Well, what do we expect? As B2B organizations, we typically take our website for granted. We build it, make updates every once in a while… maybe when Bob quits or Jane joins the company we update it, or maybe even throw up a press release.

What do you WANT your website to be? If it is simply a brochure on the Internet, then you can leave it alone, wait for your sales reps to point people to the site… and cross your fingers that it supports your efforts.

OR you can look at a website as what it should be – a lead generation engine. This takes time and investment. The type of time that I am taking to write this blog for example. Writing blogs, creating content is the number one way to drive traffic to your site. And not just traffic – qualified leads. Individuals who are searching on the topic that you are writing about.

In this case, Think builds websites, and ensures their high performance and ROI over time by regularly “ghost” blogging for our clients – creating thought leadership and more importantly, incoming leads. A website should be delivering sales opportunities. If yours isn’t, you have work to do. And I get it – no one wants more work… but we want and NEED sales. You work at getting sales… right?

This requires offering compelling, free content in the form of blogs, white papers, and e-newsletters – and sometimes requiring registration for access.

If you’re interested in learning more about how your website can drive sales, please drop me an email and I’ll share more with you about how Think can turn a small investment into big business.

A little more than half of websites are using a share button (see the bottom of this blog for an example), up only slightly from 2010.

So who cares, no one uses those Facebook, Twitter, Google+ buttons anyways… right? Wrong.

eMarketer reports that a study analyzing more than 4 million tweets, noting how often a site with a tweet button was mentioned on Twitter. On average, a website without a Twitter share button was mentioned four times, while a site with a tweet button was mentioned 27 times. Including a Twitter plugin button increased mentions on Twitter almost sevenfold.

So make sure you put the “share” button on your blog for increased traffic! Don’t have a blog? Drop me an email and let’s talk about how blogs are the most effective, affordable method for Search Engine Optimization available.

His life was filled with adventure and achievement, love and laughter. Charles spent every waking hour living life to its fullest – and his ambition and love of life often drove him to sleep deprivation. During his time with us, Charles crammed as much life into every day as anyone you could ever meet..

Charles used to say with pride that he and his family could pack and be on their way to their next adventure in a few hours. He and his childhood best friend and wife Dawn saw so much of this world as work and thirst for cultural diversity and life experiences saw them set down not only coast-to-coast in the United States, but in Japan, India, and France. He dearly loved the Cannes in the French Riviera and the Georgia Coast and wanted us all to experience them with him. Other than his childhood home of St. Louis, the past 4 years in Cleveland were the longest Charles and Dawn had stayed in one place. “Too much to see and do,” Charles used to say with his infectious smile.

Charles was a brilliant man, evidenced by his numerous career achievements, which culminated in the formation of his own venture with a small group of partners – a broadband consulting firm named Gigabit Squared, which now serves clients all over the globe. It is ironic and sad that Charles’ untimely death came at a point in his life when he was going to get “back to seeing the world” and travelling. The past few months Charles was happier than ever – ready to take on and conquer challenges all over the globe as the company he had help build was ready to take off.

But Charles’ brilliance was most evident when he shared a dinner with a friend – and discussed politics, religion, business, or even the intricacies of the NBA, NFL, or Soccer. Charles was quite competitive and loved a challenge – so he was drawn to friends and colleagues who he could banter back and forth with for hours. Always good natured, always with a laugh and an excited smile, Charles would – as many of his friends called it – ‘hold us hostage,’ saying ‘just five more minutes’ so that we could continue the debate, discussion, and laughs. Time with Charles was always challenging and exhilarating – he was going to push you and laugh with you and make sure that he challenged any of your preconceived beliefs. He loved playing the Devil’s Advocate because he could argue either side of a position brilliantly, and he loved to challenge the minds of the people he cared about.

While Charles was fiercely proud of his nomadic, go anywhere lifestyle with no geographic roots – the roots he did put down were with the people in his life. Fiercely loyal, if Charles counted you a friend, you were a friend for life, no matter the distance. He spent so much time with the people in his life every day that often his workday ended up being 8 p.m. to 5 a.m.

He leaves behind his wife, childhood best friend Dawn, and daughter Magda, 11, and son Nigel, 9. While our relationship with Charles was mostly away from his family, there was no doubt to any of us that they were always close to him. And when we saw Charles with his wife and children, his smile grew even bigger and the twinkle in his eye was less mischievous nature and much more reflecting pure love and admiration for the family that he adored. His children will always know that Daddy loved them more than anything in this world.

