INFORMATION ARCHITECTURE, CUSTOMIZATION, & STELLAR DESIGN
We designed a user experience and information architecture that led us to developing the “How We Can Help You” section making it easy for visitors to quickly find what they need. We built back-end functionality to automatically highlight the most recent blog posts on the front page to keep content fresh and up-to-date. We placed a “contact us” button in the middle of the page to facilitate user action. The photography on the home page was done just for this site. The design aesthetic was selected to represent the client’s working philosophy to provide their patients with quality, attentive and flawless care.
COPYWRITING & MEDIA GENERATION
We wrote all the copy on the website…all 40-plus pages worth! We created a customized before/after gallery to show the amazing skills of the doctors. We utilized custom photography throughout the site to provide users a view in to what the practice really looks like. We included a “related links” section to support simple navigation and help drive users to other places throughout the site that may be helpful to them.
INTEGRATED MARKETING & PRINT COLLATERAL
In the blog post sample above you can see a postcard we designed to use at the Holiday Mart tradeshow. We also designed a backdrop banner with their logo and the textured background we used for the card. It came out really beautifully! Our developer coded the “share this” functionality specifically for this project, however we are now using this functionality on other client sites as the feedback has been incredibly positive.
E-COMMERCE DEVELOPMENT
As part of the Associated Plastic Surgeon’s brand update and website redesign, we completely refurbished their online store also, where they sell physician-grade cosmetics and skincare products. The store is using the WordPress e-Commerce plugin with some tricked out ways of doing variations, and we’re really pleased with how it’s come out!
Sharing & SEO Improvements
We also added a slew of social sharing capabilities – prior to this redesign the ecommerce store had no variations shown, was difficult to add new products to and offered no sharing or descriptive capabilities. We feel they’re set to do some real online business now, and we have done some things to make this store more competitive in search engines, where it was never found before.
SHARING & SEO IMPROVEMENTS
We also added a slew of social sharing capabilities – prior to this redesign the ecommerce store had no variations shown, was difficult to add new products to and offered no sharing or descriptive capabilities. We feel they’re set to do some real online business now, and we have done some things to make this store more competitive in search engines, where it was never found before.
BRAND IDENTITY
One of our favorite things about the new site is the special logo and identity for the ecommerce store. We did the store under a separate domain name so that we can do Google ads directly to it (bypassing the main website) yet the navigation in the header on both sites seamlessly moves you back and forth. We made this site a rich cream, as opposed to the green APS website, to distinguish them. We found some unique patterns to use inside the logo and for the frames around the product images, and we also like using it as “wallpaper” behind the logo bottles as they appear to sit on a shelf (see the postcard below, used to announce the site launch.) It’s the little things that give this store the stylish appeal we felt it deserved and that buyers wanted to see when shopping for beauty products.
Why did our client like this site? We delivered it per their budget and schedule. In fact, we accelerated the main site’s launch by two weeks to have it ready for the client’s appearance at a 25,000 attendee trade show event. Even better and obviously the most important stat…they are getting new patients as a result of the site…within just days of launch they had two new cosmetic surgery patients! We look forward to future work with APS as they are a fantastic client with a similar philosophy to ours…take good care of your customers and they will come back time and time again.
lightthread•on September 16th, 2009•Comments Off on Lisa Qualls, LightThread’s Chief Development Officer, to Speak at Leading Professional Development Conference
FOR IMMEDIATE RELEASE / PRURGENT
Kansas City, MO – September 15, 2009. Lisa Qualls, co-founder and chief development officer for Lightthread, LLC, a Kansas City Crossroads-area social media, business strategy and application development company, will be a featured speaker for Professional Development Days 2009, the annual project management conference sponsored by the Mid-America chapter of the Project Management Institute (PMI). The conference will be held September 21-22 at the Overland Park Convention Center. For more details please consult http://kcpmichapter.org/pdd.php. Ms. Qualls presentation, “Project Management Tools for the Digital Age,” will provide an overview of software-as-a-service applications that can be leveraged to improve productivity, team management and reduce the cost of managing large scale programs.
“The project manager role is significant and complex at times. A PM is the leader, task master, communicator, risk manager, quality auditor, process coordinator and has budget responsibility. Considering their multitude of duties, it is easy to understand why many are unaware of new solutions that exist to simplify and further improve their management of day-to-day activities,” Ms. Qualls said.
