Ideas, insights and inspirations.

For the past nine years, I have been planning and promoting Elliance’s educational seminars and webinars for university administrators and business executives as an avenue to share knowledge and build relationships. So much has changed since we started offering these events that the only way I can evaluate the evolving needs of our audiences is by asking them.  That’s where online surveys enter the picture. If you haven’t used an online survey recently, you’re missing out on a quick and affordable way to gain valuable insights about your prospects and customers. With 2016 winding down, now is a great time to send a survey. Here are some pointers that will help you avoid common mistakes and create a survey that will yield accurate, measurable and useful information. The Top 12 Survey Tips Before you write your first question, clearly define your purpose and know exactly what you want to measure. This will help to create a survey that includes only … Continue reading

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Stop what you’re doing and take a look around. How many brands do you see? Chances are that your morning coffee, handbag, phone, car and computer all have clear logos and identifiable brands. Branding is so pervasive that the average three-year-old can identify literally hundreds of companies by their logos. Just drive past a McDonalds or Toys “ R” Us with your favorite toddler in tow as proof. As consumers, we may not understand the complex branding process in a forensic sense, but we sure understand the power of a great branding. Without much thought, we get the essence of Nike, Apple, Coca-Cola and Google because they tell their stories with religious consistency. The payoff? We engage. We connect. We buy. Like their corporate counterparts, colleges need to leverage strong branding in their higher education marketing initiatives. Homogenized brands that are interchangeable with hundreds of other colleges are no longer adequate. With over 4,000 schools across the country, the explosion … Continue reading

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As the product of a liberal arts education and the mother of a college senior studying political science and history, I get a little defensive about the singular focus on STEM and the perceived lack of value in more generalized studies. In this economy, demand is high for graduates with specialized talent in science, math and engineering and, undeniably, jobs in those fields top the list for attractive starting salaries. However, as recent reports illustrate, the outlook for college graduates across all fields of study is promising. According to the Washington Post, for the first time, graduates of four-year colleges comprise a larger share of the workforce than those with just a high school diploma. Of the 11.6 million jobs that have been created in this post-recession economy, 11.5 million went to prospects with at least some college education with the lions share, 8.4 million, going to workers who held a bachelor’s degree or higher.  However, while liberal arts majors … Continue reading

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Not since radio in the 1920s and television in the 1960s has a medium played such a significant role in a presidential election. In February, copywriter Erin McCarthy discussed how social media, particularly Snapchat, was changing how voters follow election results, but social media has also transformed campaigns themselves in ways that were unimaginable just a few elections ago. In 2004’s Bush vs. Gore contest, Facebook had just launched nine months prior and Twitter did not come online until 2006. Four years later, social media would go from an election non-factor to a powerful voter engagement and outreach tool. In 2008, a relatively unknown Barack Obama mobilized millions of voters, primarily through Facebook, and went on to defeat two political veterans, front-runner Hillary Clinton in the democratic primaries and Senator John McCain in November’s general election. In 2012, President Obama continued his social media dominance by taking his ideas straight to voters, posting nearly four times the content of Mitt … Continue reading

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The widespread adoption of social media was a marketing game-changer. By 2014, social media users had surpassed two billion, by January of 2015, 42% of the world’s population had access to the Internet and, today, over half owns a smart phone.  The numbers are staggering. But despite predictions just a few years ago that social media would lead to the demise of email as a viable marketing platform, the email apocalypse never materialized. While it may lack the novelty of its younger digital marketing cousins like search, social and PPC, email is getting new love as an invaluable—and in many cases—superior marketing channel. Need proof beyond the number of times you check your own inbox a day? Email volume continues to grow exponentially, marketers are expected to invest $2.3 billion in email campaigns this year alone and email remains the number one activity on smart phones and other mobile devices. Future-minded marketers didn’t abandon their email outreach to chase social … Continue reading

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One of the best gifts that I ever received was a copy of the book How to Take the Fog Out of Writing by Robert Gunning. At the time, I was just two years out of college with a tendency for verbosity, $10 dollar words and copy that often well exceeded my allotted word count, much to the dismay of our graphic designers. My writing lacked precision; I was indulging my whims as a writer at the expense of my readers. Two decades later, I’m still a work in progress, but that book transformed the way I wrote and made me a more effective copywriter in far fewer words than I ever thought possible. Sometimes less really is more. Today, writing clear, concise copy is more critical than ever, thanks to character limits, short attention spans and the limited screen size of our pervasive digital devices. Fortunately, there are tools to determine if your writing is clear of fog, readable … Continue reading

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Over the past four years, my personal life as a parent of two college-bound children and my professional life where I spend time in the higher education space have been on one long, yet fascinating, head-on collision.   It’s been an eye-opening look at enrollment marketing from two divergent vantage points. In the battle for the affections of my offspring and my all-too-meager tuition savings (if you don’t mind, we can explore that confession another day), colleges have wasted a lot of resources on my kids. It’s not that the colorful, photography rich brochures, invitations, emails and phone calls (kudos to those friendly, yet determined recruiters) weren’t appreciated. I analyzed them like an archaeologist on a dig.  It’s simply that they missed their mark. Look, I think Thing One and Thing Two are great catches, too, but the simple truth is that these colleges weren’t “right fit” opportunities for them at the right time.  And some never will be. Midway through … Continue reading

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