What is Ideas and Pixels?

We’re a web marketing company although we are better known for creating and executing high quality websites. When I first started the company, I made the mistake of telling people that we did web design. Without a doubt, the best decision that we ever made was to start calling ourselves a web marketing agency. I think it’s because people consider marketing an actionable, proactive thing, while getting a website made sounds passive and static. We have a lot more to offer companies than just building them a site.

How did you come up with the idea?

It was 1997, I was 9-years-old, and the realization that the internet was probably going to be around for the foreseeable future was just coming to fruition for most people. Microsoft had just released the newest version of their budding Windows platform, and like millions of other middle-class American families thriving through the booming 90s, my family had just purchased our first home computer.

“This internet thing is going to be big. You just wait and see,” my dad would tell me. “And the best part about it is that if you start learning it now, you’ll be two steps ahead of most adults. They barely even teach this stuff in college yet. Heck, you have a chance to be better than the teachers that will be teaching this years from now.”

Eventually that really began to make sense. After much poking and prodding, I finally accepted his logic, and went with him to purchase my first book, Web Design for Dummies. It’s very ironic in retrospect. I read a book called For Dummies, and it was the smartest decision I ever made in my life.

What was the biggest surprise in starting your business?

Finding out how much of a micro-manager I was. That and actually getting out of the way of the expansion of our business. I think when you work 12-hour days building up a company from nothing, it becomes very dear to you–almost too dear. And when it comes time to relinquish tasks to others, we all have a tendency to hover over shoulders, making sure things get done right. But you can only hover over so many shoulders until you’re stretched thin, and your business suffers because of it. Letting go isn’t easy, but it’s necessary for strong growth.

Where did you find your first employee?

When Ideas and Pixels was a one man show, I would occasionally hire out developers from websites like Elance, but eventually I realized that there were some things that had to be handled in-person, so I set out looking for someone with a vision and drive. Don’t let me confuse you; that also meant someone who would work on the cheap with the promise of a shared future of success.

I finally began working with a friend that I had went to high school and college with, Matt Valvano. We had known each other for many years, but had somehow never realized that we both worked in the same field. After a few conversations over coffee, I knew I had my business partner.

What does a typical day in your business look like?

Each day couldn’t be more different. I can tell you that it always starts and ends with emails, really early and very late, respectively.

What are some of the advantages to doing business in Ohio?

We enjoy working in Ohio with other Ohio businesses. Coming from Cincinnati, a city with both a major league baseball and football team, hometown pride has never been hard to come by, and I think that’s probably the greatest advantage. People in Cincinnati, in Ohio for that matter, have a certain respect for their neighbors. When we do business with those companies in and around our city, we never miss a chance to chat about last night’s game or talk about next week’s marathon. I think the personal and professional camaraderie you get from that really does have value.

Can you share a funny or amazing entrepreneurial experience with our readers?

The first time someone from Dayton told me they had heard of our company, which was pretty amazing. Then from Louisville, followed by some partners from Cleveland. Knowing people hundreds of miles away are hearing about the work we’re doing is very exciting for me.

What inspires you?

That’s a tough question. Political events inspire me. I think that the world of business is changing. It’s becoming much leaner, more efficient, and cutthroat, and unfortunately, creating gross disparities in wages between owners and their workers.

I once watched a documentary about a company whose CEO made roughly the same amount as even the lowest paid worker, effectively allowing everyone at the company to have decent, stable pay. Everyone who worked at the company held private stock in it, and consequently, everyone cared deeply about how it performed. I would like our company to follow a similar model, and inspire other companies to consider doing it as well.

What founders do you admire and why?

I admire when a mother who has lost her child to leukemia starts a charity run to collect money for research, or when a sister sells cookies and cakes at her school to help her injured brother coming home from the Middle East. Dedicating so much time, money, and care to help others so that they may spare others the pain that they went through seems awfully admirable to me.

What’s next for you?