We are all still in shock with the untimely passing of our dear friend. Not a day will go by without some reflection, a memory of laughter with this big hearted man. We will miss him dearly, but know what he would tell us. That it is our job to pick up and keep going. To let his life serve as a reminder to pack every bit of life, love, and laugher into every day. There was really no one else like Charles. As his friends, it will be our charter to honor him by challenging our minds, taking time for friends and family, and remember, as he used to tell us, “not take all of this so seriously.”

Well blogging can accomplish many things, but first of all – what is a blog? Blogs are an opportunity to provide ongoing insights, and afford two-way communication with readers. The best blogs provide information difficult to find anywhere else to a targeted audience, accompanied with insights. They report news, share experiences, best practices and sometimes, very strong opinions.

We’ll examine all the different ways a Blog and Social Networking can help your business in the upcoming issues of Quick Thoughts, but one specific way a blog can help is by driving traffic to your site. And while you drive traffic comes the opportunity to build brand and establish thought leadership. 

Take one client specializing in broadband networks. Their website was receiving an average of 200 visitors a month.  By introducing a blog (updated 3-4 times a week) to their website, our client’s website eclipsed 10,000 visitors a month – just six months into the blog’s existence.

So in a competitive landscape, Think’s client was able to drive leads, develop a leadership position in the industry, and grow a relatively new brand.  The blog fast became the industry’s go-to resource while concurrently members of the organization where given a seat at the table from everywhere to potential clients, to speaking opportunities, to policy-shaping through meetings with the White House.

Do you need to establish your brand and organization as the industry leader? Do you need to differentiate between yourself and a crowded marketplace of competitors? Contact Doug Adams today to find out how Think can get your blog up, running (we will write it for you), and driving opportunities.

Read about online video in Quick Thoughts’ next article.

Are you using video on your website? If not, maybe you should be. Recently reported, online video is the fastest growing medium… ever.  So will you engage your audience when they come to your website? Nothing adds more impact than videos illustrating your value proposition. While videos may have once been considered an unnecessary bell/whistle for techies, they are now mainstream – and expected on your site.  Nearly 100 million Americans viewing a streaming clip online each and every week.

Connie Dieken, entrepreneur, author, and communications specialist turned to Think for website development. The president of onPoint Communication, Connie is recognized as one of the nation’s leading authorities on influential communication in what she calls our “distracted, short attention span world.”

Video was just one component of the new website for her bestselling new book, entitled “Talk Less, Say More.” Connie explains that video is a key component to reach her Web visitors, “People are typically either auditory or visual learners – by incorporating video onto my website, I am able to effectively communicate to each of these types of learners – and hopefully influence them to act!”

Additionally, placing video on your website registers you with over 450 additional search engines, driving your site to the top of Google, Yahoo, and Bing searches. With all of the money and efforts that go towards Search Engine Optimization, there’s no more effective way to get you on page one of searches and drive traffic results than adding videos to your site.

Contact Doug Adams to start the process of giving your website more impact with video – while driving traffic to your website with new-found search engine success.

Read about how to obtain research for the right decision in Quick Thoughts’ next article.

How we do this as marketers can be tricky – resources are scarcer than ever, but we are being asked to be more deliberate in how we allocate our budget, and to measure impact.

So more and more marketers are taking steps to ensure that they have clear market feedback to ensure the success of their marketing efforts.  While good old-fashioned creativity, market knowledge, and the “gut” are all powerful tools to develop messaging, the evolution of market research has made it more plausible than ever to obtain research without slowing time to market and breaking your budget. The huge paradigm shift created by the availability of online research has changed market research from an overly expensive, long, and untimely venture to a process that can provide invaluable insights and effective measurement along every step of the marketing lifecycle.

 Feedback for Strategy Development

• Measure Market Attitudes & Opinions to understand where you fit within a product category, product usage, and brand perceptions
• Map your Competitive Landscape including market structure, opportunities, and the competitions’ strengths and weaknesses (an excellent opportunity for growth)

Feedback for the Creative Process

• Test Positioning and Positioning Statements to select the most effective messaging
• Test Ads and Ad Copy before your ads run to measure favorability, likeability, and recall – will your ad deliver the desired result?

Measuring Effectiveness

While every campaign is measured by tangible results including clicks, inquiries, and sales – a measure often overlooked is how each ad affects brand perceptions, favorability, and recall – or more plainly stated, the brand impact of campaigns. The Think Agency can help you understand the brand effectiveness of a campaign by administering ‘pre’ (prior to launch) and a ‘post’ surveys to measure campaign impact on a brand – or “lift.”

