I remember like it was yesterday putting together memes and the like welcoming 2016 in, and now we are waving it goodbye.

We hope you have had a great year, and that your best is yet to come.

For us, we’re going to be reflecting on 2016 with some really fond memories. We had a great trip to the UK to visit family. We also found out that we are expecting baby number 3.

From a business perspective, we have had great success in our new side gig, BrandStrong. It has now grown into a 6 figure business in under 12 months, and we already have some raving fans. The subscription model of fixed cost graphic design has been really well received.

AgentMail has continued to strengthen it’s position as the marketing company for the real estate industry. Our telemarketing division has doubled, and again we have some great success stories from our clients.

Direct mail continues to be a main stay of our business, and we’re noticing more creative and targeted campaigns being sent.

We didn’t reach our target numbers overall as a business, but after a couple of really big years, I’m willing to give myself a pass on this, as a lot of our costs were around additional staffing for our next stage of growth.

As we look forward to 2017, there are some really exciting things happening:

AgentMail is recruiting for our first Business Development Manager – whose charge is going to be getting out and meeting potential clients, to explain how we can help agents.

We’ll also be including more services, in the form of web design and e-marketing. We’ve already made various equipment upgrades, and are expanding our office space, poised for our next phase of growth. We have also rolled out a corporate wellness programme for our team, which we kicked off with new Fitbits for everyone as their Christmas gifts.

BrandStrong is in it’s final stages of development for it’s ‘black box’ which is an advanced client portal that we’re really excited about. We’re also looking at office space for our team in the Phillipines, to move away from a remote to a centralised design team.

And our other venture, CRM2Print, which is an integrating platform for CRMs wishing to access direct mail, has now completed it’s API docs, and will be rolling out integrations with a number of major services, such as Salesforce, Zapier and REX Software early in the year.

Finally, we’re also putting together a new brand, called Synergise Marketing. Synergise will focus on providing marketing strategy to a range of industries. We’ll implement entire marketing plans, and also individual campaigns. This is less about the products and services and more about the ‘how’.

So it’s going to be a big year, and we’re all very excited to see what we get to write this time next year.

I’d personally love to hear what you are looking to achieve in 2017, and how we could assist you in doing this.

Until we chat again, I hope you have a happy and safe Christmas and New Year, and from all of our teams, we thank you for your support in 2016.

 

Carl Quested