With enough luck, a vacation!

The post I&P Founder Allen Gingrich’s Sit Down Interview With HVM appeared first on Ideas and Pixels.

Reflecting On Your Website

We often lose sight of what the initial goal of our website was, months after the website has been launched and has become commonplace. It’s important to reflect on your website from time to time. With some brief consideration, most business owners will find their website can be improved in at least a few ways quite easily. There are a few things that you can do to ensure your website is performing to it’s greatest potential, some even without the help of a developer.

Collect More Of Your Customer’s Data

The most successful websites are the ones that use clear call-to-actions and data forms to collect as much information as possible about potential customers. Making sure your website has a contact form that’s easy to find is the first step. Many companies go further, doing things like asking for the visitor’s name and email address before showing pricing, or using services like HubSpot to track IP addresses of business and individuals.

Get Listed On The Large Business Search Directories

One of the easiest ways to get to the top of Google is to create a Google Places (now integrated into Google Plus) account for your business. This method is especially effective for local businesses, but some larger brands will also find value. Place accounts are like online storefronts, offering those searching for your company everything from your business’ hours, to your office location and phone number. And the best part is that Bing and Yahoo both offer similar listing sites, allowing you to gain visibility and quality backlinks at the same time.

Don’t Forget Bing

Many pay-per-click (PPC) campaigns forget about Bing entirely. Instead, they pump all of their marketing budgets right into Google Adwords (also known as “putting all your eggs in one basket”). What they don’t realize is that Google Adwords only reaches around 75% of web users. Bing advertising is a much more cost-effective use of your advertising budget, because the competition is much lower than on Adwords and per-click costs are almost always less expensive. Not to mention, Bing is a part of a major affiliate network including Yahoo and Ask.com — some of the smaller search engines — giving you much more reach for your buck. A combination of 75% Adwords, 25% Bing marketing allocation usually does the trick.

The post When’s The Last Time You Reflected On Your Website? appeared first on Ideas and Pixels.

With the positive results from this one insert, we have learned that if you provide the knowledge and insight – potential customers will follow!

The Reason: Over 85% of our clients we meet  in person or are referred to us through word of mouth. We wanted to expand our creative reach towards other potential clients.

The Objective: Reach out to businesses, which are not active on the web and tend to stay away from social media outlets.

The Solution: Produce new informational print material that can be sent through the mail or handed out as inserts, within our larger brochures.

Details: The high gloss front cover of the insert was designed to captivate the notion of moving forward. This is portrayed with the large bold tag line – Is your online presence getting you business? – overlaying a background scene of downtown Cincinnati. Since the back of the insert is a mat finish, your natural instinct is to flip the card over and see what is on the back. We provided four ways to generate more business online. This showcases information that any business can use – to gain more results and business online.

The Result: A strong print marketing insert that can stand alone or together with our other brochures. Take a look below, what do you think? Marketing Insert Front – Online Presence Getting You Business?

Marketing Insert Back – Generate More Business Online

The post Print Marketing Material | Tips to Generate More Business Online: June 2012 appeared first on Ideas and Pixels.

April flew by before we knew it, here at Ideas and Pixels. On top of our growing clientele, we have been tidying up our presentation skills. We were recently invited to Antonelli College to have two lunch and learn speaking events, with their students. Our presentations went into detail on how to market yourself online and what your online presence says about you.

Here is a snippet of our speech. Enjoy: What are some things that come to mind when I say social media? Social means “Of or relating to society” and media means “through the means of mass communication.” One thing is clear though: there’s a social media revolution going on.

We’re all a part of it. But more than that, it’s a media revolution. Companies becoming more transparent, more human – and like humans, they are networking. Networking is something people have been doing ever since the first caveman met the second one. It’s a word you’ve heard in business for years. “Build your network,” “Expand your reach,” “Grow your prospects.”

