The Seed Newsletter - January 07

January 2007 Newsletter

Welcome!

With the New Year now underway, it's time to think about your goals for the coming year and what you want to achieve for your business in 2007. With that in mind, this issue of the newsletter looks at the importance of timing, planning and using your budgets effectively to get the most out of the coming year.

We have included some tips and advice on refreshing your marketing campaign as well as ideas on how to boost sales during potential low times, and spot any potentially troublesome periods.

We hope you're finding The Seed beneficial to your business, but if you have any comments or feedback on our service please click here and let us know.

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The Seed Team

New Year, New Start

With the start of a new year upon us, now is the perfect time to review your marketing strategy and take control of your budget. Getting organised for the year ahead now is crucial for a successful 2007, so here are some of our tips to help you along your way...

Review and refresh
Looking back over the past year's sales figures and marketing activity will help you plan for the year ahead by spotting previous sales trends and marketing successes or failures, and using them to your advantage. At times business may have been booming, but by seeking out any potential troughs in your sales figures and thinking about what caused them, you may be able to avoid them recurring.

Try and target potentially problematic periods now, by making plans to enhance sales and support your business. Assess the marketing activity that worked for your business, and when it worked best, then use this information to more accurately plan for the future, helping keep your sales consistent and your income stream steady.

Get online
If you're not already, then taking control of your online presence is a highly efficient and cost-effective way of using technology to generate business. Pay-Per-Lead (PPL) solutions such as The Seed and Pay-Per-Click (PPC), enable you to advertise your business and generate new sales leads with a potentially excellent Return on Investment (ROI). With most marketing activities it is very difficult to assess the impact that they have had, and you often see little or no ROI. With The Seed the results are easily measurable and traceable, serving as an excellent tool for reviewing previous marketing success and planning future activity.

You don't have to spend thousands of pounds online to boost sales - so long as the work that you do is well targeted towards your key market sectors you will see a very healthy return on your investment.

Plan!
Don't assume that what worked in previous years will work again. You should be constantly looking to refresh your marketing mix, while keeping an eye on both your sales figures and market trends to help refine the planning process.

Once you have completed your research and gathered together as much information as possible, you can start to put together your programme, allocate your budget - and stick to it. Careful planning and research always pays off, and timing is everything, so use the information gathered to decide which steps to take when, to ensure you are as well prepared as possible for the peaks and troughs of business.

In summary, learn from previous sales patterns and plan your marketing strategy accordingly. Look out for any dips in sales and take action now to avoid a repeat situation. Allocate your budget carefully and stick to it, and you'll be well on you way to marketing success!

Chain of Events
If you haven't already, take a look ahead to any events taking place during the coming year, which could prove valuable to the marketing of your company, and potentially boost sales during low times. Useful events include seminars, conferences, exhibitions, and awards, providing you with opportunities to promote your business, make sales and develop the all important business networking process.

Start researching now, to find out which events could benefit you. Think about which areas you want to develop and find out when and where suitable events will be happening. Source lists of exhibitors or attendees first to make sure the event will be relevant and avoid wasting valuable time attending the wrong functions, and remember that you may have to book in advance for some events.

If half a day away from the office gets you that all important new business lead, then it is time well spent. Remember, you don't have to fork out huge amounts of cash on a fancy exhibition stand to benefit. The £5 entrance fee as a visitor could help you to build valuable contacts for your business.

Seed Team Grows

Our team here at The Seed is continually growing, and this month we are pleased to announce the appointment of our new manager, Phil Bridgen. Phil joins us from IT solutions company DCT Solutions Ltd, and will oversee operations both in the UK and Poland offices, working to further enhance our services for SMEs and helping to increase customer awareness for the business.

With the UK head office working with a growing number of businesses and the new Polish office providing additional marketing support, we are pleased to welcome Phil on board at this very exciting time.

All change for TheSeed.com

You may have noticed that we have made a slight alteration to our leads process. All the leads you receive via e-mail will now arrive from a single address, leads@theseed.com. This will make life far easier for you with leads@theseed.com being the only address you need to add to the 'allow list' in your email account in order to avoid leads getting blocked by your spam filters.

So add leads@theseed.com to your allow list now, and watch those new business enquiries come rolling into your inbox!

The Seed in the Spotlight

Once again, we have received some great online coverage this month with articles about both our new Polish office, and the launch of The Seed appearing on a growing number of websites. We're getting a lot of interest from the press, so if you didn't spot us this month, keep an eye out for us in next month's media!

If you didn't spot us this month, keep an eye out for us in next month's media!

Leads This Month

Below are 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.

Printing Services / Print Management
Tuesday 9th of January 2007 13:56

Please would you supply me with quotes for printing our magazine, for each possible layout following...

Size: A5
Pages: 48
Material: 170 gsm / gloss
Printed: Full Colour / Double sided
Finishing: Bound, trim to size and sealed
Quantity: 20,000 and 50,000
Price: ? and ?

Size: A5
Pages: 48 (170 gsm/ gloss)
Cover page: 4 (250 gsm/gloss)
Printed: Full Colour / Double sided
Finishing: Bound, trim to size and sealed
Quantity: 20,000 and 50,000
Price: ? and ?

Size: A5
Pages: 96
Material: 170 gsm / gloss
Printed: Full Colour / Double sided
Finishing: Bound, trim to size and sealed
Quantity: 20,000 and 50,000
Price: ? and ?

Size: A5
Pages: 96 (170 gsm / gloss)
Cover: 4 (250 gsm / gloss)
Printed: Full Colour / Double sided
Finishing: Bound, trim to size and sealed
Quantity: 20,000 and 50,000
Price: ? and ?

Document Scanning
Monday 15th of January 2007 12:25

We have 538 archive boxes in storage full of important documents and would like a quote for electronically storing them to CD. Please quote for 538 boxes and 185.

Venue Finder Services
Wednesday 3rd of January 2007 15:41

I require 55 ensuite rooms.
Dates 30 April 2006 to 4th May 2007. In the Midlands UK or Welsh borders other UK areas also considered. Large grounds to enable delegates to reflect between events. Access to meeting room to accomodate all guests. Lunch and dinner on the Monday, arrival day, Breakfast, lunch and dinner on Tuesday, Wednesday and Thursday and Breakfast and lunch on the Friday day of departure. Unlimited teas and coffee through each day. Rooms to provide OHP, flip charts pens, water, juice, Proxima. Quotes required as soon as possible.

Top Tips

Top up or miss out!

Don't forget that TheSeed.com continues to generate new business leads over the weekends and bank holidays. If your credit drops too low, then you could miss out on some valuable new enquiries. So make a note to check your credit levels each Friday and top up your account ready for the weekend. Don't let that all important new sales lead end up as the one that got away!

Feedback

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