With over 240 thousand members worldwide, the Project Management Institute is the premier, non-profit professional organization for project management, responsible for establishing standards, providing seminars, educational programs and professional certification in the field. The Mid-America chapter of PMI was chartered in 1993 and today has more than 1300 members.
Mitch Holthus, the “voice of the Kansas City Chiefs” will emcee the conference with a keynote speech by Jason Dorsey, recognized as “The Gen Y Guy.”
About LightThread, LLC, established in 2008, is a next generation strategy, interactive services and intellectual venture capital firm specializing in optimizing business performance and brand. Through the use of strategy, social media, technology and integrated marketing development, LightThread assists businesses in reaching the next level. For more information about LightThread, LLC please visit: http://www.lightthread.com
Contact: Lisa Qualls (816) 298-9913. email: lisa@lightthread.com
We recently had the privilege of hosting Terrence Shaw, managing partner at Wirevibe and Kerstin Deppe, COO at Patricia Seybold Group at our LightThread office to discuss social media and online security concerns. Terrence is known for creating fun and informative interviews that are posted regularly at his Wirevibe blog. He typically hosts these interviews at local watering holes in the KC and Dallas areas so we were excited when he asked us if we would like to host one at our place. Even better he asked me if I would like to be part of the interview and share my experience with social media and how I address the growing concern of online personal security risk. When I found out that Kerstin would be sharing the couch with me I would have paid Terrence to participate.
You will notice in the interview I make the analogy that online isn’t all that different from offline when discussing female security vulnerabilities. I think this is an important point as it can become all too easy to forget the number of eyes watching your updates, pictures, status, and comments when online. You have a similar situation when you are consumed about your shopping list as you walk in to the store and forget there could be “bad” people hanging out in parking lots. The answer to minimize the risk is the same for both offline and online…be aware, pay attention to your surroundings, and prepare for the unexpected.
A few tips:
In the offline world – Keep your head up and look for people just “hanging out.” Look under your car and in your backseat before entering the vehicle. Have your keys held so you can poke someone in the eye. Take a self-defense lesson or two so you can defend yourself if needed.
In the online world – Know who your friends, followers, and connections are online. Read profiles and look at a person’s online activity before accepting their invite. Understand the applications you are using and how to block people, hide your updates from non-followers, and who to notify regarding security concerns.
At the end of the day, vigilant observation and preparation can keep you safe so practice them always.
lightthread, Uncategorized•on April 10th, 2009•Comments Off on LightThread, LLC Signs Agreement with Impera Group, LLC
Kansas City, Missouri — April 10, 2009. LightThread LLC, a Kansas City based strategy, platform social media services firm announced today that it has signed a 1-year partnership agreement, renewable for additional years, with Washington D.C.-based Impera Group LLC. Under the terms of the agreement LightThread will serve as a value-added provider for Impera Group’s Market Generation Service™. Market generation integrates B2B Marketing and Sales strategy and communications expertise, strong knowledge of industries and functional areas, a consultative and executive-focused approach, and Impera Group’s proprietary sales resources to provide highly qualified sales opportunities to diverse companies with non-commoditized products or services. This allows Impera Group’s clients to focus on building relationships and closing deals with prospects instead of the upfront marketing and sales process of finding potential new customers and directly generating demand.
“Our partnership with Impera Group provides a key part of the portfolio of services that will position us to be a comprehensive business solutions provider for firms of all sizes who need low-risk options to enhance their sales,” said Simon Kuo, LightThread’s Chief Executive Officer.
“We are pleased to reach this agreement with LightThread and we look forward to extending our relationship into other business to business services in the future,” said David Carter, President, Impera Group.
About LightThread-LightThread is a next generation strategy, services and intellectual venture capital firm specializing in optimizing business performance. Through the use of the Web 2.0 technology, strategy development and business process improvement, we assist businesses in reaching the next level. For more information about LightThread, LLC please visit: http://www.lightthread.com
About Impera Group-Impera Group is a business-to-business marketing and sales firm enabling clients to dramatically improve profitable new client growth. We combine exceptional experience helping diverse companies sell their products or services to C-level executives within Fortune 500 companies to small local companies. Impera Group provides a suite of synergistic services focused on the first half of the sales process helping clients with: Developing new sales opportunities; Developing their own internal sales capabilities; Becoming a world-class sales organization. For more information about Impera Group, please visit: http://www.imperagroup.com