So how important is social media and will it land you a job? It’s not everything it’s cracked up to be. Hundreds and thousands of SEOs and Social Media experts purport that it makes the world of difference, but that’s most-likely just them justifying their jobs and fat paychecks.

Social media experts should not be seen as “experts” or paid as such, but they are. This will most-likely normalize over time. The most basic and important thing to remember when contouring your social media presences for the business world is that most of the effort you put into grooming your profiles is not beneficial; it is to curtail any negatives that may come about from scouring your pages.

The post Speaking Events | Antonelli College: April 2012 appeared first on Ideas and Pixels.

Most notable of them, is our new “concepting room”.

Already, the new concepting room has been a hit for us and our freelancers. What really makes the room is our new, custom-built giant whiteboard. We also got to try out the new HP Officejet printer everyone’s been talking about. Over time, we see this room becoming the go-to place for getting work done in a crunch.

With our client projects stacking up fast, we’ve been venturing even more into hiring freelancers and acquiring co-op students to help us with our work. Next month, we’ll welcome Adam Waters as a new intern at Ideas and Pixels. Adam has a bachelors in Organizational Leadership and a masters in Getting Things Done.

Next month, we will be doing some guest speaking events at Antonelli College, speaking to students about what we’ve learned over the years and where we see the future of online marketing going. We’ll be sure to include some shots from the events.

The post Pretty and Powerful: March 2012 appeared first on Ideas and Pixels.

Recently we had the privilege of stopping into an amazing art gallery in our lovely city of Cincinnati. The gallery showcased nine extremely detailed portraits of our hometown fallen soldiers, whom fought courageously and gave their lives for our country in 2005.

Nine memorial paintings were displayed at Colerain High School for a week and brought in over 2,000 viewers that helped donate over $800 dollars. Amazingly that amount was just from the walk-ins. They had so many people show up that the organizers provided a second memento of an autographed Marine Corps flag for the showcase. A large part of the success of this display can be attributed to Pat Murray. She’s always looking for ways to shine the light on those like her fallen son, Sgt. David Kreuter, and has found many creative ways to help donate to other injured Maries and their families. Respectfully, she knows that she will never see her son again, but Pat knows he is looking down at her with a smile on his face.

As the gallery came to an end, the packed assembly gave a standing ovation to everyone who was a part of this memorial and special thanks were given to the portrait’s creator, Anita Miller. I, too, gave prays and condolences to my fallen cousin, who is Sgt. David Kreuter, Pat Murray’s son. At only 26, I know he did more for my country than I have or ever will. However, every day the dedication that he gave only pushes me to give back and help out charities in and around the Greater Cincinnati Area as much as possible.

With that said if you know of a charity in which needs help with marketing, web development or anything design related; please, feel free to contact Ideas and Pixels.

You have my promise that we will be here, willing and ready to help! You will be missed forever, but never forgotten. Image source from news.cincinnati.com. Photo of the Lima Group.

The post Cincinnati Art Gallery Tribute: February 2012 appeared first on Ideas and Pixels.

Each month we will publish an article with the pre title of “State of the Union”. SOTU will be an outlet for Ideas and Pixels to showcase happenings in and around our office, giving you a peak into the daily life at Ideas and Pixels. We’ll cover major events that we attend, milestones we achieve with our clients, and more.

2011 proved a great year for the growth of our business, having hired on Senior Art Director Matt Valvano to handle the reigns of our art projects; instituted a brand new marketing and sales plan that asks us to do more for our customers; not to mention, we were able to set up several satellite offices with the help of Valvano Carpeting and ATC.

Already this year, we’ve received dozens of inquiries from companies looking to improve their web presence, and we’re excited to be finishing up projects with Prime Production Studio, Around the Clock, 3B Realty Group, Holscher Hackshire Gardening Centers and a few others (you guys are just as important).

We look forward to what the new year will bring and we’re delighted to now have an outlet that allows us to share it with you.

The post State of the Union: January 2012 appeared first on Ideas and Pixels.