The Seed Newsletter

	June 2007 Newsletter

Welcome! Welcome to the June issue of The Seed’s newsletter and greetings from our new offices. We hope that none of you have been too affected by the bad weather we are experiencing at the moment – it really is Summer time! In this issue we will be looking at how you can use Direct Mail campaigns to keep in touch with both new and old customers to ensure that they know about your services and we have included some top tips on how to improve the amount of leads received from The Seed.com. The Seed team
	Relocation, relocation relocation
We have now moved into our new offices which are located on Burntwood Business Park in Staffordshire, close to the M6 and are delighted by our new surroundings. We have bought a purpose built, two-story building which has been designed to our specification to enable our expanding team to deal with your enquiries easier and more effectively. Also, due to the growth of The Seed we have increased the number of telephone lines to ensure you can always get through to us when you have an enquiry.
	Top Tips
	Your most valuable selling tool - Your Services Ensuring that your profile is kept up-to-date is a vital part of receiving good business leads from The Seed.com Recent research has shown that out of all the sections within your profile, the one that enquirers pay particular attention to is the services that you offer. Ensure that all of the services you offer which relate to the category of business you are listed in are included in the Services section of your profile, not just the ones that you do on a daily basis but also the services that you offer more sporadically? This is the area on The Seed in which you can really sell your business and what you offer - so it’s got to be right. Take time to think about what you are saying and make sure that you have highlighted why people should choose your company. You should also update your profile regularly by adding new services or projects that you have undertaken otherwise you may be missing out on potential business. It is on the strength of your profile and the services you offer that people will choose your company.
	Making your contacts work hard for you
We all know that it’s far easier to gain business from a previous or present client who is already aware of us rather than constantly trying to find new clients which can be a very time consuming and costly activity. The Seed removes the burden of finding a potential prospect – but do you look after the contact when you have it and continue to communicate with them to ensure they know about your products and services and how you can help them? Direct Mail is one way of communicating your message to your target audience and if you apply some sound principles you could reap some good rewards. It is about ensuring that you are front of mind with both your old customers and potential new ones so that if they require a particular service, your company name is on the tip of their tongue and you’re the first one they contact. Firstly, it is fair to say that direct mail is a numbers game – the most important thing you have to remember is that you need to make sure your direct mail is so compelling that people who receive it simply can’t help but remember the message you are communicating. When done well Direct Mail can help your profits soar. When done badly it can simply be a costly exercise. So, plan wisely. No one can absolutely predict the outcome of a direct mail campaign. What you can ensure is that you make sure you’re a success – and to do this you need to TEST. Testing on a small scale will ensure that statistically you are able to predict the final outcome. In real terms what this means is that if you issue 2000 letters and receive 20 responses you can predict with some certainty that if you send out 4000 letters (to the same group) you will get somewhere in the region of 40 responses. So why is testing so important? Well, because all too often companies spend a fortune on producing glossy brochures to mail out, issue to an untested list and get no result. Any mailings you consider doing should fall into two categories – existing customers and potential new customers. If you have never done any direct mail before start with a list of past customers. Your past customers represent potential untapped marketing spend as they have already used your services and know that you can do a good job. Think of something you can offer these customers, send them a letter and measure the response. If it works, mail them again next month and measure again. And if it keeps working … keep doing it! Special offers, new services and great products – make sure that these are included in your Direct Mail so that the businesses you are targeting know exactly what you offer. As mentioned in our Top Tips section, it is about ensuring that your services are kept up-to-date and that businesses out there actually know what your company can do and how they can use you. So, next time you get a lead in from The Seed team, think of its long term untapped potential – it’s not a one off enquiry it’s a prospect that could have significant value to you so make sure you look after it well and communicate your services to them effectively.
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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

Friday 22nd of June 2007 12:24
I am looking to source a UK printer to print a hard backed British Cookery Book. We are looking at producing a qty of 20k. Please contact me if you would like to discuss further. Kind regards Kate

Additional notes from TheSeed.com:
Telephoned by Phil on 2007-06-22 at 18:20.
Spoke to Kate who advised that they had planned to have this book printed in China, however this has now been changed because it is a British cook book and they want everything done in Britain.
The deadline for the book to be delivered to the customer is 24th September 2007 and the details are as follows: 257 inner pages, 270mm x 215mm finished size on 128gsm matt paper. The Jacket and PLC are 277mm x 222mm and the binding is standard book type. The paper must be from a renewable source!
This work was going to cost £25,000 from China however she is aware that this figure may not be achievable by a UK company so she would like to be as close to this as possible.
Kate would like to speak to you as soon as possible and is available on the above number from 08:30 on Monday morning.
Email address confirmed.

Web Design & Development

Wednesday 16th of May 2007 19:05
Hi, I am the Website Project Manager for ******** *******. The ******** ******* Group specialises in the design, development and management of housing for older people and those with disabilities. We provide both properties to rent and for sale, and are developing new housing and equity models that make our homes more affordable to a greater number of people. As part of our continual development and providing excellent customer service we are looking to revamp our website in the Autumn/Winter of 2007. We aim to totally change the look and style from a "Brochure" look to a fully interactive site which will contain multimedia, easier navigation, discussion forums, members only areas and also give the chance for people to pay the housing rent online. So what we would be looking for is a site that:- Will be easy to use for an elderly person A site that looks professional and in line with today’s technology Fully interactive Makes use of the content that we will provide Can handle online secure payments WAP/PDA accessible.

Additional notes from TheSeed.com:
Telephoned by Kim on 2007-06-11 at 17:00.
I talked to xxxx and he gave me some more information as regards to his enquiry.
He told me that he is a project manager and has been assigned the project of getting the company website updated.
The company target is to be the best in their category or number 1 by 2012, and would like the website within the next 9 months therefore he would like work to start on it within the next few months.
We are the first people to contact him back, he has contacted about 20 other companies looking for quotes for this project.
He has allocated approx £30,000 - £40,000 for this project however it might vary as there will be a directors meeting to discuss the topic further on the 22nd of June.
xxxx is the best person to talk to and can be contacted easily on the number provided.
He has seen three websites out of hundreds that he feels he will be aiming towards however aiming to go one step further, these are;
www.sha.co.uk
www.westkent.org
www.orbits.org.uk.
There will be specific functions aiming towards future care home residents and current residents like a secure pay, secure area, lots of interactive applications which need to be used as elderly residents may need to use the.
He would like to have a quote for a website to be easily maintainable and a website that can be maintained by the web design team.
It seems as if there will be a lot of information as they are dissolving approx 4 websites and combining them into one, the main one for the company.
Email address confirmed.

Document Management

Wednesday 27th of June 2007 09:17
We have 20 to 30 thousand documents having 8 to 10 average pages please quote us as soon as possible. looking forward for your quick response.

Additional notes from TheSeed.com:
Telephoned by Kim on 2007-06-27 at 10:19.
I talked to Zeeshan and he gave me some more information as regards to his enquiry.
He told me that he works for a company which is based in London however he is located in Saudi Arabia at the moment.
He is looking for the documents mentioned above scanning from the company in London, and uploaded on to the internet so that clients and employees can access, and are looking to have 10-15 users who will be able to access the system.
They would like this service ASAP, however have not set a budget as they do not know how much the service would cost.
They would like to know time-frames of the service and how long their requirement would take to process.
He would like the information indexed in folders on the internet so it is easy to access.
He is the best person to talk to and can be contacted on the number provided.
There is an approximate two hour difference. He has had no other quotes as we are the first company to contact him back.
Email address confirmed.