Trust our team to help integrate market feedback and measurement so you can welcome, not fear, accountability.  For more information on how research can help you make better business decisions, contact Doug Adams.

Read about Think’s Addy Award in Quick Thoughts’ next article.

Developed to promote Faber-Castell’s line of Pitt artist pens, the video take product demonstration to the streets, following Chicago artist Don Colley doing life drawings around the city of Cleveland.  Bold and vibrant, the four-minute video captures the vitality of everyday life while illustrating the versatility of PITT artist pens for on-the-go artwork. 

“We’re honored to be the only video production firm recognized at the ADDYs this year,” said Brian Glazen, president of Think Media, “Think has always prided itself in being an extremely creative group – with the inception of The Think Agency, we’re excited to be able to bring our creativity to all mediums in 2010 and beyond.”

The addition of The Think Agency allows Think to contribute to countless marketing and corporate initiatives and make significant contributions towards client goals. Think’s diversely talented team is equipped to handle every creative need a company may have – enabling clients to leverage time and resources by relying on a single partner. Think’s expertise and experience generates superior quality, value-added options and strengthened capabilities to support clients better than ever.

While The Think Agency offers all the services expected from a full-service agency, we consider ourselves partners with all companies, regardless of company size, name and geography.  Think’s team is a group of top-notch doers with an entrepreneurial spirit to see plans through from idea to execution. 

Brian Glazen, Founder of Think Media Studios said “Our video clients were asking for agency recommendations to assist with their marketing plans.  We were able to help some, but it was clear that the type of creative, fast-turnaround support did not exist in the market and we should expand our offerings.   This void was a unique opportunity to combine forces and offer video production with complete marketing services. It lets our clients tap into our talents in a more comprehensive way.”  Glazen continued, “This poises Think to be a unified, progressive organization captivating the viral and visual consumer society that we live in.”

About Think Media Studios

 Think Media Studios (http://www.thinkmediastudios.com) is a privately-held, global video and event production company.  The most advanced technologies are incorporated to design memorable and dynamic digital media.  Producing award-winning video and multimedia assets, Think Media provides solutions for a range of uses from broadcast to web integration to world-class live events.  Think Media Studios was awarded top honors for the 2009 EMPixx Awards and won a 2009 AAF-Cleveland Addy Award.

About The Think Agency

As an extension of Think Media Studios, The Think Agency is a full-service marketing and communications agency offering innovative, strategic methodologies to help seize untapped market opportunities.     Think’s marketing platform incorporates social media, integrated marketing communication solutions, marketing research, advertising and branding, editorial services and web development designed for all marketing efforts to have measurable impact.  For more information visit http://www.thethinkagency.com.

Adams has nearly 20 years experience developing and fostering brands from the ground floor to national prominence.  His expertise in traditional methods brokered multi-million dollar products/services while establishing leading market positioning in multiple industries. On the interactive side, his experience includes partnerships with eMarketer and MediaPost and crafting industry “go-to” web portals. 

Prior to joining Think, he served as Director of Marketing for OneCommunity and as Marketing Director at the Knight Center of Digital Excellence where he oversaw strategy and execution of all marketing communications – taking the Knight Center from idea to national thought leader in 18 months.  An entrepreneur at heart, Adams strength in strategy execution and extensive research background will ensure innovative ideas, functional components with high-yield results.

Resourceful and inventive, Kolencik has a proven track record for devising and implementing high-profile, image-based PR and marketing programs for public, private and non-profit clients as well as implementing tracking metrics to ensure ROI.  Specializing in marketing communications and strategies, her expertise adds value and insights to an effective and impactful marketing communications program.

Kolencik comes to us from PR Newswire where she served as a Regional Business Development/Account Manager, formulating and executing strategies that helped position Fortune 1000 corporations as industry leaders with stakeholders, the media and consumers. 

“I am very pleased to welcome both to the Think team.  The Think Agency can now offer an entire marketing & communications plan to our clientele that includes our existing video and viral offerings,” says Brian Glazen, Founder of Think Media Studios.

The alignment of The Think Agency with the creative resources of Think Media Studios enables both organizations to offer a full-suite of marketing services, increasing timeliness, effectiveness, and affordability.  Think’s diversely talented team is equipped to handle every creative need a company may have – enabling clients to leverage time and resources by relying on a single partner. Think’s expertise and experience generates superior quality, value-added options and strengthened capabilities to support clients better than ever.