning Once you have your objectives in place, some thought needs to be put into how you are going to put this into action. With clear objectives in mind, this makes writing and implementing a plan much easier. You will probably find that once you have decided what your objectives are that aspects of your marketing mix will need to be changed. For example, you may have previously sent out a printed newsletter to your clients that you have found via TheSeed.com, but have found that this doesn’t bring you any more business, but after deciding what your objectives are, you may wish to ensure that your newsletter is more customer focused and engages feedback from its recipients therefore making you more engaging for your clients. 3. Clean up your act Many of us have a database of clients, new, old and prospective, BUT, how often do we check that the contact details are right for the people that we are contacting? Make the most of your contacts from TheSeed.com, if you have details for someone who is part of a large organisation, their role may have changed, the business may have moved or they could now have a whole department with another contact being the most relevant for you. The best way to ensure that your message is getting across is to make sure that you are contacting the right person, if not, you may as well be throwing your money down the drain! 4. A fresh look? As a business, when was the last time you looked at the material you send out to clients or refreshed how your business looks to outsiders, be it your marketing literature, branding or your website. Is the message that you are sending to people your internal idea of what they want to read or are you getting the message across to prospective and existing clients as what they really want to see? With so much competition out there, what is going to make you stand out? A load of fluff circling around your services or something that tells the client what they want to know: what you do, how you do it, who you do it for and how much it will cost. With refreshing your ideas for 2008, you can really make a difference to your business. You may want to also look at changing your profile on TheSeed.com to really capture potential customer’s attention and move your business forward!

		Top Tips
	After a nice Christmas break, we are anticipating that January will become a busy month for businesses within TheSeed.com. With most people returning to work refreshed and with new projects on their minds that they will want to spring into action, people will be after quotes for new and exciting ideas that they will want your help and expertise with. Although we reminded you in our November newsletter to ensure that the credit in your account is topped up, we would like to ensure that this is the case as we would not like you to miss out on any of the leads that will be flooding into us throughout the New Year.

		Leads this month
	Below is a selection of sample leads generated over the last month. These example leads should give you a taste of the type of leads you will receive if signed-up to TheSeed.com. Advertising & Marketing Services Wednesday 5th of December 2007 14.10 PR / Web / e-mail / Advertising Compact budget For overview see our website Additional notes from TheSeed.com: Telephoned by Kim on 2007-12-05 at 15:13. I talked to Douglas and he gave me some more information regarding his enquiry. He told me that he is looking to have this under way before January when their current marketing company contract is due for renewal. He has not had and other quotes and has allocated a budget of around £45,000 to £50,000 for the year. He is the best person to talk to and can be contacted on the number provided at any time. He is open to all kinds of suggestions as to what would be affective for his business. Printing Services & Print Management Thursday 6th of December 2007 15:19 3 fold leaflet approx 5,000 . Additional notes from TheSeed.com: Telephoned by Kim on 2007-12-06 at 15:37. I talked to Yvonne and she told me that she would like to have this under way within the next week. She has also asked whether she would be able to have a quote for 10,000 items and would like quotes tailored to glossy and plain finish. She is looking for a good quality paper, will forward text and pictures and would like it printed in full colour. Yvonne expects that this will be a repeat project. She has not had any other quotes and has not allocated a budget as of yet. She is the best person to talk to and can be contacted on the number provided at any time, she works for a dental surgery so please be aware that there will be peak times of the day. Translation Services Thursday 13th of December 2007 10:41 I would like to have our website translated into french (from HTML files) and we require ongoing translation services of our collateral and other marketing materials. I would like to find out the cost per '000 and I would like to do a proof translation. Additional notes from TheSeed.com: Telephoned by Kim on 2007-12-13 at 10:49. I talked to Marije and she told me that she needs to have this under way ASAP. She has already been quotes £150 per 1,000 words however this is too high as she has 45,000 words on the website alone. She has another company waiting to quote for her, however she has not allocated a budget as of yet. She is the best person to talk to and can be contacted on the number provided at any time. This will be an ongoing project as she is looking to have other promotional materials translated if an agency can beat the quote given by their normal translator.

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